School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemDeath, devotion, and despair: examining women’s authorial contributions to the early modern English ars moriendi( 2017)This thesis examines women’s intervention into the English ars moriendi genre over the course of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It focuses on three printed works: Rachel Speght’s 'Mortalities Memorandum, with a Dreame Prefixed' (1621), Alice Sutcliffe’s 'Meditations of Man's Mortalitie, Or, A Way to True Blessednesse' (1634), and Lady Frances Norton’s 'Memento Mori: or Mediations on Death' (1705). Expanding upon previous research in this field, this thesis provides the first comparative historical study of all three texts and their authors. It frames these printed works both as meditations on religious practice, and as carefully constructed responses to contemporary debates concerning religious expression, female authority in matters of devotion, learning, and authorship, and cultural standards of appropriate emotional expression.
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ItemGeorge Reid: the political realist in the Australian federation movement( 2017)My thesis on Reid demonstrates that new perspectives on the path to federation can be revealed when it is contextualised within its contemporary political environment. When the result of the first formal attempt at federating the Australian colonies, the draft Bill of the 1891 National Australasian Convention, was submitted to the Victorian and NSW Parliaments for consideration, it became clear that the critically flawed Bill was doomed to oblivion. The arrogance with which the convention had presented the Bill to the colonies for ratification left little wriggle room to re-fashion it into an acceptable form. Undeterred, federation advocates – Henry Parkes, Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin – defended their creation, Canute-like against the tide. As opposition to the Bill grew, so did their sense of outrage. They sought to retaliate against those who had the temerity to criticise and the easiest means of focusing their attack was to locate all anti-federation sentiment in a single target, George Houston Reid. Yet it was Reid who saw that the only way for federation to succeed was for a soundly and properly considered constitution to be framed in a process that involved and enthused the people. It is important to be mindful that there were well-established legislatures in place across the Australian continent when the push for union first gained momentum. Accordingly, federation played out within the strictures of political processes. However, historians traditionally have skimmed over contemporaneous political events to construct their histories of Australian federation around the so-called Federation Fathers, such as Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin. I question this. Important as these men were in keeping lit the federation home fire in the public consciousness, and in helping frame the constitution, they often did not set the political agenda. A broader approach is called for, in which the history of federation is contextualised within the contemporary political environment of the Australian colonies: particularly, how the agenda of the political leaders of the time – premiers, opposition and factional leaders – and key political and economic events influenced federation.
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ItemA colonial soldier and the Algerian war of independence: questions of loyalty and identity for the Bachaga Boualam( 2017)This thesis examines the impact of colonial occupation and its demise on the life of an Algerian Colonial Soldier: The Bachaga Boualam. Drawing on a vast array of primary sources including books written by Boualam, documents from the French Colonial Archives and newspaper articles the tension between collaboration with and resistance to imperialism is explored. By examining Algeria's history as a colonised country, the loyalty to France which was developed, Boualam's life and the breakdown of colonial structures the thesis allows for a deep analysis about the impact of imperialism on an individual level.
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ItemThe opening bounce: women playing Australian Rules Football 1915-1955( 2017)This thesis examines the conditions under which women began to play Australian Rules football in the early twentieth century. The first scheduled games would be played in Perth during the Great War, organised through workplaces to raise war funds. The suspension of men’s football and patriotic fervour created momentum for a small number of women to play. The world wars' interruption of traditional gender roles, with many women moving into the workforce, may have shifted social attitudes to allow them to play a historically masculine sport. However, men controlled the sport’s organisation through their positions as employers or beneficiaries of charity. When women’s participation no longer suited their needs, competitions appeared to disintegrate. Contemporary newspaper articles highlight these attitudes that formed around women’s football and affected its development. Praising women for participating was matched with derision as well as emphasis on the novelty of the concept. Analysing these cultural factors provides a more nuanced understanding of the precarious existence of women’s football in Australia up to the 1950s.