VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
'Now try and recollect if you have done any good today'. Household, individual and community in the early fiction of Harriet Martineau, c. 1825-41.

A re-evaluation of the early fiction of Harriet Martineau (1802-76) is timely. In failing to interrogate the reciprocity between Martineau’s interpretation of personal experience and her fiction, scholars have not fully appreciated its purpose. Thus, modern criticism has accepted Martineau’s dismissive judgement of her earliest tales. Five Years of Youth (1831) has been labelled a pastiche of Jane Austen, and the Illustrations of Political Economy (1832-4), which established Martineau’s fame, have also been subject to bruising attack – as poor art, and ideologically mendacious. Most scholars see the novel Deerbrook (1839) as a conventional romance.
Although Linda Peterson and Lana Dalley rightly identify in Martineau’s fiction the trope of domesticity and its political dimension, the argument of this thesis is more specific. Message and discourse, whether couched as political economy, children’s adventure or romance, were shaped by Martineau’s ‘heartland concepts’. The product of her subjectivity, these core values were a sense of duty (initially allied to a previously-unacknowledged soteriology of ‘safety’); a welcome offered to adversity as a stimulus to progress; an attack on superstition as an enemy to intellectual and moral progress; and household relationships which were inclusive of children and servants and stimulated community engagement.
Martineau’s definition of community, predicated on a sense of belonging, initially reflected the networking of her Norwich household. It was subsequently redefined as wherever her own household could meet a local need. This interpretation is supported by an analysis of Martineau’s engagement with her adopted community of Ambleside, where, in putting into practice her fictional teachings, she demonstrated reciprocity in action.

Keywords: unitarianism
Victorian literature
Harriet Martineau
community history
Advisor: Garnett, E
The political economy of "local foods" in Eastern Kansas

Alternative agriculture and counter-cuisine movements have grown to a strong cultural current in Western European and North American societies. In recent years,these movements have begun to converge and coalesce around the concept of localizing agri-food relations and commodity chains as a way of redressing the deleterious environmental, social, and economic consequences of what are seen as dominant globalized food relations. This dissertation reports on a regional study in Eastern Kansas of the political economy of local food relations that has arisen through this producer and consumer response. It is an effort to recognize the regional interplay of disparate forces in constructing local food systems in the interest of framing more contextualized and nuanced questions about the environmental, social, and economic outcomes of alternative agri-food development. Network, conventions, and spatial analysis theories and methods were customized and put into practice in the service of these aims, using triangulation among them to mitigate each of their individual weaknesses in representing the variable embeddedness, politics, and spaces of local food in Eastern Kansas. It was found that local food generally represents a marketing niche in urban consumerism that is served primarily by regional rural producers. The distances, agricultural and food ecologies, forms of organization, and values underpinning local food linkages were all found to vary quite considerably throughout the region, creating a diverse combination of development agendas and impacts from local food networks and making food localization a highly contested concept. Local food development in its current form is thus highly dependent on urban/rural dialectics and projects of urbanization that lack open, transparent, and reflexive governance. Critical acknowledgement of these development interdependencies is important as a step toward encouraging social, economic, and environmental justice through local food development.

Keywords: political economy
political ecology
network analysis
sustainable agriculture
local foods
alternative agri-food networks
conventions
urban development
Advisor: Liverman, D
Scottish political ideas in eighteenth century Germany

This thesis examines the reception of the works of Adam Ferguson, a major thinker of the Scottish Enlightenment, by a range of German readers in the late eighteenth century. It provides a survey of Ferguson's main political ideas, and argues that many of his prominent German readers did not come to terms with them. The thesis contrasts the political realities and concerns of Ferguson's Scotland with the profoundly different political concerns of his German readers, and their often vague and inaccurate ideas of Scotland, and of the British constitution. Their documented responses to Ferguson's works are brought as evidence for a cumulative and complex case of misreception.
The terms in which Ferguson expressed his political ideas can be fruitfully analyzed as a political language, a vocabulary of recognizable and mutually complementing political terms. After a close examination of this particular vocabulary, the thesis proceeds to show in detail how Ferguson's German translators, commentators, reviewers and readers unwittingly dismantled this vocabulary, lost or ignored its republican and activist elements, and sometimes shifted it into other vocabularies which were far removed from the author's political intentions. However, the differences between the individual readers are emphasized, not only with respect to their varied intellectual backgrounds and works, but also touching on their personal profiles as readers and thinkers.
The thesis aims especially to highlight three aspects of this Scottish- German encounter: the capacity of Ferguson's texts to be removed from their contexts and misread; the failure of civic humanist ideas to make a serious entry into German political discourse; and the merits of close textual analysis for supporting a type of explanation, which may supplement or counter-balance other explanations, about the limited effect of "imported" political ideas in eighteenth-century German discourse.
A contemporary concept of monetary sovereignty

