School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemVenereal Diseases and Bodily Excesses: A Social History of Contagions in the Madras Presidency (c. 1780 to 1900)( 2023-05)This thesis investigates the discourses around bodily excess and venereal diseases in colonial South India, or, as it was known in the nineteenth century, the Madras presidency. It highlights the epistemological exchange between Europe and the colonies regarding sexuality and venereal diseases and traces the colony’s contribution to ideas of public health, morality, and sexuality. Firstly, it shows how venereal disease— a disease essentially associated with the British army— came to be seen as a threat to ‘public health’, prompting the colonial government to try to control the disease among the European population, Indian prostitutes, and the general Indian population. Secondly, it examines the British claim to moral superiority, and how venereal diseases among British troops, and the administrative struggles to discipline the British army in the colony, threatened to tarnish this claim. Thirdly, the thesis studies colonial surveillance and its impact on women’s lives in India in the nineteenth century. It underlines the position of women in public, both European and Indian women who were suspected of practising prostitution in the colony and the British attitude towards them. Fourthly, it explores the anthropometric methods used in the lock hospitals to discriminate against and criminalise Indian women suspected of being prostitutes. Fifthly, the research emphasises the fractured nature of the colonial hegemony, highlighting the vital role of Indian agency in policy implementation regarding venereal diseases. Finally, it also attempts to retrieve subaltern women’s voices in the scattered sources masked by colonial authority, and by doing so traces the subaltern resistance and agency of women in lock hospitals.
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ItemTHE NORTH SINAI TRANSFORMED: Third Intermediate Period / Iron Age I-II Raphia and Egypt’s response to the changed political spectrum in the Levant( 2023-02)When the decades-long process called the Bronze Age collapse ended the globalization that characterized the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean, there was a massive upheaval that saw most of the great powers dissolving or being destroyed. While Egypt survived this ordeal, it was forced to discard the fortresses and settlements erected in the north Sinai and southern Levant, dubbed the ‘Ways of Horus.’ All later Egyptian interactions with the Levant were mercantile in nature, until the reign of the Libyan king Shoshenq I (c. 943-924 BC). This study investigates the fate of the ‘Ways of Horus’ forts during the Third Intermediate Period between the New Kingdom Egyptian withdrawal and Shoshenq’s Levantine campaign, via the Egyptian references to these sites and the available archaeological evidence in the region. Identifying when the texts no longer mention the north Sinai forts will provide a potential terminus post-quem for their abandonment, while the archaeological evidence confirms which sites were never reoccupied or which were only later used by other factions. The various interpretations of the Bubastide Portal, the primary record of Shoshenq’s campaign, are also examined, to assess how he undertook his campaign in the Levant. Ultimately, an analysis of the archaeological and textual evidence confirms that the north Sinai sites next to the eastern Nile delta remained Egyptian settlements, while most of the remaining sites were permanently abandoned. Even then, this process was gradual, starting during the reign of Seti II (c. 1199-1193 BC) and concluding under Ramesses VI (c. 1141–1133 BC). Nomads, Philistines and Canaanites then took over those sites that were left, the first group occupying Kharuba (xarwba) 289 and either nomads or Canaanites living in the case study site of Rafah. The analysis of the Bubastide portal City List shows that Rafah fell under Egyptian control, at the beginning of Shoshenq’s Levantine campaign, before later returning to its previous occupants or entirely new ones, when Egypt abandoned the region again.
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ItemBetween the Pen and the Sword: Student-soldiers and the image of ideal youth in Indonesia( 2023-04)This thesis examines the tentara pelajar (Student Armies) of Indonesia that fought in the country’s war of independence (1945-1949), and whose veterans influenced a newly independent Indonesia afterwards. Using a variety of historical resources, such as archival documents, news publications, memoirs, and regimental histories, this thesis argues that the tentara pelajar were influential in informing discourses of pemuda (youth), still a significant political category in Indonesia, throughout the war and beyond, into the post-war socio-political landscape of Liberal and Guided Democracy (1949-1965) and the militarist New Order regime (1965-1998) It does so by analysing the identity-making processes they undertook to situate themselves in and distinguish themselves from other members of Indonesia‘s pemuda during the war and how this affected their standing afterwards. This thesis first investigates the beginning of these processes from the tentara pelajar’s origins in the militarised practices of scouting that emerged from Indonesian youth’s interactions with early twentieth-century transnational youth culture and proliferated during the late colonial period of the Netherlands East Indies. This tradition of militarism was formalised during the Japanese occupation and culminated with the formation of the tentara pelajar as a laskar (militia) and their participation in the independence war. This thesis argues that wartime experiences influenced the tentara pelajar to construct a student soldier identity based on the values of discipline, professionalism, and notional “apoliticism,” which were values they perceived to be possessed by the regular army. It continues with an examination of post-war circumstances where tentara pelajar veterans were able to rise to important positions within Indonesia’s military and government, from which they were able to exercise their agency and influence on the construction of an image of ideal pemuda. Retaining their status as the pemuda of the independence war, during the New Order tentara pelajar veterans constructed the ideal pemuda image via writing and disseminating memoirs, short stories and histories focused on their experiences that were aimed at youth, all with the support of the regime. The image they constructed was used by the regime to promote the key role of youth is national development, rendering youth as cogs in its developmentalist project. The thesis concludes by examining the agency of youth in interacting with the legacy of the tentara pelajar, and how that legacy continues today.
