Arts: Theses and Dissertations

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Open Access
Conquest using the weaponry of moral justification : narratives at the intersection of foreign policy and climate chanqe in the small island states of Kiribati and Tuvalu.
(2018) Willis, Jeffrey Dean
This dissertation examines the climate change narratives of the Pacific small island states of Kiribati and Tuvalu. As two of the lowest lying states in the world, Kiribati and Tuvalu face existential threats resultant from a range of climate change impacts, notably rising sea levels (Nurse et al., 2014). Nonetheless, in the 21st Century, the governments of the two states have projected climate change narratives on the international stage that appear to diverge significantly from one another. In the period from 2003-2016, the Government of Kiribati frequently spoke of a policy of ‘migration with dignity’ as one possible response to the impacts of climate change. At the same time, the Government of Tuvalu became known for suggesting that international discussions of climate-induced relocations were irresponsible (Smith & McNamara, 2014). This dissertation seeks to understand both how and why the climate change narratives of Kiribati and Tuvalu diverged from each other, particularly in the 2003-2016 period. In mainstream international relations (IR) literature, small states are often treated as marginal actors with very few foreign policy options open to them (Keohane, 1969). In answering the questions of how and why Kiribati and Tuvalu’s narratives have diverged, this dissertation develops a new theoretical framework through which to analyse the foreign policy behaviour of small states. This framework understands narratives as key tools of foreign policy and it contends that effective analysis of small state foreign policy issues demands analysis across multiple political levels, from the level of the international system to the level of individual politicians. This new framework challenges and extends dominant theoretical explanations of small state issues within the field of IR, and it provides a lens through which to analyse case studies of Kiribati and Tuvalu’s foreign policy histories, which make up the bulk of this dissertation. Ultimately, this dissertation finds that Kiribati and Tuvalu’s climate change narratives cannot be understood without reference to domestic political dynamics and the outlooks of political leaders in each state. More broadly, it finds that small states are not the peripheral actors in international politics that IR often assumes. Rather, they are active, and even influential, players on the global stage whose narratives can help to shape the perceptions of other, more materially powerful, states.
Open Access
Wretched men on the fatal tree: emotions, masculinity and crime in England, 1800-1868
(2024) Martinka, Rebeka
Modes of ideal masculinity were highly contradictory in nineteenth-century Britain. As middle-class Evangelical values became dominant in society, domesticity’s increasing importance gave rise to new, pacific models of manliness. Older, martial modes of masculinity continued to hold relevance as well and were particularly important in homosocial spaces and military engagements. These coexistent and contradictory ideals caused immense difficulty for men’s ability to conform to the emotional regime of the time and could result in their engagement in criminal activities. This thesis uses execution broadsides to examine the emotional regimes, styles, communities, practices and performances that affected men’s lives between 1800 and 1868 in England. Although both emotions history and gender studies are well-established fields, historians have yet to examine the emotional lives of men in the nineteenth century in any great detail. This thesis is situated at the intersection of men’s studies, the history of emotions, and the history of crime in order to begin filling that gap by focusing on the representation of male convicts who received death sentences. It examines broadsides about domestic violence and the murder of women and children in domestic settings in order to highlight how significantly the emotional practices and styles of lower- and upper-class men could differ from the emotional regime of pacific masculinity. It also analyses cases concerning soldiers and landowners to illustrate the challenges faced by men belonging to emotional communities that encouraged and accepted excessive forms of martial masculine values such as overt aggression and drinking. And finally, it focuses on broadsides about the execution of lower-class men for property crimes, forgery and assault to demonstrate the restrictive nature of the emotional regimes of both pacific and martial masculinity for a group that altered their emotional styles and communities to respond to their everyday realities in a more flexible and opportunistic way.
Open Access
The price of peace : a narrative study of two Aotearoa New Zealand civil society activists for nuclear disarmament.
