2019 Graduates

‘Migration from Limnos to Australia: Re-discovering Identity, Belonging and "Home"' (PhD in History, 2019). This doctoral dissertation is a case study of migrants coming to Australia in the period 1950s–1970s, from Limnos (otherwise known as Lemnos), an Aegean island of Greece. The thesis explores intergenerational migration experiences by interrogating emerging themes that arise in the oral histories of three different cohorts. …

‘The Relationship between Law Enforcement and Power in Islam’ (PhD in History, 2019) The rationale behind this study is the turmoil that has taken place in the Middle East and North Africa as a result of the terrorist acts that have occurred in the region since the late 1990s. The practices of contemporary extremist groups, such as the Islamic State have …

'Lives of Sports Fans: Meaning in the Face of Inconsequence' (PhD, 2019). Spectator sport may seem inconsequential to everyday life, yet ordinary people expend intense emotional energy and devote vast amounts of time and money following (and cheering for) their favourites. Emotional whirlwinds and the inevitable suffering that the fluctuating fortunes of sports teams and athletes bring to the lives of …

William Barrett (MA in Philosophy, 2019) 'Gambling, Rationality and Public Policy' Gambling involves complex social and commercial institutions and practices, large numbers of participants, and vast amounts of money. In this thesis I introduce a philosophical perspective on gambling and its regulation. I develop an account of the rationality of gambling and derive implications for the formation of public policy. The …

'Risk and Organisation in Emergency and Environmental Management: A Philosophical and Ethnographic Investigation' (PhD in History & Philosophy of Science, 2019). This thesis presents a novel analytic to studying the organisation of emergency and environmental management, namely by way of risk and its practices. It critically examines, situates, and problematises the concept of risk. Diagnosing a set of new risk practices …

‘A Clamour of Voices: Negotiations of Power and Purpose in Australian Spoken-word Radio from 1924 to 1942' (PhD in History, 2019). This thesis views the history of early radio in Australia through the prism of its spoken-word output to argue that broadcasting was shaped not just by commercial interests and government bodies but also by the engagement of a diverse set …

'Visions of a Mutual Pacific Destiny: The Japan-Australia Society, 1896–1942' (PhD in History, 2019). This thesis examined the Japan-Australia Society from its 1928 founding until 1941. Uncovering the role of the leading citizens in business, academia, and conservative politics who formed its membership, the thesis showed that a significant segment of Australians accommodated Japan’s militarism and expansionism as congruent with …

'An Impossible Peace?: A Re-Examination of the Israeli-Palestinian Dispute' (PhD in History, 2019). This work argues that the Israeli-Palestinian dispute consists of multiple conflicts, and that each of these conflicts are one of two distinct types of conflict, either ‘territorial’ or ‘existential’. It discusses why many parties to and observers of the dispute are unaware that more than one type of …

'The Pear Tree: Family Narratives of Post-War Greek Macedonian Migration to Australia' (PhD in History, 2019). This thesis examined how migrants who left Florina, Greece, in the 1950s–1960s remember, narrate and transmit experiences of migration, and how complex ideas of home and identity have been mediated across three generations. Drawing on oral history interviews, it investigated whether Greek Macedonian regional …

'Art and Identity in the Age of Akhenaten' (PhD in Classics & Archaeology, 2019). In this thesis, I investigate expressions of identity in the art of the Amarna Period, focusing on two main areas: firstly, artistic representations of the royal family and the Aten and, secondly, artistic representations of Amarna's elite within their tombs. I argue that rapid social and theological …

'Somali Piracy as a Manifestation of State Failure: A Historical Context for Somali Piracy and its Suppression' (PhD in History, 2019). This thesis establishes the Somali piracy epidemic of 2008–2012 as a conflict between how Somalis perceived their own sovereign authority and the rules of centralised state norms established by the international community. I argue that as the dominant force in …

'The Later Roman Naval Forces of the Northern Frontier, 3rd–5th Centuries CE' (MA in Classics & Archaeology, 2019). This MA thesis provides an overview of the existence, distribution, and function of naval forces operating along the Northern Frontier of the Roman Empire from the third to fifth centuries CE. Despite the vast amount of research dedicated to the Roman military, later …

'Childhood, War and Memory: Experiences of Bosnian Child Refugees in Australia' (PhD in History, 2019). This thesis explores the impact of war and displacement on children who moved to Australia during and after the 1992–1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It takes as its starting point the knowledge that the Bosnian war – like all wars – has predominantly been studied …

'Creating Space to Listen: Museums, Participation and Intercultural Dialogue' (PhD in History, 2019). This thesis examined the emergence, practice, and social meaning of intercultural dialogue as participatory practice in museums. I based my research on a project I worked on at Melbourne's Immigration Museum called Talking Difference, which invited participants to record video questions and answers in response to one another …

'Documenting Artefacts and Archives in the Relational Museum' (PhD in History, 2019). This cross-disciplinary thesis explores the history of archives and collections description in contemporary museums, with a particular focus on the mid-1960s to the present. Looking at changing technologies through case studies including Museums Victoria and comparative Australian, American and British institutions, it examines how these developments relate to our evolving understanding of things and …

