Introducing Mr Perky : subverting the fantasy trope of immortality in contemporary speculative fiction

The Tide Lords series of fantasy novels set out to examine the issue of immortality. Its purpose was to look at the desirability of immortality, specifically why people actively seek it. It was meant to examine the practicality of immortality, specifically — having got there, what does one do to pass the time with eternity to fill? I also wished to examine the notion of true immortality — immortals who could not be killed. What I did not anticipate when embarking upon this series, and what did not become apparent until after the series had been sold to two major publishing houses in Australia and the US, was the strength of the immortality tropes. This series was intended to fly in the face of these tropes, but confronted with the reality of such a work, the Australian publishers baulked at the ideas presented, requesting the series be re-written with the tropes taken into consideration. They wanted immortals who could die, mortals who wanted to be immortal. And a hero with a sense of humour. This exegesis aims to explore where these tropes originated. It will also discuss the ways I negotiated a way around the tropes, and was eventually able to please the publishers by appearing to adhere to the tropes, while still staying true to the story I wanted to tell. As such, this discussion is, in part, an analysis of how an author negotiates the tensions around writing within a genre while trying to innovate within it.

A model of teacher professional development based on the principles of lesson study

The researcher’s professional role as an Education Officer was the impetus for this study. Designing and implementing professional development activities is a significant component of the researcher’s position description and as a result of reflection and feedback from participants and colleagues, the creation of a more effective model of professional development became the focus for this study. Few studies have examined all three links between the purposes of professional development that is, increasing teacher knowledge, improving teacher practice, and improving student outcomes. This study is significant in that it investigates the nature of the growth of teachers who participated in a model of professional development which was based upon the principles of Lesson Study. The research provides qualitative and empirical data to establish some links between teacher knowledge, teacher practice, and student learning outcomes. Teacher knowledge in this study refers to mathematics content knowledge as well as pedagogical-content knowledge. The outcomes for students include achievement outcomes, attitudinal outcomes, and behavioural outcomes. As the study was conducted at one school-site, existence proof research was the focus of the methodology and data collection. Developing over the 2007 school year, with five teacher-participants and approximately 160 students from Year Levels 6 to 9, the Lesson Study-principled model of professional development provided the teacher-participants with on-site, on-going, and reflective learning based on their classroom environment. The focus area for the professional development was strategising the engagement with and solution of worded mathematics problems. A design experiment was used to develop the professional development as an intervention of prevailing teacher practice for which data were collected prior to and after the period of intervention. A model of teacher change was developed as an underpinning framework for the development of the study, and was useful in making decisions about data collection and analyses. Data sources consisted of questionnaires, pre-tests and post-tests, interviews, and researcher observations and field notes. The data clearly showed that: content knowledge and pedagogical-content knowledge were increased among the teacher-participants; teacher practice changed in a positive manner; and that a majority of students demonstrated improved learning outcomes. The positive changes to teacher practice are described in this study as the demonstrated use of mixed pedagogical practices rather than a polarisation to either traditional pedagogical practices or contemporary pedagogical practices. The improvement in student learning outcomes was most significant as improved achievement outcomes as indicated by the comparison of pre-test and post-test scores. The effectiveness of the Lesson Study-principled model of professional development used in this study was evaluated using Guskey’s (2005) Five Levels of Professional Development Evaluation.

