VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Freedom as response-ability: agency and artistic creativity in the work of Martin Heidegger

The origin of this thesis can be traced back to a deceptively simple question that struck me when reading Hegel for the first time: What, if anything, can be made of human freedom when we live in a world that has a profound impact on who we are and what we do? Unhappy with the way existentialist reactions to Hegel characterized freedom as our ability to step out of our world and determine our identity through our own decisions and will, but nevertheless inspired by Heidegger’s depiction of human agents as always already in the world, this thesis answers the aforementioned question by turning the existentialist conception of freedom on its head: that is, instead of characterizing freedom as detached decisionism, I argue that freedom is a function of our ability to recognize and respond to the disparate demands our world places upon us. Specifically, and unlike Heidegger’s existentialist interpreters, I read Heidegger’s account of authenticity as a case of engaged-agency in which we clarify the possibilities others make available and then act accordingly. There is, however, a certain limitation to this interpretation of human agency: namely, that treating freedom as an active response to the wants and needs of others binds the agent to possibilities present in her current situation and therefore fails to capture the kind of freedom we associate with cultural transformation or artistic creativity. Hence, this thesis addresses a second set of questions: What conditions make historical change possible? And how is it that artists are able to alter the world? In response to the first query, I turn to Heidegger’s claim that we are in truth and in untruth as well as his discussion of Gelassenheit to argue that the play between the possibilities present in a particular culture and those that are excluded by it along with a release from our present activities create the conditions for cultural transformation. In reply to the second question, I examine Heidegger’s account of the happening of truth and show how thinkers and artists are able to reveal the possibilities concealed in their culture through the creative use of language. Finally, I contend that the freedom associated with cultural transformation and artistic creativity is also a form of responsibility insofar as the success of a given transformation depends on others recognizing that transformation as valuable and thus worthy of their support.

Keywords: philosophy of language
agency
Heidegger
artistic creativity
Advisor: Mulhall, S
Development of spontaneous isopeptide bond formation for ligation of peptide tags

Peptide tags are ubiquitous in the life sciences, with roles including purification and selective labeling of proteins. Because peptide tags are small they have a limited surface area for binding and hence usually form low affinity protein interactions. These weak interactions limit the uses of peptide tags in cases that require resistance to forces generated with macromolecular architectures or protein motors. Hence a way to create a covalent interaction with a peptide tag would be useful. It was found possible to create a covalent bond-forming peptide tag using the spontaneous isopeptide chemistry of the CnaB2 domain from the Gram-positive bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes. In the CnaB2 domain a reactive Lysine forms an isopeptide bond with an Aspartic acid, catalyzed by a Glutamic acid, creating an internal covalent linkage. Subsequently it was shown that the CnaB2 domain could be split into two parts, a domain with the Lysine and Glutamic acid called SpyCatcher and a peptide with the Aspartic acid called SpyTag, such that the isopeptide covalent linkage can be formed when SpyCatcher/SpyTag are mixed together. SpyCatcher/SpyTag was applied in this thesis and showed functionality in a wide array of scenarios. SpyCatcher/SpyTag covalently linked within the cytosol of E. coli, on surface membrane proteins of HeLa cells, and regardless of whether SpyTag was located on the N- or C-terminus or an internal site. Crystal structures of SpyCatcher/SpyTag were then obtained and it was found possible to shrink the SpyCatcher by 32 residues to a core domain of 83 residues. To create an even smaller covalent linkage system, SpyCatcher was split further to generate a protein (SpyLigase) ligating two peptide tags. The β-sheet with the reactive Lysine was removed from SpyCatcher and called KTag. SpyLigase could covalently link SpyTag and KTag. SpyLigase-induced ligation was independent of the location of SpyTag/KTag on the target proteins and was applied to create affibody polymers, which were shown to improve magnetic isolation of cells with low tumor antigen expression. Through this work protein-protein covalent linkage systems were refined and generated that have future applications for the creation of unique macromolecular structures, cellular labeling, and protein cyclization.