'Between Nationalism and Assimilation: Jewish Antifascism in Australia in the Late 1940s and Early 1950s' (PhD in History, 2019). This thesis argues that Jewish antifascism was a major political and cultural force in Australian Jewish communities in the 1940s and early 1950s. It charts the emergence of a non-nationalist and anti-assimilationist Australian Jewish antifascist political subjectivity, and examines its ideological basis, …

Mohammad Mahdi Sadrforati, 'Conceptual Change: Rationality, Progress and Communication' (PhD in Philosophy, 2019) Conceptual change in science first became a hot topic five decades ago, when questions were raised about rationality and progress through scientific change. The first and most well-known approach to explaining conceptual change was to explain the rationality and progress of science in terms of the stability of …

'The Craft of Belonging: Exploring the Resettlement Experiences of Young Tamil Survivors of Sri Lanka's Civil War' (PhD in History, 2019). Belonging and memory, shaped by social and political conditions of civil war and forced migration, are the central themes of this thesis, which explores the life stories of 36 young Tamil people who arrived in Australia in the 1980s …

'Liberty, Licentiousness and Libel: The London Newspaper 1695–1742' (PhD in History, 2019). Press freedom is a principle that has been contested throughout its history. Western democracies hold the liberty of expression dear, and valorise the press as an essential check upon government. But, in the contemporary era, ‘free speech’ and ‘the free press’ are often co-opted in defence of extreme, and …

‘Reconceiving the Reasonable Probability of Success Criterion’ (PhD in Philosophy, 2019). This thesis examines the Reasonable Probability of Success criterion of jus ad bellum. Chapter One provides an initial explication of this principle. It outlines its historical origins, and explains the rationale for requiring that this criterion is satisfied in order for it to be ethically permissible to wage war. Chapter …

Molly Mckew, ‘Remembering the Counterculture: Melbourne’s Inner-Urban Alternative Communities of the 1960s and 1970s’ (PhD in History, 2019) In the 1960s and 1970s, a counterculture emerged in Melbourne’s inner-urban suburbs, part of progressive cultural and political shifts that were occurring in Western democracies worldwide. This counterculture sought to enact political and social change through experimenting with the fabric of everyday life …

'Doctors Down Under: European Medical Migrants in Victoria (Australia), 1930–60' (PhD in History & Philosophy of Science, 2019). The middle of the twentieth-century saw an unprecedented mass relocation of medical practitioners – through forced migration, military service, and as economic migrants. Between 1930 and 1960, over three thousand medical migrants – that is, overseas-trained medical graduates – are known to …

'The Mattering of Others and the Possibility of Politics' (PhD in Philosophy, 2019). This thesis asks how our thinking about politics might be informed by a particular approach to thinking about morality. I begin by arguing that the moral mattering of others is something that is encountered in the world, and not the conclusion of a rational process. I go on …

Sze Chieh Ng, 'Red Shadow: Malayan Communist Memoirs as Parallel Histories of Malaysia' (Phd in History, 2019) The Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) has long been understood from the perspective of the incumbent British and Malay(si)an governments and is universally regarded as a successful counter-insurgency operation against foreign-inspired communists. To date we still have a very limited understanding of what the struggle meant …

'Vietnamese Child Migrants in Australia and the Historical Use of Facebook in Digital Diaspora' (PhD in History, 2019) Vietnamese have been a part of Australia’s migrant community since 1975. After more than forty years since the end of the Vietnam War, Vietnamese child migrants, including refugees and adoptees, have grown up with the education and technology to represent themselves in the …

'Botanic Motifs of the Bronze Age Cycladic Islands: Identity, Belief, Ritual and Trade' (PhD in Classics & Archaeology, 2019). This thesis argues the motifs with which we surround ourselves signify something – about us, our identities, our values and our understanding of the world. Frequently and infrequently represented motifs tell us something about the culture from which they come. Assemblages of …

'A Justification for Deduction and Its Puzzling Corollary' (PhD in Philosophy, 2019). This thesis examines how deduction is analytic and, at the same time, informative. The first two chapters are dedicated to the justification of deduction. This justification is circular, but not trivially circular as not every rule can be justified circularly. Moreover, deductive rules may not need suasive justification because …

'Problems in Greek Textual Criticism' (MA in Classics & Archaeology, 2019). The thesis is written in the form of a traditional dissertation on textual criticism, namely with various isolated notes on select philological problems found in a wide number of ancient authors, from the Classical to the Byzantine period. Supervisor: Dr Hyun Jin Kim    

'Prime Ministers: Gender and Power in Australian Political History, 1902–1975' (PhD in History, 2019). This thesis offers an historical examination of the relationship between gender, political authority and prime ministers in Australia from Federation to 1975. By analysing contestations of political legitimacy through embodied styles of manhood and the languages of gender, I aim to expand our understanding of national leadership …

