title: Limitations and possibilities: Representations of gender transition in Western fiction, 1928-2018

authors: Bowden, Chelsea Anne

subjects: Gender

abstract: This thesis seeks to understand how fictional texts encounter queer genders and what they have to say about what it means to be trans* or have nonconforming gender. Identifying and critiquing the tropes and conventions at work in a selection of Western fictional transition narratives ranging in publication from 1928 to 2018, this thesis operates as a journey of pursuit and discovery, searching for texts that destabilise hegemonic understandings of gender. With a focus on the value of challenging stereotypes, resisting binaries and embracing notions of fluidity and multiplicity, this thesis begins by interrogating texts that fail to disturb the status quo. The thesis then compares popular genre fiction novels with twentieth-century literary fiction to reveal the complex possibilities available for exploring and representing gender identity, asking the questions, “what is failing in popular fiction representations?”, “how is it failing?” and “why is it failing?”
This thesis offers careful analysis of contemporary popular genre fiction narratives published since 2000. All these texts focus on moments and processes of transition. The limitations of these narratives are then juxtaposed with Armistead Maupin’s nine-book series Tales of the City and the twentieth-century literary fiction of Angela Carter and Virginia Woolf. By interrogating the patterns of representation emerging from contemporary popular genre texts and comparing them with Maupin’s attempts at subversion and the complexity at work in Woolf’s and Carter’s writing, this thesis reveals that texts failing to resist dominant ideologies are too concerned with offering safe and sympathetic portrayals that follow the rules of literary tradition and reinforce social expectations of gender. These texts pathologise trans* experience, rely on closed narrative conventions and repeat interchangeable messages about safety, conformity and congruence. Overall, this thesis reveals a pattern of increasing conservatism over time. The inclusion of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve exemplify possibilities for queering both narrative and representation when, instead of being concerned about issues such as social acceptance and political correctness, texts focus on the power of experimentation, destabilisation and subversion. 
Gender, like concepts of the self, is an ongoing process – it is capable of being fluid and multiple, of disrupting hegemonic expectations of consistency and congruence. This thesis argues that this complexity can best be explored in fictional representations that seek to deconstruct not just gender but also literary tradition itself.

text: Limitations and possibilities: Representations of gender transition in Western fiction, 1928-2018 This thesis seeks to understand how fictional texts encounter queer genders and what they have to say about what it means to be trans* or have nonconforming gender. Identifying and critiquing the tropes and conventions at work in a selection of Western fictional transition narratives ranging in publication from 1928 to 2018, this thesis operates as a journey of pursuit and discovery, searching for texts that destabilise hegemonic understandings of gender. With a focus on the value of challenging stereotypes, resisting binaries and embracing notions of fluidity and multiplicity, this thesis begins by interrogating texts that fail to disturb the status quo. The thesis then compares popular genre fiction novels with twentieth-century literary fiction to reveal the complex possibilities available for exploring and representing gender identity, asking the questions, “what is failing in popular fiction representations?”, “how is it failing?” and “why is it failing?”
This thesis offers careful analysis of contemporary popular genre fiction narratives published since 2000. All these texts focus on moments and processes of transition. The limitations of these narratives are then juxtaposed with Armistead Maupin’s nine-book series Tales of the City and the twentieth-century literary fiction of Angela Carter and Virginia Woolf. By interrogating the patterns of representation emerging from contemporary popular genre texts and comparing them with Maupin’s attempts at subversion and the complexity at work in Woolf’s and Carter’s writing, this thesis reveals that texts failing to resist dominant ideologies are too concerned with offering safe and sympathetic portrayals that follow the rules of literary tradition and reinforce social expectations of gender. These texts pathologise trans* experience, rely on closed narrative conventions and repeat interchangeable messages about safety, conformity and congruence. Overall, this thesis reveals a pattern of increasing conservatism over time. The inclusion of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve exemplify possibilities for queering both narrative and representation when, instead of being concerned about issues such as social acceptance and political correctness, texts focus on the power of experimentation, destabilisation and subversion. 
Gender, like concepts of the self, is an ongoing process – it is capable of being fluid and multiple, of disrupting hegemonic expectations of consistency and congruence. This thesis argues that this complexity can best be explored in fictional representations that seek to deconstruct not just gender but also literary tradition itself.

year: 2022

title: Cheese Machines and Cellos:  Technical Craftsmen and Craft Technicians

authors: Wanigasekera, Gwenda Dorothy

subjects: Ethnography

abstract: The study is based on a period of ethnographic research among approximately thirty tradesmen, apprentices, supervisors and related personnel at a medium-sized precision engineering company in Hamilton, New Zealand. The company specialises in high quality niche products and machinery for the dairy, aviation and medical technology industries. Its work involves a wide variety of engineering crafts and practices. 

My aim was to better understand the work that was done there, the elements of skilled and expert practice involved in it; how these skills were learned and from whom, and what they meant to those who held them. I wanted to find out which people and what conditions and environments best enabled the acquisition of skills and a good learning experience. By way of comparison to this main group, I interviewed a smaller number of craftspeople in the wider community: a fine furniture maker, a printmaker, a ceramicist and two luthiers, all of whom worked independently. 

