Disputing National Histories: Some Recent Australian Debates

National history seems to be a form of history marked by a particularly strong relation between past and present. In the last few decades, the most serious historiographical conflicts, and the ones which have attracted public as well as scholarly attention, have tended to be those where national honour was felt to be at stake. Very often they have concerned either the foundation of the nation, or the national role in war, and sometimes both; think of the example of Japan, Israel, the United States, and Australia, to name just a few. These debates have attracted particular heat because history was seen to have implications not only for specialist historians but also for the morality and future of the nation

Towards a Rhetorical Ethos: Refractions of Classical Rhetoric in Literary, Cultural, and Political Theory

In this thesis I attempt to facilitate a fluid conversation between the ‘rhetorical turn’ in literary and critical theory, and the burgeoning historical interest in rhetoric in fields such as Classical and Renaissance intellectual history. I take issue with those empirical histories of rhetoric that tend to rehearse a canon of programmatic treatises from Aristotle to Cicero and Quintilian, identifying the historical significance of rhetorical practice with the explicit statements of its canonical authors. I argue, rather, that the historiography of rhetoric requires a genealogy from the perspective of its influence on the present and the complex sensibility and multiple orientations it has inspired in its adherents. Evoking critics, philosophers, and political theorists such as Jena Romantics, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Hannah Arendt as case studies, I argue that the public orientation of the rhetorical tradition has survived in the ambivalent conceptual persona of the orator or rhetor, inspiring a model of the intellectual as possessing a complex ethos and eclectic cultural competence. I argue that in the discourse of these theorists of modernity, the rhetor as communicator survives as a paradoxical possibility, an ethic of civic engagement and social intervention and a solitary, ‘untimely’ and transcendent figure beholden to no ideological standard or normative cultural code

‘“problem” children of this community’: Christ Church St Laurence and the Children’s Court, Sydney, 1936-41

This article seeks to explore the experiences of those boys who, in late 1930s/ early 1940s Sydney, were considered, by the courts and the churches, amongst others, to be 'the "problem" children of this community'. The sources for this exploration are the records of the Metropolitan Children's Court, Surry Hills and the Christ Church St Laurence Boys' Welfare Bureau. Children's courts were established in New South Wales in 1905. From 1934 onwards all metropolitan cases were heard at Surry Hills. The Boys' Welfare Bureau was established in April 1936 by Christ Church St Laurence, an Anglican church situated near Central Railway Station, Sydney. The records of the Bureau and the Court provide insights into the ways in which both religion and the law attempted to shape the lived experience of these boys, in inner city Sydney, within the context of current ideas about juvenile delinquency and its treatment

White, British, and European: historicising identity in settler societies

Tese de doutoramento em Arqueologia, apresentada ao Departamento de História, Estudos Europeus, Arqueologia e artes da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de CoimbraA presente dissertação incide sobre o núcleo de intervenções arqueológicas que de forma, mais ou menos, continuada se têm vindo a realizar desde a década de 1930 no Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro, local outrora ocupado pelo fórum da cidade romana de Aeminium e, posteriormente, pelo paço episcopal de Coimbra. Do conjunto destas campanhas arqueológicas, sobretudo das realizadas nos últimos anos (2006-2008), resultou um manancial informativo singular assente num extenso repertório de registo estratigráfico (a carecer de revisão) e no volume do espólio recolhido (principalmente cerâmico) que se encontrava na generalidade por estudar. O trabalho que se apresenta surgiu assim em resposta a estas lacunas de investigação, sentidas sobretudo ao nível da cultura material e da ausência de um estudo de síntese da história do monumento. Um trabalho que, combinando o universo dos dados arqueológicos reunidos ao longo das diversas intervenções aqui realizadas colige, fundamentando, o estado actual do conhecimento acerca da transformação orgânica deste conjunto patrimonial, desde a instalação do fórum romano de Aeminium até ao paço episcopal de finais do século XVI. Pela sua extensão (quantitativa e cronológica) e virtualidade, a cerâmica foi considerada neste estudo como o primordial documento arqueológico, impulsionando a recuperação de aspectos relativos à ocupação deste espaço e colmatando, simultaneamente, assinaláveis hiatos no quadro histórico da cidade de Coimbra. Os contextos de proveniência do espólio apresentam-se maioritariamente selados e seguramente datados, testemunhando a ocupação contínua deste espaço na longa diacronia que vai do século I ao século XVII. Da fusão e consentânea revisão de todas estas distintas plataformas de análise, que se convencionou designar como ensaio de arqueologia urbana, puderam-se esclarecer problemas pontuais que o edifício ainda colocava e sustentar as propostas de reconstituição arquitectónicas já anteriormente enunciadas. Mais uma vez se conclui que este documento histórico, vivo e vivido ininterruptamente durante os últimos dois milénios e onde o passado se encontra presente através dos seus volumes sobrepostos, apesar de feito, desfeito e refeito ao longo deste arco cronológico nunca deixou de se acomodar à sua raiz primordial – o criptopórtico de Aeminium.This dissertation focuses on the group of archaeological interventions that were carried out, more or less continuously, since the 30’s at the National Museum Machado de Castro. This site was once occupied by the forum of the Roman city of Aeminium and subsequently by the Episcopal Palace of Coimbra. The archaeological interventions, especially those carried out in recent years (2006-2008), provided a unique source of information based on extensive stratigraphic records (in need of revision) and on the collection of a high volume of archaeological remains (particularly pottery) which remained greatly unstudied. The work here presented emerged in answer to those research gaps, mostly concerning the material culture and the absence of a synthesis about the monument’s overall history. Therefore, the study combines the universe of archaeological data (gathered over several interventions at the site) compiling and justifying the current state of knowledge about the organic transformation of this heritage complex since the installation of the Roman forum of Aeminium to the Episcopal Palace at the end of the 16th century. In this study pottery was considered the main archaeological evidence due to its extent (in quantity and chronology) and potential. It boosted the recovery of information concerning this site’s occupation and, simultaneously, it bridged important gaps in the historical framework known for the city of Coimbra. The finding contexts of the archaeological remains are mostly sealed and safely dated, testifying the continuous occupation of this space in the long diachrony that goes from the 1st to the 17th centuries. The fusion and coherent review of all these analytical platforms (in what is conventionally called an urban archaeology essay) allowed to solve specific questions still posed by the building and to support the reconstitution proposals previously stated. Once again it is concluded that this historical monument (alive and lived continuously during the last two millennia and where the past is present through its overlapping volumes) despite being made, unmade and remade throughout this time span, never stopped being adjusted to its primary root – the cryptoporticus of Aeminium.FCT - SFRH/BD/68343/2010/J006026902

