Monday 4 June 2018 8:40am
The Department of Politics has had an exceptional 18 months (2017-2018) in producing a raft of PhDs and an outstanding MA (by thesis). Altogether, ten PhDs (primarily supervised by staff in Politics), plus another PhD in which staff played a secondary supervisory role, graduated – the most ever in the 51-year history of the Department. Ruby O’Connor produced an exceptional MA thesis, for which she received the Didem Yaman prize. This prize is awarded in the Department for the best MA thesis, and commemorates Didem Yaman, our PhD student who tragically died in the Christchurch earthquake of February 2011.
Below, some detail about the graduates, listed in the order in which they graduated.
Eduardo Abou Ltaif
The Development of Consociational Politics in Lebanon 1825-2015
Supervisors:
Professor William Harris
Associate Professor James Headley
Eduardo Wassim Aboultaif came to Otago with an MA from the American University of Beirut. He has returned to Lebanon, and has obtained part-time work at the Lebanese American University while he searches for a longer-term position. Eduardo has been successful on gaining a contract with Routledge Publishers to convert his thesis into a book.
Eduardo’s doctoral thesis concerns the application of a version of consociational politics in Lebanon since the 1840s. Eduardo tests the operation (and periodic crises) of Lebanon’s multi-communal political pluralism against Arend Lijphart’s consociational framework for conducting fair, representative, stable democratic politics in societies that are conglomerates of distinctive ethnic or sectarian communities. He offers innovative consideration of the roles of external powers and local elites together with the impacts of communal memory, trauma, and mobilisation. Eduardo incorporates comparison of Lebanon’s performance in managing communal division with Northern Ireland, Belgium, and Iraq.
Byron Richards
The Dollar-Wall street regime and New Zealand: political implications of financial market 1994 to 2011
Supervisors:
Associate Professor Brian Roper
Dr Chris Rudd
Anthropology
Byron Richards was the recipient of several undergraduate scholarships and awards and completed a BA Hons (First Class) in Classical Studies and Political Studies. His PhD in Politics was on ‘The dollar-wall street regime and New Zealand’ and looked at the political implications of financial market liberalisation for macroeconomic management in New Zealand from 1994 to 2011.
Tim Ferner
Making Government Accountable: The Case of Whistle-Blowing in the United States Department of Defense
Supervisors:
Professor Robert Patman
Professor Philip Nel
Dr Chris Rudd
Tim Ferner uncovered a fascinating PhD topic whilst on active duty with the United States Air Force. “I uncovered some very significant contract fraud and the only way to end the fraud was for me to become a whistle-blower” he says. “The process was extremely difficult for me both professionally and personally. Based upon my personal experience I became interested in what if any role whistle-blowers play in maintaining good governance and accountability. My PhD looks at the important role that whistle-blowers play in maintaining good governance and accountability in the US Department of Defence.”
At 55 years old, Tim has discovered that there isn’t a huge need for middle aged PhD graduates in the workforce but as he and his wife are keen to stay in NZ, he is considering all options. One option is retraining as a vet so he can keep body and mind active whilst caring for animals on their lifestyle block.
Jib Withitwinyuchon
The Trials of Rivalry: Sino-Japanese Relations since the 1910s
Supervisors:
Professor Philip Nel
Dr Nicholas Khoo
Nutthathiratta (Jib) Withitwinyuchon joined us in 2014 after completing a Masters at the International University in Japan. Her PhD thesis focused on the ups-and-downs of the rivalry between China and Japan, and she developed a multidimensional explanation for the variance observed.
Jib currently a Lecturer and Assistant Dean at Rangsit University, one of the major private universities in Thailand. She teaches International Politics, Thai Business and Government, Thai Government and Politics, Regionalism in East Asia, ASEAN Integration, International Organizations, and World History. She is also director of the M.A. programme at Rangsit, and is working on a book on Sino-Japanese rivalry that expands on the arguments made in her PhD dissertation.
Del Carlini
The politics of military adaptation: The development of a theoretical framework to explain military adaptation's importance to politics
Supervisors:
Professor Robert Patman
Dr Chris Rudd
He has developed a theoretical framework called the Rate of In-Conflict Adaptation (ROICA) that assists the assessment of what hinders and enhances the ability to adapt. He looked specifically at US forces and in particular applied his theoretical framework in a case study of military adaptation by the US Marine Corps.
The experience of being a PhD student with the Department of Politics at the University of Otago has been deeply fulfilling, says Del. Entering the PhD programme following a 25 year career in business strategy and communications enabled him to delve deeply into areas of interest that had fascinated him. Del had always read military history and strategy and used that as thinking tools in his business strategy work. Another benefit of the PhD programme was how Del’s network of people within armed forces in the United States developed. During the research he visited military bases in the United States and engaged with a diverse range of uniformed and civilian defence personnel.