Translation and news making : a study of contemporary arabic television

Arabic satellite television has recently attracted tremendous attention in both the academic and professional worlds, with a special interest in Aljazeera as a curious phenomenon in the Arab region. Having made a household name for itself worldwide with the airing of the Bin Laden tapes, Aljazeera has set out to deliberately change the culture of Arabic journalism, as it has been repeatedly stated by its current General Manager Waddah Khanfar, and to shake up the Arab society by raising awareness to issues never discussed on television before and challenging long-established social and cultural values and norms while promoting, as it claims, Arab issues from a presumably Arab perspective. Working within the meta-frame of democracy, this Qatari-based network station has been received with mixed reactions ranging from complete support to utter rejection in both the west and the Arab world. This research examines the social semiotics of Arabic television and the socio-cultural impact of translation-mediated news in Arabic satellite television, with the aim to carry out a qualitative content analysis, informed by framing theory, critical linguistic analysis, social semiotics and translation theory, within a re-mediation framework which rests on the assumption that a medium “appropriates the techniques, forms and social significance of other media and attempts to rival or refashion them in the name of the real" (Bolter and Grusin, 2000: 66). This is a multilayered research into how translation operates at two different yet interwoven levels: translation proper, that is the rendition of discourse from one language into another at the text level, and translation as a broader process of interpretation of social behaviour that is driven by linguistic and cultural forms of another medium resulting in new social signs generated from source meaning reproduced as target meaning that is bound to be different in many respects. The research primarily focuses on the news media, news making and reporting at Arabic satellite television and looks at translation as a reframing process of news stories in terms of content and cultural values. This notion is based on the premise that by its very nature, news reporting is a framing process, which involves a reconstruction of reality into actualities in presenting the news and providing the context for it. In other words, the mediation of perceived reality through a media form, such as television, actually modifies the mind’s ordering and internal representation of the reality that is presented. The research examines the process of reframing through translation news already framed or actualized in another language and argues that in submitting framed news reports to the translation process several alterations take place, driven by the linguistic and cultural constraints and shaped by the context in which the content is presented. These alterations, which involve recontextualizations, may be intentional or unintentional, motivated or unmotivated. Generally, they are the product of lack of awareness of the dynamics and intricacies of turning a message from one language form into another. More specifically, they are the result of a synthesis process that consciously or subconsciously conforms to editorial policy and cultural interpretive frameworks. In either case, the original message is reproduced and the news is reframed. For the case study, this research examines news broadcasts by the now world-renowned Arabic satellite television station Aljazeera, and to a lesser extent the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) and Al- Arabiya where access is feasible, for comparison and crosschecking purposes. As a new phenomenon in the Arab world, Arabic satellite television, especially 24-hour news and current affairs, provides an interesting area worthy of study, not only for its immediate socio-cultural and professional and ethical implications for the Arabic media in particular, but also for news and current affairs production in the western media that rely on foreign language sources and translation mediation for international stories.

Open content creation : the issues of voice and the challenges of listening

This paper examines the proposition that increased ability to have a voice and be listened to, through ‘open ICT4D’ and ‘open content creation’ can be an effective mechanism for development. The paper discusses empirical work that strongly indicates that this only happens when voice is appropriately valued in the development process. Having a voice in development processes are less effective when participation is limited. Open ICT allows for more and more voices to be heard, but it is open ICT4D that has the obligation to ensure voices are listened to. In the paper I first explore participatory development and the idea of open ICT4D before elaborating on issues of voice and thinking about voice as process, and voice as value. Research findings are presented from research that experimented with participatory (or open) content creation, discussed in relation to notions of openness and voice. I then consider the challenges of listening, before drawing some conclusions about opening up ICT4D research.

The culture of contemporary writers' festivals

This thesis examines the culture of contemporary writers’ festivals in an international context. In the last five decades writers’ festivals have emerged in cities across the world, and during this time they have expanded their literary discussions and debates to include numerous other topics of broad interest to society. To examine the expanded popularity and function of writers’ festivals, this thesis establishes a new vantage point for theorising the content now typically generated by these events using concepts in urban festivals and public culture research. Importantly, the new vantage point addresses the limitations of current commentary on writers’ festivals which routinely claim they trivialize literature, and more generally, contribute to the decline of public culture. The thesis presents two case studies: one on the Brisbane Writers Festival in Australia and the other on the International Festival of Authors in Toronto, Canada. The first case study, which focuses on the 2007 Brisbane Writers Festival, illustrates the many overlapping and often conflicting discourses as well as opinions productively discussed and debated at writers’ festivals. Key topic discussed and debated at the Festival include local topics about the host city—its history, literature and politics, as well as broader literary, political and celebrity culture topics. The diversity of topics discussed at the 2007 Brisbane Writers Festival is typical of the majority of writers’ festivals similarly located outside the largest geographic centres of global literary production and circulation, and designated as ‘peripheral’ festivals in this research. The second case study on Toronto’s International Festival of Authors examines the ways in which the 2006 Festival almost exclusively focussed on literary and celebrity culture discourses, and promoted itself on these terms. The 2006 International Festival of Authors’ discussion and debate of a narrow range of topics is typical of the few writers’ festivals located in global centres of literary production and circulation, and unlike ‘peripheral’ festivals they are not experiencing the same growth in number or popularity. The aim of these ‘international’ Festivals is not to democratise their elite literary beginnings, but rather to promote ‘literature’ as a niche brand for quality writing that is valid on a global scale. This thesis will assert that while all writers’ festivals are influenced by the marketing desires of publishing companies, the aim of international writers’ festivals in marketing to a virtually and globally connected elite literary audience makes them more susceptible to experiencing declines in audience and author participation.

