Gendering the Republic and the Nation: Political Poster Art of the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

The Spanish Civil War is typically presented as a military narrative of the ideological battle between socialism and fascism, foreshadowing World War II. Yet the Spanish war continued trends begun during World War I, notably the use of propaganda posters and the movement of women into visible roles within the public sphere. Employing cultural studies methods to read propaganda poster art from the Spanish war as texts, this thesis analyzes the ways in which this persuasive medium represented extremes of gender discourse within the context of letters, memoirs, and other experiential accounts. This thesis analyzes symbols present in propaganda art and considers how their meanings interacted with the changing gendered identities of Republic and nation. Even within the relatively egalitarian Republic, political factions constructed conflicting representations of femininity in propaganda art, and women’s accounts indicate that despite ideological differences, both sides still shared a patriarchal worldview

Supporting the education and wellbeing of children looked-after: what is the role of the virtual school?

The Children and Families Act (2014) placed a statutory responsibility on local authorities in the United Kingdom to establish a Virtual School Headteacher with the role of championing the education of all children looked-after within that authority. The current research was designed to illuminate how Virtual Schools are currently supporting educational outcomes for children looked-after, not only through educational interventions, but also through supporting broader psychological factors that might impact on attainment such as attachment, relationships and mental health. Virtual School Head Teachers from 29 local authorities completed an online survey about the services they provided to three target groups – children looked-after, foster carers and schools – with a particular focus on the transition years from primary to secondary school, which have been identified as being a difficult time for children looked-after. Using inductive thematic analysis four overarching themes to service provision were identified: Enhanced learning opportunities; Specific Transition Support; Wellbeing and Relationships, and Raising Awareness. Direct work, interprofessional working and the development of supportive environments, particularly guided by attachment theory, were identified as important areas of practice. Practice is discussed in relation to resilience and ecological systems theory and suggestions for future research are identified

Catalan Modernism in Fin-de-Siècle Spain: Culture and Medicine

The Spanish empire lost the last of its global colonies in 1898, prompting a variety of responses on the peninsula. Perhaps the most recognizable of these is the literary movement of the Generation of 1898, which regarded the military loss as a disaster. A different reaction came from the intellectual, artistic, and industrial elites who shaped Catalan Modernism, a cultural and political movement that challenged assumptions of Spanish disaster, crisis, or backwardness. Taking the form of a prosopography, this dissertation examines a cohort of Catalan elites who were active in cultural, economic, social, political, and intellectual life in fin-de-siècle Barcelona and Madrid. The figures moved between circles, connecting liberal politics with medical science, or visual culture with the ascendant class of industrial entrepreneurs. This study situates Catalan Modernism separately from Castilian Spanish intellectual and cultural movements through analysis of works from the Renaixença and the Generation of 1898. Visual art, literary magazines, memoirs, and treatises on urbanization, architecture, and medicine reveal an elite Catalan culture that celebrated non-Castilian achievements rather than lamenting the loss of empire. Catalan Modernism expressed a desire to boldly face the post-colonial future. However, it gained much of its confidence and strength from nostalgic reflection upon its own medieval past. Events like the Exposición Universal of 1888 in Barcelona revealed the Catalan desire for economic prosperity and modernity, featuring the urbanization efforts of Ildefons Cerdà and the architecture of Lluís Domènech i Montaner. Yet, these men both aimed to revive something of the Catalan past through their work. Domènech’s projects improved public and private spaces, including the Institut Pere Mata, a mental hospital established by proponents of asylum reform advocated by its namesake, physician Pere Mata i Fontanet. Both Mata and Santiago Ramon y Cajal studied the brain, arriving at different conclusions regarding the mind, the role of physiology, and free will within the emerging fields of psychiatry and neuroscience. Their writings contemplated the implications of liberal governance and the nature of the modern self, their pioneering works fueled by the unstable Spanish political climate in which they were conceived