Keywords: SpyCatcher
SpyTag
Split-Protein
SpyLigase
Protein Ligation
Advisor: Howarth, M
Anglo-American relations in the period of the Chamberlain premiership May 1937 -May 1940: the relationship between naval strategy and foreign policy

This thesis traces the development of Anglo-American naval relations throughout the Chamberlain premiership and the various attempts that were made during this period to extend and broaden the existing level of cooperation in the hope that it might be used for politico-strategic purposes. It deals in some depth with the background to and course of Eden's various initiatives to the Roosevelt Administration in the six months following the July 7th incident of 1937 and explains why his attempts to construct some form of naval partnership with the United States evoked such opposition from within the ranks of the British Government. In this connection, Chamberlain's rather ambivalent role in Anglo-American relations and the contrast between Eden and himself in their use of different methods, style and policy is closely examined in the first half of the thesis. After Eden's resignation and until appeasement became discredited, Anglo-American naval cooperation continued to be a mainly technical rather than strategic nature. In the last few months of peace, however, the British again looked to the Americans for strategic assistance and tried unsuccessfully to encourage them to deploy their fleet in the Western Pacific in order to counter the threat of the Japanese in the Far East. The thesis goes on to explore the changing naval relationship between Britain and the United States after the outbreak of the Second World War and how it led to greater involvement between them on detailed day-to-day technical matters related to the war in Europe.
Although predominantly a study in the formation of British policy, the thesis has also drawn extensively on the official American records in an attempt to establish that a close link existed between naval strategy and foreign policy in Anglo-American relations during this period.

Keywords: Anglo-American relations
foreign policy
naval strategy
Chamberlain
Advisor: Gibbs, N
Extreme waves, overtopping and flooding at sea defences

This thesis describes experiments that were carried out using focused wave groups in the UK Coastal Research Facility (UKCRF). Considerable effort was put into calibrating the UKCRF to determine the relationship between the input signals sent to the paddles and the waves generated in the facility. Focused wave groups of various sizes and phases, based on NewWave theory were generated, and measurements were made of the resulting surface elevation data, water particle kinematics, wave runup and overtopping volumes. NewWave theory models the profile of extreme waves in a Gaussian (random) sea. The thesis describes the first time this model has been applied in the context of coastal wave transformation. A method for the separation of the underlying harmonic structure of a focused wave group is described and results presented. This technique has been used in relatively deep water but is shown to work successfully in the coastal zone until wave overturning. A method has been devised to provide a theoretical Stokes-like expansion of the free and bound waves to model the surface elevation and water particle kinematics of the focused wave groups. Satisfactory agreement is achieved between the theoretical predictions of UKCRF measurements. Suggestions are made for an improved model. The underlying harmonic structure of the focused wave groups is presented as stacked time histories that give insight into the wave transformation process from deep to shallow water. Particular attention is paid to the low frequency wave generated as the wave group interacts with the beach. This is compared to the low frequency wave that is generated by a solitary wave in the UKCRF. Runup and overtopping measurements are in reasonable agreement with predictions based on certain empirical formulae, but not others. These comparisons are useful in identifying those formulae able to predict runup and overtopping of extreme waves in the coastal zone.

Keywords: wave basin calibration
acoustic Doppler velocimetry
extreme waves
wave kinematics
focused wave groups
wave harmonic structure
laser doppler anemometry
wave runup
Wave overtopping
Advisor: Taylor, P
Borthwick, A
Chinese daughters negotiating contemporary norms and traditional filial obligation

In the past, Chinese normative values deprived daughters of education, choice and autonomy, relegating them to a dependent domestic role within a rigid family hierarchy. This is no longer the norm. Today, Chinese daughters are widely educated and many are working outside the home, becoming financial assets to their families. Despite this, gendered expectations concerning filial obligation have not abated, and perhaps surprisingly given their modern lifestyles and financial contributions, Chinese daughters continue to accept this responsibility, including caregiving for ageing parents.
The aim of this thesis is to explore the nature of the current caregiving paradigm between Chinese daughters, their parents and parents-in-law. It seeks to understand why Chinese daughters continue to undertake filial obligation when they are no longer dependent on the family; how they manage the practical discharge of filial obligation; and the ways in which traditional filial obligation have shifted. In furtherance of this exploration, in 2011 and 2012, 58 Chinese women and 6 Filipina domestic helpers were interviewed in Hong Kong and Singapore. Thematic analysis was performed on the transcribed data. Symbolic interactionism, caregiving motivation models, and Hochschild's (1983) theory of emotion management provided the conceptual and theoretical framework for the research.
Drawing from the data, a support and care typology was developed reflecting the varying levels of daughters' filial support and their motivations for providing this support. Among these respondents, the core belief in "duty" has not fundamentally changed from that of their parents' generation. However, feelings of affection and gratitude, the strength of traditional or contemporary norms, and one’s self-image together with emotion work, moderated the duration and quality of care daughters were willing to provide. These factors may also determine whether caregiving is outsourced to foreign domestic helpers, or whether parents and in-laws are placed in nursing homes, and the nature of care provided thereafter.

