FASSGRAD 2012: Postgraduate Conference
S BLOCK, S.1.03, S1.05
PROGRAMME
Day One, Monday 12th November
8.30–9.00
8.45-9.00
Registration (pick up conference packs)
Whakatau (Welcome)
9.00–10.00
KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
Christopher Burke
S.1.03
Christopher Burke completed a Master of Arts at the University of Waikato in History and English in
2007, and a PhD in Gender Studies and History at the University of Otago in 2012. His doctoral thesis,
‘Speak to Me, Stranger’, surveys the life and literature of expatriate writer James Courage (1903-63). It
uses one man’s experience to explore the complexities and potentialities of being queer in New Zealand
before gay liberation. Christopher is currently a Research Analyst and Inquiry Facilitator at the Waitangi
Tribunal.
Writing on the margins: Finding the ‘in-between’ in academic research
Michael Warner asserted in 1993 that ‘[m]uch remains to be said about the unique relation of
queer politics to histories of all sorts’. Writing from the margins of the academy, scholars like
Warner pointed to the periphery as a space of clarity and freedom. Joining postcolonial,
feminist and other social radicals, queer scholars, he suggested, have shown how concepts
like race, gender and heteronormativity have underpinned everyday realities, both in the past
and present. These intellectuals have brought very different sets of questions to research, and
in the process disturbed long held assumptions about discipline, theory and methodology.
But what of the challenges, difficulties and everyday obstacles faced by those who work at the
edges of the academy? By looking to my own experience as a queer scholar working between
history and literary studies, this paper explores some of the productive and confounding
challenges found in the cultural ‘in-between’ of academic writing. At the same time, I explore
whether ‘being marginal’ remains a valid and productive position for those engaged in scholarly
research today. Is it still possible to be marginal in the twenty-first century? And what happens
when the marginal goes mainstream?
10.00-10.20
Morning Tea
10.20-11.20
DISCOURSE 1
S.1.03
 The fairest of them all: Generational conflict expressed in Walt Disney’s Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs
Brendan Sheridan
 Queen: Champions of the rock ballad
Nick Braae
 Steampunk: The inner workings
Garth Smith
11.20-11.25
Changeover
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11.25-12.25
LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
S.1.03
 Interpersonal engagement in self-help books
Jeremy Koay
 “Please” in request emails in two contrasting workplaces
Jackie Yeoh
 Mai Ka Mole Mai: From the source: Towards an analysis of Hawaiian literature
Emalani Case
11.25-12.25
ADOLESCENT ENCOUNTERS
S.1.05
 An exploration of social and drinking behaviours among first-year students at a New
Zealand university
 Sera Murugiah
 Experiences of South African Boys in New Zealand: Exploring the interplay of immigration,
masculinity and schooling during adolescence
Teswell White
 Peterporn Phenomenon: Celebrities porn scandal, sexual attitudes, and sexual behaviours
among Indonesian youth
Teguh Wijaya Mulya
12.25-12.55
Lunch
12.55-1.55
ANIMAL RESEARCH
S.1.03
 Delaying positive reinforcement during dog training
Clare Browne
 Reinforced variability and sequence learning across species
Kathleen Doolan
 Motivating (establishing) operations and animal welfare
Surrey Jackson
12.55-1.55
CONFLICT AND SECURITY 1
S.1.05
 The role of civil society in resolving insurgency in southern Thailand
Kayanee Boonpunth
 Suicide bombing and the Shi`a Islamic warfare law
Mortaza Shams
 Neglected grass roots: Research findings in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka
Indi Akurugoda
1.55-2.00
Changeover
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
2.00-3.00
RELIGION
S.1.03
 The doors of perception: Science and religion in the age of revolution
Samuel Speedy
 St. Thomas as devotee of Mother Mary: Ancient Syrian tradition in modern-day South
India
Thomas Nagy
 An outline of a Buddhist theory of causation
Atsushi Iseki
3.00-3.30
Afternoon Tea and Poster Session
 ‘Cultural Offerings’ – Public displays of Tibetan culture in New Zealand
Kate Clapham-Dorjee
 A study of indigenous perceptions of sustainability and traditional ecological knowledge:
Developing a policy framework for sustainability education in Papua New Guinea
Sangion Appiee Tiu
3.30-4.50
NEW MEDIA
S.1.03
 Mobile phone video and social activism within the media ecology of New York City
Ben Lenzner
 Eyewitness documentary: A case study of UGC surrounding the recent Christchurch
earthquakes
Hollie Jackson
 Extending media richness theory to explain social media adoption by microbusinesses
Debashish Mandal
 The application of ICT in the NZ secondary music classroom: Preliminary findings of a
longitudinal study
Amanda O’Connell
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DAY TWO, TUESDAY 13th November
8.30-9.50
PERCEPTION, BEHAVIOUR AND THERAPY
S.1.03
 Illusionary speed bias and railway crossing collisions
Helen Clark
 Work and family interface: Wellbeing and the role of resilience and work-life balance
Derek Riley
 Adolescent Neurodevelopment: Implications for young drivers’ and the development of
novel intervention paradigms
Stephen Cantwell
 Group process in a music therapy session: Clues from group improvisations
Erin Upjohn-Beatson
9.50-10.10
Morning Tea
10.10-11.10
CONFLICT AND SECURITY II
S.1.03
 Beyond the militarist state concept: Understanding the recent security challenges on the
Nigerian State
Ibikunle Ideakin
 Breaking the links between armed conflict and natural resources: The case of Guinea,
1984-2008
Mamadou Bah
 The rise and evolution of Boko Haram
Simon Gray
11.10-11.15
Changeover
11.15-12.35
GENDER AND SEXUALITY
S.1.03
 From gender empowerment to inequalities among adolescents: An emerging strategy for
Goal 3 in the post-2015 MDG agenda
Gauri Nandedkar
 Gender responsive and rights-based framework to evaluate anti-trafficking intervention
Kim Anh Duong
 ‘Feminization of poverty’ and its limitations: A critical look at identifying household
headship in the context of Sri Lanka
Kumudika Boyagoda
 Developing an understanding of sexuality
Tiffany Apaitia-Vague
12.35-1.05
Lunch
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1.05-2.05
DISCOURSES II
S.1.03
 Unmasking the monster
Larissa Schumacher
 Detectives, doctors and degenerates: Sherlock Holmes meets Jack the Ripper
Helen Lavën
 I don’t care how many wickets Daniel Vettori has taken…or how to do sports media history
when you’re not a train-spotter
Karen Buckley
2.05-2.10
Changeover
2.10-3.10
NEW ZEALAND HISTORIES
S.1.03
 ‘Being truly British’: Anti-Germanism in New Zealand during the first World War as
mobilised anti-alienism
Steven Loveridge
 ‘Going forward together’?: The political and social issues of 1920s and ‘30s New Zealand
reflected in the fiction of Jean Devanny, John A. Lee and John Mulgan
Alexandra Horsley
 The introduction and cultivation of medicinal plants in New Zealand, 1850s-1920s
Joanna Bishop
3.10-3.30
Afternoon tea
3.30-4.10
METHODOLOGIES
S.1.03
 Emerging issues from an insider-researcher experience
Aminath Adam
 Recruiting research participants from isolated island communities: ‘Don’t shoot the
messenger!’