This thesis analyses whether the concept of monetary sovereignty evolves under the impact of globalization and financial integration, and provides a framework for assessing what this implies. Thereby, this thesis contributes to a better understanding of both the contemporary exercise of sovereign powers in monetary and financial matters and of the driving forces behind the evolution of international law in this field. As elaborated in chapter 1, the contemporary concept of monetary sovereignty proposed by this thesis is not static but dynamic in nature. Due to the dual nature of sovereignty as a concept having not only positive but also important normative components, monetary sovereignty cannot become eroded under the impact of legal and economic constraints. Chapter 2 examines the ongoing hybridization of international monetary law arising from changes in the sources of this complex body of law, from the unsuitability of the categories of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ law for characterizing all normative evolutions in this field, and from the rise of private and transnational monetary law. Chapter 3 scrutinizes the phenomenon of exchange rate misalignment under monetary and trade law. Intrinsically related, it assesses which aspects of the IMF’s legal framework should be reformed in order to tackle contemporary challenges to the stability of the international monetary system, such as global current account imbalances. Chapter 4 analyses the increasing regionalization of monetary sovereignty. It argues that, to the extent that transferring sovereign powers to a monetary union is what provides a state’s population with maximum monetary and financial stability, the underlying transfers are not a surrender of monetary sovereignty, but its effective exercise under the form of cooperative sovereignty. Finally, chapter 5 assesses the implications of the contemporary concept of monetary sovereignty proposed herein for the reorganization of the international financial architecture in the wake of the Great Recession.

Keywords: sovereignty
IMF
conditionality
ESM
fiscal union
WTO
Great Recession
European sovereign debt crisis
financial and economic crisis
Monetary Union
sovereign lending
stability and growth pact
exchange rate misalignment
monetary sovereignty
hybridization
cooperative sovereignty
international financial architecture
Financial Stability Board
EFSF
currency manipulation
current account imbalances
Advisor: Sarooshi, D
Sorel, J
English response to Goethe, 1824-1865

This thesis, concerned with critical response and not with influence, examines British opinions of Goethe's: works and life as expressed in review articles, prefaces- to translations, creative works, memoirs and correspondence, and biographical studies. The period is divided into two sections, before and after 1845, and in each section there is. one chapter on a Goethe-critic of outstanding importance (Carlyle and G.H. Lewes, respectively), followed by two chapters on the general critical response. The aim is to discover types of response to Goethe and to show how they are related to each other.
Chapter one examines the successive stages, of Carlyle's intellectual relationship to Goethe, and shows the unbalanced and essentially transient nature of his adherence. Chapters two and three deal respectively with reception of individual works by Goethe and with more general opinions, showing a rapid increase in the interest and respect inspired by Goethe in Britain, but also a strong distrust in many quarters, normally centred on the moral deficiencies of Goethe's works and life. Chapter four studies in detail G.H. Lewes's intellectual development up to the 1850s, and connects the various features of his biography of Goethe (1855) with other aspects of his thought. Chapters five and six consider separately negative and positive attitudes to Goethe from 1846 to 1865. Moralistic distrust persists among an older generation of critics, but the general tendency is more towards adverse criticism on artistic grounds and unworried pity for an incomplete moral character, or appreciation of the freshness and healthiness of Goethe's art and an admiration of the breadth of his wisdom which stops short of the messianic claims for Goethe as a potential moral and religious leader made by Carlyle and a few others inspired by Carlyle.
Sexually transmitted infections, sex and the Irish