(2024) Coll, Marcus James
This thesis investigates how the personal narratives of activists shape nuclear disarmament efforts, arguing for the transformative potential of a narrative approach in International Relations scholarship. Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, nuclear weapons have posed an existential threat to the survival of our world. Civil society has consistently challenged the notion that nuclear weapons provide security and has been behind many international initiatives calling for global nuclear disarmament. While impactful, little is known about the personal experiences and perspectives of the anti-nuclear activists who make up this larger collective. Using a narrative approach, this study explores the experiences of two individuals within a small grassroots non-governmental organisation, the Disarmament and Security Centre (DSC), run from their home in Christchurch, New Zealand. This husband-and-wife team formed a unique partnership; a music teacher turned peace campaigner, and a retired British Royal Navy Commander who once operated nuclear weapons. In advocating for nuclear disarmament, these two reached positions of significant influence at home, abroad, and at the United Nations. This research delves into how the DSC’s actions mirrored the intertwining of the personal and public lives of its founders within the context of a small state, New Zealand, the only Western-allied nation to formally legislate against nuclear weapons. The theoretical and methodological framework of this narrative study required extensive fieldwork and immersion into the participants lives and backgrounds. Investigation of civil society at this most granular level generated a deeper understanding of the complexities and dynamics of the lives of activists in the peace and anti-nuclear movement. Using narratives as a vehicle, a complex interplay of politics, gender, dissidence, spirituality, and cross-cultural engagement is revealed. Exploration of how anti-nuclear activists perceive themselves, and impact others, also demonstrated the challenges, successes, and motivations of individuals within social movements. Through in-depth storytelling, this thesis argues for a more holistic, nuanced view of how activists shape and are shaped by the movements they lead, offering a transformative perspective on the role of personal narratives in International Relations.
Open Access
Indigenous conflict resolution in a contemporary post-conflict state : the case of the Luqa community in Solomon Islands.
(2023) Tekulu, Karlyn
Indigenous methods of conflict resolution and conflict management in the South Pacific region are still widely used but are only sparsely covered in academic literature. This research seeks to understand and contribute to the knowledge surrounding post-conflict peacebuilding, in Solomon Islands specifically. There are strong systems of conflict resolution embedded in the traditional cultures of the country. These local systems of resolving conflict have been used widely in the various local communities but these local approaches were largely ignored by the international peacebuilding and statebuilding agencies when intervening in this post-conflict state. This research seeks to explore the perceptions and beliefs of the Luqa people in Solomon Islands on approaches to peace and conflict resolution. Indigenous research methodologies were employed in a vavakato (conversational) form, along with thematic analysis and reflexivity on the part of the researcher to make sense of the knowledge gathered. The knowledge gathered in the community narratives seek to understand the phenomenon of conflict resolution in a Solomon Islands indigenous community. The first main contribution of this thesis to the discourse of indigenous conflict ontology and epistemology is the stipulation of how the Luqa people address community conflict. The second contribution is the newly developed indigenous conflict resolution and maintenance of harmony theoretical framework – the Kame framework. The Kame framework can be respectfully utilised as a critical lens through which to analyse external mechanisms of peacebuilding from a local standpoint.
Open Access
The real and the simulation: the promotion of digital gaming as community. Insights from the first-person shooter video gamer.
(2024) Munro, Ana M.
This thesis examines the suggestion that the digital gaming community is the simulation of a real community. I argue that the digital game community is more than a mode of relations and shared circumstances, it is a recognisable place of community culture. I analyse my own socio-anthropological engagement as a first-person shooter video game player to examine the concept of the video game community and apply thematic analysis to survey responses from a group of digital game players regarding their thoughts on community. I use Jean Baudrillard’s (1981/1994) theory of communication to argue that massive, online-only digital gaming is more than a hyperreal form of market logic. Participation as a community is the central theme of video game play; the forms of participation are not static but fluid due to the frequent shifts in technology. Therefore, emerging technologies and their adoption into practice are central to how we understand the ways in which the gaming community manifest and are then normalised through our use of this technology. Although digital gaming is a space where the commercial mediation of textual and semiotic imagery occurs, digital gaming engages the social gaze of the player, as well as the time factor of participation together in activities and importantly, it is also a place of verbal intimacy. I do not find that participation in the digital game community is inclusive, but rather, reflects the embodied world in themes of exclusion, stereotypes, and toxicity. The sociality experienced therefore is not equal for everyone.
