title: A Journey Beyond the Bars: Participants' Experiences of Psychological Treatment in a Prison Setting

authors: Terrill, Damian James

subjects: Prison

abstract: This study explored the experiences of high-risk male offenders at varying stages of a prison-based residential rehabilitation programme. Information was elicited by means of 1:1 semi-structured interviews with three adult offenders: one programme completer, one approaching completion and one non-completer. The opinions of three members of unit staff (two programme facilitators and one custodial officer) were also included. Having identified a lack of process-focused qualitative research in the criminological literature, this thesis has attempted to provide an insight into the lived experiences of offenders undergoing a residential rehabilitative intervention. The results are presented through a combined postmodernist, social constructionist discourse. They identify a series of coherent themes which emphasise the importance of numerous contextual, linguistic and communicative variables in dictating the participants’ self-perspectives and engagement with treatment. I will examine in particular, the role of motivation, the importance of the therapeutic bond established between participants and therapists, the relevance of the therapeutic environment, and the impact of both bi-cultural therapy and notions of individual stigmatisation. The overall findings are related to the broader penological literature in order to inspire further experiential analyses of offenders undergoing treatment, and to offer points for consideration in the application of prison-based rehabilitative interventions.

text: A Journey Beyond the Bars: Participants' Experiences of Psychological Treatment in a Prison Setting This study explored the experiences of high-risk male offenders at varying stages of a prison-based residential rehabilitation programme. Information was elicited by means of 1:1 semi-structured interviews with three adult offenders: one programme completer, one approaching completion and one non-completer. The opinions of three members of unit staff (two programme facilitators and one custodial officer) were also included. Having identified a lack of process-focused qualitative research in the criminological literature, this thesis has attempted to provide an insight into the lived experiences of offenders undergoing a residential rehabilitative intervention. The results are presented through a combined postmodernist, social constructionist discourse. They identify a series of coherent themes which emphasise the importance of numerous contextual, linguistic and communicative variables in dictating the participants’ self-perspectives and engagement with treatment. I will examine in particular, the role of motivation, the importance of the therapeutic bond established between participants and therapists, the relevance of the therapeutic environment, and the impact of both bi-cultural therapy and notions of individual stigmatisation. The overall findings are related to the broader penological literature in order to inspire further experiential analyses of offenders undergoing treatment, and to offer points for consideration in the application of prison-based rehabilitative interventions.

year: 2010

title: Wāhine Māori engagement with literacies

authors: Masters-Awatere, Bridgette

subjects: Literacy

abstract: Wāhine Māori engagement with literacies (2023) is a case study report in collaboration with Te Whakaruruhau. It has been undertaken as part of a larger project, The expression, experience and transcendence of low skills in Aotearoa New Zealand (2019–2024), the aim of which is to provide policy recommendations to improve life-course trajectories and socio-economic outcomes for adults with low literacy and numeracy skills in Aotearoa New Zealand. Broadly speaking, Wāhine Māori engagement with literacy examines the framing and application of literacy measures in contemporary New Zealand culture. More specifically, it is about the lives and learning of wāhine (women) Māori (the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand) within that culture and their attitudes towards, and complex relationships with, literacy as it is defined in their own lives and in the current setting. The study aims for a holistic understanding of lived literacies in driving the development of educational policies by public institutions and private groups. Reframing literacy as literacies is posited as a means to empower marginalised groups and to challenge the dominance of the Eurocentric education paradigm. Formal learning in English-language schools cannot be the extent of national literacy standards as it disregards Māori epistemological and ontological realities and can discount wāhine, many of whom may prioritise other modes of literacy. Centring their perspectives will bring about a more culturally inclusive future, one that makes space for the development of emotional and cultural literacies—as well as other forms such as digital, media, visual, financial, and health literacies—alongside the conventional version of literacy that has a monopoly in the present system.