The national reported rates of sexually transmitted infections (other than HIV/AIDS) in Ireland have been increasing over the last decade of the 20th century. Medical professionals and epidemiologists consider the rates of STIs as indicators of the proportion of the population engaging in 'high risk' behaviour. According to this hypothesis, an increase in reported rates reflects an increase in 'high risk' behaviours. This thesis will examine this relationship and determine the reasons for the increased reported rates in Ireland. This will involve an investigation into Irish sexual behaviours and attitudes, thus giving an insight into Irish sexuality, which has previously attracted little sociological interest.
Evidence in regard to Irish sexuality and sexually transmitted infections is limited. In the absence of longitudinal data on sexual behaviours and a national survey on STIs and risk-taking sexual behaviours, the question of the rising rates has to be addressed by collating available data from different sources. This involves: (1) the use of epidemiological and GUM clinics' information, (2) a socio-historical account of Irish sexuality and sexually transmitted infections and (3) a comparative analysis of Irish sexual behaviours and attitudes with four other countries utilising the International Social Survey Programme's 1994 dataset, Family and Changing Gender Roles II. It is concluded that the increasing reporting rates of STIs are not being directly caused by accompanying increases of 'high risk' sexual behaviours in the general population but are produced by a number of factors including a growing public openness about sexuality and sexual health awareness.

Advisor: Heath, A
The career and significance of John of Brienne, king of Jerusalem, emperor of Constantinople

This thesis is a biographical study of John of Brienne, king of Jerusalem and later Latin emperor of Constantinople (d. 1237). John’s extraordinary career is touched on by many commentators concerned with the crusades and the Latin East in the early thirteenth century, but it has not been properly re-assessed for more than seventy years. A comprehensive re-examination opens up new angles on the political structures and social landscapes that produced it.
John’s career illustrates some residual strengths of the Jerusalemite monarchy just before the start of the Hohenstaufen epoch. It also sheds light on a period in the history of the Latin empire all too easily regarded as largely a void. But within the biographical context, the thesis’s focus is more on the complex interplay between the Latin West and East in the early thirteenth century. A principal theme in this regard is the mobility, in geographical and politico-hierarchical terms, of a specific echelon of the high aristocracy in early thirteenth-century Europe, building on Bartlett’s conception of the contemporaneous western European ‘aristocratic diaspora’. Aristocrats who are ‘not quite first rank’ can be discerned on the make in regions, both west and east, distant from their original homelands. Much of the significance of that lies in the context, the variety of opportunities, and also the limitations on such figures. Whilst this thesis dwells on John’s experience of patronage and dependency, it also identifies grounds for tensions in his ‘new’ environments, as well as highlighting the opportunities and pitfalls presented by ‘dynastic interstices’. In this way, the thesis unpacks many of the ‘more normal’ features of the aristocratic diaspora out of John’s exceptional career. The thesis links together the thematic material to focus, in particular, on the interactions between various Western great powers and John as a client figure.

Keywords: Crusades
Medieval
Advisor: Tyerman, C
The Iron Age archaeology of the upper Thames and north Oxfordshire region, with especial reference to the eastern Cotswolds

This thesis considers the development of settlement landscapes in the Iron Age across two adjacent regions, the upland eastern Cotswolds and lowland upper Thames valley. Previous studies have focused on the differences in settlement form, economic practice and social development and therefore the possible dichotomy of heartland and hinterland landscapes. It is clear, however, that this is due to an imbalance of research brought about as a result of the natural landscape, interests of antiquarians and archaeologists and modern settlement focus and development.
A new dataset of cropmark and geophysical survey material is presented as a way of redressing the imbalance. The focus within this study on banjo enclosures also provides an opportunity to analyse what remains a relatively enigmatic and understudied site-type that appeared during the Middle and Late Iron Age. The results illustrated and discussed here provide the chance to outline new narratives that take into account both practical and non-functional interpretations. From this, more is elucidated regarding these sites within the context of Middle and Late Iron Age settlement landscape developments.
By integrating this new dataset within the wider context of the upper Thames and immediate environs a number of further and more general questions have been raised. These focus on the chronology of settlement development, the appearance and growth of exchange networks and the changing significance of open and enclosed settlements throughout the period. Differences have been used in the past to symbolise alternative social systems apparent across two settlement landscapes. However, as a result of the evidence presented here these perceptions are no longer viable as an interpretive framework. Instead, aspects of chronological development, settlement space and sphere of influence and interaction are discussed in relation to the evidence from Midlands and central southern Britain.