Sheena Moosa
4.10-4.15
Changeover
4.15-4.55
CULTURAL CONTEXTS
S.1.03
 ‘Cultural representations of assisted reproductive technologies
Rebecca Bollard
 “Lasers flared and crisscrossed, and all of the teddy bears fell dead”: A literary and cultural
history of military science fiction
Blair Nicholson
6:00
Cocktails @ The Station
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AWARDS FOR BEST PRESENTATIONS
A prize of $500 will be awarded for the best presentation given on each day of the
conference.
Ensure your presentation goes without a hitch by making yourself familiar with the venue before
you present. You are welcome to practice your talk when S.1.03 and S.105 are free:
S.1.03 will be free before the start of sessions each day and during the breaks for morning and
afternoon tea
S.1.05 will be free for the duration of the conference except between 11.20am and 2pm on Monday
12th November.
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ABSTRACTS
Aminath Adam
PhD candidate, Faculty of Education, University of Waikato
Emerging issues from an insider-researcher experience
As a novice researcher, I learnt that I was able to develop and improve researching skills
largely by undertaking the insider role in my doctoral study. The experience of ‘hanging around’
with my own colleagues in order to understand their habitus of practice at the same institute
where I worked enabled me to develop unanticipated useful researching skills. This includes
being reflexive and balancing my collegial-researcher role. An insider-researcher can be
identified as describing what happens when people conduct research into their own home
communities, such as one’s own profession, workplace, society, and culture. Although it may
be possible to generally define who insider researchers are, the issues and challenges they
experience vary according to the diversity of contexts in which they are situated.
As an insider-researcher I experienced a number of challenges due to the commonalities that I
share with my research participants since they come from the same institution I worked at. For
some, I was their immediate boss. For others, I was their colleague. The issues I encountered
emerged through various methods (semi-structured interviews, observations, focus groups) that
I used for gathering information. The issues were primarily associated with entanglement, role
ambiguity, and insider knowledge of my own experience. The aim of this presentation is to
address these issues and describe how I managed them in my research in an ethically and
accountable manner. This work may contribute to a wider understanding of the insider issues
and ways of dealing with them.
Ibikunle Adeakin
PhD candidate, Political Science and Public Policy, University of Waikato
Beyond the militarist state concept: Understanding the recent security challenges on the
Nigerian state
This paper seeks to explore beyond the notion that long years of military authoritarian rule have
militarized the Nigerian state. It is perceived that militarism has impacted (a) the leadership
style of the country, (b) the media, (c) civil society, (d) militarized civilian rule post 1999 and (e)
contributed to the rise of ethno-religious violence post 1999 in Nigeria. Currently, the country’s
political elites are faced with basically two options in dealing with the growing security threats
on the state; militarize the state even further, or negotiate and grant amnesty to these
insurgence groups. The paper argues that a holistic security approach is needed to be adopted
to meet these recent challenges.
Indi Akurugoda
PhD candidate, Political Science & Public Policy, University of Waikato,
Neglected grass roots: Research findings in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka
Local government and local people have been neglected in contemporary Sri Lanka due to
various reasons. The prominent reason is the centralization of allocated local powers. This
centralization happens through constitutional amendments, other legislative procedures, policy
implementation failures and arbitrary actions of the rulers. An ethnic war between the
government forces and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) lasted nearly 30 years and
ended up with victory to the government party in 2009. The war resulted in major damages to
the people’s lives and property, but devolution or decentralization was not implemented as
ethnic minorities expected. Re-construction and infra-structure development projects which
started especially in the post-war areas using huge amounts of foreign aid and support never
touched the grassroots or fulfilled the local needs. Even the local governments have no say in
these mega construction projects. Eastern Province of Sri Lanka is a post-war area with a
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diverse ethnic base of Tamil and Muslim majority. This paper presents the research findings of
Eastern Province, Sri Lanka and aims to explore the effects of centralization over local
government. While finding reasons for negligence of grassroots, proposals have been built to
empower the local.
Tiffany Apaitia-Vague
PhD candidate, School of Health and Social Services, Massey University, Albany
Developing an understanding of sexuality
This presentation will discuss ways in which sexuality has been understood and is currently
understood. I will be arguing that in this decade, in order to explore any projects that relate to
sexuality the researcher must first examine a wide range of literature in order to determine and
express what their academic standpoint is in relation to sexuality, and to clearly define sexuality
for the purpose of their project. To Baudrillard (1976) everything is sexual, therefore nothing is
sexual. Foucault (1978) posited that engaging in sexual acts or even discussing sexuality is
another way in which individuals and society engage in exchanges of power. Some Feminist
writers such as Dworkin (1976) have stated that any heterosexual act or engagement is the
exertion of men’s power over women whereas other feminist thinkers such as Queen and
Cornella (2008) have named sexuality as a site of women’s empowerment. All of these ideas
intersect with a developing understanding of same sex and opposite sex attraction. Debates
exist about the extent to which sexuality is essential or constructed (Homfray 2007), and the
extent to which young people today are currently living in a Postmodern society whereby sexual
diversity and sexual fluidity are accepted and homophobia and heterosexism have been
eradicated. I will be considering the above in order to articulate the definition of sexuality that I
will be using for my Doctoral Thesis.
Mamadou Bah,
PhD candidate, Political Science and Public Policy, University of Waikato
Breaking the links between armed conflict and natural resources: The case of Guinea,
1984-2008
This study explores the relationship between natural resources and conflict management with
especial reference to the republic of Guinea. Recent literature on theories of contemporary civil
wars identifies the presence of abundant natural resources among several key variables as
significant triggers of civil war onset. These studies conclude that, since the early 1990s, the
presence of these resources contributed to the outbreak of civil wars in a number of countries
in West Africa. In Guinea, however, despite being endowed with vast natural resources the
state managed to avoid descending into civil war and or armed conflicts since independence
from France in 1958. Why did the presence of abundant natural resources fail to be associated
with civil war onset in Guinea? The study identifies ways in which natural resources contributed
to political stability in Guinea instead of igniting armed conflict.
Joanna Bishop
PhD candidate, History, University of Waikato
The introduction and cultivation of medicinal plants in New Zealand, 1850s-1920s
The movement of natural resources including plants was an integral part of the European
colonisation of New Zealand. From the 1840s onwards, emigrants were encouraged to
introduce plants and animals that would provide sustenance, familiarity and industry. By the
1880s the propagation of economic plants became a focus for colonial botanical enquiry and,
driven by a developing pharmaceutical industry, medicinal plants were among those appraised.
The pervasive presence of opium in both patent and prescription medicines encouraged
enterprise and Australian growers in particular were quick to meet demand. This paper will
explore the impetus and efforts to propagate medicinal plants in New Zealand for industrial and
domestic use through the biography of government botanist, Thomas Kirk (1828-1898). It will
discuss the networks, associations and developments that directed the introduction of
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
medicinal plants and will examine the role of colonial botanic gardens and New Zealand’s early
experimental agricultural institutes. Despite favourable results from medicinal plant trials,
preliminary research suggests these plants never formed the basis of extensive trade in New
Zealand or Australia. This paper will discuss the trials and explain the subsequent failure of this
industry to develop in this region and propose questions for further research in this area.