The 'authentic dancer' as a tool for audience engagement

An engagement with performance is an experiential event. To have a lived experience within a performance construct infers that the experience is somehow ‘more live’. This paper situates the body of the audience member as a site of understanding and meaning making, and challenges the role of the traditional ‘passive’ presentation format and ensuing ethical considerations within that assertion. It looks at the relationships between audience experience and a series of creative tools that facilitate subtle shifts in this traditional dance paradigm. Along with the tools of audience agency, liminality, variations of site and proximity – tools that create engagement via physical interactions with the audience – can ‘performer authenticity’ also become a tool of connection with the audience? This paper looks at the overarching field of contemporary dance, with a primary focus on Western contemporary dance and the traditional dance paradigms prevalent in the construction and presentation of that form. It outlines the role of the experiential within this form and highlights established research and creation tools that encourage audience connection via audience interaction. It also looks at the role of the dancer within this construct, citing both current qualitative research into audience responses, as well as current theory and creative practice from an international field of artists creating work with the ‘authentic dancer’.

Disclosure in insurance law : contemporary and historical economic considerations

This article examines the importance of accurate classification and identification of risk with particular reference to the problem of adverse selection. It is argued that, historically, this concern was the paramount consideration influencing standard form contract formation and disclosure laws. The scope of its relevance today however is less apparent in that contemporary insurance contracting is conducted in a vastly different environment from that which prevailed at the time Lloyd's was better known as a coffee house. Accordingly, the second part of this article looks at the contemporary framework of information disclosure and those dynamics within it designed to elicit information weighing on risk forecasting : specifically, (a) direct inquiry and testing requirements; (b) signaling - or incentive based structuring of insurance contractual and (c) bargaining in the shadow of the utmost good faith doctrine. Finally, certain conclusions arising out of contemporary and historical economic considerations underpinning disclosure in insurance law are outlined.

Listening to late discovery adoption and donor offspring stories : adoption, ethics and implications for contemporary donor insemination practices

For most of the 20th Century a ‘closed’ system of adoption was practised throughout Australia and other modern Western societies. This ‘closed’ system was characterised by sealed records; amended birth certificates to conceal the adoption, and prohibited contact with all biological family. Despite claims that these measures protected these children from the taint of illegitimacy the central motivations were far more complex, involving a desire to protect couples from the stigma of infertility and to provide a socially acceptable family structure (Triseliotis, Feast, & Kyle, 2005; Marshall & McDonald, 2001). From the 1960s significant evidence began to emerge that many adopted children and adults were experiencing higher incidences of psychological difficulties, characterised by problems with psychological adjustment, building self-esteem and forming a secure personal identity. These difficulties became grouped under the term ‘genealogical bewilderment’. As a result, new policies and practices were introduced to try to place the best interests of the child at the forefront. These changes reflected new understandings of adoption; as not only an individual process but also as a social and relational process that continues throughout life. Secrecy and the withholding of birth information are now prohibited in the overwhelming majority of all domestic adoptions processed in Australia (Marshall & McDonald, 2001). One little known consequence of this ‘closed’ system of adoption was the significant number of children who were never told of their adoptive status. As a consequence, some have discovered or had this information disclosed to them, as adults. The first study that looked at the late discovery of genetic origins experiences was conducted by the Post Adoption Resource Centre in New South Wales in 1999. This report found that the participants in their study expressed feelings of disbelief, confusion, anger, sorrow and loss. Further, the majority of participants continued to struggle with issues arising from this intentional concealment of their genetic origins (Perl & Markham, 1999). A second and more recent study (Passmore, Feeney & Foulstone, 2007) looked at the issue of secrecy in adoptive families as part of a broader study of 144 adult adoptees. This study found that secrecy and/or lies or misinformation on the part of adoptive parents had negative effects on both personal identity and relationships with others. The authors noted that those adoptees who found out about their adoption as adults were ‘especially likely to feel a sense of betrayal’ (p.4). Over recent years, stories of secrecy and late discovery have also started to emerge from sperm donor conceived adults (Spencer, 2007; Turner & Coyle, 2000). Current research evidence shows that although a majority of couples during the donor assisted conception process indicate that they intend to tell the offspring about their origins, as many as two-thirds or more of couples continue to withhold this information from their children (Akker, 2006; Gottlieb, A. McWhinnie, 2001; Salter-Ling, Hunter, & Glover, 2001). Why do they keep this secret? Infertility involves a range of complex factors that are often left unresolved or poorly understood by those choosing insemination by donor as a form of family building (Schaffer, J. A., & Diamond, R., 1993). These factors may only impact after the child is born, when resemblance talk becomes most pronounced. Resemblance talk is an accepted form of public discourse and a social convention that legitimises the child as part of the family and is part of the process of constructing the child’s identity within the family. Couples tend to become focused on resemblance as this is where they feel most vulnerable, and the lack of resemblance to the parenting father may trigger his sense of loss (Becker, Butler, & Nachtigall, 2005).

