In 2003 a panic was created about the introduction of a new model of sex education in South Australia known as the Sexual Health and Relationships Education (SHARE) project. This thesis explores the particular circumstances and conditions that enabled the SHARE project to emerge as a public problem in South Australia in 2003. It does this through analyzing the similarities and differences between the campaign against SHARE and others that have taken place against sex education in Australia and the US since the 1980s in terms of the organisations involved, the strategies used and the fears/moral panics invoked and evoked. I use the controversy created against the SHARE project as a starting point, not only to produce an historical account of a particular event in sex education in Australia but also to contribute to an understanding of the power dynamics that govern sexuality locally and in a broader global context. The methodological approach used in this thesis includes an analysis of ‘local discursivities’ relating to the SHARE project and the genealogy of those discourses. Following Foucault and queer and feminist applications of his work, the thesis particularly explores how discourses relating to ‘homosexuality’ and ‘child abuse’ were deployed in the campaign against the SHARE project. The thesis then identifies alternative discourses and approaches that can strengthen sex education programs in Australia based on the lessons learnt from the campaign against the SHARE project. To assist my analysis of the controversy about the SHARE project interviews were conducted with other educators who have produced sex education resources in Australia. These revealed that while there has been some opposition to sex education in Australia over the last 20 years this has not been well organised or sustained. The campaign against the SHARE project therefore represents a unique event in the history of sex education in Australia. The thesis argues that one major contributing factor to this event is the strengthening of the relationship between conservative political parties and evangelical activist groups in Australia and their use of tactics and materials developed by Christian Right groups in the United States. The thesis analyses the implications of this religious activism within the context of current Australian politics and assesses whether the ‘family values’ discourse, which was central to the controversy created about the SHARE project, is positioned any differently as a result of the recent changes in political leadership in Australia and the United States. / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2010

Despite its chequered interpretational history, the book of Shîr ha-Shîrîm (Song of Songs) in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament has still not come to its fullest religious potential. The reason is that it has mainly served relatively closed religious traditions defined by the exclusion of those that have reacted against it. As the text of Song of Songs itself does not explicitly testify to any religiosity, these communities have understood it religiously by projecting their own predetermined needs and beliefs onto it. The text does, however, suggest several layers in the history of its formation, representing different levels of consciousness and stages of religiosity. In the postmodern globalising context where the importance of interfaith understanding is increasingly realised and the nature of human religiosity is constantly redefined in terms of ever-broadening horizons, the religiosity of the book has been stretched as wide as possible by also taking into consideration the ancient contextual influences which could have left their traces on the unconscious mind of its author(s) and redactor(s). To this end, the transpersonal psychological theory of Kenneth Wilber as interpreted by Michael Washburn has been used. Wilber’s inclusive view of religiosity respects all its forms as developmentally appropriate expressions of experiences of the divine which should all be taken seriously. The explicit “absence” of the divine in Song of Songs has been so conspicuous that it has ironically made it more present and led to a greater search for the Ineffable whose whispering and footprints are discernible in relation to the level of consciousness. Exploring the religiosity of Song of Songs in this way then becomes an exercise in being more sensitive to the presence of the divine in all other areas of life as well. Traditional polarities such as sexuality and religiosity are dissolved at the same time and proven to coincide as two aspects of the same experience. Not only does erotic love open one’s eyes to the divine in nature as the body of God, but one also encounters the divine in the body. / Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies / D. Th. (Old Testament)