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ItemMisogyny as hierarchy maintenance( 2023-06)There is growing interest in ‘misogyny’ within psychology, yet the concept lacks a clear definition and theoretical grounding. In this thesis, I explore misogyny as a form of gender hierarchy maintenance. Specifically, this thesis seeks to i) provide a definition and conceptual model of misogyny that promotes psychological research on the topic, ii) investigate whether misogyny increases after threats to the gender status-quo, as is expected of hierarchy-maintaining actions, and iii) understand whether individual differences in the preference for social hierarchy vs. equality can help to explain why reactions to perpetrators of misogyny differ. In Chapter 2, I argue that misogyny should be conceptualised as the social, physical and economic penalties imposed on women and girls that reinforce a hierarchical gender order. I then develop a model that argues misogyny is a consequence of gendered differences in status and power and will increase after gender hierarchy threats. This framework integrates misogyny among other gender hierarchy reinforcing mechanisms, and encourages researchers to examine gender inequality practices in a cohesive way—operating from individual to institutional levels. Chapter 3 applies the prediction that gender hierarchy threats will exacerbate misogyny to a key area of social concern—the online harassment of female politicians. Using Twitter data, I explore how online misogyny towards Hillary Clinton changed following her 2016 U.S. presidential campaign announcement, when she threatened male political dominance. An interrupted time analysis revealed that prior to 2015, the level of Twitter misogyny associated with Clinton decreased over time, but this trend reversed when she announced her presidential campaign, after which misogyny steadily increased. These findings are consistent with the notion that online misogyny towards female politicians increases after they engage in behaviour that threatens the gender hierarchy, in line with my conceptual model of misogyny. Chapters 4–6 investigate reactions to misogyny—specifically, sexual harassment—and provides evidence that the motivation to maintain hierarchical gender relations predicts more lenient reactions to perpetrators of misogyny. Specifically, individuals high on gender system justification and social dominance orientation recommend more lenient punishment to perpetrators, in both vignette and real-world instances of sexual harassment. These findings suggest that people punish sexual harassment to bolster or attenuate power structures, in line with their preference for hierarchy or egalitarianism. Chapter 7 applies the insights from Chapter 4-6 to a contemporary allegation of sexual assault against a senior Australian politician, finding that hierarchical preferences were associated with motivated reasoning when evaluating arguments arguing for or against the need for an independent inquiry into the allegation. This study provides further evidence that hierarchical preferences can help to explain differing evaluations of misogyny. Taken together, this work demonstrates the fruitfulness of theorising misogyny as a form of gender hierarchy maintenance. It provides evidence that online misogyny towards female politicians is exacerbated by their counter-stereotypical, power-seeking behaviours, in line with backlash theories that suggest challenges to dominant power structures provokes aggression towards nondominant group members. Additionally, it shows that preferences for social hierarchy vs egalitarianism can help to explain why reactions to misogyny differ so significantly.
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ItemVindictively violent: a sociology of Roman punishment c. 50 BCE - 200 CE.( 2023-03)This thesis examines Roman cultural and social attitudes towards the propriety of revenge, the role of violence as a means of taking revenge, and how these sentiments affected Roman ideas about the role of punishment in society in the period dating from the mid-first century BCE to the start of the third century CE. Broadly divided into two parts, the first part examines the importance of revenge in Roman social relations. Taking a holistic approach and covering a range of different authors and genres, along with the attitudes displayed by the aristocratic writers, it also examines those of sub-elite groups including slaves. It argues that throughout the time period under consideration revenge was considered a necessary societal good. Revenge was seen not only to restore a person’s honour, but also to play a societal role in deterring other would-be wrongdoers. Although Roman writers in this period never seriously questioned revenge, they did not advocate for a “revenge at all costs” mentality either. In light of philosophical ideas about the role of emotions, there was a belief that revenge ought to be undertaken unemotionally and in proportion to the original affront. Those who indulged their anger, so often associated with a lust for revenge, or pursued excessive revenge could be seen to be acting distastefully. An inherent tension existed between personal and societal pressures to take revenge, and the critique of excessive emotionality. The second part turns to the question of a Roman penology and examines to what extent the cultural sentiments exhibited in part one shaped Roman ideas about punishment. Taking its cue from modern scholarship on punishment that calls for a more sociological approach, through an exploration of rhetoric, both forensic and deliberative, and the philosophy of Cicero, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius, it demonstrates that Roman writers saw punishment almost exclusively as an act of vengeance for the plaintiff/victim and as a deterrent to future wrongdoers, closely matching Roman views on revenge more generally. Although some Roman writers under the influence of philosophy did advocate for a non-vindictive penology, there is little to suggest such ideas were ever put into practice in the daily administration of justice. Finally, the question is asked as to what extent this Roman penology affected the move to a harsher and more violent penal code in the first two centuries CE. It is suggested that these changes cannot be accounted for in light of Roman ideas about the function of punishment, and that answers must be sought elsewhere. Overall, this thesis contributes to our understanding of revenge and the role of the retributive emotions in Roman social relations, and the cultural and social context of Roman punishment more widely.