Seasonal regulation of melanogenesis in ptarmigan

Ptarmigan are one of the few animals, and only bird species, to undergo seasonal colour change. Every year they moult between a white winter morph and brown summer and autumn morphs and back again. Skin samples were collected from Lagopus muta and Lagopus lagopus during the autumn moult between brown and white morphs to compare areas with brown feathers and areas that had grown white feathers. The relative gene expression for selected key genes of melanogenesis was then calculated through qPCR. The genes tested were POMC, PC1, PC2, ASIP, MC1R, TYR, TYRP1 & DCT. Most did not show any significant difference between the two sample groups in either species, except TYRP1 which had significantly lower expression in the white samples for Lagopus muta. The promoter regions of the above genes and CORIN, CREB1, MITF, OCA2, SLC7A11, SLC45A2 & TBX19 were compared using EMBOSS polydot and CiiiDER workflow. These comparisons looked at the Transcription Factor Binding Sites (TFBS) in seven galliform species: the three Lagopus species (L. muta, L. lagopus and L. leucura) and L. l. scoticus as well as Gallus gallus, Coturnix japonica & Centrocercus urophasianus. There were several differences between the promoter regions, the most common was a missing TFBS for Pax2 in several genes in L. l. scoticus. None of the TFBS differences have been directly linked to melanogenesis of follicle cycling in other research. The results of these studies do not suggest seasonal differences in the expression of the first eight genes but the differences in the promoter regions do suggest that the several of the genes could have different regulation methods. This comparison of promoter regions creates a starting point for future promoter analysis and further research on seasonal regulation of melanogenesis in ptarmigan

Identifying the Effect of Unemployment on Hate Crime

Hate crimes are those crimes that are motivated by bias against groups different from the perpetrator. They are especially contemptible offenses in that they, like terrorism, negatively impact an entire community as well as the victim targeted. While crime has been, and will continue to be, widely studied by economists, the specific area of hate crimes is relatively understudied. To contribute to the understanding of hate crimes, this paper examines whether hate crimes are economically motivated: in particular, whether there is a relationship between the incidence of hate crimes and the unemployment. Comprehending this link can help build the knowledge necessary to understand the motivations of hate crimes necessary to craft policy and design strategies to prevent and disincentivize hate crime in the future. I primarily make us of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports data on hate crime to estimate the effect of unemployment on hate crime across states. I find a statistically significant positive effect of unemployment on violent hate crimes in a inverted parabola shape suggesting that, for the relevant unemployment levels, low levels and high levels of unemployment correlating with low violent hate crime and medium levels of unemployment correlating with high violent hate crime. I also find a small statistically insignificant positive effect of unemployment on property hate crime that takes an inverted parabolic shape very similar to that of unemployment’s effect on violent hate crime

Towards a Rhetorical Ethos: Refractions of Classical Rhetoric in Literary, Cultural, and Political Theory

In this thesis I attempt to facilitate a fluid conversation between the ‘rhetorical turn’ in literary and critical theory, and the burgeoning historical interest in rhetoric in fields such as Classical and Renaissance intellectual history. I take issue with those empirical histories of rhetoric that tend to rehearse a canon of programmatic treatises from Aristotle to Cicero and Quintilian, identifying the historical significance of rhetorical practice with the explicit statements of its canonical authors. I argue, rather, that the historiography of rhetoric requires a genealogy from the perspective of its influence on the present and the complex sensibility and multiple orientations it has inspired in its adherents. Evoking critics, philosophers, and political theorists such as Jena Romantics, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Hannah Arendt as case studies, I argue that the public orientation of the rhetorical tradition has survived in the ambivalent conceptual persona of the orator or rhetor, inspiring a model of the intellectual as possessing a complex ethos and eclectic cultural competence. I argue that in the discourse of these theorists of modernity, the rhetor as communicator survives as a paradoxical possibility, an ethic of civic engagement and social intervention and a solitary, ‘untimely’ and transcendent figure beholden to no ideological standard or normative cultural code