Open Access
The problematic self : groundwork for a new existentialist approach to ethics.
(2023) McBride, Lance
The foundational premise of this work is that the concept of individual moral agency that underlies contemporary ethical discourse rests on a flawed model of selfhood inherited, in most cases unwittingly, from the Enlightenment; particularly from the efforts of the German Idealists to rebuild moral theory upon the cornerstone of human reason. The model of selfhood they provide carries with it a number of conceptual difficulties that prove fatal to any attempt to construct a unified and comprehensive theory of ethics – specifically the problems of relating the subjective to an objective reality, the nature of temporal existence, the challenge of nihilism, and a seemingly inevitable doctrine of conflict between self and Other. However, these problems did not escape the notice of those philosophers of the phenomenological tradition that we now identify as existentialists. Unfortunately, none of the existentialists, either, met with any greater success in finding a way from the existent self to a working theory of intersubjective ethics. Indeed, their unique awareness of, and focus on, the specific difficulties confronting that project has often resulted in a far clearer sense of failure than we are accustomed to admitting to in contemporary ethics. My primary contention is that, by observing the treatment of selfhood through the works of a selection of the most prominent existentialists – Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Jean-Paul Sartre – and examining both the manner in which each stumbles in reaching towards intersubjective ethics and the solutions they offer to the failures that precede them, we might identify a set of desiderata that would helpfully inform any new theory of existentialist ethics. For the most part, the metaphysical commitments of each theorist are drawn directly from their primary works, but, in the case of the infamously obscurantist Nietzsche, no clear statement exists in the primary literature. We will, therefore, rely on a promising contemporary analysis drawn principally from the discourse between John Richardson and Paul Katsafanas. I will argue that, viewed together, these desiderata may at least suggest a possible path forward in the form of a shift away from the substance ontology that underlies the Idealist position towards a form of process phenomenology.
Open Access
‘Akarongo, ‘Āpi‘i, Arataki Listen, Learn, Lead. Exploring the lived experiences and perspectives of Pacific peoples within climate change spaces : an Aotearoa context.
(2023) Timoteo, MahMah
Complex, nuanced, and devastating, the impacts of climate change are being felt on levels never experienced before in human history. Whilst many parts of the world are slowly, yet painfully becoming more exposed and familiar to the harmful and ever more destructive realities of the climate crisis, Pacific peoples and their communities have continued to be at the forefront of this global issue. Although much research has investigated the impact of climate change on Pacific Island nations, there is a lack of research that considers the multifaceted and intersectional lived experiences and voices of Pacific peoples and their navigation of the climate emergency, specifically within climate change spaces throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. This research aimed to explore the lived experiences of Pacific peoples in climate spaces within Aotearoa New Zealand and sought to identify the challenges Pacific peoples face whilst navigating these spaces. In doing so, this research sought to address such challenges by suggesting potential ways forward that can be implemented to aid the amplification and safety of Pacific peoples and their communities. An intersectional postcolonial approach was employed which provided a lens in which systemic and institutional oppression, marginalisation, and discrimination could be identified and understood. It is through the analysis of power dynamics and roles within climate spaces and discussions that we revealed the significance of decentring whiteness, dismantling of Eurocentrism, and colonial domination within such climate spaces. The following research involved ten Pacific participants throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Guiding the research was the implementation of the Cook Island ‘Tivaevae Methodology’. The ‘akaruru (data collection) method carried out was an interweaving of semi-structured interviews, participant-observations, and talanoa. Stitched throughout the key stages of Tivaevae were five core values of the tivaevae model: taokotai (collaboration), tu akangateitei (respect), uriuri kite (reciprocity), tu inangaro (relationships), and akairi kite (shared vision). These values laid the foundation for how this research was carried out, centering the prosperity and wellbeing of those involved in this research and nurturing the vā between us. The key findings indicated that Pacific peoples and their community’s experiences of climate change spaces and discussions within Aotearoa New Zealand are dynamic, multifaceted, and complex. The talanoa sessions revealed that some Pacific peoples face various forms of discrimination and challenges within these spaces, with varying degrees of hardships brought about by oppressive systems and institutions upheld within Aotearoa New Zealand, which in turn negatively impacts their current livelihoods and futures. Informed by the lived experiences and perspectives shared by the participants involved, this research emphasises the imperative need for Pacific voices to be centred and amplified within climate change spaces and discussion. Furthermore, possible ways forward involve the decolonisation and indigenisation of systems and institutions that directly influence and impact climate spaces and beyond. Ways forward must be led by Pacific people and their communities to ensure the protection of their mana, safety, and future generations.
