Here is a list of our previous students and their theses topics, with the titles of the topics linking to the digital copies of the theses in the Otago University Research Archive.
2019
Cultivating Place and Space: Seamus Heaney's Landscape Poetics
Leila Crawford – PhD
Reading and Writing the Past: Walter Scott's Historical Fiction
Josef Olson – PhD
Josef Alton Olson was a PhD candidate in the Scottish Studies and English programmes, under the supervision of Professor Liam McIlvanney and Professor Barbara Brookes. Josef received his Masters in Modern Irish History from Trinity College Dublin. His academic pursuits have lured him away from History and Ireland to the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott. His thesis combines a critical and creative component. In the first, he identifies and analyses the key recurring narrative devices in Scott's Scottish fiction. In the second, Josef adopts several of Scott's overarching and organising principles of narrative to construct his own historical crime novel. He hopes to develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between Scottish Literature and History through this multidisciplinary approach.
Irish Science Fiction: A cultural and comparative study
James McCulloch – MA
Starving for Freedom: Irish Hunger Strikes (1916-1981)
Jared Smith – MA
Jared Smith's coursework master's dissertation examined hunger strikes as a tool for political protest between 1916 and 1981. He explored possible historical resonances with the Irish famines of the 17th and 18th centuries to learn more about why this means of protest was both “divisive and effective”.
The reception of Sean O'Casey's early works in New Zealand (1924-47)
Iain Sutherland – MA
Iain Sutherland says his master's thesis explores the New Zealand reception of Irish playwright Sean O'Casey's early plays during the inter-war period. For much of the time O'Casey was labelled “British”, a label that nullified the working-class, socialist and distinctly Irish themes of his plays.
2017
The Songs of Fionn mac Cumhaill: An Historical and Musicological Analysis of Indo-European Musical Poetics in Ireland, Scotland and Nova Scotia
Aindrias Hirt – PhD
Esprit de corps[e]: Joyce, Ulysses, and the Body
Jared Lesser – PhD
2016
Bloom's Situated Mind in James Joyce's Ulysses: Decoding Character in a Social Storyworld
Kerri Haggart – PhD
2015
'Neither here nor there, and therefore home': A Poetics of Migration in Contemporary Irish Poetry
Ailbhe McDaid – PhD
2014
Lost Tailings: Gold Rush Societies and Cultures in Colonial Otago, New Zealand, 1861-1911
Daniel Davy – PhD
Piobaireachd in New Zealand: Culture, Authenticity and Localisation
Daniel Milosavljevic – PhD
Daniel Milosavljevic is an ethnomusicologist whose recently completed MA thesis entitled 'Finding New Zealand in Pipe Bands' investigated the presentation of cultural identities at the 2008 Royal New Zealand Pipe Band Championships. Daniel's PhD thesis was co-supervised by Professor Henry Johnson (Music) and Professor Liam McIlvanney. Daniel's research focussed around the concept of whether there is a New Zealand tradition of piobaireachd performance. Piobaireachd (pee-brock) is considered the classical music of the Scottish Highland bagpipes, and is a style of music learnt only by serious and advanced solo pipers. These pipers continue an ancient lineage of performance tradition, which dates back to 15th century Gaelic Scotland, if not earlier. Certain New Zealand performers are considered a part of this lineage, and some of the best piobaireachd players in the world have hailed from New Zealand's piping culture. Daniel is a current registered A Grade piper and judge, and he has competed against some of the world's best solo pipers.
Redress as a Construct in Seamus Heaney's Poetry and Prose
Ruth Macklin – MA
2013
The Ladies' Pipe Band Diaspora: Bands, Bonnie Lassies and Scottish Associational Culture, 1918-2012
Erin C. M. Grant – PhD
Erin Grant, who joined us from the University of Guelph, Canada, investigates the global community that has been cultivated by the competitive culture of the Great Highland Bagpipe in the form of pipe bands throughout the twentieth century. The development of instant communication and convenient methods of travel throughout this time period has had significant effects on the identity of what has been historically defined as the 'local band'. As an amateur professional piper herself, Erin seeks to focus on questions of how national identity is perceived and cultivated in transplanted communities such as New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United States by using pipe bands as a case study. Erin is particularly struck by the large number of pipe bands in New Zealand as compared with Canada especially in the top levels of competition when considering the large difference in demographics.