School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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    In Black and White: The rise, fall and on-going consequences of a racial slur in Australian newspapers
    Farley, Simon ( 2019)
    In Australia, racism cannot be extricated from settler expropriation of indigenous labour. In this thesis, I trace this entanglement through the lens of a single word – ‘nigger’ – as it has appeared in Australian print media in reference to Aboriginal people and Papuans, from when the term gained currency in the 1860s until its dwindling nearly a century later. I argue that increasing use of ‘nigger’ represented a shift in the way settlers perceived these peoples. Settlers began to conceive of indigenous peoples less as primitive savages or land-occupying natives and more as an exploitable source of cheap labour. This occurred as part of a global process, as Europeans and especially Neo-Europeans consolidated and invested in a dichotomous discourse of race, increasingly figuring themselves as ‘white’ and those whose bodies and labour they exploited as ‘black’. While the use of the slur itself rose and fell, the hierarchical racial schemata of which it was the herald are yet to be dismantled.
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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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    A colonial soldier and the Algerian war of independence: questions of loyalty and identity for the Bachaga Boualam
    Birimac, Natasha ( 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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    Redemption, redemption, redemption: slaves, souls and silver in the life of John Harrison, c.1604-1638
    Cutter, Nathaniel ( 2016)
    This thesis explores the world of a seventeenth-century English diplomat, mostly based in Morocco but also visiting France, the Dutch Republic and Bermuda. It examines his binding motivations and beliefs in order to understand his actions.
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    The internet and conflicting narratives of history: a stolen generations case study
    Waterhouse, Jaxon ( 2016)
    This paper investigates the different narratives of a contentious chapter of Australian history, the Stolen Generations, and the use of the Internet as a platform for narratives of history that differ from an official narrative. This work also discusses the various ways institutions are utilising the Internet to make their holdings more accessible to Indigenous Australians, and including them in the archival process.
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    Broadening Perspectives on Jewish Resistance in Nazi-occupied Poland: A Comparative Study of Jewish Agency in the Lodz and Warsaw Ghettos
    Mangelsdorf, Andrew ( 2016-05-17)
    This thesis discusses Yehuda Bauer's nuanced approach to Jewish resistance in Eastern Europe during World War Two. It applies his reinterpretation of the Hebrew term 'amidah', and the idea of 'sanctification of life' as resistance, to the Nazi-occupied ghettos of Eastern Europe. It takes specific focus upon the largest two ghettos, that of Warsaw and Lodz. In addition to the application of Bauer's concept of resistance to these ghettos, a comparative analysis is made. This study considers what forms of resistance were displayed in each ghetto and why this was the case. By so doing, it offers a new and more nuanced approach to Jewish resistance within the ghettos.
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    Photography for history’s sake: the Military History and Information Section in the Middle East 1941-1942
    van der Plank, Samuel ( 2014)
    This thesis explores the creation, objectives and operation of the Military History and Information Section (MH&IS) in the Middle East from August 1941 to mid-1942. It compares the MH&IS to equivalent official war photographic organisations in Britain and the United States, and considers the photographic results of the MH&IS in the Middle East. The concept of historical record photography held by its leader, John Treloar, is evaluated according to a set of themes.
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    Sustaining the resistance: the role of Australian activist organisations in resisting the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, 1975 - 1991
    Clancy, Michael ( 2014)
    This thesis focuses on the activities of Melbourne based activist groups ACFOA and AETA as representative aid and solidarity organisations as defined in transnational activist literature. It explores their early activities, and how they responded to changing circumstances through the 1970s and 1980s inside the territory, within Australia, and internationally. It will show how activist efforts evolved from solidarity to advocacy, from expressions of outrage to considered framing of issues, and how a nexus between the two organisations developed that facilitated them playing complementary and effective roles in sustaining the idea of continued resistance within Australian politics, media, and international civil society. It does not attempt to chart the entire history of the organisations, or that of the independence struggle. Instead, through ACFOA and AETA it seeks to provide the first account of specific Australian activism in the under-explored period of 1975 - 1991. (From introduction)
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    ‘Bad’ mothers?: Infant killing in Victoria, 1885-1914
    Burton, Barbara ( 1986)
    No abstract available