Research Students, Department of Media, Film and Communication, University of Otago, New Zealand

Research Students

Current PhD Students

Student	Topic
Anne Begg	'Brand New Zealand: Managing and marketing a neo-liberal state through media culture and the manipulation of affective biopower.'
Clement Da Gama	'The female gothic and its cinematic legacy.'
Christine Daviault	'Finding the right fit: Women's participation in online gaming communities.'
Florian Deffner	'Mapping media-worlds: Phenomenological reflections on mediated experiences of European expatriates in Australia.'
Jim Gan	'The social dynamics of Internet piracy.'
Owain Gwynne	'The Road Goes Ever On: Fans of the Hobbit film adaptation.'
Rieko Hayakawa	'Possibility of universal service in the Pacific Islands.'
Teri Higgins	'Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours': Gender, Genre and the Contemporary Epistolary Film.'
Gabrielle Hine	'Shaping Motherhood: Representations of Pregnancy in Popular Media.'
David Hoskins	'Cinema's Class Ceiling: Portraying Working-Class Struggle and Social Change in American Film - 1900-1940.'
Shah Nister J. Kabir	'Media constructions of Muslims in Australasia: A content analysis of selected newspapers between 2005-2008.'
Rebecca Kambuta	'The wild child: Representing the unruly child across film, news media and reality television.'
Sally Milner	'Changing empire(s) and the cinematic maternal body: Melodrama and postwar European cinema.'
David Paterno	'Joining (or constrained between) Technology and Medium: Social Communication as Organizing Practice.'
Donald Reid	'A study of the use of the Gramscian theoretical model in New Zealand media.'
Erica Todd	'Representing Romance at the Movies: Passionate Love and Film Genre.'

Current MA Students

Student	Topic
Alison Cumming	'Glitter and Doom: British Glam Rock and the Carnivalesque.'
Aline Frey	'Social Cinema in Contemporary Brazilian Films.'
Max Holder	'The subject of power and the freedom of the subject in the films of Adam Curtis.'
Bernard Madill
Paul Mcmillan
Joanna Murphy	'Re-Presenting Fear: The Slasher Remake as Cumulative Hypertext.'
Peter Stapleton	'Rockumentaries, direct cinema and the politics of the 1960s.'
Matthew Ward	'Narrative innovation in contemporary American science fiction television.'

Past Theses

480/490 Dissertations completed in partial fulfilment for the degree of Bachelor of Arts(Honours)

Master of Arts

PhD

480/490 Dissertations completed in partial fulfilment for the degree Bachelor of Arts(Honours)

Apperley, Tom. 2003. "Rethinking computer games: Meaning at the intersection of virtuality and community." (BA(Hons), 2003)

Armstrong, Megan. "Harry Potter and the implied audience: Analysing a cultural phenomenon." (BA(Hons), 2003)

Aronsen, Rebecca. "From squashed cabbage leaf to Queen of Sheba: Narratives of extreme transformation and consumption in the construction of feminine subjectivity." (BA(Hons), 2004)

Bania, Max. "Myth reality and coming of age: The Vietnam War in American film." (BA(Hons), 2006)

Bowie, Antonia. "Prime time for women in popular culture: Using Sex in the City to understand female audiences."

Boyd, Jessica. “Documentary as a site for and a sign of media activism.” (BA(Hons), 2005)

Burgess, Jeremy. “Flash cartoons and simulation: The importance of production.” (BA(Hons), 2005)

Burr, Lloyd. "Fakebook? An analysis of the self-selection of images on Facebook."

Chai, Petrina. "Mapping the Malaysian Chinese student diaspora in Dunedin." (BA(Hons), 2008)

Chan, Christina. "Localising a global phenomenon: Poetic ammo and too phat keepin' it real in Malaysia."

Cherrie, James. “Scared stiff: An exploration of gameplay, narrative and horror in 'Project Zero'.” (BA(Hons), 2005)

Clark, Lucy. "Sight/Site: Rethinking spectatorship through video installation art." (BA(Hons), 2004)

Curnow, Amanda. "Film as social document: Gendered urban spaces in the ‘Neu Sachlichkeit of Weimar Cinema’." (BA(Hons), 2002)

Dean, Stephen. “The TVNZ Charter: Balancing act or mission impossible?” (BA(Hons), 2006)

de Hamel, Adam. "Protecting from Preconceptions."