Making the most of MiLK : harnessing the contemporary culture and interests of natural born cyborg

MiLK is a mobile learning kit that allows students and teachers to author their own place-based learning events using simple web and mobile technologies. We will demonstrate how MiLK has been used by a number of teachers in various contexts to connect students, curriculum and everyday environments. This workshop will introduce participants to the various MiLK tools and processes; including mapping, designing, playing and reviewing events, group journals, discussion forums, student profiles, and class profiles. We will focus on the role of place as a potential resource for curriculum design and delivery. The MiLK Team are looking for enthusiastic mobile technology champions to join us. No previous experience or training in this area is needed. This workshop is designed to be relevant to all KLAs. During this session teachers will have an opportunity to experiment with simple tools to create dynamic resources for their own classrooms.

Crossing the cultural divide : a contemporary holistic framework for conceptualising design studio education

While the studio is widely accepted as the learning environment where architecture students most effectively learn how to design (Mahgoub, 2007:195), there are surprisingly few studies that attempt to identify in a qualitative way the interrelated factors that contribute to and support design studio learning (Bose, 2007:131). Such a situation seems problematic given the changes and challenges facing education including design education. Overall, there is growing support for re-examining (perhaps redefining) the design studio particularly in response to the impact of new technologies but as this paper argues this should not occur independently of the other elements and qualities comprising the design studio. In this respect, this paper describes a framework developed for a doctoral project concerned with capturing and more holistically understanding the complexity and potential of the design studio to operate within an increasingly and largely unpredictable global context. Integral to this is a comparative analysis of selected cases underpinned by grounded theory methodology of the traditional design studio and the virtual design studio informed by emerging pedagogical theory and the experiences of those most intimately involved – students and lecturers. In addition to providing a conceptual model for future research, the framework is of value to educators currently interested in developing as well as evaluating learning environments for design.

Venture creation and resource processes : using Bricolage sustainability ventures