With more than 75% of its population experiencing poverty, Zimbabwe was in 2012 considered one of the world's poorest countries. The country sits at the centre of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and remains one of the hardest hit countries accounting for 5% of all new infections in sub-Saharan Africa. Zimbabwe's 15% HIV prevalence rate was 19 times the global average by 2012, and the total years of life lost due to premature mortality increased by over 150% between 1990 and 2010 because of HIV/AIDS. This study draws on notions of 'governmentality' to ask how the 'framing' of the value of PLWHA has influenced their treatment by the Zimbabwean government and society. Four questions are posed: first the study asks, in what ways do health policy decision-makers in Zimbabwe frame the value of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)? Secondly, the study questions the ways in which people not infected by HIV (Non-PLWHA) frame the value of PLWHA. Thirdly, the study turns to PLWHA and asks how they frame their own value. Finally, the study investigates the implications of valuing PLWHA, for their lives, or conversely, their deaths. The study draws upon primary research undertaken through interviews, focus group discussions, observations and document review. While there are some contradictions within and between groups of study participants in the ways they frame the value of PLWHA; the study finds consensus within and between these groups in the manner in which they tend to value PLWHA. Analysing these findings, there are five ways people in Zimbabwe frame the value of PLWHA. Firstly, from a 'citizen' perspective, PLWHA are both legal and political citizens who can identify as equal members of society like other citizens. They have social rights; participate, belong and can access HIV treatment that can reduce risks of death. Secondly, from a 'client' standpoint; PLWHA are customers, gaining access to health services through individual monetary payments or social payments such as Government budget allocations. This introduces a degree of 'rationing', forcing the clients (PLWHA) to behave in ways that increase their chances of receiving services. Those with lower purchasing power struggle to access expensive life-saving anti-retrovirals, thus individual wealth confers value on the lives of the wealthy. Thirdly, framing from a Statistical Representation perspective - through statistics, PLWHA can be used as a means of bargaining for government to gain access to international funding, to increase the chances of survival for PLWHA by bringing services such as antiretroviral therapy (ART). Fourthly, the 'Expendable populations' perspective views subgroups of PLWHA who fail to adhere to norms of behaviour prescribed by the government, including those unable to purchase services, such as the poor and homosexuals, sex workers and prisoners, as populations that may be allowed to die. Finally, the study shows that PLWHA lament the discursive space of technocrats with a counter-narrative of their value in which they emerge not as expendable victims but as victors reframed as an indefatigable population - 'Resiliencers'. PLWHA create a narrative of disobedient materiality, challenging totalising notions of governmentality. This study concludes by considering the relevance in the Zimbabwean context of the concept of 'Allowable Death' as a premature, avoidable death despite consciously crafted narratives that the death happened because nothing could have been done under the prevailing conditions to prevent it.

Despite its chequered interpretational history, the book of Shîr ha-Shîrîm (Song of Songs) in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament has still not come to its fullest religious potential. The reason is that it has mainly served relatively closed religious traditions defined by the exclusion of those that have reacted against it. As the text of Song of Songs itself does not explicitly testify to any religiosity, these communities have understood it religiously by projecting their own predetermined needs and beliefs onto it. The text does, however, suggest several layers in the history of its formation, representing different levels of consciousness and stages of religiosity. In the postmodern globalising context where the importance of interfaith understanding is increasingly realised and the nature of human religiosity is constantly redefined in terms of ever-broadening horizons, the religiosity of the book has been stretched as wide as possible by also taking into consideration the ancient contextual influences which could have left their traces on the unconscious mind of its author(s) and redactor(s). To this end, the transpersonal psychological theory of Kenneth Wilber as interpreted by Michael Washburn has been used. Wilber’s inclusive view of religiosity respects all its forms as developmentally appropriate expressions of experiences of the divine which should all be taken seriously. The explicit “absence” of the divine in Song of Songs has been so conspicuous that it has ironically made it more present and led to a greater search for the Ineffable whose whispering and footprints are discernible in relation to the level of consciousness. Exploring the religiosity of Song of Songs in this way then becomes an exercise in being more sensitive to the presence of the divine in all other areas of life as well. Traditional polarities such as sexuality and religiosity are dissolved at the same time and proven to coincide as two aspects of the same experience. Not only does erotic love open one’s eyes to the divine in nature as the body of God, but one also encounters the divine in the body. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Th. (Old Testament)