Rebecca Bollard
PhD candidate, Political Science and Public Policy, University of Waikato
Cultural representations of assisted reproductive technologies
Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) such as IVF and surrogacy have existed since the
1970’s and are responsible for more than four million births, 10,000 of which happened in New
Zealand. They are the product of complex medical science and create diverse social and
societal impacts, making them a complex and controversial topic for policy makers. New
Zealand law allows some ARTs, but significantly limits or bans a number of ARTs.
Due to the low numbers and legal limits, one of the major ways that people encounter ARTs is
through representations of their use in culture and fiction. These include mainstream TV shows
and movies, science fiction, and ‘women’s/gossip’ magazines. This presentation surveys
representations of ARTs in these cultural and fictional works, and relates these representations
to earlier work on discourses in New Zealand debates on ART use and policy. It will also
consider the utility and value of examining such work alongside more traditional policy sources,
and identify some ways they may be usefully incorporated into policy making discussions
Kayanee Boonpunth
PhD candidate, Political Science and Public Policy, University of Waikato
The role of civil society in resolving insurgency in southern Thailand
Ethno-religious violence in southern Thailand has multiple causes including historical concerns,
economic marginalisation, political issues, social and cultural differences, educational
opportunity inequities and judicial discrimination. These have resulted in local grievances and a
latent crisis in inter-ethnic relations.
More than a hundred civil society groups are involved in the southern conflict issues. Since the
violence resurged in 2004, some civil society groups have been established and then dissolved
after the problem seems too difficult to solve, while some have accumulated their experiences
and played significant roles in the area. These groups have become a strong network which
could reduce the tensions in the south.
The research is to find the most suitable solution for southern Thailand’s violence; to strengthen
the civil society sector to be a peace-building tool; and to encourage a non-violence approach
to solve the insurgency problem in Thailand.
This study uses the qualitative method employing in-depth interviews and documentary
research. The data is collected through person-to-person interviews with representatives of 29
civil society groups. It is a non-random sampling procedure by using purposive sampling.
The research is at the stage of data analysis and the conclusion is in progress.
Kumudika Boyagoda
PhD candidate, National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis, University of
Waikato
‘Feminization of poverty’ and its limitations: A critical look at identifying household
headship in the context of Sri Lanka
In the well-established literature on ‘feminisation of poverty’, it is almost orthodoxy to associate
poverty among women with female-headed households (FHHs). This orthodoxy is built on an
assumption that, female heads of households are poor, because women are inherently
disadvantaged as economic contributors. There is, however, a significant flaw in this
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
assumption. Though household headship is expected to reflect the ‘bread winner’ in the
household, most studies identify household heads based on the definition commonly used in
censuses and surveys - that is the person identified as the ‘head’ by other household members
(reported head), without seeking any clarifications of economic contribution. Whilst most of the
male heads of households may be bread winners, due to diverse situations relating to female
headship (i.e. aged widowhood, wives receiving high remittances from migrant spouses),
certain female heads may be unconnected with any form of economic contribution to the
household. The present paper which draws on a doctoral research amongst a sample of 500
FHHs in Sri Lanka looks at the economic contribution of female heads. The results show that
only 40 per cent of the female heads confers to the main bread winner role, while almost an
equal proportion do not even contribute to the household economy. The paper argues that if
feminization of poverty is to be a valid reflection of the disadvantages faced by FHHs, the
emphasis should be on the women who bear the responsibility of the bread winner role, and not
household headship per se.
Nick Braae
PhD candidate, Music, University of Waikato
Queen: Champions of the rock ballad
This paper is drawn from a study of British rock band Queen’s studio albums. Preliminary
results indicate that a central component of their output was the rock ballad. Arguably, the
anthemic qualities of this style married well with the natural performing characteristics of the
band members. The style is partially evident on the early albums, and reached its fullest
realization on News of the World (1977).
This paper traces the development of the ballad style from Queen (1973) to The Game (1980).
The first section utilizes a range of analytical techniques to outline the musical traits of this style.
The analysis primarily pertains to melody, texture, and vocal style.
The second section offers some suggestions regarding the success of this style. It is proposed
that Queen’s approach to harmony is central to the affective power of their ballads. ‘We are the
Champions,’ which arguably epitomizes the ballad style, is used as a case study to develop this
argument.
Clare Browne*, Nicola Starkey, Mary Foster, James McEwan
PhD candidate, Psychology, University of Waikato
Delaying positive reinforcement during dog training
Research on animals such as rats and pigeons has shown that delaying positive reinforcement
can compromise speed of task acquisition and rate of responding. Field observations of dog
owners during training found delays to reinforcement range from 0-6.2s; however, the effects of
delaying reinforcement don’t appear to have been studied with dogs. The aim of this study was
to examine the effects of delaying reinforcement when training dogs to perform a novel
behaviour. Pre-training was conducted in an experimental pen to condition them to the sound of
a beep (secondary reinforcement) preceding delivery of food treats (primary reinforcement)
from a feeding device. In the experiment, dogs were led into the pen and allowed to explore.
The target behaviour was the dogs sniffing inside one of two containers. When the dogs sniffed
inside the correct container and broke infra-red beams, positive reinforcement (beep and then
food) was delivered at a pre-set delay. Each dog worked on one delay only (0s or 1s). The
behaviour was considered learned when performed 10 times in a row, with ≤ 5s between
responses. The 0s delay group comprised seven dogs: six learned the behaviour and one did
not. Five dogs were tested at 1s delay: two dogs learned and three did not; when these three
dogs were switched onto 0s delay, all learned. These results are preliminary, however, delays
of 1s prevented some (60%) dogs learning the task. This research reveals that timing of
reinforcement is an important variable in successful dog training.
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
Karen Buckley
PhD candidate, History, University of Waikato
I don’t care how many wickets Daniel Vettori has taken…or how to do sports media
history when you’re not a train-spotter
Sport is an inherently positivist, records-based social activity. Who ran, jumped, bowled or
kicked the best is central both to the competition, and the history of sporting events. Records of
points scored, distances covered, and winners and losers are stored and celebrated, and
sporting goals revolve around improvement and progress. Often, dissections of the
representation of sport in the media emphasize the number of articles, even ‘column inches’,
allocated to various competitions, particularly when they are based around thematic concerns
like gender and ethnicity. So, given my statistical analysis skills often fail to live up to
expectations, and that my interest in how sport has been portrayed in local newspapers does
not generally include how many points the first five scored on any given Saturday for the 1967
Waikato rugby team - or exactly how many reports of each game were published - how do I
produce a rich, robust and readworthy account of the history of the representation of sport in
the Waikato? How can some ‘actual’ information be included in the discourse analysis so that
‘sports history’ might be produced in ways that are mildly interesting and informative for those
of us who want to consider how (and perhaps why) such cultural constructions operate in our
communities?