Open Access
Making sense of Jane’s life and experiences as a woman farmer: the transformation of gender in agriculture
(2024) Mason-Sievers, Joanne
The farming industry in Aotearoa New Zealand has been predominantly patriarchal and women have traditionally played a support role to their farming husbands. Therefore, women have struggled to be recognised in their own right as farmers and is this still the case in 2023 to a considerable extent. In order to discover what changes are occurring for women in farming and what continuities there are, I collected a life history/story by a women farmer Jane, who owns and runs a large dairy farm in Southland, as the sole farmer. This story of her life outlines the farming capital she gained over many years of farming in fields of masculine domination. During the 35 years Jane has been farming many obstacles had to be overcome allowing her to firmly establish herself as a successful woman farmer today. Janes life history demonstrates some changes to the gender order of farming and these changes are highlighted in the narrative of Janes life. Key events in Jane’s life include surviving the death of her husband, becoming the sole farmer, managing public scrutiny, overcoming mental health issues, interacting with farming professionals, managing a biological disaster, navigating family dynamics, planning for farming succession, and finally succeeding as a farmer in the male dominated industry of farming. Jane’s story shines light on what was traditionally a patriarchal farming industry and how women are disrupting the gender order in farming today. However, there do appear to still be barriers in place for women to succeed in their own right and they are discussed throughout the life story, highlighting that not everything is changing for women in the farming sector and there is still some work to do around gender bias and the dominant discourse of patriarchal farming. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu, I argue that Jane’s habitus is informed by the social spaces/fields she finds herself positioned in throughout her life. Additionally, the farming capitals she has gained over many years has shaped her experiences and perceived capabilities as a woman farmer.
Open Access
Feminine identity in New Zealand : the Girl Peace Scout movement 1908-1925
(2000) McCurdy, Diana
This is a study of feminine identity in early twentieth-century New Zealand through the life and work of Lieutenant-Colonel David Cossgrove (1852 - 1920). In 1908, Cossgrove established Peace Scouting, New Zealand's first adult-sponsored youth movement for girls. Peace Scouting was a character-training scheme that Cossgrove adapted directly from Robert Baden-Powell's Boy Scout movement. He developed and organised it independently from Girl Guiding, which was Britain's official "feminised" adaptation of Scouting. For most of the movement's 17 years, Cossgrove acted as Peace Scouting's figurehead, and was the central source of its unique identity. Unlike the Guide movement, which constructed femininity within the broad western ideals of population ideology, the Peace Scout movement appealed to a distinctly New Zealand construction of femininity. It brought into the same pioneering ideology that historians have identified as a foundation of New Zealand's masculine identity. In doing so, the scheme assumed a more equal, connatural relationship between male and female than that accepted in traditional western ideology. Despite the imperial origins of its activities, the Peace Scout scheme identified New Zealand's physical and ideological indigenes - whether physical or ideological - not just as a source of difference, but as a sign of unique ideology that should be celebrated. As such, it provides a site of complex interplay between nationalism, colonialism and imperialism in the construction of New Zealand femininity.