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ItemA ‘New Newspaper’: Sin Po and the Voices of Progressive Chinese Indonesian Nationalists, 1910-1949( 2023-04)This thesis examines the emergence and development of the Chinese Indonesian run newspaper Sin Po from 1910 to 1949 focusing on how it shaped political and social thinking and discourses in colonial and post-colonial Indonesia. I argue that Sin Po played an essential role in creating a class and identity consciousness, encouraging organisation and solidarity and formulating new ideas and tactics for the Chinese community and at the same time sustaining and building a political movement for its readers. Throughout this thesis, I use different lenses to focus attention on the work the paper undertook to address key issues for the ethnic Chinese and promote particular causes. I show how Sin Po engaged in a sophisticated way with a host of social and political issues: race and racism across colonial society, the appeal of Chinese and at times Indonesian nationalism, the need for civic and social equality, and the civic duty of Chinese to help others. By studying Sin Po, this research attempts to provide a more sophisticated analysis of the complex dynamics of Chinese Indonesian society. Moreover, it will delve into the sensitive issue of the relationships between Chinese Peranakan and other communities in Indonesia. To evaluate the contributions of Sin Po, this analysis examines how it reported on events in China as well as local political developments and issues of concern to the Chinese community in Indonesia. Placing the paper in the context of colonial society and comparing it at times to other publications I also consider contestation and coherence between Sin Po and other Chinese newspapers to gauge the uniqueness of this paper. This thesis relies in method on a close reading of the paper Sin Po and contextualised analysis of how the paper presented topics, issues and developments to its readers. Through an in-depth analysis of Sin Po, I argue that Chinese political orientation should not be treated as a constant and monolithic; instead, it must be seen as fluid, multi-faceted, and continuously evolving. The complexity of the nations and imagined communities promoted by newspapers in this period is what made Sin Po and other Sino-Malay newspapers so dynamic and important.
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ItemOrder and the reason to be conservative( 2022-11)In this thesis, I make a case for the reasonableness of conservatism and its application to the political philosophical project of identifying the kinds of institutions that beings like us should have. The recent political philosophical literature on conservatism, largely under the influence of Michael Oakeshott, has focused on potential justifications for status quo bias, holding that conservatism is a commitment to conserving the value that individuals find in existing institutions and practices. But, I claim, because individuals and their practices may conflict, they are apt to value institutions differently, and so status quo bias cannot amount to a universalizable reason to be conservative. Having established this, I go on to argue that, inspired by a careful reading of Edmund Burke, conservatism is better understood as a commitment to realising a distinctively conservative value, order, and that this has various implications for political philosophy. On this view, institutions (in the broadest sense, from our systems of law and politics to our customs and concepts) capture the historical experience of society, the accuracy to reality of which is, I claim (on a reading of Ludwig Wittgenstein) apprehensible by common sense, at least under certain conditions of order. Thus, order is conservative (of historical experience), and conservatism is a commitment to realising order. Normatively, then, I further claim that conservatism is universally motivated, because order is a basic good for beings like us. Access to historical experience is valuable both intrinsically, because as naturally social beings we rely on institutions to capture and convey accurate information about the world and society in which we live, and instrumentally, in that this information is useful for any projects we might conceive as individuals and collectively. In the final chapter, I apply this idea of conservatism to various issues in political philosophy. My aim is not to directly rebut objections to conservatism or the desirability of order, but rather to show that distinctively conservative positions on these issues follow from the theory I have developed. Identifying conservatism’s substantive commitment to order both clarifies our understanding of conservatism and brings to the surface a value claim that is often overlooked in political philosophy.
