School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Survival, camraderie and aspirations: the intimate lives of Chinese and Vietnamese women in Melbourne's 1990s textiles industry
    Lu, Vivian ( 2019)
    This thesis examines the working subjectivities of female Chinese and Vietnamese textiles workers in 1990s Melbourne, with a particular focus on raced and gendered agencies. While traditional labour historians elucidate worker resistance through protest and trade union dynamics, such a framework does little to account for the 'hidden' agency of migrant workers who were outwardly circumspect and forbearing. Drawing extensively on oral history interviewing and diasporic memory, this thesis takes a ‘history from below’ approach and hones in on the intimate, personal dimensions of garment factory work that were central to the contestation of power. In doing so, it demonstrates how persistence and tacit expressions of resistance in the workplace amongst Chinese and Vietnamese textiles workers were located in interpersonal factory relationships, class aspirations and motherhood.
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    Collection, collation & creation: girls and their material culture Victoria, 1870-1910
    Gay, Catherine ( 2018)
    The thesis broadly explores the lives of girls who resided in the colony/state of Victoria, Australia between 1870 and 1910. A largely understudied and underappreciated area of historical study, the thesis takes a broad scope. Three case studies- urban girls’ collection of dolls, rural girls’ collation of scrapbooks, and Indigenous Victorian girls’ creation of fibrecraft- illustrate that tangible material culture can serve as evidence for intangible and marginalised histories. It overarchingly contended that girls, in any historical period, can express agency and resilience, individuality and creativity, through their material culture. In interacting with their day-to-day, seemingly mundane things, girls challenged, however subtly, repressive societal ideals that attempted to circumscribe their identities and their lives.
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    Beyond boycotts: Melbourne's response to Japanese aggression in China, 1937-1939
    Cook, Emily ( 2018)
    University of Melbourne, Bachelor of Arts (Honours) History Thesis.
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    Anthropocentric utilitarian progressivism?: a case study of popular attitudes, scientific knowledge and dominant belief systems influencing industrial and domestic pollution of the Merri Creek, 1835-1915
    Howes, Hilary ( 2004)
    This thesis investigates the industrial and domestic pollution of the Merri Creek in Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs under European settlement, paying particular attention to the noxious trades and sewage disposal practices of the Victorian era, and locating this discussion within the broader context of other water resource issues in Australia during this period. My study centres on the intensification of the pollution problem following the population boom of the gold rush period; the corresponding increase in public discontent with the state of the Merri, culminating in a series of letters to local newspapers; and the nature and efficacy of individual and collective responses to these complaints. I place alongside the specific progression of the creek’s pollution problem a discussion of social and economic conditions, as well as aspects of the prevailing mental climate, which allowed and even promoted settler abuses of water and water resources.
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    The performance of war: experiences in the city of Melbourne 1914-1918
    Coyne, Nicholas John ( 2015)
    The First World War (1914-1918) had complicated implications for the people in the city of Melbourne. The conflict has predominantly been described as Australia's first national engagement or awakening, yet this thesis argues that, the ways in which the majority of people on the home-front experienced the conflict was in the contexts of their local communities, and for many, in their city. In participating in the conflict, the people of Melbourne performed varying roles in the war within different emotional communities. Performative methodologies will be used to explore how messages were manifested in the control of public spaces in the city, in displays of authority, and in expressions of citizenship and gender.
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    A dangerous incline: the Victorian Laundry Association and the Chinese Employment Bills of 1903 - 1907
    Fry, Brendan ( 2013)
    Late in the evening on the 5th of June 1902, a group of white laundrymen from the Victorian Laundry Association (hereafter VLA) walked the streets of Melbourne investigating the working habits of local Chinese laundrymen. Dissatisfied with the performance of factory inspectors tasked with upholding the provisions of the 1896 Factories Act, the men had taken it upon themselves to keep Chinese workers in order, forming a ‘Flying Gang’ akin to Banjo Paterson’s evocation of railway maintenance workers. Prowling the deserted streets of Prahran and Windsor, the three men visited Chinese laundries in the area without warning, hoping to secure evidence of work being undertaken outside of legal hours. (From Introduction)
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    Tourist guidebooks and mapping the metropolis: leisure, recreation and public social space in late nineteenth-century Melbourne 1870-1910
    Mitropoulos, Caitlin ( 2014)
    This thesis explores the social and cultural landscape of late nineteenth-century Melbourne, focusing particularly on urban forms of recreation and leisure and how these pursuits reflected key societal wide values and characteristics.