Keywords: Emotion work
Intergenerational relationships
Advisor: Harper, S
Hydatius

Late Roman chronicles are little studied and greatly misunderstood. The purpose of this dissertation is to treat a Late Roman chronicler, Hydatius, as a living, breathing person and to use the chronicle as a means of revealing this individual: his beliefs, his interests, his fears, his attitudes, his view of the Empire, and his abilities as an historian. Hydatius was a bishop in Gallaecia, writing in 468-9 amidst the Suevic depredations of Spain. As a result he is a unique source in that he is the earliest extant historian who wrote in a post- Roman (i.e. Mediaeval) world. His chronicle is the only detailed source for Spanish history in the fifth century and the only detailed source written about the fifth-century barbarian invasions and settlements. Though extremely isolated he had remarkable contacts with the outside world and his chronicle is a unique source for much non- Spanish information. It is also one of the most personal of all the Late Antique chronicles and therefore an excellent gateway for an examination of the Late Roman world as seen through the eyes of a contemporary. For these reasons, Hydatius' vivid and often emotive account of the sufferings of Gallaecia at the hands of the Sueves and Goths, framed by the parallel military, religious and imperial history of the Eastern and Western empires and set within the eschatological context of the imminent Apocalypse, deserves detailed study. The production of a new critical edition, based on only the third, complete, first-hand examination of the sole major manuscript (B) since 1615 and the first produced from all known manuscript evidence, complete with apparatuses on the manuscripts, chronology and orthography, was necessitated by the perverse Sources chrétiennes edition of 1974 and the discovery of new evidence from a careful study of manuscript B.
Choosing while black: examining Afro-Caribbean families' engagement with school choice in Birmingham

Over the past twenty years, parental choice has become the favoured Government policy governing school allocation and the dominant legislative approach for improving educational attainment. The existing sociological research on school choice has primarily focused on the ways in which families of different socioeconomic backgrounds have engaged with the process of listing preferences for secondary schools; while class has been emphasised, the choice processes of ethnic minorities have received little attention. Yet the persistent educational challenges faced by Afro-Caribbean students across class boundaries since the early years of migration to England raise questions about whether choice policies’ promise of improved academic performance extends to all ethnic groups. This study focuses on Afro-Caribbean families and their engagement with the process of selecting secondary schools in Birmingham. Twenty individual families in semi-structured interviews and ten additional mothers in two focus groups shared their experiences of listing school preferences. To develop a fuller understanding of how these Afro-Caribbean families made their school choices, this study draws upon Courtney Bell’s (2005) application of ‘choice sets’ to education. Families’ choice sets – the schools which they perceived to be available options – were shaped by various factors, including past school experiences, the schools available in the local authority, and Birmingham’s school allocation criteria. Additionally, geographic considerations, the ethnic mix of a schools’ student population, and families’ access to social networks also influenced which schools families saw as possibilities. Ultimately, while there was no single ‘Afro-Caribbean’ way of selecting schools, this study highlights the circumstances and structures faced by many Afro-Caribbean families which constrained their choice sets, and consequently, the schools to which their children were allocated. Though this thesis is limited in its generalisability, its conclusions lay the foundations for future research into the ways in which ethnic identity is lived in the educational context.

Keywords: education
ethnicity
school choice
Advisor: Furlong, J
Tomlinson, S
Beyond borders: political marginalisation of Congolese young people in Uganda

This thesis combines ethnographic methods with feminist political analysis to examine Congolese young people’s decision-making roles in families, households, communities and policy spaces in Kampala and Kyaka II refugee settlement, Uganda. As refugees and young people, research subjects face many structural constraints. However, their diverse experiences defy homogenising discourses of marginality as an inherent, fixed characteristic. Instead, this thesis develops and applies a conceptual framework of political marginalisation as a dynamic process in multiple spaces.
Research findings show that young people’s decision-making roles vis-à-vis resource distribution and division of labour are relational and contextual. Their multiple subject positions and relationships in overlapping networks affect differential decision-making roles. In particular, social age and gender are major axes of decision-making processes. Analyses of inter-linkages across patterns of relationships reveal that research subjects in peer networks and intergenerational household networks with independent resources have more decision-making opportunities at household, community and policy levels than their counterparts in intergenerational family networks. This contradicts assumptions that young people without their biological parents are inherently ‘marginalised’, and highlights the political importance of decision-making processes in perceived ‘private’ spaces, such as families and households.
Structure and power relationships thus situate decision-making processes and affect available choices, but they cannot solely explain political roles and behaviour. This thesis also stresses the importance of agentic beliefs, intentions and aspirations. As actors in dynamic marginalisation processes, some young people attempt to access central spaces through education, remunerated formal employment and physical mobility. Others use marginal and transitional spaces to provide alternatives to the status quo.
Such creativity and productivity occasion possibilities of political change. However, UNHCR’s protection and assistance responses do not facilitate these transformative processes because of their focus on perceived essentialist characteristics of monolithic ‘marginals’. This thesis offers an alternative approach that recognises refugee young people’s political agency, as well as the structural and power dynamics that constrain their decision-making opportunities.