Stephen Cantwell
PhD Candidate, Psychology, University of Waikato
Adolescent neurodevelopment: Implications for young drivers’ and the development of
novel intervention paradigms
Youth are predisposed to - and over-represented in - the number of serious vehicle crashes in
New Zealand, with this trend spanning the entire developed world. Given improved imaging
technologies, advances in contemporary neuroscience have unveiled fascinating discoveries
regarding neural maturation occurring throughout late adolescence. The development of these
critical brain regions may provide insight into the risk taking adolescents are prone to undertake.
While dangerous driving is one such disadvantageous behaviour, it may be one member
amongst a much broader ‘lifestyle of risk’ which encompasses drug and alcohol abuse, unsafe
sexual behaviour, delinquency and violence. However, despite all these legitimate areas of
concern, the World Health Organisation has identified vehicle crashes as being responsible for
more deaths annually for persons aged 15-25 then all of these other risky lifestyle factors
combined.
This presentation will focus on the essential process of neurological maturation during late
adolescence that culminates in a full repertoire of cognitive skills (executive functions) that
marks the transition to adulthood. Moreover, this presentation will illustrate how the gradual
development of ‘executive functions’ across adolescence may predispose them toward making
dangerous life choices, particularly emphasising dangerous driving behaviour; and how
strategic interventions might potentially assist emerging adult drivers.
Emalani Case
Vaʻaomanū Pasifika, Pacific Studies, Victoria University of Wellington
Mai Ka Mole Mai: From the source: Towards an analysis of Hawaiian literature
Following recent efforts in Hawaiian language revitalization, students and scholars are now
digging into Hawaiian language newspapers produced in the 19th and early 20th centuries,
thirsting for information from the past about the past. What this paper seeks to accomplish is to
propose a way in which scholars can approach an analysis of this rich literature to not only look
at the past but to also understand its present and future value. Specifically, this paper will
examine an account entitled, “No ka hiki mua ana mai o na Haole ma Hawaii nei,” or “The First
Arrival of Foreigners in Hawaii” by noted Hawaiian scholar, Samuel Mānaiakalani Kamakau,
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
and will present ideas regarding culturally appropriate methodologies in Hawaiian literature. As
the title indicates, it will begin “mai ka mole mai.” It will look first at oral traditions that became
the root of much of what was written in the 19th century. From there, it will look at how authors
of the time period built upon this literature and added new, complex layers of meaning to
ancient stories. Lastly, it will look at how we can begin to interact with this literature today and
use it to further understand ourselves.
Kate Clapham-Dorjee
BA(Hons), History, Massey University
‘Cultural Offerings’ – Public displays of Tibetan culture in New Zealand (Poster
presentation)
The Tibetan Diaspora began in 1959 with the flight from Tibet to India by Tenzin Gyatso, His
Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama as a result of continuing problems from Chinese
annexation in 1950. There are currently an estimated 130,000 Tibetans in exile. Organised
Tibetan migration to Europe and North America began slowly in the 1960s and there are
currently also many smaller populations in several countries including New Zealand. The first
Tibetan settled in New Zealand in 1967. Since then, more Tibetans have migrated to New
Zealand in small numbers to teach Buddhism, work as translators or attendants, or to join
partners and family.
Tibetans have always identified strongly with the geographic area they originated from, but in
exile new forms of identity consciousness have developed largely centred on culture. Despite
the small size of the Tibetan population in New Zealand there have been considerable ‘cultural
offerings’ assisted by the Tibetan community in recent years.
This poster examines mostly South Island examples of public displays of Tibetan culture in
New Zealand and posits that there is a distinct style to the culture that is offered that appears to
perpetuate Orientalist and romanticised views of Tibetans as the exotic, unchanging ‘Other’
Helen Clark
PhD candidate, Psychology, University of Waikato
Illusionary speed bias and railway crossing collisions
Collisions between motor vehicles and trains at railway level crossing junctions have been a
high-profile issue for many years in New Zealand and other countries. Errors made in judging a
train’s speed could possibly be attributed to motorists being unknowingly subjected to a sizespeed illusion. Leibowitz (1985) maintained that a large object seems to be moving slower than
a small object travelling at the same speed. Support has been provided for Leibowitz’s theory
from studies using simple shapes on a screen. However the reasons behind the size-speed
illusion remain unknown and there is no experimental evidence that it applies in the
approaching train situation. To investigate these issues we tested observers’ relative speed
estimation performance for a train and a car approaching at a range of speeds and distances,
in a simulated environment. A psychophysical method (2AFC) was used to establish the PSE
for the two different-sized vehicles. The data show that participants significantly underestimate
the speed of the train, compared to the car. A size-speed illusion seems to be operating in the
case of the approaching train in our simulation and may also be a factor in some railway level
crossing collisions.
Kathleen Doolan*, Lewis Bizo, James McEwan
PhD candidate, Psychology, University of Waikato
Reinforced variability and sequence learning across species
Previous research shows that reinforcement of variable responding will facilitate sequence
learning in rats (Neuringer, Deiss & Olson, 2000) but may interfere with sequence learning in
humans (Maes & van der Goot, 2006). The present study aimed to replicate and extend
previous research by assessing the role of behavioural variability in the learning of difficult
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
target sequences across 3 species: humans (n = 90), hens (n = 18) and possums (n = 5).
Participants were randomly allocated to one of three experimental conditions (Control, Variable,
Any). In the Control conditions sequences were only reinforced if they were the target
sequence, in the Variability conditions sequences were concurrently reinforced on a Variable
Interval 60-s schedule if the just entered sequence met a variability criterion, and in the Any
condition sequences were concurrently reinforced on a Variable Interval 60-s schedule for any
sequence entered. The results support previous findings with animals and humans; hens and
possums were more likely to learn the target sequence in the Variability condition, and human
participants were more likely to learn the target sequence in the Control condition. Possible
explanations for differences between the performance of humans and animals on this task will
be discussed.
Kim Anh Duong
PhD candidate, Women and Gender Studies, University of Waikato
A gender responsive and rights-based framework to evaluate anti-trafficking
intervention
Trafficking in persons (TIP) has become a globally prominent issue which has attracted the
attention of different countries worldwide because of its devastating consequences on human
beings. The Vietnamese National Action Program Against Trafficking in Women and Children
2004-2010 (the VNAP) was considered to be the state’s official commitment to fight against this
organized crime. Evaluating the VNAP and its impacts on target populations are the main
objectives of my qualitative doctoral thesis.
This paper is a part of my analysis chapters presenting gender evaluation of the VNAP using
both primary and secondary data. The evaluation examines the state’s efforts in promoting
women’s human rights and gender equality in the VNAP intervention using a Gender
Responsive and Rights-based Framework (GRRF). Four gender sensitive indicators are
employed, including participation, accountability, non-discrimination, and empowerment. The
results show that although the Vietnamese government has demonstrated a strong
commitment towards combating TIP, the anti-trafficking policy in Vietnam is still incompatible
with a gender and rights development practice. The VNAP has helped engender women’s
empowerment to reduce risks of being trafficked, but has not helped minimize gender inequality
and discrimination which are important causes of trafficking crime.
Simon Gray
Master of Arts, International Relations and Security Studies, University of Waikato
The rise and evolution of Boko Haram
The presentation examines the evolution of the “Islamist” extremist organisation “Boko Haram”.
