title: Discursive and Material Practices of Mourning: Bodies, Space and Time

authors: Barr, Angela

subjects: Discursive and Material Mourning Practices

abstract: Within the territory of mourning, this thesis tells three autoethnographic stories of death; the unexpected death of the author’s 16-year old brother, Grant, when she was herself a child; the later painful dying of her father; then the wrenching ending of her mother’s life. Within these significant encounters with death and loss, three particular moments are selected in an exploration of the ways in which mourning, materiality, space and time are co-implicated. These moments are shown to embody an intersection of mourning and materiality – as bodies, tears, feet, dresses, breasts and fluids – space and time. 

Poststructuralism and new materialist theorising frames the analysis of the ways in which mourning is both discursively and materially produced.  Autoethnography becomes a diffractive methodology that uses self as data, including showing the professional learning/teaching moments in which the connections between mourning, bodies, tears and loss were first made visible to the author. 

In a further step, the thesis moves into the professional domain of counselling in a New Zealand secondary school.  The author’s experience of a death in the school community becomes a reflecting surface for noticing the ways in which mourning rituals constitute the subjectivity of those grieving. The author suggests that her professional practice as a school guidance counsellor is shaped by her earlier personal family encounters with mourning. In particular, she suggests, the deconstruction of the stories of these encounters produced particular practices in her work with students, staff and a community touched by sudden death. 

Personal lived experiences with death and mourning are folded into the mourning school as a dynamic assemblage. In these ways, time and space are shown to meet with the temporal materiality of bodies (both alive and dead), tears, dresses, veils and fluids and their discursive implications, to produce a timespacemattering.

text: Discursive and Material Practices of Mourning: Bodies, Space and Time Within the territory of mourning, this thesis tells three autoethnographic stories of death; the unexpected death of the author’s 16-year old brother, Grant, when she was herself a child; the later painful dying of her father; then the wrenching ending of her mother’s life. Within these significant encounters with death and loss, three particular moments are selected in an exploration of the ways in which mourning, materiality, space and time are co-implicated. These moments are shown to embody an intersection of mourning and materiality – as bodies, tears, feet, dresses, breasts and fluids – space and time. 

Poststructuralism and new materialist theorising frames the analysis of the ways in which mourning is both discursively and materially produced.  Autoethnography becomes a diffractive methodology that uses self as data, including showing the professional learning/teaching moments in which the connections between mourning, bodies, tears and loss were first made visible to the author. 

In a further step, the thesis moves into the professional domain of counselling in a New Zealand secondary school.  The author’s experience of a death in the school community becomes a reflecting surface for noticing the ways in which mourning rituals constitute the subjectivity of those grieving. The author suggests that her professional practice as a school guidance counsellor is shaped by her earlier personal family encounters with mourning. In particular, she suggests, the deconstruction of the stories of these encounters produced particular practices in her work with students, staff and a community touched by sudden death. 

Personal lived experiences with death and mourning are folded into the mourning school as a dynamic assemblage. In these ways, time and space are shown to meet with the temporal materiality of bodies (both alive and dead), tears, dresses, veils and fluids and their discursive implications, to produce a timespacemattering.

year: 2017

title: Methodological limitations in the evaluation of policies to reduce nitrate leaching from New Zealand agriculture

authors: Doole, Graeme J.

subjects: calibration

abstract: The land-use optimisation framework, NZFARM, has been promoted as a tool that can be used to assess the economic and environmental impacts of policy on regional land use. This paper outlines how methodological limitations presently restrict its capacity to provide meaningful insight into the relative value of alternative land-use configurations. The model is calibrated using positive mathematical programming, which has been shown in the literature to result in models that yield arbitrary output outside of the calibrated baseline. There is a high likelihood that this is the case, as no validation appears to have been carried out. Significant model development will be required before NZFARM outputs can be used with any confidence to inform future policy development. We conclude with suggestions on how NZFARM and models of its kind can be further developed to improve their capacity for meaningful simulation.

text: Methodological limitations in the evaluation of policies to reduce nitrate leaching from New Zealand agriculture The land-use optimisation framework, NZFARM, has been promoted as a tool that can be used to assess the economic and environmental impacts of policy on regional land use. This paper outlines how methodological limitations presently restrict its capacity to provide meaningful insight into the relative value of alternative land-use configurations. The model is calibrated using positive mathematical programming, which has been shown in the literature to result in models that yield arbitrary output outside of the calibrated baseline. There is a high likelihood that this is the case, as no validation appears to have been carried out. Significant model development will be required before NZFARM outputs can be used with any confidence to inform future policy development. We conclude with suggestions on how NZFARM and models of its kind can be further developed to improve their capacity for meaningful simulation.

year: 2013

title: An investigation by LA-ICP-MS of possum tooth enamel as a model for identifying childhood geographical locations of historical and archaeological human from New Zealand

authors: Cameron, Kristie Elizabeth

subjects: LA -IC P-MS

abstract: LA -IC P-MS (laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry) has been used to analyse enamel from the teeth of brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) in order to model a method for identifying the childhood geographical origin of human remains within New Zealand. The model application of the method is promising for establishing locations of historical and archaeological human remains, including preserved heads, upoko tuhi.

text: An investigation by LA-ICP-MS of possum tooth enamel as a model for identifying childhood geographical locations of historical and archaeological human from New Zealand LA -IC P-MS (laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry) has been used to analyse enamel from the teeth of brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) in order to model a method for identifying the childhood geographical origin of human remains within New Zealand. The model application of the method is promising for establishing locations of historical and archaeological human remains, including preserved heads, upoko tuhi.

year: 2012