Principal Topic: Resource decisions are critical to the venture creation process, which has important subsequent impacts on venture creation and performance (Boeker, 1989). Most entrepreneurs however, suffer substantial resource constraints in venture creation and during venture growth (Shepherd et al., 2000). Little is known about how high potential, sustainability ventures (the ventures of interest in this research), despite resource constraints, achieve continued venture persistence and venture success. One promising theory that explicitly links to resource constraints is a concept developed by Levi Strauss (1967) termed bricolage. Bricolage aligns with notions of resourcefulness: using what's on hand, through making do, and recombining resources for new or novel purposes (Baker & Nelson 2005). To the best of our knowledge, previous studies have not systematically investigated internal and external constraints, their combinations, and subsequent bricolage patterns. The majority of bricolage literature focuses on external environmental constraints (e.g. Wieck 1989; Baker & Nelson 2005), thereby paying less attention to in evaluating internal constraints (e.g. skills and capabilities) or constraint combinations. In this paper we focus on ventures that typically face resource-poor environments. High potential, nascent and young sustainability ventures are often created and developed with resource constraints and in some cases, have greater resource requirements owing to higher levels of technical sophistication of their products (Rothaermel & Deeds 2006). These ventures usually have high aspirations and potential for growth who ''seeks to meet the needs and aspirations without compromising the ability to meet those of the future'' (Brundtland Commission 1983). High potential ventures are increasingly attributed with a central role in the development of innovation, and employment in developed economies (Acs 2008). Further, increasing awareness of environmental and sustainability issues has fostered demand for business processes that reduce detrimental environmental impacts of global development (Dean & McMullen 2007) and more environmentally sensitive products and services: representing an opportunity for the development of ventures that seek to satisfy this demand through entrepreneurial action. These ventures may choose to ''make do'' with existing resources in developing resource combinations that produce the least impact on the environment. The continuous conflict between the greater requirements for resources and limited resource availability in high potential sustainable ventures, with the added complexity of balancing this with an uncompromising focus on using ''what's on hand'' to lessen environment impacts may make bricolage behaviours critical for these ventures. Research into bricolage behaviour is however, the exception rather than the rule (Cunha 2005). More research is therefore needed to further develop and extend this emerging concept, especially in the context of sustainability ventures who are committed to personal and social goals of resourcefulness. To date, however, bricolage has not been studied specifically among high potential sustainable ventures. This research seeks to develop an in depth understanding of the impact of internal and external constraints and their combinations on the mechanisms employed in bricolage behaviours in differing dynamic environments. The following research question was developed to investigate this: How do internal, external resource constraints (or their combinations) impact bricolage resource decisions in high potential sustainability ventures? ---------- Methodology/Key Propositions: 6 case studies will be developed utilizing survey data from the Comprehensive Australian Study of Entrepreneurial Emergence (CAUSEE) large-scale longitudinal study of new venture start-ups in Australia. Prior to commencing case studies, 6 scoping interviews were conducted with key stakeholders including industry members, established businesses and government to ensure practical relevance in case development. The venture is considered the unit of analysis with the key informant being the entrepreneur and other management team members where appropriate. Triangulation techniques are used in this research including semi-structured interviews, survey data, onsite visits and secondary documentation website analysis, resumes, and business plans. These 6 sustainability ventures have been selected based on different environmental dynamism conditions including a traditionally mature market (building industry) and a more dynamic, evolving industry (renewable energy/solar ventures). In evaluating multidisciplinary literature, we expect the following external constraints are critical including: technology constraints (seen through lock-in of incumbents existing technology), institutional regulation and standards, access to markets, knowledge and training to nascent and young venture bricolage processes. The case studies will investigate internal constraints including resource fungability, resource combination capabilities, translating complex science/engineering knowledge into salient, valuable market propositions, i.e. appropriate market outcomes, and leveraging relationships may further influence bricolage decisions. ---------- Results and Implications: Intended ventures have been identified within the CAUSEE sample and have agreed to participate and secondary data collection for triangulation purposes has already commenced. Data collection of the case studies commenced 27th of May 2009. Analysis is expected to be completed finalised by 25th September 2009. This paper will report on the pattern of resource constraints and its impact on bricolage behaviours: its subsequent impact on resource deployment within venture creation and venture growth. As such, this research extends the theory of bricolage through the systematic analysis of constraints on resource management processes in sustainability ventures. For practice, this research may assist in providing a better understanding of the resource requirements and processes needed for continued venture persistence and growth in sustainability ventures. In these times of economic uncertainty, a better understanding of the influence on constraints and bricolage: the interplay of behaviours, processes and outcomes may enable greater venture continuance and success.

Romancing the Dane : reviving (and revising) Ophelia in contemporary YA fiction

Shakespeare’s Ophelia has been circulated in recent times as a figure of the adolescent woman at risk. Mary Pipher’s best-selling and influential Reviving Ophelia (1994) argued that the “story of Ophelia […] shows the destructive forces that affect young women” (20). Without undermining Pipher’s project, this paper reads two contemporary YA romance novels—Lisa Fiedler’s Dating Hamlet (2002) and Lisa Klein’s Ophelia (2006)—in order to demonstrate that not only can Ophelia be appropriated as a figure of empowerment for young women today, but that such appropriations are, seemingly ironically, most powerfully rendered within the genre of romance; a genre long-maligned by feminists as recuperative of patriarchy.--------- These two novels stage interventions both into narratives of female adolescence as a time of being ‘at risk’ or ‘under threat’, and also into narratives of canonical literary patriarchy. Rather than a suicidal Ophelia, subject to the whims of men, these authors imagine Ophelias who take charge of their own destiny; who dictate their own romance and agency; who refuse to be subject to or subjected by, those scripts of cultural authority and heteronormative romance so often perceived as antithetical to female agency. In doing so, they force us to revise our own notions of the romance genre and the functions of canonical literary tradition in contemporary YA culture.