Keywords: politial participation
refugee young people
Advisor: Boyden, J
Anderson, D
The emergence of regional security organisations. A comparative study on ECOWAS and SADC.

The emergence of regional security organisations during the 1990s in Africa proved to be of great significance for the lives of many Africans, including those living in conflict-torn countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire or the Democratic Republic of Congo, but, at the same time, this phenomenon has been understudied. This dissertation explores why regional security organisations with an agenda of democratic governance emerged in Africa in the 1990s. This question is answered with two in-depth case studies on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Driven by an empirical puzzle, this study is both hypothesis-testing and hypothesis generating. The study starts by laying out the different possible factors put forward by several bodies of theory in international relations to explain the emergence of ECOWAS and SADC as security organisations. These hypotheses are then tested throughout the history and the evolution of ECOWAS and SADC in order to highlight the circumstances of their creation and their qualified failure as economic communities. This is followed by a comparative analysis of the security and democracy mandates entrusted to ECOWAS and SADC by its member states based on the study of the legal texts that outline the specific objectives of each regional security organisation and the tools they were given to implement their mandates. The study finally analyses the implementation records of ECOWAS and SADC in order to assess the commitment of their member states to their new democracy and security mandate. The research concludes with the two following hypotheses: 1) A security agenda cannot emerge without the involvement of the regional hegemon. 2) What the regional hegemon can do, including affecting the speed of the transformation, is constrained by the acceptance of its leadership by its neighbours (legitimacy) and by state weakness (capability).

Keywords: African politics
ECOWAS
regional organisations
peacekeeping
regional integration
SADC
humanitarian intervention
regionalism
Advisor: Fawcett, L
Yiddish periodicals published by displaced persons, 1946-1949

This thesis is intended to demonstrate the existence of a vibrant cultural and literary life among the survivors of the Holocaust during their time as Displaced Persons (DPs) in Germany, Austria and Italy. It delineates their historical background, presents theoretical problems with which they may have been confronted, and explains the lack of previous academic research into their creative production. It then analyzes three representative literary journals from the period 1946 to 1949, when the DP population was at its peak: In Gang: khoydesh-zhurnal far literatur un kunst / khoydesh-zhurnal far literatur, kultur un gezelshaftlekhe problemen (In Progress: Monthly Journal of Literature and Art / Monthly Journal of Literature, Culture and Societal Problems), published in Rome between March 1947 and February 1949; Fun letstn khurbn: tsaytshrift far geshikhte fun yidishn lebn beysn natsi-rezhim (From the Last Extermination: Journal for the History of the Jewish People During the Nazi Regime), published in Munich between August 1946 and December 1948; and Shriftn far literatur, kunst un gezelshaftlekhe fragn (Writings for Literature, Art and Societal Questions), published in Kassel, Germany in January 1948. These journals were chosen because their editorial material reflected strong commitments to dealing with the political and especially the cultural issues of the day. These included the on-going examination of the possibility of Jewish cultural continuity, the drive for a Jewish state, and the attempt to come to terms with the immensity and horrors of the Holocaust. The thesis also includes an annotated bibliography of the contents of these three journals which is intended to improve their accessibility for future study.

Keywords: Holocaust
Yiddish literature
displaced persons
Advisor: Katz, D
Kerler, D
Reed, J
Aspects of the career of Sir John Fastolf (1380-1459)

This thesis, which is based on manuscripts in Magdalen College, Oxford, is a study of the English career of Sir John Fastolf (1380-1459). In the first chapter Fastolf's investment in land is examined and the conclusion is reached that Fastolf bought property in a limited and artificial market. The second chapter analyses the administration of Fastolf's estates. It demonstrates that Fastolf paid close attention to administration and policy-making. A survey of Fastolf's friends and associates, particularly in the light of the feoffments he made, is undertaken in the third chapter. The subject of the fourth chapter is the emnity between Fastolf and William, Duke of Suffolk during the 1440s. The high-handedness of the Duke and his officers is emphasised. The major lawsuits fought by Fastolf are studied in the final chapter. It is concluded that Fastolf suffered not because he had bought property unwisely but because he was the victim of the acquisitiveness of men who had political power during Suffolk's supremacy. Disputes, nevertheless, were almost always conducted in a peaceful way.