Keywords: Iron Age
British Archaeology
Thames Valley
Cotswolds
Aerial Survey
Geophysical Survey
Iron Age Settlement
Banjo Enclosures
Advisor: Cunliffe, B
Learning dynamical models for visual tracking

Using some form of dynamical model in a visual tracking system is a well-known method for increasing robustness and indeed performance in general. Often, quite simple models are used and can be effective, but prior knowledge of the likely motion of the tracking target can often be exploited by using a specially-tailored model. Specifying such a model by hand, while possible, is a time-consuming and error-prone process. Much more desirable is for an automated system to learn a model from training data. A dynamical model learnt in this manner can also be a source of useful information in its own right, and a set of dynamical models can provide discriminatory power for use in classification problems.
Methods exist to perform such learning, but are limited in that they assume the availability of 'ground truth' data. In a visual tracking system, this is rarely the case. A learning system must work from visual data alone, and this thesis develops methods for learning dynamical models while explicitly taking account of the nature of the training data --- they are noisy measurements. The algorithms are developed within two tracking frameworks. The Kalman filter is a simple and fast approach, applicable where the visual clutter is limited. The recently-developed Condensation algorithm is capable of tracking in more demanding situations, and can also employ a wider range of dynamical models than the Kalman filter, for instance multi-mode models.
The success of the learning algorithms is demonstrated experimentally. When using a Kalman filter, the dynamical models learnt using the algorithms presented here produce better tracking when compared with those learnt using current methods. Learning directly from training data gathered using Condensation is an entirely new technique, and experiments show that many aspects of a multi-mode system can be successfully identified using very little prior information.
Significant computational effort is required by the implementation of the methods, and there is scope for improvement in this regard. Other possibilities for future work include investigation of the strong links this work has with learning problems in other areas. Most notable is the study of the 'graphical models' commonly used in expert systems, where the ideas presented here promise to give insight and perhaps lead to new techniques.

Keywords: dynamical models
computer vision
visual tracking
system identification
Advisor: Blake, A
Ripley, B
Breton morphosyntax in two generations of speakers: evidence from word order and mutation

Following a decline over the twentieth century, Breton has seen an increase in revival efforts, including Breton-medium education. This study investigates the effect of the language transmission gap on the morphosyntax of verbs. Fieldwork was undertaken with three distinct age groups: older native speakers (aged over 65), and two groups which make up a younger generation of speakers: children in Breton-medium education, and young adults who have been schooled in Breton. The question of word order and the placement of verbs in Breton has been controversial, largely because it is complex and variable, making the identification of basic word order difficult.
The data show that usage across the older generation is fairly consistent, with V2 word order in matrix clauses. Verbal mutation is also maintained. Despite the transmission gap, younger adults from French-speaking homes do not systematically replace Breton patterns with French SVO. Rather, they avoid SVO in some contexts, and indeed use it less than the senior adults. The amount of input speakers receive is crucial: children in bilingual schooling, with only half of their classes in Breton, tend to oversimplify word order patterns and show French influence. In contrast, those with additional Breton input from a family member are more proficient. Children have difficulty acquiring mutation rules, and do not seem to have grasped the system of verbal mutation, but young adults use mutation proficiently, like the older speakers.
Consequently, despite strong French influence, Breton word order has remained consistent. The fact that verbal mutation is variable in children reflects late acquisition, since the young adults rarely diverge from the expected usage. Thus, the changes in Breton morphosyntax are subtler than expected in light of the unusual transmission pattern and close proximity to French. The crucial factor appears to be sustained input in the language.

Keywords: Breton
Morphosyntax
Language revival
Advisor: Lahiri, A
A historical and historiographical commentary on Cassius Dio's Roman History book 57.1-17.8

This thesis is a historical and historiographical commentary on Book 57 (Chs. 1-17.8) of Cassius Dio's Roman History. It comprises two sections, an Introduction followed by the Commentary itself. The introduction is sub-divided into three chapters. The first of these introductory chapters (The Roman Historian at Work) presents a discussion of the historical material available for Dio's Tiberian narrative, and a discussion of the factors which were instrumental in Dio's writing and shaping his narrative of the reign of Tiberius. The second chapter (Dio on Tiberius) is an analysis of Dio's portrayal of Tiberius and of the historian’s understanding of Tiberius in the historical context of the early Principate. These chapters are followed by some brief Notes on the Text of Book 57, which considers the manuscript tradition of Book 57, and comments on portrayal of the reign of Tiberius in the Dionian tradition, and in particular the Excerpta Constantiniana, Xiphilinus, and Zonaras. The second part of the thesis, the commentary, presents an analysis of Dio's narrative from both historical and historiographical perspectives.

Keywords: Tiberius (Roman Emperor)
Roman Empire
Roman History
Cassius Dio
Roman Historiography
Advisor: Pelling, C