2018 Graduates

‘Homosexuality in the USSR, 1956–82’ (PhD in History, 2018). This thesis investigates the history of debates on homosexuality in the Soviet Union under Khrushchev and Brezhnev. Drawing on a range of hitherto unexplored archival and other sources I demonstrate that there was a lively discussion on the subject among various Soviet experts during this period. […]

‘The Voice of Methodism: Temperance Policy in Victoria, Australia 1902–1977’ (MA in History, 2018). This thesis seeks to examine the influence of the Methodist Church in Victoria, Australia, on public policy in the twentieth century using the issue of Temperance as a case study. Methodists had a tradition of social activism dating back to their […]

‘Davidson’s Objective — Language and The Concept of Objectivity’ (PhD in Philosophy, 2018). This thesis critically examines Donald Davidson’s claim that language plays a non-trivial role in explaining possession of the concept of objectivity. After showing that a priori arguments do not establish this claim, different versions of Davidson’s triangulation argument are developed and found […]

‘The Politics of Memory and Transitional Justice in Morocco’ (PhD in History, 2018). This thesis investigated four decades of human rights abuses in Morocco and the transitional justice mechanisms implemented by the governing regime between 1990 and 2015 to reckon with this violent legacy. My critical discourse analysis of the official and opposition narratives about […]

‘Integration or Separation? Educational Justice Requirements for the Disabled’ (MA in Philosophy, 2018). In academic political philosophy, there is currently much enthusiasm surrounding the development of integration as a requirement of social justice. The application of integration to educational policy already exists but has centred on overcoming racial and/or economic segregation. Integration as a moral […]

‘A Revolution in Just War Theory? Expanding the Laws and Ethics of War to Cover Revolutionary Conflict’ (PhD in Philosophy, 2018). Can just war theory be extended to cover revolutionary conflict and other forms of intrastate war? In short, it can be. Yet how this might be achieved is contingent on one’s commitment to particular […]

‘”That Great Country to Which We Must Constantly Look”: Australia and the United States in the Development of Australian Federation’ (PhD in History, 2018). This thesis examined Australian federation in the context of Australian-United States relations, particularly the influence of the US on the development of the Australian Constitution in the 1890s, and placed Australian […]

‘Sport and the Australian War Effort during the First World War: Concord and Conflict’ (PhD in History, 2018). With concerns surrounding national security emerging from 1900 onward ideas surrounding the playing of sport as a preparation for warfare became common. The outbreak of war in 1914 oversaw the variable explosion of this connection between playing […]

‘A Principled Reason to Prefer Causal Explanation in the Sciences’ (PhD in Philosophy, 2018). Not all scientific explanations are causal; some are non-causal. Can we find any reason to prefer one over the other? If the explanations are competing to explain the same phenomenon and adjudicating between them cannot be done on empirical grounds, I […]

‘Anthropomorphic Machines: Alien Sensation and Experience in Nonhumans Created to Be Like Us’ (PhD in History & Philosophy of Science, 2018). This thesis is positioned at the intersection of technology studies and the nonhuman turn in the humanities. It argues that typical approaches to the study of technology omit any consideration of the alien nature […]

‘At the Intersection of Heritage Preservation, Urban Transformation, and Everyday Life in the Twentieth-Century Australian City’ (PhD in History, 2018). This thesis investigated the history and theory of urban heritage conservation in Australia’s capital cities during the twentieth century. He placed the evolution of Australian urban conservation in its social, cultural and economic contexts both […]

‘Ground for Knowing: Minerals, Mining Science and the Making of Modern China’s Territory (1860–1937)’ (PhD in History, 2018). The thesis uses mining science (kuangxue) to examine the relationship between science and socio-cultural change in late Qing and early Republican China (1860–1937). It explores the ways in which the theoretical and applied knowledge of minerals and […]

‘Nostalgia and the Warzone Home: American and Australian Veterans Return to Việt Nam, 1981–2016′ (PhD in History, 2018). From 1981 to 2016, thousands of Australian and American veterans returned to Việt Nam. In this comparative oral history investigation, I examine why veterans returned and how they reacted to the people and places of Việt Nam—their former enemies, allies, […]

‘Tree-sits, Barricades and Lock-ons: Obstructive Direct Action and the History of the Environmental Movement, 1979–1990′ (PhD in History, 2018). During the 1980s the protection of bio-diverse places became a major global issue. In part this resulted from efforts by Indigenous people in a variety of countries to protect and reclaim territories. Challenges to dominant practices […]

‘Evangelists for Freedom: Libertarian Populism and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Conservatism, 1930–1950′ (MA in History, 2018). This thesis examines the history of rightwing anti-statist thought in twentieth-century America from 1930 to 1950, focusing on the works of an array of intellectuals, politicians and activists who forged a distinct synthesis of classical American individualism with […]

‘Changes in the Chemical Composition of Archaeological Wood Caused by Exposure to Different Environments and Its Relation with the Other Properties’ (PhD in cultural materials & conservation, 2018). This thesis aims to characterise the deterioration mechanisms of dry cultural heritage wood by applying a multi-analytical technique that is comparable to that used for waterlogged archaeological […]