The hypothesis is that Boko Haram has undergone three fundamentally different phases of
ideological and geopolitical evolution and represents a distinctly new phenomenon in the
context of Islamist organisations in Nigeria, one that manifests an unprecedented level of
political-violence and a new form of Islamist extremist ideology and geopolitical agenda. A
“contextualised” methodology is employed to examine the considered hypothesis which
articulates that Boko Haram first emerged as a “activist” Islamist movement in the early 2000s,
instigating riots and engaging in low-level forms of political-violence in an effort to implement a
puritanical version of Shari‘a Law (Islamic Law) in the northern states of Nigeria. By 2009,
however, Boko Haram adopted a “national” Islamist extremist ideology, one that justifies the
use of “militant terrorism” and further seeks to turn Nigeria into an ‘Islamic State’. The third and
current hypothesised phase of Boko Haram’s evolution is identified as beginning in 2011. Here
it is argued that while Boko Haram remains a national Islamist extremist organisation that is
fundamentally concerned with Nigeria and is operationally independent it has, however, taken
unprecedented steps – strategically and ideologically – towards integrating into a wider panIslamist extremist network in West Africa which has links to al-Qaeda.
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
Alexandra Horsley
Master of Arts, History, University of Waikato
‘Going forward together’?: The political and social issues of 1920s and ‘30s New Zealand
reflected in the fiction of Jean Devanny, John A. Lee and John Mulgan
Jean Devanny, John A. Lee, and John Mulgan all wrote novels set within a New Zealand
context during the late 1920s and 1930s. All three authors sought to bring about change in
New Zealand society through social criticism and a discussion of left wing politics in a form
more palatable to those not heavily versed in political debate. The narratives they construct
and the cultural symbolism they use reflect how some New Zealanders were thinking about and
reacting to social issues present in the country during this period. This paper offers a brief
introduction to my proposed study. Through analysis of these three authors’ New Zealand
novels I intend to shed further light on the nuances and complexities that made up life in New
Zealand during the 1920s and ‘30s. My study will attempt to examine the period in question
beyond the myth of national identity which has often been associated with it in the past and to
explore the ways New Zealanders understood the political debate present in society as well as
the social conditions which impacted upon and informed this discussion
Atsushi Iseki
PhD candidate, Religious Studies, Victoria University of Wellington
An outline of a Buddhist theory of causation
The nature of cause and effect is an important topic in a wide variety of human activities. I will
outline the theory of causation propounded by Dharmakīrti, a Buddhist thinker in the seventh
century. His theory has two layers – at the ordinary level, a causal relation is determined by a
set of observations, and at the micro level, it is reduced to the self-identity of momentary things
in continuous flux. I will illustrate how these two layers interact in Dharmakīrti’s discourse and
argue that, because of the flexible use of the two, his system has a versatile and
comprehensive character, and can answer a number of problems of causation. For example,
his system accommodates two meanings of ‘causal phenomenon’: the one is two or more
events occur in connection and the other is changes that occur in one single object. I will also
indicate similarities and differences between his system and some modern theories. I will
mention some of his controversial claims as well, such as his denial of the multiplicity of causes.
I will offer some possible reasons, if not justifications, for those claims.
Hollie Jackson
Master of Arts, Screen and Media Studies, University of Waikato
Eyewitness documentary: A case study of UGC surrounding the recent Christchurch
earthquakes.
Traditionally, documentary has been confined to a genre of film or television series; however,
new media and new technologies call for, not necessarily a new definition, but a new and
broader understanding of what the term ‘documentary’ can encompass.
Mobile technology and, in many cases, constant connectivity to the world wide web enables
potentially anyone to be an amateur filmmaker; capturing, editing, broadcasting and even
marketing this footage directly from their handheld device. During the recent series of
Christchurch earthquakes, eyewitnesses were able to capture and upload audiovisual content
to social media such as YouTube almost immediately; resulting in a deluge of raw, unedited
pieces of impromptu first-hand footage online.
This type of audio-visual, user generated content (UGC) tends to lack context, ultimately
becoming fragmented bits of material in a vast myriad of multimedia information. Although often
devoid of additional explanation, each piece created and contributed by users is a part of larger,
assemblage of content and information from multiple sources that forms an unstable and
chaotic “narrative” of these events.
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
This presentation will explore how this UGC works in conjunction with traditional and online
media to create a documentary “narrative” and the potential usefulness of YouTube as an
archive to recreate this assemblage.
Surrey Jackson*, Lewis Bizo, Mary Foster, James McEwan
PhD candidate, Psychology, University of Waikato
Motivating (establishing) operations and animal welfare
Manipulation of unconditioned Motivating Operations (MOs) such as pain, food and water
deprivation and the lowering of body weight can be potentially harmful and distressing to
animals. Past research that has manipulated such MOs in order to motivate animals to
respond for reinforcers is reviewed and directions for future research are discussed. The focus
is on the extent that potentially distressing MO’s need to be altered in order to change
motivation for reinforcers in animals. In addition research directions for investigating alternative
MOs that can motivate animals to respond for reinforcers are discussed.
Dong Liang Koay
School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Victoria University of Wellington
Interpersonal engagement in self-help books
Within the field of applied linguistics, there has been a noticeable interest in interpersonal
engagement between writers and readers in written texts. Hyland (2005) provides a systematic
model of interaction for investigating a writer’s stance and attempt to engage readers by
examining linguistic features including but not limited to hedges, boosters, attitude markers,
self-mention, reader pronouns, and directives. A review of the literature indicates that the
prevailing interest has been on the analysis of academic writing and business letters. By
contrast, I am examining how self-help authors and motivation gurus attempt to engage readers
in their books. In this paper, I focus on reader pronouns (e.g. you, your, yours, yourself). The
data come from a small corpus of self-help books that I am building. A word frequency list
generated by the concordancer software Antconc reveals a high frequency of reader pronouns
and I argue that this contributes to a conversational tone in this genre. My analysis shows that
reader pronouns tend to appear in clusters with consistent patterns. I explain how these
clusters of reader pronouns function, both at a macro and a micro level.
Helen Lavën
Master of Arts, English, University of Waikato
Detectives, doctors and degenerates: Sherlock Holmes meets Jack the Ripper
In 1876, the criminologist Cesare Lombroso argued that the criminal was an atavistic throwback,
a so-called “degenerate.” His theories gripped the popular imagination. Widespread anxiety
about the idea of criminal degeneracy was embodied in the great monster-myths of the age,
from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde to Jack the Ripper: influenced by
Stevenson’s story, reporters covering the notorious 1888 Whitechapel murders encouraged a
popular image of Jack the Ripper as a degenerate, predatory upper-class doctor. This terrifying
new species of criminal required a new kind of crime solver, definitively produced by Arthur
Conan Doyle in his “Sherlock Holmes” stories. Sherlock Holmes appears to offer an antidote to
the contagion of degeneracy, reflecting order and reason against the chaos, violence and
sexuality of the Whitechapel murders. If he represents a consoling doctor-figure for lateVictorian anxieties about criminality, however, he also embodies certain anxieties about
degeneracy infecting the middle classes and the medical profession. This paper will consider
the homeopathic nature of Holmes’s social marginality and ambiguous sexuality as one
response to the problem of the potentially degenerate doctor: a man of perverse genius who
knows perhaps too much about the shadowy underbelly of the respectable world.