This ethnography is located within a wider literature on apprenticeship, skill and education, and about what it means to be a “maker of things” (e.g. Beeby 1992; Biesta 2006; De Munck, Kaplan and Soly 2007; Dormer 1994, 1997; Keep 2007, 2009; Sennett 2008). I also draw on ethnographic discussions by other scholars who have described skilled practices and ways of learning in diverse social and cultural contexts (e.g. Coy 1989; Crawford 2009; Eraut 2001, 2002; Keller and Keller 1996; Lave 1988, 2011; Marchand 2003, 2010).

My ethnographic data provides a rich description of a contemporary industrial workplace where learning involves both practical and theoretical knowledge and creative ability. The findings demonstrate that successful learning on the shop floor (and in the other examples given) is the result of a complex amalgam of disparate elements. The learning and teaching in these workplaces are sometimes structured and sometimes serendipitous. They are embedded in and arise from the processes of creativity, analysis, manufacture and reflection. They involve not only what takes place at the worksites but also the qualities and dispositions and histories of learning, both formal and informal, that the participants bring to their work. 

The development of skill and the acquisition of knowledge are shown to be complex and deeply personal and individual phenomena that are best nurtured in environments rich in materials, opportunity and experience, and in cooperation with interested, capable and expert “others”. This complexity is not easily represented in or catered for by current forms of educational assessment in New Zealand. 

A further and largely unexpected dimension of the study was my growing awareness of my own apprenticeship as a practitioner of ethnography, including my location as a participant observer in the actual field of study. This experience invariably led me to reflect further on the processes of apprenticeship, education and learning.

text: Cheese Machines and Cellos:  Technical Craftsmen and Craft Technicians The study is based on a period of ethnographic research among approximately thirty tradesmen, apprentices, supervisors and related personnel at a medium-sized precision engineering company in Hamilton, New Zealand. The company specialises in high quality niche products and machinery for the dairy, aviation and medical technology industries. Its work involves a wide variety of engineering crafts and practices. 

My aim was to better understand the work that was done there, the elements of skilled and expert practice involved in it; how these skills were learned and from whom, and what they meant to those who held them. I wanted to find out which people and what conditions and environments best enabled the acquisition of skills and a good learning experience. By way of comparison to this main group, I interviewed a smaller number of craftspeople in the wider community: a fine furniture maker, a printmaker, a ceramicist and two luthiers, all of whom worked independently. 

This ethnography is located within a wider literature on apprenticeship, skill and education, and about what it means to be a “maker of things” (e.g. Beeby 1992; Biesta 2006; De Munck, Kaplan and Soly 2007; Dormer 1994, 1997; Keep 2007, 2009; Sennett 2008). I also draw on ethnographic discussions by other scholars who have described skilled practices and ways of learning in diverse social and cultural contexts (e.g. Coy 1989; Crawford 2009; Eraut 2001, 2002; Keller and Keller 1996; Lave 1988, 2011; Marchand 2003, 2010).

My ethnographic data provides a rich description of a contemporary industrial workplace where learning involves both practical and theoretical knowledge and creative ability. The findings demonstrate that successful learning on the shop floor (and in the other examples given) is the result of a complex amalgam of disparate elements. The learning and teaching in these workplaces are sometimes structured and sometimes serendipitous. They are embedded in and arise from the processes of creativity, analysis, manufacture and reflection. They involve not only what takes place at the worksites but also the qualities and dispositions and histories of learning, both formal and informal, that the participants bring to their work. 

The development of skill and the acquisition of knowledge are shown to be complex and deeply personal and individual phenomena that are best nurtured in environments rich in materials, opportunity and experience, and in cooperation with interested, capable and expert “others”. This complexity is not easily represented in or catered for by current forms of educational assessment in New Zealand. 

A further and largely unexpected dimension of the study was my growing awareness of my own apprenticeship as a practitioner of ethnography, including my location as a participant observer in the actual field of study. This experience invariably led me to reflect further on the processes of apprenticeship, education and learning.

year: 2013

title: Maori & Psychology Research Unit annual report 2009

authors: Rua, Mohi

subjects: Maori and Psychology Research Unit

abstract: Annual report of the Maori and Psychology Research Unit (MPRU) 2009. The unit was established in August of 1997. The unit is designed to provide a catalyst and support network for enhancing research concerning the psychological needs, aspirations, and priorities of Maori people. The MPRU is well situated to draw together skilled and experienced interdisciplinary research groups by networking and establishing working relationships with staff and students within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the University, and the wider community.

text: Maori & Psychology Research Unit annual report 2009 Annual report of the Maori and Psychology Research Unit (MPRU) 2009. The unit was established in August of 1997. The unit is designed to provide a catalyst and support network for enhancing research concerning the psychological needs, aspirations, and priorities of Maori people. The MPRU is well situated to draw together skilled and experienced interdisciplinary research groups by networking and establishing working relationships with staff and students within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the University, and the wider community.

year: 2010