Open Access
Rape and beyond : women empowering women
(1995) Rathgen, Elizabeth
The issue of rape was brought into the public arena by the women's movement in the 1960s. Radical feminists, in particular, explored the political nature of sexual relations of which rape is an outcome. The notion of women's inferiority and their exclusion from the public arena has been constituted by a patriarchal social order which supports the interests of men. Feminist poststructuralism examines the historical and social context of patriarchal discourses which perpetuate notions of male dominance and control. This study, Rape and Beyond: Women Empowering Women, explores rape from the perspective of women for whom rape constitutes an injury. This viewpoint is in contrast to that of the male perspective which categorises rape as a crime. Throughout the study, the tension between these two positions continues to be highlighted. Traditional stereotypes associated with rape, present conflicting images of women as both passive and vulnerable, and yet at the same time, ultimately culpable. Despite the fact that rape is perpetuated by men, women are often blamed and their innocence is thus disputed. The propensity for victim-blaming is reflected in the responses made to women who have been raped by social institutions, such as the legal system, medicine, religion, and the family. This approach exacerbates rather than ameliorates the injury rape inflicts on women. These issues are the focus of the empirical component of the study. Interviews conducted with six women who have had personal experiences of rape, and who are also involved in rape crisis service organisations, provide the data which are explored through the processes of both content and discourse analysis. The· analysis of the women's narratives draws on the French school of psychoanalysis which attends to the connection between language and the unconscious. The content of the women's narratives reveals several themes, including the losses the women have experienced as a result of rape, and the strategies they have devised to resolve their trauma. Analysis of the narratives articulated by the women, in accordance with feminist poststructuralism, reveals the underlying discourses, in particular those disseminated by patriarchy, that have affected the ability of the women both to understand the meaning of their experiences, and to reintegrate a sense of subjectivity in the aftermath of rape. The ability of the women to resist the domination of patriarchal discourses, and to employ various means to empower themselves and others is also highlighted. This, I argue, makes visible the strength of women as they continue to wage the battle against male sexual violence.
Open Access
Attitudes towards the Treaty of Waitangi: the effects of education, age and political party affiliation
(1996) Ashton, Elizabeth
The intention of this thesis is to determine the effects of education, age and political party affiliation on attitudes towards the Treaty of Waitangi and Maori 'special rights', and possible reasons for these effects. Following an analysis of past studies it was hypothesised that those with a higher level of education were more likely to support the Treaty of Waitangi and Maori special rights, that younger people were likely to be more supportive of the issues than older people and that National Party supporters would be less supportive than those who affiliate themselves with the Labour Party or the Alliance Party. A survey was undertaken to this end. This took the form of a questionnaire which was posted to Christchurch residents whose names had been taken randomly from the local electoral roll. A statistical analysis of the returned questionnaires revealed that attitudes towards the Treaty and Maori special rights do tend to be affected by p_eople's level of education, with stronger support found amongst those with a higher level of education. An analysis of the data according to age also revealed some statistically significant results, with younger people being more inclined to support both the Treaty and Maori special rights. The political party affiliation of respondents also appeared to affect the way these respondents felt about the issues, with National Party supporters showing less support for the Treaty and Maori special rights than Labour Party and Alliance Party supporters. Theories of representative democracy and both the ideal and the actual influence of the public on government policies are discussed. Past analyses of New Zealanders' attitudes towards the Treaty are also examined, and are compared with an earlier chapter which briefly outlines the ways in which the government and various Maori groups have reacted to the Treaty of Waitangi since it was signed. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the results, and suggests that the government would do well to develop an educative role to increase public awareness and support for its race policies.
Open Access
Women on the walls : representations of female saints and biblical figures in English wall paintings, 1100-1400.