Dunn, Jamie. "The time travel film: Science fiction and the time travel narrative." (BA(Hons), 2008)

Fordyce, Robbie. "The prodigal daughter: Examining female representation in 'Silent Hill 3' and 'Tomb Raider'." (BA(Hons), 2008)

Fossen, Pamela. “The fog of documentary: Morris and mutating expectation.” (BA(Hons), 2005)

Francis, Andrew James. "Illogical binary coexistance in 'The Exorcist' and 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose'." (BA(Hons), 2008)

Frengley, Kate. "Absorption and interactivity: The limits and pleasures of ‘Metal Gear Solid 2’." (BA(Hons), 2002)

Gates, James. "The hills are alive with the sound of music: Punk, Flying Nun and the ‘placing’ of popular music." (BA(Hons), 2004)

Grady, Maddie. "Exploring the cinematic: a study of still and moving images in cinema and photography." (BA(Hons), 2008)

Harvey, Janet. "Getting into porn: Spectator positions in animated and live action pornography." (BA(Hons), 2002)Higgins, Robert. “Changes in documentaries of the digital age: 'Loose Change: Second Edition' and 'Fahrenheit 9/11.'” (BA(Hons), 2006)

Higgins, Teri. “’We all go a little mad sometimes’: The psychoanalytic failure of Gus Van Sant’s remake of 'Psycho.'” (BA(Hons), 2006)

Hill, Candace. "How to frame SunSmart advertisements to influence young adults; does New Zealand frame it right?"

Hine, Gabrielle. “Exploitation of the innocent: Gender, identity and consumer culture in children’s magazines.” (BA(Hons), 2006)

Hoskins, David. “Radical spaces, revolutionary screens: Third cinema to third Screen: A genealogical interrogation.” (BA(Hons), 2005)

Isles, Heather. "Baudrillard and the mediatisation of war: The role of cinema in The Gulf War did not take place."

Johnson, Heather. "Autonomy and the object: How the history of television demonstrates the power of the people." (BA(Hons), 2005)

Jones, Helen. "Who gets to look? Females in ‘Saturday Night Fever’ (1977) and ‘Boogie Nights’" (1997). (BA(Hons), 2002)

Joseph, Amy. “Negotiating masculinity in Jim Jarmusch’s America.” (BA(Hons), 2006)

Kaiser, Kilian. “'Fight Club’s' critique of consumer society: The question of whether people buy it.” (BA(Hons), 2005)

Kassan, Roshnee. "Fair and lovely television advertising: the portrayal of beauty in globalising India."

Kastl, Matthias. “Mexican films for the new millennium: A new wave that conquers the world?” (BA(Hons), 2005)

Kerr, Danielle. "Experiencing and representing national identity: Transitions in New Zealand identity and cinema." (BA(Hons), 2002)

Lenihan, Petra. “Trauma and the Zeitgeist: The impact of modernity on the German male psyche.” (BA(Hons), 2006)

Lumsden, Dana. "Business Environmentalism: a Worthwhile Communications Strategy?"

Madill, Bernard. "Mise-en-band, voice, music and sounds as method and terminology in film soundscape ananlysis."

Malloch, Robert. "High concept, hypertext and the intertextuality of official American movie websites." (BA(Hons), 2002)

McGrath, Nick. "Cannibalising the popular: Jameson, postmodernism, and Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill'." (BA(Hons), 2008)

McLachlan, Scott. "Castles in the sky: The relationship between technology and nature in the films of Hayao Miyazaki." (BA(Hons), 2008)

McLean, Ruth. "Television in the nation: The case of New Zealand." (BA(Hons), 2004)

McSweeney, Katie. “Re-negotiatiating New Zealand national identity for the 21st Century: Linking imagined communities through Maori mythology in the film 'Whale Rider.'” (BA(Hons), 2005)

Morris, Kate. “Berry Pie Eyes ($0.50): Religion, capitalism and the instant messaging avatar.” (BA(Hons), 2005)

Murphy, Joanna. "From 'Homicidal Artist' to 'A Freak Like Me': The villains of the Batman film franchise and the socio-historical reasons behind their selection."

Naylor, Benjamin. “Comic book cinema.” (BA(Hons), 2006)

Orchard, Sarah. "Monster bash: Examining the representation of queer women in 'Monster'." (BA(Hons) , 2008)

Pendergrast, Kelly. 2003. “Feeling sick: Visceral cinema and the transgressive immanence of Bob Flanagan." (BA(Hons), 2003)

Pullar, Ellen. “Preliminary thoughts: A re-evaluation of Hitchcock, Mulvey and 'To Catch a Thief.'” (BA(Hons), 2005)

Reid, Donald. "The hard road beyond linguistic expression: Reading the Speight’s ‘Perfect Girl’ commercial in the era of the figural." (BA(Hons), 2003)

Schraa, Michael. "Difference and repetition in house music." (BA(Hons), 2004)

Scott, Katie. “Technologies of the ‘New Flesh’ in the films of David Cronenberg.” (BA(Hons), 2006)

Sinclair, Katrina. 2003. "High school is hell: An analysis of the cultural importance of television and its significance in adolescent culture through the television series,‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’." (BA(Hons), 2003)

Singer, A. Claire. "Muttersprache and memory: Responses to phallocentricity and fascism in German women’s auto-biographical film." (BA(Hons), 2002)

Stapleton, Peter. "Revolutionary Films, Revolutionary Soundtracks?: The Change to Popular Music Soundtracks within the New hollywood of the 1960s and 1970s."

Sutton, Natalie. "DubDubDub.Kiwiasbro.co.nz: The Cultural and National Representation of Aotearoa/ New Zealand via online Dub/Reggae Music Communities."

