title: 'You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever': Sapphic desire, vampires, and constructing kinship

authors: Theunisz, Marie

subjects: vampire

abstract: This thesis explores the figure of the sapphic vampire in Carmilla (1872) by J. Sheridan Le
Fanu, The Blood of the Vampire (1897) by Florence Marryat, The Gilda Stories (1991) by
Jewelle Gomez, and Fledgling (2005) by Octavia Butler. I argue that these texts present the
sapphic vampire as the embodiment of the death drive and display ambiguous familial/sexual
relationships in order to challenge heteronormative constructs of family. I utilise Lee
Edelman’s arguments from No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive to analyse
vampiric, queer kinship as a future that does not focus on the child, and Kath Weston’s
Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship to unpack the concept of the chosen family
and its value for queer people who desire kin, examining the way familial structures are
broken down and biological ties rendered secondary to chosen ones. In Chapter One I analyse
the scenes in which the vampire feeds, unpacking the use of breastfeeding imagery to show
the tension between maternal roles and sapphic relationships inherent in the texts. I show how

the narratives respond to idea of love and lust, as well as their troubled relationship with post-
menopausal women. Chapter Two considers how, lacking a biological family of her own, the

sapphic vampire creates familial bonds through recruitment or reproduction. Given the
correlation these texts create between queerness and vampirism, I argue that the family
building within these narratives presents alternatives to heteronormative constructs of
kinship. Throughout I compare the contemporary texts to their Victorian counterparts, tracing
the ways in which the depictions of queer kinship that the Victorian texts had to eradicate
could be celebrated in those of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. I will explain
the significance of what has or has not changed, and how this affects or is representative of
shifts in attitude towards queer people and the families that they choose. This thesis
demonstrates the power of the desire that the literary sapphic vampire feels, and the value of
the family she chooses.

text: 'You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever': Sapphic desire, vampires, and constructing kinship This thesis explores the figure of the sapphic vampire in Carmilla (1872) by J. Sheridan Le
Fanu, The Blood of the Vampire (1897) by Florence Marryat, The Gilda Stories (1991) by
Jewelle Gomez, and Fledgling (2005) by Octavia Butler. I argue that these texts present the
sapphic vampire as the embodiment of the death drive and display ambiguous familial/sexual
relationships in order to challenge heteronormative constructs of family. I utilise Lee
Edelman’s arguments from No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive to analyse
vampiric, queer kinship as a future that does not focus on the child, and Kath Weston’s
Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship to unpack the concept of the chosen family
and its value for queer people who desire kin, examining the way familial structures are
broken down and biological ties rendered secondary to chosen ones. In Chapter One I analyse
the scenes in which the vampire feeds, unpacking the use of breastfeeding imagery to show
the tension between maternal roles and sapphic relationships inherent in the texts. I show how

the narratives respond to idea of love and lust, as well as their troubled relationship with post-
menopausal women. Chapter Two considers how, lacking a biological family of her own, the

sapphic vampire creates familial bonds through recruitment or reproduction. Given the
correlation these texts create between queerness and vampirism, I argue that the family
building within these narratives presents alternatives to heteronormative constructs of
kinship. Throughout I compare the contemporary texts to their Victorian counterparts, tracing
the ways in which the depictions of queer kinship that the Victorian texts had to eradicate
could be celebrated in those of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. I will explain
the significance of what has or has not changed, and how this affects or is representative of
shifts in attitude towards queer people and the families that they choose. This thesis
demonstrates the power of the desire that the literary sapphic vampire feels, and the value of
the family she chooses.

year: 2024

title: Technological practice in early childhood as a dispositional milieu

authors: Carr, Margaret

subjects: early childhood education

abstract: This study investigated the learning of a group of four-year-olds as they worked in the construction area of a sessional early childhood setting. The researcher participated and observed as the children constructed with cardboard, rolled painted marbles around in a box to make Jackson Pollock style paintings, added collage and paint to pictures and constructions, and screen-printed cut-out figures and shapes of various kinds. These were described as technological practices, and five of them were compared as contexts for learning dispositions.
Although the literature had provided discussion and definition of dispositions in early childhood, the connection between the psychological notion of disposition and an historically or socioculturally framed dispositional milieu had not been researched. The study investigated empirical evidence for a transactional model of the interface between learning disposition and dispositional milieu, and learning dispositions were located in discourse, narrative and technological practice. The affordance of the technology and the tools played an important part in the transaction between individual and environment, in particular the technology's transparency, challenge, and accessibility. The five technological practices were analysed as complex sociocultural worlds in which multiple discourses jostled for privileged positions, children made decisions about whether discourse membership was for display or for exploration, they tackled difficulty with enthusiasm or avoided it in imaginative ways, and they engaged with others from a range of positions of power and responsibility. These sequences of events were described as learning narratives: historically and socioculturally co­constructed event structures about goals, challenge, and agency. A learning narrative was defined, identified, and investigated. 
Learning dispositions have been defined but not specified for early childhood. This study suggests that dispositions can be interpreted as parts of a learning narrative, and for this study key dispositional domains were identified as privileged discourses, preferred responses to difficulty, and favoured patterns of responsibility. Four learning dispositions emerged from these domains: courage, mindfulness, perseverance, and responsibility. These learning dispositions find a parallel in the strands of the early childhood curriculum document for Aotearoa New Zealand, Te Whāriki. The researcher followed up the observations by interviewing the children for their viewpoint on preferred responses to difficulty using an interview that reflected their experiences back to them as a picture book. 
Although much of the learning appeared to be attached to the context, and the privileged meaning and intent for that context was a key element, the transactional nature of the learning revealed individual learning dispositions and narratives that were developing in the early years and that may be robust and enduring.

