Victorian Theses
By Salient | 6 Oct, 2008
Dr Peter Manglethwaite is conducting a study on the sociology of defecation in the Occident. He aims to identify trends regarding the act of taking a shit from antiquity to today.
“It’s really interesting,” Manglethwaite explains, “seeing how the social connotations of defecation have changed over time.” More
By Matthew Proctor | 29 Sep, 2008
Chris Aitken is studying the effects of powerlessness and fatalism in relation to climate change. He seeks to ask whether people will change their actions in an effort to prevent climate change, or whether the enormity of the problem and tragedy of the commons nature of the issue leads to individuals deciding not to make sacrifices as the problem seems too big for one person to have any effect on the outcome. More
By Matthew Proctor | 22 Sep, 2008
Kimberly Andrews is a Master’s student in the School of Geography, Environment and Earth sciences, and her thesis is studying the possibility of a supernova playing a part in the formation of the solar system. More
By Matthew Proctor | 8 Sep, 2008
Jasmine Freemantle is in her final year of a PhD in Gender and Women’s Studies. Her thesis examines how women’s activism has been constructed and subsequently represented in New Zealand print media. Jasmine’s thesis covers the period 1890 to 1981, and specifically focuses on three political campaigns: the campaign for women’s suffrage (1890- 1893), the 1951 waterfront lockout, and the 1981 Springbok Tour. More
By Matthew Proctor | 1 Sep, 2008
Stealing is for suckers
This week’s ‘Victorian Theses’ is a double dose of lame. I would have two really interesting theses to talk about, but some fucker stole my mp3 player from KK207 on 19 August. So if you know anyone with a new pink DSE mp3 player filled with music they don’t listen to: swear at them for me. ‘Kay thanks. More
By Matthew Proctor | 11 Aug, 2008
Stacey Dravitzki is studying towards a PhD in meteorology looking at predicting short and long term weather patterns in the Waikato. Her research is funded by Mighty River Power Ltd, and predicts rainfall. Her research is teamed with a second researcher, who models how rainfall affects the level of the Waikato River. More
By Matthew Proctor | 4 Aug, 2008
You know when someone sends you an email with “my thesis of awesome” in the subject line it’s going to be something special. Pippa Ström talks about her MA thesis in classics. More
By Matthew Proctor | 28 Jul, 2008
Greg Haslett is doing a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry. He is researching the molecular cause of asthma, attempting to build upon previous research and identify the particular glycoprotein that causes an asthmatic reaction in humans. More
By Matthew Proctor | 7 Jul, 2008
Stephanie Fisher is doing her Master’s thesis on the impact of the media on society’s perception of crime.
Her study is carried out by providing subjects with one of two questionnaires presenting offending from two opposing standpoints. The offender is presented to the respondent as either a ‘moral stranger’ or ‘fellow traveller’, and Fisher is looking to see how that affects the respondent’s reaction. More
By Matthew Proctor | 26 May, 2008
Benjamin Matthewson is doing his PhD thesis on the formation of calcium carbonate in kina shells. When calcium carbonate is formed in the lab, it forms a rhomboid, but when formed in the presence of a mixture of glycoproteins (macromolecules with both protein and sugar parts) found in shellfish, it forms intricate patterns of microscopic spikes which cannot be created artificially. More
By Matthew Proctor | 19 May, 2008
Salient Political Editor Jackson Wood is doing his honours thesis on the interplay between nationalism and the Chinese space program. A continuation from an essay he wrote for an undergraduate course in 2006-2007 while in China, he is looking at how the Chinese government has used the space program to build a strong nationalistic image internally, More
By Matthew Proctor | 12 May, 2008
Tushara Kodikara has just finished his MSc thesis in Environmental Studies entitled ‘Assessing How Victoria University Can Become Carbon Neutral’. His thesis provides an overview of the process the university might go through in order to achieve carbon neutrality. “It’s more a plan to develop a plan.” More
By Matthew Proctor | 5 May, 2008
Former Salient Films Editor Brannavan Gnanalingam is writing his master’s thesis in film on the role of race in the critical reception of two texts from the late 80s, Do the Right Thing, a film by Spike Lee, and the album Straight Outta Compton by NWA. More
By Matthew Proctor | 28 Apr, 2008
Helena Cook is a political science student, holding a BA (Hons) in political science from the Canterbury University, doing her Master’s thesis on political representation of Pacific Islanders in New Zealand. Her work is part of a wider field of minority involvement in politics, but is the first work that she is aware of dedicated solely to Pacific Islanders in New Zealand. More
By Matthew Proctor | 7 Apr, 2008
Susann Liebich is a PhD student in the History programme. Her thesis is a study on reading culture in Australia, Canada and New Zealand from 1890 to the 1930s. She is looking for general trends over this period, and differences and similarities between the different nations she is studying. More
By Matthew Proctor | 24 Mar, 2008
Ingrid Knapp is a student from the School of Biological Science, whose PhD thesis is on the effects of invasive species of sponges on Summer Atoll, about 1000 miles south of Hawaii. She holds a BSc (Hons) from the University of Wales, where her Honours thesis on “Seabird Predation on Small Molluscs” was first in her year, entitling her to skip a Master’s degree, and study directly towards a Doctorate.
More
By Matthew Proctor | 17 Mar, 2008
The doctrine of maya is a particular theory in the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. The doctrine explains the relationship between the material world, and brahman, which is the Sanskrit word for ‘the one’, or ‘the whole’.
There are two main interpretations of the doctrine of maya: That it shows that the material universe, as we perceive it, is an illusion; That it shows that the material universe is real. More
By Matthew Proctor | 10 Mar, 2008
Céline Cattoën is a French mathematics PhD student, whose thesis covers two separate areas of theoretical physics: cosmology and numerical relativity.
Her work in numerical relativity hopes to build up a model which can be used in future simulations in general relativity, a field which has traditionally been very theoretical, and not easily simulated. However, in the past few years, there has been a significant growth in the number of simulations of binary black holes and neutron stars. More
By Matthew Proctor | 3 Mar, 2008
This week I spoke with Abu Conteh, an Environmental Science PhD student from Sierra Leone. His thesis is concerned with the effects of the civil war in Sierra Leone on biodiversity in the Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve, just outside of the capital, Freetown. The area is a unique habitat, as the westernmost point of the Upper Guinea Forest, containing a large number of endemic species, meaning species that can be found nowhere else on Earth. Conteh’s will be the first study on the effects on war on biodiversity in West Africa. More
By Matthew Proctor | 25 Feb, 2008
Dan Turton is studying towards a Master of Arts in Philosophy. He received a Bachelor of Commerce from Victoria University, and Honours in both Philosophy and Marketing. His thesis, entitled ‘Revising Hedonism’, aims to revive hedonism as a theory of well-being.
“A lot of people … think it’s a profligate theory; they think it’s a shamelessly immoral theory. Most people imagine ‘sex drugs and rock n roll’; people who screw their friends over … to get a hit of cocaine… And that’s not really what it’s about.” More