Todd, Erica. “’Big mistake’ or a new classic: The response to Pretty Woman from its release to the present.” (BA(Hons), 2006)

Ward, Mathew. "'Darkness washed over the Dude': Revisionist uses of Film Noir in the films of Joel and Ethan Coen." (BA(Hons), 2008)

Watson, Sophie. “Wrinkled woman or wise wahine?” (BA(Hons), 2006)

Waugh, Lohnet. "Deregulation, Commercialisation and One Network News."

Wilson, Heather. "Positioning the West: Iran, Islam and the veiled ‘other’: Post-revolutionary feminist film as a reformist strategy in the Islamic Republic." (BA(Hons), 2002)

Yung, Carol. “Subverting the modernist dream: Cinematic representations of modernist architecture.” (BA(Hons), 2005)

480/490 Dissertations completed in partial fulfilment for the degree Postgraduate Diploma(Arts)

Badger, Luke. "Explanatory notes from a first time cinemist or my public secret and private truth." (PGDip(Arts) 2002)

Begg, Anne. "Te reo Maori and identity politics in Aotearoa/New Zealand." (PGDip(Arts), 2003)

Collier, Robert. "Virtual fight club: Psycho-phenomenological implicature in film narrative." (PGDip(Arts), 2003)

MacMurdo-Reading, Margi. “Social and theoretical implications of the proliferation digital cameras and digital photography.” (PGDip(Arts) 2006)

Scott, Carey. "Louis Theroux's weird weekends: Cultural allegory in performative documentary." (PGDip(Arts) 2008)

Wang, Yan Han. "A cross culture comparative study between China and the U.S. in their internet privacy protection." (PG Dip, 2008)

Master of Arts

Aronsen, Rebecca. "Televising transformation: A close analysis of 'Extreme Makeover' and 'The Swan'." (MA, 2007)

Bania, Max. "Southern screeens: Locating early cinema in Dunedin." (MA, 2008)

Begg, Anne. "Bicultural nationhood in the shadow of capital." (MA, 2006)

Cameron, Allan D. "The films of Wong Kar-wai: Global culture, intertextuality and the articulation of national identity." (MA, 2003).

Collier, Robert. "The digital diegetic: Aesthetic employments for digital visual imagery in fiction film." (MA, 2009)

Greenlees, John R.A. "Romance in the time of Brezhnev: A comparative analysis of ‘Moscow Distrust Tears’ and ‘Brief Encounters’" (MA, 2002).

Gwynne, Owaine. "'State course and speed'. Searching for the fan through the hyperdiegetic world of Blake's 7'' (MA, 2009)

Higgins, Teri. "Narratives of desperation: 'Genre, gender, and 'Desperate Housewives'." (MA, 2008)

Hine, Gabrielle. "Jailbait, eye candy and lollipops: Adolescent subjectivity, femininity and sexuality in 'Little Miss Sunshine' (2006), 'Thirteen' (2003) and 'American Beauty' (1999)" (MA, 2007)

Hoskins, David. "John Grierson, the NZNFU and the art of propaganda." (MA, 2007)

Kastl, Matthias. "Reconsidering national cinema in the age of globalisation: A case study of contemporary Mexican cinema." (MA, 2007)

Kontour, Kyle. "Notions of biculturalism in New Zealand 1980's cinema and the role of the New Zealand Film Commission." (MA, 2002).

Mulder, Fiona. "Visualising Anzac." (MA, 2009)

Polson, Helen. "Past /Presence: The performer's body and aesthetic theories of representation." (MA, 2002).

Pullar, Ellen. "Anna Sten: Forgotten Star." (MA, 2007)

Reid, Donald. "Cultural citizenship and the TVNZ charter: The possibility for multicultural representation in the commercial television environment." (MA, 2005)

Schraa, Michael. "Creating complex spaces in music video: The case of Michel Gondry." (MA. 2009)

Seltzer, Jared Monath. "Making the pitch: the international promotion of New Zealnd film." (MA, 2006

Sorrell, Ursula. "The other side of the contemporary teen queen: An examination of the compelling structures of music video." (MA, 2005)

Valentine, Logan. "The Subject of the Cell Phone" (MA, 2009)

Yeoman, Lachlan. "The re-embodied posthuman: Cyborg subjectivity in 'Ghost in the Shell' and 'The Matrix'." (MA, 2008)

PhD

Brady, Anita. "Constituting queer: Performativity and commodity culture." (PhD, 2007)

Broege, Stephanie. "Mobile New Zealand: A multi-method comparative study of cell phone use." (PhD 2008)

Evans, Victoria. "Douglas Sirk: Aesthetic modernism, and the culture of modernity." (PhD, 2008)

Fossen, Pamela. "Errol Morris and the art of history." (phD, 2009)

Heinrich, Ansgard. "Network journalism: Journalistic practice in interactive spheres." (PhD, 2008)

Smith, Joanne T. "Postcolonial theory and the faciality machine" (PhD, 2002)

Copies of these essays are available for short-term loan. MA and PhD theses from Central Library, University of Otago. Honours and PGDip(Arts) theses available from Departmental Administrator.