text: Technological practice in early childhood as a dispositional milieu This study investigated the learning of a group of four-year-olds as they worked in the construction area of a sessional early childhood setting. The researcher participated and observed as the children constructed with cardboard, rolled painted marbles around in a box to make Jackson Pollock style paintings, added collage and paint to pictures and constructions, and screen-printed cut-out figures and shapes of various kinds. These were described as technological practices, and five of them were compared as contexts for learning dispositions.
Although the literature had provided discussion and definition of dispositions in early childhood, the connection between the psychological notion of disposition and an historically or socioculturally framed dispositional milieu had not been researched. The study investigated empirical evidence for a transactional model of the interface between learning disposition and dispositional milieu, and learning dispositions were located in discourse, narrative and technological practice. The affordance of the technology and the tools played an important part in the transaction between individual and environment, in particular the technology's transparency, challenge, and accessibility. The five technological practices were analysed as complex sociocultural worlds in which multiple discourses jostled for privileged positions, children made decisions about whether discourse membership was for display or for exploration, they tackled difficulty with enthusiasm or avoided it in imaginative ways, and they engaged with others from a range of positions of power and responsibility. These sequences of events were described as learning narratives: historically and socioculturally co­constructed event structures about goals, challenge, and agency. A learning narrative was defined, identified, and investigated. 
Learning dispositions have been defined but not specified for early childhood. This study suggests that dispositions can be interpreted as parts of a learning narrative, and for this study key dispositional domains were identified as privileged discourses, preferred responses to difficulty, and favoured patterns of responsibility. Four learning dispositions emerged from these domains: courage, mindfulness, perseverance, and responsibility. These learning dispositions find a parallel in the strands of the early childhood curriculum document for Aotearoa New Zealand, Te Whāriki. The researcher followed up the observations by interviewing the children for their viewpoint on preferred responses to difficulty using an interview that reflected their experiences back to them as a picture book. 
Although much of the learning appeared to be attached to the context, and the privileged meaning and intent for that context was a key element, the transactional nature of the learning revealed individual learning dispositions and narratives that were developing in the early years and that may be robust and enduring.

year: 1997

title: Reducing our prison population: Past failures and new approaches

authors: Tauri, Juan Marcellus

abstract: Earlier this year the Minister of Justice, Andrew Little announced the latest in a long line of reviews, taxpayer-funded summits and inter-agency, ‘wholeof-government’ projects stretching back to the late-1980s, all aimed in some form or other, at making the criminal justice system more ‘safe’ and ‘effective’. Officially launched at a summit held in Porirua in August 2018, the aim of the latest review is to reduce New Zealand’s prison muster by 30% over the next 15 years. And unsurprisingly, given our significant over-representation in prisons, a specific focus of the review is on identifying ways to significantly reduce Māori over-representation in the prison population. This commentary represents a modest offering in response to the current government’s stated aim of making the justice system safer and more effective, and to reduce the prison muster, and it is based on two core arguments, namely that successive governments and the public service have failed to reduce offending and imprisonment and that successful solutions require community empowerment and government/public service accountability.

text: Reducing our prison population: Past failures and new approaches Earlier this year the Minister of Justice, Andrew Little announced the latest in a long line of reviews, taxpayer-funded summits and inter-agency, ‘wholeof-government’ projects stretching back to the late-1980s, all aimed in some form or other, at making the criminal justice system more ‘safe’ and ‘effective’. Officially launched at a summit held in Porirua in August 2018, the aim of the latest review is to reduce New Zealand’s prison muster by 30% over the next 15 years. And unsurprisingly, given our significant over-representation in prisons, a specific focus of the review is on identifying ways to significantly reduce Māori over-representation in the prison population. This commentary represents a modest offering in response to the current government’s stated aim of making the justice system safer and more effective, and to reduce the prison muster, and it is based on two core arguments, namely that successive governments and the public service have failed to reduce offending and imprisonment and that successful solutions require community empowerment and government/public service accountability.

year: 2019