text: Wāhine Māori engagement with literacies Wāhine Māori engagement with literacies (2023) is a case study report in collaboration with Te Whakaruruhau. It has been undertaken as part of a larger project, The expression, experience and transcendence of low skills in Aotearoa New Zealand (2019–2024), the aim of which is to provide policy recommendations to improve life-course trajectories and socio-economic outcomes for adults with low literacy and numeracy skills in Aotearoa New Zealand. Broadly speaking, Wāhine Māori engagement with literacy examines the framing and application of literacy measures in contemporary New Zealand culture. More specifically, it is about the lives and learning of wāhine (women) Māori (the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand) within that culture and their attitudes towards, and complex relationships with, literacy as it is defined in their own lives and in the current setting. The study aims for a holistic understanding of lived literacies in driving the development of educational policies by public institutions and private groups. Reframing literacy as literacies is posited as a means to empower marginalised groups and to challenge the dominance of the Eurocentric education paradigm. Formal learning in English-language schools cannot be the extent of national literacy standards as it disregards Māori epistemological and ontological realities and can discount wāhine, many of whom may prioritise other modes of literacy. Centring their perspectives will bring about a more culturally inclusive future, one that makes space for the development of emotional and cultural literacies—as well as other forms such as digital, media, visual, financial, and health literacies—alongside the conventional version of literacy that has a monopoly in the present system.

year: 2023-09-28

title: Iwasawa theory for tensor products of Hilbert modular forms

authors: Corpuz, Raiza

abstract: The main conjecture of Iwasawa theory bridges two seemingly disjoint areas of mathematics: arithmetic and analysis. In particular, it provides a deep connection between the p-adic L-function which interpolates critical values of the complex L-series, and the Selmer group which is an important object used to control the growth of arithmetic data. In this thesis, we explore some questions that arise organically from the Iwasawa Main Conjecture, applied to Hilbert modular forms and their tensor products.
Greenberg and Vatsal developed an approach to study the main conjecture for a large class of elliptic curves simultaneously. They showed that if a given pair of elliptic curves share the same residual Galois representation, then the main conjecture holds for one if and only if it does for the other. The first part of this thesis investigates whether the ideas of Greenberg and Vatsal work for elliptic curves twisted by a CM-Hecke character. The second part of this thesis then extends the method to treat non-ordinary classical modular forms (without any twist). The former permits one to study rational elliptic curves base-changed to an arbitrary number field, whilst the latter requires techniques crafted by Pollack and Kobayashi in the early 2000s.
Finally, the third part of this thesis concerns Euler systems and their applications to the arithmetic of motives arising from modular forms—these objects are indispensable tools which can be used to prove half of the Iwasawa main conjecture. However they often give rise to additional “junk” error terms, as well as causing the p-adic L-function to be stripped away of certain bad Euler factors. For modular forms and their tensor products we devise a method to dispose of the error terms and to replenish the missing factors, allowing one to genuinely obtain half of the main conjecture free from any discrepancies.

text: Iwasawa theory for tensor products of Hilbert modular forms The main conjecture of Iwasawa theory bridges two seemingly disjoint areas of mathematics: arithmetic and analysis. In particular, it provides a deep connection between the p-adic L-function which interpolates critical values of the complex L-series, and the Selmer group which is an important object used to control the growth of arithmetic data. In this thesis, we explore some questions that arise organically from the Iwasawa Main Conjecture, applied to Hilbert modular forms and their tensor products.
Greenberg and Vatsal developed an approach to study the main conjecture for a large class of elliptic curves simultaneously. They showed that if a given pair of elliptic curves share the same residual Galois representation, then the main conjecture holds for one if and only if it does for the other. The first part of this thesis investigates whether the ideas of Greenberg and Vatsal work for elliptic curves twisted by a CM-Hecke character. The second part of this thesis then extends the method to treat non-ordinary classical modular forms (without any twist). The former permits one to study rational elliptic curves base-changed to an arbitrary number field, whilst the latter requires techniques crafted by Pollack and Kobayashi in the early 2000s.
Finally, the third part of this thesis concerns Euler systems and their applications to the arithmetic of motives arising from modular forms—these objects are indispensable tools which can be used to prove half of the Iwasawa main conjecture. However they often give rise to additional “junk” error terms, as well as causing the p-adic L-function to be stripped away of certain bad Euler factors. For modular forms and their tensor products we devise a method to dispose of the error terms and to replenish the missing factors, allowing one to genuinely obtain half of the main conjecture free from any discrepancies.

year: 2025