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
Ben Lenzner
PhD Candidate, Screen and Media Studies, University of Waikato
Mobile phone video and social activism within the media ecology of New York City
The importance of mobile phone video technology was highlighted in September 2011, when
the Occupy Wall Street movement transformed Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan into a public
space for protest, community, and reflection on the economic disparity of the United States.
For much of the world, the occupation was seen through the lens of traditional media. However,
Occupy Wall Street was also characterized by a new form of representation captured through
the camera phone lenses of localized practitioners experimenting and rapidly realizing, often in
real time, the importance of mobile phone cameras to social activist movements. From
pedestrians and tourists capturing images throughout the city, to police watchtowers recording
video of high-risk neighborhoods, the documentation of public spaces in New York never
ceases. There is a distinct complexity to the media ecology of New York City. Nowhere is the
power of mobile video technologies more apparent than in their application within the sphere of
social activism. New York City offers an inventive gaze into the ways in which mobile phone
video technology is approached in practice. This paper will offer some initial findings of an
ongoing doctoral research project into emerging documentary video practices as they apply to
social activism in both New York City and the United States.
Steven Loveridge
PhD candidate, History, Victoria University of Wellington
‘Being truly British’: Anti-Germanism in New Zealand during the first World War as
mobilised anti-alienism
One of the prominent elements of the Great War was the intense elevation of the concept of
‘the enemy’ from a battlefield-centred notion to a social concept with powerful cultural
dimensions. Salient expressions of this phenomenon in New Zealand are witnessed in the
treatment directed against peoples and objects perceived as aligned with the Germanic enemy.
Such treatment, which included ostracism, internment, repressive legislation and violence, is
conventionally explained as driven by a wartime state or attributed to propaganda and/or
‘wartime hysteria’.
This paper attempts to account for wartime anti-Germanism beyond top-down explanations and
abnormal wartime circumstances. It argues that anti-Germanism can be read as an
intensification of pre-war anti-alienism and that wartime behaviours and ideologies reflect a
mobilisation of wider social forces and deeper cultural sentiments. Wartime behaviour is, it is
argued, an episode indicative of a longer trajectory within the New Zealand society under
investigation.
Debashish Mandal
PhD candidate, Management Systems, University of Waikato
Extending media richness theory to explain social media adoption by microbusinesses
This paper extends the use of the Media Richness Theory (MRT) to explain social media
adoption by microbusinesses. A canonical action research method is used to study social
media adoption in microbusiness, and a post positivist approach is used to report the results
based on a predetermined premise. It is found that in terms of richness, the social media
interface of facebook business page is considered richer than email in its capacity to express
by photos, transmit web links and interactivity is much greater than email. Owner
characteristics and codification effort dominated the use behavior leading to the owner’s
inability to take advantage of this rich media. This may have been due to an inherent limitation
of facebook media in its capability to reach the customers. The challenge for the owner is not to
merely use the social media interface as a deal information system for its customers (similar to
the email) but to devise methods on how the interactivity could generate engagement among its
customers. Such engagement could extend “customer caring” function to provide a platform for
customers to talk amongst themselves.
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
Sheena Moosa
PhD candidate, National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis, University of
Waikato
Recruiting research participants from isolated island communities: ‘Don’t shoot the
messenger!’
Research has to a large extent neglected hard-to reach and isolated population groups. This is
seen at both the global and country level where research is often conducted in large developed
countries, leaving gaps in the literature of developing small countries and rural or remote
communities. Constraints of finance, logistics and time are some of the reasons for this. This
paper puts forward a way to get in touch with such population groups and represent them in our
research.
The islands of Maldives are scattered across 900 sq. km of ocean with 70 percent of the
islands having a population less than 1,000, but recruiting older participants for research on the
wellbeing of people 65+ years was accomplished with modest resources using local contacts.
Potential participants were recruited by relying on ‘messengers’ who are locals who frequently
travel by boat from the remote island to the capital.
This ‘messenger’ method proved successful yielding a response rate of 90 percent from small
isolated communities. The only drawback of this method is that the ‘messenger’ has knowledge
of those participating in the survey. However, even without the use of a ‘messenger’, the
identity of the research participants is often common knowledge to all in small communities.
Teguh Wijaya Mulya
University of Surabaya, Indonesia
Peterporn phenomenon: Celebrities porn scandal, sexual attitudes, and sexual
behaviors among Indonesian youth
In June 2010, there was a remarkably popular case in Indonesia involving sexually explicit
videos of three famous celebrities (known as Peterporn phenomenon). Based on the 2008
Indonesian Anti-pornography Bill, these celebrities are considered to have been conducting
unlawful activities. The male actor was pronounced guilty and punished with three and a half
years in prison. The President of Indonesia, Minister of Communication and Information,
Minister of Education, academics, children rights activists, lawyers, and religious leaders
presented their opinions in the media. They were afraid that this case would popularize sexually
explicit material (SEM) consumption and negatively affect youth’s sexual attitudes and
behaviors. This study aims to examine empirical evidence regarding these opinions. As many
as 564 college students completed a questionnaire on SEM consumption including Peterporn
videos, sexual attitudes, and sexual behaviors. The result shows that 80.1% of respondents
have been exposed to SEM in general, and 63.8% have been exposed to Peterporn videos.
Among those who were exposed to Peterporn videos, 83.9% report that it was not their first
SEM consumption. However, respondents’ sexual attitudes and behaviors are relatively
conservative. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Sera Murugiah
PhD candidate, Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago
An exploration of social and drinking behaviours among first-year students at a New
Zealand university
Background: Research has indicated that the passage from high school to university is a
period of increased alcohol use and abuse (Fromme et al., 2008; La Brie et al., 2007). While
there is substantial literature on hazardous drinking among young New Zealanders, there is a
dearth of research on alcohol use during high school-to-university transition. It is also important
to note that previous studies were predominately conducted in the USA; hence, they may not
be relevant to New Zealand.
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
Method: Face-to-face interviews were used to investigate the influences of social and drinking
behaviours among first-year students at the University of Otago. The participants were
interviewed at two time points: beginning of semester one (n=47) and middle of semester two
(n=42) to examine their behaviours and patterns related to alcohol use.
Findings: Many students were drinking more and more frequently at university than they did
during high school. Amongst the factors that contributed to this escalation were peer influence,
living arrangement and social events. There were also some variations on how students from
different settings perceived as well as consumed alcohol.
Discussion: Still in progress
Thomas Nagy
PhD candidate, Religious Studies, Victoria University of Wellington
St. Thomas as devotee of Mother Mary: Ancient Syrian tradition in modern-day South
India
Unbeknownst to many in the Western Christian world, St. Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, is
highly venerated by Hindus, Muslims, and Christians in South India, especially at her shrine of
Our Lady of Health in the town of Vailankanni, Tamil Nadu. Additionally, in the city of Chennai,
Tamil Nadu’s capital, are three ancient shrines devoted to the missionary legacy of St. Thomas,
one of Jesus’s 12 Apostles. Due to St. Thomas’s deep connection with St. Mary, as preserved
in Syrian oral tradition, the St. Thomas sites of Chennai, under the auspices of the Roman
Catholic Church, are keeping these ancient traditions alive in a bid to rejuvenate St. Thomas’s
holy reputation in India. This presentation will argue that the Church in Chennai has attempted
to portray St. Thomas as a great devotee of St. Mary, and by this association help to stimulate
better local awareness of St. Thomas’s Indian missionary legacy, which is intrinsically tied to
ancient Syrian and South Indian tradition, as well as the longevity of his three sacred sites in
Chennai.