(2020) Comeau, Jane
Paintings on the walls of English medieval churches were a vital aspect of conveying religious thought to a diverse and often uneducated audience. Representations of women within these paintings were carefully tailored to convey certain messages to their specific audiences and provide vital insight into medieval perceptions of women, both lay and saintly. This dissertation examines surviving paintings of St Margaret, St Katherine and Eve to explore how their images functioned in this uniquely public context. Wall paintings of the two female saints are compared to their depictions in the circulating hagiographical literature. Although they faithfully represent the narratives found there, violence and drama is overemphasised, in order to discourage laywomen from identifying too strongly with these figures of transgression. There are far fewer surviving paintings of Eve, and so this dissertation presents case studies of these scant remains, including a series of twelfth-century images found at St Botolph’s church in Hardham. Competing medieval ideas of Eve’s sinfulness are found to be reflected in these paintings. Additionally, their positioning within the various churches in which they appear offer important insights into how the image of Eve was employed to reinforce theological lessons, provide guidance and function as a symbol. This dissertation concludes that representations of women in wall paintings were complex and often contradictory, but that they were uniquely shaped by their role in the public sphere of medieval life. Women in wall paintings functioned not necessarily as moral figures presenting a cautionary tale or lessons on how to live, but as tools of the Church and the societal elite.
Open Access
Ko wai mātou? : recording Ngāi Tahutanga in Mantell’s Census.
(2020) Gibbs, Eleni
Whakapapa is who Ngāi Tahu are. This dissertation problematic nature of recording of Ngāi Tahu identity and whakapapa through the first colonial attempt to do so Mantell’s census of 1848 and 1853. The nature of recording and the historical record has failed to adequately represent my ancestor, Mereana Teitei Haberfield and her whānau, in the way that they and their Ngāi Tahu community saw them at the time, to the extent that three of her children were erased from the record. The conflicting knowledge systems and understandings of what it means to be Ngāi Tahu at play within Mantell’s census went on to permeate throughout the processes that define Ngāi Tahu identity following the establishment of the Native Land Court as the authority for Ngāi Tahu whakapapa whilst working alongside the Ngaitahu Claims Committee in 1925. The tensions between the legal record and Ngāi Tahu lore that began with the recording of Mantell’s Census in the mid-nineteenth century continue on today as we consider Ngāi Tahutanga within the context of rangatiratanga in the post-settlement era.
Open Access
A history of New Zealand’s Scandinavian and German migrants from the 1874 Gutenberg voyage.
(2020) Church, Joanna
Past literature has previously neglected to focus on and analyse New Zealand’s Scandinavian and German colonial migrants who settled in Canterbury and other regions of New Zealand outside Norsewood and 70 Mile Bush. This dissertation aims to fill this historiographical gap by examining the lives and cultural practices of the migrants who emigrated on the ship Gutenberg, which brought migrants to Lyttelton in 1874. The decision of the Central Government to bring non-British migrants to the colony and the push and pull factors which encouraged the passengers to migrate are explored, while the inclusion of migrant biographies illuminates the personal side to their stories. Secondary sources are used to show the wider context of late nineteenth century New Zealand. The selected primary sources, including newspapers and parliamentary debates, demonstrate the feelings of New Zealand society toward the presence of Danes, Swedes and Germans, and also provide valuable biographical information. The dissertation finds that the passengers often remained in Canterbury, working as farm labourers or completing projects under treasurer Julius Vogel’s Public Works Scheme. While this represented the majority, a select few, such as poet and librarian Johannes Andersen, managed to pursue more academic careers in cities. The migrants quickly adapted to speaking English, and some even went as far as anglicizing their names to fit into the dominant colonial society, but their religious practices, including Danish and German language church services, remained a strong part of their identity.
Open Access
Signs of the sacred? Pilgrim badges and popular religion in England, 1340- 1450.