'Jack the Ripper: The Divided Self and the Alien Other in Late-Victorian Culture and Society' (PhD in History & Philosophy of Science, 2019). This thesis examines late nineteenth-century public and media representations of the infamous 'Jack the Ripper' murders of 1888. Focusing on two of the most popular theories of the day – Jack as exotic 'alien' foreigner and Jack as …

'Cycladic Sculptures Decorated with Abstract Painted Motifs: Representations of Tattooing in the Prehistoric Aegean' (PhD in Classics & Archaeology, 2019). In historical literature pertaining to Cycladic sculptures, several writers suggest that some of the painted motifs on the surface of these marble sculptures may represent tattoos. This thesis seeks to undertake the first systematic research into answering the question: ‘Did Cycladic …

'Writing Women: The Women’s Pages of the Malay-Language Press, 1987–1998' (PhD in History, 2019). This thesis investigates depictions of Malay-Muslim women in two Malay-language newspapers, contrasting the portrayals on the women’s pages with how women were depicted on the 'malestream' leader and religion pages. The period examined falls between two political storms, the Operasi Lallang (1987) and the Reformasi (1998). Malaysian …

'Colonial Soundscapes: A Cultural History of Sound Recording in Australia, 1880–1930' (PhD in History, 2019). ‘Colonial Soundscapes’ is the first cultural history of the early phonograph and gramophone in Australian settler society. Drawing on recent work in sound studies and the history of sound, Henry Reese conceives of the ‘talking machine’ as part of the soundscape of colonial modernity in colonial …

'"Our own worst enemy": Southern Anti-Slavery Networks and Rhetoric in Early Republic and Antebellum America' (MA in History, 2019). This thesis examines Southern-born anti-slavery activists. By analysing one hundred anti-slavery Southerners, this thesis illuminates a deeply interconnected network of anti-slavery that was not just limited to the South, but one that intersected with Northern anti-slavery movements. This thesis examines how an …

'Boundaries between Individual and Communal Authorship of Aboriginal Art in Context of Clifford Possum's Tjapaltjarri's Art and the Case of R v O'Loughlin (2001) (PhD in Art History and Indigenous Studies, 2019). This research concerns the oeuvre of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri in the context of art fraud. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was an Anmatyerr man (c1932–2002). His art was the subject of …

'Saving the Last Continent: Environmentalists, Celebrities and States in the Campaign for a World Park Antarctica, 1978–1991' (PhD in History, 2019). Between 1978 and 1991, the global environmental movement achieved an unparalleled success: overturning a decision to introduce mining in Antarctica and instead securing a comprehensive environmental protection agreement for the entire continent. This study explains how and why such a …

'The Structured Uses of Concepts as Tools: Comparing fMRI Experiments that Investigate either Mental Imagery or Hallucinations' (PhD in History & Philosophy of Science, 2019). Sensations can occur in the absence of perception and yet be experienced ‘as if’ seen, heard, tasted, or otherwise perceived. Two concepts used to investigate types of these sensory-like mental phenomena (SLMP) are mental imagery and …

'Marginalised Subjects, Meaningless Naturalizations: The Tiers of Australian Citizenship' (PhD in History, 2019) From 1901 until 1966 federal legislation in Australia discriminated against people considered by legislators and the judiciary to be ‘aboriginal’ to Australia, Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands affecting their social, legal, political and cultural rights. The first of these acts deemed that any Commonwealth contract for the …

'Culture, Civilization, and Christianity: "Anti-Mission" in Lord Salisbury's Policy towards India' (PhD in History, 2019). This research aims to explore the internal tensions of British imperialism by revealing the conflicts over the meanings and values of British civilising mission in India. It expounds the seemingly inconsistent and controversial policy of Lord Salisbury towards India, with a special emphasis on the differences …

'Soma-Masculinities: Centring the Body within Studies of Masculinities' (PhD in History, 2019). This thesis draws attention to a key blind spot in studies of masculinities and argue that bodies and embodiment must be brought into the frame in a more significant manner. In particular it considers the body through a number of case studies, including pornography, Australian Rules football and …

"Ancient Egyptian and Nubian Funerary Figurines: Classification and Meaning" (PhD in Classics & Archaeology, 2019). Ancient Egyptian and Nubian funerary figurines are variously described as shabtis, shawabti(y)s and us(c)hebtis. A relationship has been established between the lexicon and the time of their manufacture and deposit. Shabti is first attested in the 13th dynasty and is employed in the New Kingdom; shawabti …

'The Influence of the Friendly Society Movement in Victoria, 1835–1920' (PhD in History, 2019). Entrepreneurial individuals who migrated seeking adventure, wealth and opportunity initially stimulated friendly societies in Victoria. As seen through the development of friendly societies in Victoria, this thesis examines the migration of an English nineteenth-century culture of self-help. Friendly societies may be described as mutually operated, community-based, benefit …

'The Feeling of Metaphor' (MA in Philosophy, 2019). There is a tendency in analytic philosophy of language to separate a metaphor’s affective powers, often identified with its ability to make us ‘see’ things in new ways, from a conception of its meaning. This is the case in the non-cognitivist denial that there is such a thing as a metaphorical meaning—metaphors are …