Skip to the content of the web site.

facebook button twitter button

Emma Dines This page was last reviewed on October 19, 2011   

 

Emma Dines graduated from Independent Studies with a 4 year Honours degree in October 2011. She is the first IS student to graduate with an Honours BIS!!

Emma's pre-thesis work spanned such topics as theatre and empowerment, contemplative practices and education, and comparative theories of yoga and drama. Her pre-thesis work also took her abroad to study cultural, ecological, and social sustainability in several established eco-villages, including the small community of Findhorn in Northern Scotland, and the diverse city of Auroville in Southern India.

Emma's thesis project was an experimental narrative exploring themes of consciousness in terms of content, style, and genre.

She now teaches narrative-driven yoga and is a design apprentice for the Upstart Collaboratory for Collaborative Culture Designing, a think-tank and learning community based in Kitchener-Waterloo.

 

Pre-Thesis Phase

Emma Dines Pre-Thesis Profile

I am an Independent Studies student enjoying the program to it's fullest at the University of Waterloo. My focus is education: alternative, experiential, environmental, holistic - you name it, I'm interested in it. This blog will house reflections on my courses, thoughts on my readings and perhaps a few fun facts about trees. Please enjoy! www.lightweightwingedfruit.blogspot.com

 

Thesis Project Phase

Emma is currently in thesis phase of her Independent Studies degree. Her final project is an experimental narrative and novel that explores themes of consciousness in terms of content, style, and genre.

 

The themes explored in the narrative include: how boundaries are created by consciousness at different levels of awareness; how the world is interpreted by individuals at different levels of consciousness (or how a worldview creates  what is seen); how people know what they know (epistemology and validity claims) and how consciousness expands through individual effort and collective momentum.

 

Emma has chosen Jeanette Winterson as a literary model for this exploration of language, and aims to study and employ the stylistic devices and philosophical objectives that Jeanette Winterson has contributed to the field of literature.

 

Emma says that she “loves being in Independent Studies. My pre-thesis work was diverse and exciting, taking me abroad to study sustainability, consciousness, and group dynamics in Scotland and India. My on-campus work included many theatre courses where I examined theatre and empowerment and comparative theories of yoga and drama. My final thesis project draws on all of these areas, drawing them together into one final creative hurrah!”

 

Visit Emma’s blog about a consciousness astonished and where she comments on her thesis project, the experimental housing community she lives in, as well as her practice of yoga.

 



Return to Current Students