(2020) Martinka, Rebeka
Pilgrim badges, or pilgrim signs, as contemporaries referred to them, were mass-produced, wearable objects made out of metal that depicted saints and their relics. They originated in the twelfth century and remained popular in England until the Reformation. The aim of this dissertation is to explore popular religion in England between 1340 and 1450 through a quantitative analysis of pilgrim badges, focusing on their ritualistic use and the way saints were represented on them. Pilgrim badges had many different functions in medieval society from being a symbol of the pilgrim’s identity to their amuletic usage for healing and protection. Although the scholarship focuses mostly on badges’ healing powers, it is necessary to consider their purpose from different perspectives and also acknowledge their role in private devotion and the commercial aspects of pilgrimage. A particularly important aspect of pilgrim signs was their ability to transmit holiness and provide miraculous cures for those who interacted with them. An examination of the water rituals connected to badges indicates that these objects blurred the boundaries between magical and religious healing. A quantitative analysis of iconographical trends on the badges of Thomas Becket and Mary of Walsingham can deepen the current understanding of the healing power of badges and their importance in pilgrimage rituals. Badges that were direct copies of other miraculous objects were thought to possess some of the power of the original. This dissertation demonstrates that the cult of saints was vital in making religion more accessible for the non-elites who were more concerned with the practical efficacy of rituals and objects than the theory behind them. 3
Open Access
To protect, to detest, to reflect : animal representation in 1930s forest and bird.
(2020) Everingham, Elizabeth
This thesis aims to contribute to New Zealand’s environmental history by examining the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society’s magazine Forest and Bird and its representations of animals in the 1930s. The current historiography of the society, known today as Forest and Bird, is relatively limited. This thesis aims to broaden the historiography by focusing specifically on how contributors used different techniques in their treatment of different animals. It responds to the invitation to join in the conversation of human and animal relations in New Zealand, put forward by Annie Potts in A New Zealand Book of Beasts: Animals in our Culture, History and Everyday Life. Separated into three chapters, the thesis analyses representations of New Zealand’s native birds, introduced or ‘pest’ species, and the role of humans. Chapter One identifies the use of exoticism to encourage protection of New Zealand’s wonderful, unique, and beautiful birds. Protection is further encouraged through the metaphors of friendship and citizenship. Chapter Two moves the conversation to introduced species, and argues that the Native Bird Protection Society and its contributing writers actively utilised language of disgust, destruction and the metaphor of the enemy to encourage action against these animals. Finally, Chapter Three examines the role humans had to play in this context, arguing that the same processes of categorising are evident in representations of humans of the past, present and future in Forest and Bird. The thesis demonstrates the categories used for depicting humans and animals are dependent upon context and often contradictory.
Open Access
A weapon of legitimacy : the Anglo-French dual monarchy during the reigns of Henry VI and Edward IV.
(2020) Pratt, Cameron
This dissertation is about the Anglo-French dual monarchy during the reigns of Henry VI and Edward IV. It seeks to understand what the dual monarchy meant for contemporaries. It looks at Yorkist perceptions of the dual monarchy and how they used it as a political weapon for destabilising Henry VI’s legitimacy and establishing the legitimacy of Edward IV. Dual or composite monarchies in the late medieval period have not been widely explored. Only recently have historians sought to understand these political concepts as they continue to be relevant today. This dissertation explores Yorkist perceptions of the Anglo-French dual monarchy by using chronicle sources. These are sources that historians of political thought have traditionally neglected, but which are now beginning to be considered. This study follows this new trajectory. The dual monarchy was a significant political concept in the fifteenth century. It was an established system of government and contemporaries understood how it should function. The Yorkists used the dual monarchy to delegitimise Henry VI by emphasising the failure of Henry’s advisors to manage it. The Yorkists also used a claim to the dual monarchy to reinforce their hereditary right to the throne which was a key means of legitimation in the later Middle Ages.
Open Access
A case study of Ngāi Tahu and early European intermarriage on Banks Peninsula : reinstating the female narrative.
(2023) Hampton, Georgia
This research paper is a study of the cross-cultural marriages that occurred between Ngāi Tahu and early European settlers on Horomaka (Banks Peninsula) during the nineteenth century. Māori wāhine (women) were at the very heart of these interactions, intermarrying with the European men. The significant influence of wāhine in these relationships has, however, been undermined by the historiographical accounts of early-missionaries and ethnographers who sought to enforce their own colonial gendered practices upon these women. The paper, focuses on the perspective of the Ngāi Tahu wāhine and reflects on their lives and experiences in these marriages. I weave the stories of my own whakapapa (genealogies) into this project, centring on the intermarriage of my tipuna wahine (female ancestor), Hare Tiki, to American whaler and early Okains Bay settler, Seth Howland. The objective is to reinstate the female narrative, and in doing so, restore the dignity and agency of these wāhine who have long been labelled passive observers of this formative period in New Zealand colonial history.
