Thesis--University of Pennsylvania. / Bibliography: p. 122-131.

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 542-567).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toledo, 2007. / Typescript. "Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters of Arts Degree in History." "A thesis entitled"--at head of title. Bibliography: leaves 141-153.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 267-310). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 267-310). Also available on the Internet.

The following study aims, through a narratological and discourse analysis, to discuss and make visable, how two films, both named The Birth of a Nation, directed by G.W. Griffith and Nate Parker respectively depict violence and sexuality in relation to race. The theoretical framework, consists of postcolonialism, race, violence, masculinity and sexuality. However, the different parts of the theoretical framework are intertwined as race, sexuality and violence are interlinked and dependent on each other. These theories were chosen in accordance to the feature films’ narratives as well as their relation to each other. The results of this study were mainly in line with previously conducted research regarding the films. However the analysis of Nate Parker’s production provided a more neuanced perspective regarding the depiction of the interlinked expressions of sexuality and racial hegemony mainly from whites. Both films use similar style figures regarding the depiciton of violence, hegemony and sexuality even though the style figures serve to portray, in Parker’s film – the whites, and in Griffith’s film – the blacks, as perpertrators. Finally, the study raises new questions for research. I claim that a larger study, containing the collected canon of feature films from 1915 until today would make for an enriched and more complete picture of how black slaves are depicted in feature films as well as how these films reflect their contemporary times.

Since at least the 1970s Australia has, as a nation, officially declared itself to be ‘multicultural’ and has adopted ‘multiculturalism’ as the approach to its increasingly culturally diverse population. Since then, multiculturalism in Australia, as elsewhere in the western world, has come under sustained critique by both those who think it has ‘gone too far’, and those who think it has ‘not gone far enough’. These critiques have left many wondering whether multiculturalism is still an appropriate and valuable response to cultural diversity for both governments/the state and the populations who contend with cultural diversity as part of their everyday lives. This study attempts to move beyond these critiques and proposes a local place-bound study as one way in which we might further our understandings of multiculturalism in the Australian context and capture some of the complexities elided by these nonetheless useful critiques. The study draws on both textual and ethnographic research material, and employs discursive and deconstructive techniques of analysis to achieve this. The population of the regional centre of Griffith in the Riverina region of New South Wales is culturally diverse. Griffith is located within Wiradjuri country and became home to large numbers of non-Indigenous people after the establishment of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Scheme in the 1910s. It continues to be a destination of choice for immigrants, largely because of the availability of work, particularly in agricultural and related industries. The study reveals that in Griffith multiculturalism is generated, negotiated and performed at the local level, in and through the everyday lives of local people, as much as it is through government intervention. It is part of the lived experience of people in culturally diverse Griffith. The kind of multiculturalism they live can be seen to be positive, pervasive and dynamic and it is something that is deemed to be of great value. They have embraced the idea of multiculturalism and of their community as multicultural to the extent that it is an important part of how they see themselves. While Australian Federal Government conceptions of multiculturalism clearly inform local discourses, with all the limitations this can bring, the conservative understandings articulated federally are made redundant by local manifestations of multiculturalism in Griffith, where there is a desire to both foster and further multiculturalism. The case of Griffith suggests that there is hope for multiculturalism and that multiculturalism can still inform an ethical mode of engagement for people from diverse cultural and ethnic traditions. Australia, however, also has an Indigenous past and present and this continues to pose the ultimate challenge to and for multiculturalism, including in Griffith. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study is motivated by the need to look continually for ways to improve Griffith University’s learning assistance services so that they meet the changing needs of stakeholders and are at the same time cost-effective and efficient. This study uses the conceptual tools of cultural-historical activity theory and expansive visibilisation to investigate the development and transformation of learning assistance services at Griffith University, one of Australia's largest multi-campus universities. Cultural-historical activity is a powerful theoretical framework that acknowledges the importance of dimensions such as cultural context, local setting, collective understanding, and the influence of historical variables on interactions in settings. Expansive visibilisation is a practical four-stage process that was used in this study to make visible and analysable the work context of the Learning Assistance Unit. The study uses these conceptual tools to illustrate how learning assistance services at the University have moved through several stages of historical development and that historical variables, such as the political setting and physical location of services continue to influence current work practices. The investigation involved gathering data through interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders in order to map the University's Learning Assistance Unit as an activity system that appears to have separated out from the overall activity system of the University. It involved making visible problems and tensions in the activity system, and identifying ways of improving future practice. The study reveals problem clusters and underlying tensions amongst the interacting activity systems of the Learning Assistance Unit, faculty, library and student. These problem clusters relate to different understandings about the purpose of the Learning Assistance Unit and the role of the learning adviser, the difficulties in offering a quality service on a restricted budget, and tensions between contextualised and de-contextualised learning assistance. The study suggests that resolving these tensions depends on staff taking an active role in critically examining their practice, in particular the way that they collaborate with key stakeholders in the learning environment. The dissertation concludes by suggesting that one way forward is to expand the activity system on its socio-spatial, temporal, moral-ideological, and systemic-developmental dimensions (Engeström, 1999c).

Thesis (D.Phil.)--University of Oxford, 2008. / Supervisor: Dr Ros Ballaster. Bibliography: leaves 281-290.

This thesis provides a reinterpretation of J.A.G. Griffith’s lecture ‘The Political Constitution’—a reinterpretation that stresses the commitment Griffith expressed in that lecture to the normative dimension of legal positivism. I call this normative dimension ‘normative positivism’. Identifying Griffith as a normative positivist serves to clarify a number of debates surrounding Griffith’s arguments in ‘The Political Constitution’ and serves to clarify our understanding of the concept that has come to be known in UK public law scholarship in recent years as ‘political constitutionalism’, of which Griffith is regarded as a leading exemplar. The thesis argues that Griffith’s political constitutionalism is best understood as a form of normative positivism and is very different from some more recent defences of political constitutionalism available in the scholarly literature. The thesis also considers how the big constitutional questions of the age in the UK—questions relating, for example, to bills of rights and devolution—play out in the light of our discovery and appreciation of Griffith’s normative positivism.