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ItemGetihu: peddlers, cadres, housewives and everyday exchange in the Chinese city of Nanjing 1949-1985( 2023-01)In the early 1980s, a growing number of small merchants and peddlers appeared on the streets of China’s cities. They became known as ‘getihu’. The getihu were early symbols of the new era of ‘Reform and Opening Up’ that emerged in China in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Nearly thirty years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China as a communist state in 1949, the ruling Chinese Communist Party tentatively introduced market- based reforms which would eventually unleash the Chinese economy and change both China and the world. Focusing on the city of Nanjing, this dissertation draws from a broad range of written sources including newspapers, archival documents, annals, government collections, and discarded official records to explore the getihu and their historical antecedents. Told chronologically, it explores the path from the small merchants, peddlers, and handicraftsmen of Republican Nanjing, through the socialist years dominated by the leadership of founding Chairman Mao Zedong, to the getihu of the 1980s. It shows that small-scale private commerce had originally played a vital role in the everyday life of Nanjing. That vital role persisted long into the socialist ‘Mao era’ (1949-76). Ultimately, however, Nanjing’s urban culture of independent commerce and everyday exchange came into conflict with a new model for city life centred on the planned economy and the state workplace (or danwei). By the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, successive waves of ideological campaigns, industrial expansion and unpredictable regulation had pushed small merchants into an increasingly marginal position in everyday life in Nanjing. The rigid socialism of the Cultural Revolution finished the job, and peddlers and other merchants almost disappeared from Nanjing’s streets after 1966. The goods and services Nanjing’s small merchants had once provided were never satisfactorily replaced. By the late 1970s, problems of inconvenience and unemployment were acute. The final chapters of this dissertation will suggest that the market reforms introduced after Mao’s death in 1976 were as much a belated concession to the everyday needs of urban citizens as they were to ‘capitalism.’ The getihu quickly found a market in Nanjing, offering the same breakfast foods and petty repairs that had been popular decades before. But the intervening decades had changed the operating environment. The vibrant private sector of the 1980s in China was largely rural. In cities, small merchants remained social and economic outsiders. Their goods and services were welcome, but they were not.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableSidelining the Feminine in Ovid’s Metamorphoses( 2023-02)This thesis answers two key questions regarding the treatment of gender in Ovid's "Metamorphoses": 1) How does the poem utilise mythical narratives in order to explore peculiarly Roman masculine concerns and anxieties, such as fatherhood, the transition from boy to man, the tension between sexual desire and the masculine ideal of self-control, the social problem of female desire, and the maintenance of one's personal reputation in the homosocial sphere? 2) In the course of these explorations, in what ways does the poem marginalise and oversimplify the experiences of its female characters? In answering these two intertwined questions, the thesis will demonstrate both the enduring relevance of Ovid's text as a site for feminist rereading, and the importance of considering women's perspectives in any discussion of patriarchal expectations and their effects on the individual.
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ItemFoucault and Normative Political Philosophy( 2023)This thesis brings Michel Foucault’s work into dialogue with the tradition of normative political philosophy inaugurated by John Rawls. More specifically, it draws on Foucault’s ideas to develop an original approach to normative theorising that emphasises the importance of situated insights in reconstructing our normative political concepts. With this goal in mind, my thesis makes a systematic contribution to two distinct bodies of literature. First, it offers a critical account of Foucault’s underlying methodology. More specifically, it clarifies several controversial methodological questions that are frequently raised with respect to Foucault’s work. These include whether his historicist mode of critique successfully overcomes transcendental philosophy, whether his power-knowledge analytic is supported by a satisfying epistemology, and whether his normative commitments can be reflexively accounted for and then reconciled with his aspiration to develop a rigorous descriptive method. Second, it develops an original approach to normative political philosophy by leveraging these insights into Foucault’s methodology. I refer to my proposed framework as the situated approach to normative political philosophy. This approach conceives of normativity as immanent to power, and thus treats our normative concepts as pragmatic tools that we use to negotiate real contexts of action. In this way, I argue that normative political philosophy needs to become more sensitive to the way our normative standards and processes of justification have been shaped by relations of power. On this basis, I suggest that my broadly Foucauldian approach offers an improvement on both the dominant paradigm of ideal theory as well as the resurgent tradition of political realism. In this way, I attempt to push Foucault’s work towards a more systematic approach to normative political questions concerning distributive justice and state legitimacy. As part of this effort, I will locate the situated approach in relation to recent methodological debates in analytic political philosophy. These debates cover a significant amount of ground, including a) the question of whether ideal theory can guide action; b) whether ideal theory is sufficiently critically reflexive; c) disputes over the nature of political normativity and its relationship to morality; and d) the role that general principles should play in framing specific political situations. With respect to these questions, my goal is to show how the situated approach constitutes an improvement on its main methodological alternatives within normative political philosophy.