Open Access
Exploring sinophone liminality : the ghost narrative of contemporary fiction in Chinese and its new perspectives.
(2024) Chao, Di-kai
This thesis employs a Sinophone literature perspective to examine ghost narratives in ten Chinese-language novels published since 2010, originating from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the Chinese mainland. It highlights liminality as a point of intersection between these narratives, prompting reflections on the significance of Sinophone Studies in the context of literature and cultural studies. This thesis argues that Taiwanese ghost narratives strategically utilize the anachronistic nature of ghosts and incorporate various cultural symbols to engage in “worlding,” aiming to articulate “Taiwaneseness” amidst multiple layers of colonization. Hong Kong ghost narratives, on the other hand, re-examine the contemporary significance of disappearance discourse, prompting reflections on Hong Kong’s in-betweenness amidst recent social turmoil. Malaysian Chinese ghost narratives, adopting a “post-Chineseness” perspective, contemplate the identity construction of local Chinese within a transnational framework. Meanwhile, mainland Chinese ghost narratives, through “fabulation,” interrogate the essence of history and reality, continually reshaping the contemporary significance of China/the Central Plains. By meticulously analyzing the novels under discussion, this study reveals that ghosts in these ten texts not only embody anachronism, différance, and in-betweenness but also unveil the connotations of liminality. The liminality depicted in these texts resonate with Sinophone communities worldwide as they navigate the complexities of negotiating between Chineseness and localness, serving as active bases for the construction or expression of various Chinese identities. The inspiration derived from this active agency for researchers lies in realizing that the essence of Sinophone does not reside in binary judgments of belonging or non-belonging but rather in an epistemological innovation. Diverging from the approach that views Sinophone as a category excluding literature from the Chinese mainland, this thesis embraces Sinophone as a method to explore the diversity, fluidity, and complexities inherent within the Sinosphere. It seeks to unveil the richness obscured by the oversimplification of the term “Chinese” in Western discourse, which often imposes violent categorizations, thus neglecting the nuanced realities of cultural production and expression.
Open Access
The posthuman beauty myth.
(2023) Pawlowski, Magdalena Diowanna
In this thesis I explore the beauty myth in past and, predominantly, contemporary SF. I begin the thesis by defining the beauty myth, drawing on Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth and Judith Butler’s Bodies That Matter. Wolf convincingly argues that the beauty myth pervades all areas of women’s lives, extending to their reproductive organs. This thesis will then emphasize the entrenched nature of the beauty myth throughout human history, beginning with the young and pure Virgin Mary protagonist, through to more modern heroines such as Octavia Butler’s Lilith. I use various theoretical lenses to understand how and why the beauty myth survives in some SF literature, and in what ways other SF works to deconstruct this gender paradigm. Besides Naomi Wolf’s analysis and Judith Butler’s performativity theory, these lenses include exoticism, the Other/subaltern native, Judith Butler’s performativity theory, Toril Moi’s Kristeva-inspired liminality theory, Foucault’s analysis of power, Rosi Braidotti’s posthumanism, Julia Kristeva’s theory of signification and her theory of the abject, Suvin’s cognitive estrangement, and an examination of gaming and anime culture. Several SF works serve as my primary texts, but I examine the beauty myth in Hannu Rajanemi’s Quantum Thief trilogy, Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 and Galileo’s Dream, Ursula Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness, and Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis in most detail. The contrast between the treatment of the beauty myth by the first pair of authors and the second is startling, with the former dressing the beauty myth in futuristic garb while Le Guin and Butler re-imagine not only new worlds but also new ways of being. Unexpectedly, these new ways of being are made possible, in Butler’s trilogy at least, by the womb—the protagonist gives birth to an unforeseen and unfathomable new species, thereby rewriting the beauty myth’s hold over the protagonist and the next generation.