Gauri Nandedkar
PhD Candidate, Politics and Public Policy, University of Waikato
From gender empowerment to inequalities among adolescents: An emerging strategy
for Goal 3 in the post-2015 MDG agenda
In the UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2012 there are achievements to be recorded
from across the globe, including a reduction in extreme poverty and improvements in access to
safe water sources. This appears to be a clear indication of partnership among UNorganisations, governments and civil society organisations. While acknowledging the work
accomplished to date, the post-2015 development agenda needs to more strongly integrate a
segment of society which continues to face inequalities on multiple levels – adolescents. This
paper explores the implementation of Goal 3 - gender empowerment – and its implications for
adolescents and the wider community at the local level. As an example, a UNICEF-funded and
supported programme implemented in rural Maharashtra, India since 2008, is an education
project set up to draw on the strengths and energy of adolescent girls while equipping them
with tangible life-skills to make informed choices and effect change in their communities.
Drawing on recent fieldwork in rural Maharashtra, India, this paper identifies two gaps
contributing to inequality in opportunities for adolescents - programme focus and programme
implementation. To address these gaps, post-2015 initiatives in gender empowerment could
consider options supporting adolescent girls while recognising adolescent boys as a balance to
the overall well-being of rural villages thus beneficial for social structures and building stronger
links within the community.
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
Blair Nicholson
PhD candidate, History, University of Waikato
“Lasers flared and crisscrossed, and all of the teddy bears fell dead”: A literary and
cultural history of military science fiction
The academic study of science fiction (SF) – particularly of SF literature – has been increasing
substantially since the 1950 and 1960s. During this time there have been a number of good
surveys of the field, both of literary criticism and historical mapping. However, there has been a
notable absence within these works: an examination of ‘military science fiction’, a subgenre
which has become one of the dominant forms of SF literature.
This thesis will have several objectives: to define what is meant by terms such as ‘science
fiction’ and ‘military SF’; to survey the military SF texts (novels and short stories) that have
been published; to analyse the literary, social, cultural, technocultural and political contexts in
which they were produced; and, to investigate how the contexts of production and reception
affected the ideas, themes and attitudes portrayed in the literary works.
The focus will be on ‘key’ texts – such as Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, Jerry Pournelle’s
The Prince, Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, and John
Scalzi’s Old Man’s War – but the greatest range of sources possible will be examined and
contextualised. These texts/contexts will be considered utilising a methodology incorporating
both literary and historical theory and practice.
Amanda O’Connell
PhD candidate, Music, University of Waikato
The application of ICT in the NZ secondary music classroom: preliminary findings of a
longitudinal study
Technology integration and the effective use of technology in classrooms are enthusiastically
explored in many professional education forums today. It is no longer a question of ‘if’ but ‘how’
to best include educational technologies to improve and support learning outcomes for the
digital learners of the 21st century.
This presentation is a summary of a longitudinal qualitative study focusing on the application of
ICT tools in secondary music classrooms around New Zealand and describes the changes
which have occurred over a five year period.
The study explores how ICT tools are used by secondary school students and teachers in their
music programmes. Aspects such as teacher and student skills and perceptions, technical and
industry support, perceived difficulties and technology integration are explored.
The perspectives of thirteen teachers and industry experts have been collected through openended interviews. Participants completed a follow-up questionnaire with similar questions five
years later.
A thematic analysis was done on the initial interviews. The follow-up questionnaires were
analysed and from this analysis thematic networks were derived to present the outcomes of the
study.
This presentation brings the preliminary findings of the comparative analysis and suggests
further exploration of the topic focusing on the student’s point of view.
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
Derek Riley*, Michael O’Driscoll, Jarrod Haar
PhD candidate, Psychology, University of Waikato
Work and family interface: Wellbeing and the role of resilience and work-life balance
Wellbeing research has recently gathered impetus largely due to the emergence of positive
psychology. Researchers and practitioners are now exploring the science of positive subjective
experiences, traits, states, human strengths, and quality of life. The interface between work
and family has received little attention within positive psychology, and this study tests the
intervening effects of resilience and work-life balance between work-family conflict and
enrichment towards a broad range of psychological wellbeing outcomes with health
professionals.
This research involved a two-wave panel design with a 10-12 month time-lag. The Time 1
cross-sectional results provided evidence that resilience intervenes the relationship between
the work-family interface (work to family and family to work conflict and enrichment) towards
psychological wellbeing. However, at Time 2 the results were less frequent. In addition, at
Time 1, work-life balance intervened between the work-family interface and psychological
wellbeing and at Time 2 work-life balance intervened between work to family conflict (time and
strain) and psychological wellbeing. The longitudinal analyses confirmed that work-life balance
intervened between work to family conflict (time) with all psychological wellbeing variables,
whereas no longitudinal support was found for resilience.
This research confirmed the strength of conflict on employee wellbeing and that resilience and
work-life balance may provide mechanisms that may improve such wellbeing outcomes.
Larissa Schumacher
BA(Hons), English, University of Waikato
Unmasking the monster
The nineteenth-century Gothic monster often serves a moral function as it symbolizes the
feared and oppressed Other. This Other is seen as an outcast by “normal” society because
they represent the repressed fears or desires of that society. Gothic monsters could represent
the sexually-free Other, the racial Other, the aristocratic Other, or the “evil” Other within
ourselves. My discussion will focus on this representative function of the monster to argue that
they are not necessarily the most monstrous characters within a text, but that their “human”
doubles or society at large could in fact be the cause of otherness and monstrosity. This
monstrous doubling is seen in a large number of nineteenth century texts – such as: Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus (1818); Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights
(1847); Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847); Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr
Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886); and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) – all of which offer a unique
interpretation of the monster and his or her purpose.
Mortaza Shams
PHD Candidate, Religious Studies, University of Waikato
Suicide bombing and the Shi`a Islamic warfare law
In addition to using violence for fulfilling his natural needs, use of violence for religious
purposes has been a part of human’s belief in God or gods as well. While general humans’
violence towards each other is based on dominative or defensive purposes and therefore this
kind of violence could be limited to its goals, religiously motivated violence has a different
nature. Since targets of religious violence have become satanized, it would be difficult for
believers to compromise and co-exist with them in a peaceful way. Religious violence’s rewards
are transtemporal, its conclusions are not limited to lifetime of the participants and therefore its
time lines are vast and may take several generations to come to an end. And finally, due to
obeying a higher [divine] authority, it is more difficult to prevent or end religious violence by
man-made law.
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
Nowadays the contemporary world is witnessing extensive violence and it is believed that
religion is associated with many of these incidents. Among all types of violence, according to
the statistics, suicide bombing is mostly religiously motivated. We know that in some religions
including Islam, religious jurisprudence has a determinant role in shaping the practising
adherents’ behaviour, especially when it comes to use of violence. It is the jurisprudence that
decides who, how and why should be targeted for religious purposes. This paper, which is
derived from my PhD thesis, will discuss suicide bombing from a Shi`a Islamic Jurisprudential
perspective.
Brendan Sheridan
BA(Hons), English, University of Waikato
The fairest of them all: Generational conflict expressed in Walt Disney’s Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs
This presentation discusses the idea of the generational conflict centred around who is the
“fairest” between the Evil Queen and Snow White as it appears in Walt Disney’s Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Generational conflict is a core part of the literary fairy tale genre
and is especially noticeable in Snow White and all of its interpretations. The first part of this
presentation will explore how the conflict emerges and the meaning behind their conflict. The
second part will discuss the ideas set down by Maria Tatar and Marina Warner exploring the
roles of the protagonist and the antagonist of the story. The final part will discuss the resolution
of the conflict and compare it to the resolution in Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s own version. As
many of the early fairy tales are based on oral folktales there is no way to determine a
progenitor text. This is why I will compare the film with Grimm’s version as its source. The
conclusion will give the final points on this conflict and explain the necessity behind the
changes made by Disney to the resolution.
Garth Smith
Master of Arts, English, University of Waikato
Steampunk: The inner workings
The term ‘steampunk’ was coined by K. W. Jeter in a letter to Locus magazine in 1987. Jeter
asserted that the types of stories he, Tim Powers, and James Blaylock were writing were going
to be ‘the next big thing’. These stories were set in the past, usually in a Victorian setting, and
involved alternate histories, alternative technological progress and even magic. Since Jeter
coined the term, the steampunk genre has been defined, redefined, deconstructed and put
back together. The problem, now, is that there is no single, or core, definition that
encompasses all works of steampunk. To complicate matters further, steampunk has
transcended literature and become a culture, a philosophy and a lifestyle. So what, then, is
steampunk? Perhaps it never was a literary genre and that is why it was able to so quickly and
easily expand from literature into philosophy, culture and lifestyle. I will briefly explain the
history of steampunk in literature, and then move on to detail why I see steampunk not as a
literary genre, but as an aesthetic which can be taken in part, or as a whole, and applied to
various works to create a work of steampunk.
Samuel Speedy
PhD candidate, English, University of Waikato,
The doors of perception: Science and religion in the age of revolution
My research centres on the role of the limits of mind and language on religion.
One effect is the religious experience itself. Mind and language evolved to describe and
comprehend phenomena in a manner useful to a very limited environment. In order for
any description of a phenomenon to overwhelm the mind with awe, in order for it to be
‘mind-blowing’, it must be beyond what the mind has evolved to describe and comprehend;
if the mind has evolved to easily describe something, it is commonplace, even dull. This
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
can even create a perception that science, with its power to ‘reduce’ phenomena to the
readily describable, to that extent renders those phenomena commonplace and dull.
Another effect is a tendency to describe phenomena in terms of intentional agency and
design. The timescales that mind and language evolved to describe were timescales
during which the only novel phenomena that arose were those formed by human design
with intentional purpose. This, combined with the anti-Darwinian illusion – conjured by the
linguistic inevitability of words, labels and categories – that phenomena contain
unchanging Platonic ‘essences’, entail that mind and language find it innately difficult to
describe phenomena without design analogous to human design.
This thesis, with further details, will be demonstrated through language-analysis of the literature
of Thomas Paine, William Blake, and Charles Darwin.
Sangion Appiee Tiu
PhD candidate, Science and Technology Education Research Centre, University of Waikato
A study of indigenous perceptions of sustainability and traditional ecological knowledge:
Developing a policy framework for sustainability education in Papua New Guinea (Poster
presentation)
This poster presents an overview of my proposed study which intends to investigate indigenous
perceptions of the relationship between sustainability and traditional ecological knowledge
(TEK). It draws on the argument that sustainability principles are embedded in TEK and have
been utilised by indigenous people over many generations. These sustainability principles if
correctly identified and used can contribute to improving natural resource management of forest,
mountain, dryland and wetlands ecosystems in Papua New Guinea (PNG). However, wider
applications of such knowledge and practices require appropriate policies and guidelines and
education is seen as just the tool to serve this purpose. The study will use qualitative
methodologies through semi structured interviews and the data collected will be transcribed
and analysed. The findings will be used to develop a policy framework that can enable
communities to achieve environmental, social, cultural and economic sustainability.
Erin Upjohn-Beatson
Master of Music therapy, New Zealand School of Music
Group process in a music therapy session: Clues from group improvisations
Group process can be a powerful tool for therapeutic work with adolescents. However, in acute
psychiatric settings where patients come and go quickly, ‘single session’ music therapy groups
are common. While anecdotal evidence suggests that group process can be played out in, and
discerned through careful listening to the group’s music making, little is known about group
process within these single sessions of music therapy. This research sought to illuminate the
group process experienced within a single session of music therapy in an adolescent
psychiatric setting. Three group improvisations from a single session were recorded and
analysed using an adapted version of the Music Therapy Group Improvisation Analysis Model
(MTGI-AM). Aspects of a developmental group process were evidenced by this musical data: a
progression of moving from disconnection, to establishing common ground, developing musical
cohesion, then taking risks and negotiating closure, was identified. The group became more
autonomous and took more risks as musical and interpersonal cohesion was established.
Comparisons are made with theories of group process in longer term groups, and implications
for single-session groups are considered.
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts
Teswell White
PhD candidate, Human Development & Counselling, University of Waikato
Experiences of South African Boys in New Zealand: Exploring the interplay of
immigration, masculinity and schooling during adolescence
The issue of accommodating immigrant students into the New Zealand education system is a
foremost concern of this paper. The literature forcibly shows that immigrants are not a
homogeneous bloc and that their educational performance and school experiences differ
considerably. Because the educational attainment of all students, including immigrant youths, is
a major concern of current education policy, it is important to understand how immigrant youths
are adapting to their school experiences in changing social contexts. No contemporary host
country is going to escape the emerging challenges of integrating immigrant students into its
education system. The thrust of this paper is to provide an important view into the lived
experiences of South African males by taking into account the discursive practices that have
shaped their academic and social participation in New Zealand schools.
This study was a qualitative exploration of the interplay of immigration, masculinity and
schooling during adolescence. A Feminist social constructionist theoretical framework was
employed to explore how positions available to South African adolescent boys contributed to
the shaping of their subjectivities, and how the social constructions of school masculinities
informs the discourses of their high school experience, ways of representation and their
perceived school success and failure.
Jackie Yeoh
School of Linguistics and Applied Languages Studies, Victoria University of Wellington
“Please” in request emails in two contrasting workplaces
“Please” is frequently used to modify the force of the imposition when making a written request
in workplace settings. However, not much emphasis has been given to the analysis of the
modifier’s positional variations (initial, medial and final position). The purpose of the
presentation is to explore how the position of ‘please’ may be interpreted as influencing the
illocutionary force of requests made in written communication, focussing in particular on emails.
The study is based on the analysis of request emails collected from two contrasting workplaces:
one in New Zealand and the other in Malaysia.
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FASSGRAD 2012 Programme and Abstracts