Chris Meikle
Ethical Norm Promotion in European Union Foreign Policy: Responding to the Arab Uprisings in the Southern Neighbourhood
Supervisors:
Associate Professor James Headley
Dr Nicholas Khoo
Chris was with the Department of Politics throughout his studies, joining as a ‘mature student’ in 2007. He completed his BA(Hons) in 2010, gaining first class Honours and jointly winning the William Kennedy prize for best dissertation. He subsequently received a distinction in the Master of International Studies before going on to his PhD. Early in his Honours year, he cut off his dreadlocks, put on long trousers and knuckled down to work.
In his thesis, Chris examined the Europe Union’s response to the Arab Uprisings, which occurred in what the EU likes to call its ‘southern neighbourhood’. The Uprisings had potential knock-on effects on the EU but also presented the challenge of whether the EU would live up to its rhetoric of promoting its own values (democracy, rule of law, human rights) in its foreign policy, in general, and in the MENA region, in particular. Challenging the literature on ‘Normative Power Europe’, Chris argued that despite a steady rhetorical commitment to ethical norm promotion in the region, the EU has consistently prioritised issues such as security and migration, with the exception of its immediate response to the uprisings in 2011.
Chris is now living at the centre of the subject of his PhD, Brussels, with his long-time partner who is from France. He is a self-employed teacher, providing English courses and IELTS exam preparation at a private language school, and Advanced Business English courses to Belgian companies. He is also currently preparing courses in democracy, human rights, political philosophy, EU studies and IR theory, for the Masters programme at a tertiary communications school.
Nilay Baycar
Democratisation Progress in Turkey Under the Justice and Development Party 2002 to 2014
Supervisors:
Professor William Harris
Dr Najibullah Lafraie
Nilay Baycar Aydoğan is from Turkey, and came to us after completing her thesis Masters degree at Leibniz Universität Hannover in Germany. Nilay married while in Dunedin, and has been busy looking after her infant daughter Elif.
Nilay’s doctoral thesis dissects the democratic progress of Turkey from 2002 to 2014, when the newly formed Justice and Development Party (JDP) first and continuously held office. Since the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the secular constitution has excluded Islamic political parties, and Turkey’s democratic journey has suffered setbacks as a result. The JDP was created in 2001 to address the political impasse of a secular constitution in a Muslim nation. Its leaders came from Islamic parties, but they disavowed political Islam and committed themselves to democratic pluralism. Nilay concludes that despite questioning of its democratic credentials, the JDP buttressed democratisation during the study period. This of course contrasts with subsequent conditions.
Luca J. Uberti
Good Governance, Corruption and Growth: A political Economy of Post-Socialist Industrial Transformation in Albania & Kosovo, 1998-2015
Supervisors:
Professor Philip Nel
Associate Professor James Headley
Luca J. Uberti graduated in December 2017 with a thesis on the relationship between governance, corruption and industrial transformation in post-socialist Albania and Kosovo. His PhD thesis has been placed on the Dean’s List of Exceptional Theses, a rare honour bestowed only on the very best of PhDs. In his thesis, Italian-born and Albanian-speaking Luca used data from an original enterprise survey to examine the effects of corruption and anti-corruption on firm performance in post-socialist Albania and Kosovo. Existing approaches in both development practice and academia maintain that corruption - the abuse of entrusted authority for private gain - is invariably deleterious for economic growth. Taking a more nuanced political-sociological perspective, Luca argues that corruption can lead to either good or bad outcomes depending on how it is organised - who bribes whom to get what. Both his statistical analysis and the case-study evidence corroborate this perspective, lending credence to theories of corruption that challenge the easy, moralistic condemnation implicit in many academic and policy approaches to corruption.
In September 2017, he joined the Department of Politics at the University of Oslo (UiO), working as part of a research project on "Disentangling the Economic Effects of Political Institutions" (DEEPI). His current research uses large-N datasets to investigate empirically the impact of corruption and property rights institutions on long-run economic growth. Luca also maintains a strong interest in the politics and economics of the Balkan region (Albania and Kosovo, in particular). Not only have his papers appeared in high-quality publications with a regional focus (e.g. East European Politics, Economics of Transition). His expertise in the Balkan region informs and complements his broader interests in the area of economic development and post-socialist transition. Luca published six papers in peer-reviewed journals while he was a PhD student at Otago, and has published three more since joining the Department of Political Science at UiO.
Carolijn van Noort
The Strategic Narratives of the BRICS: A Coherent Story?
Supervisors:
Dr Chris Rudd
Dr Hugh Slotten (Media, Film and Communication)
Breaking new ground, Carolijn applied the concept of strategic narrative to analyse the way in which the BRICS states are situating themselves in global politics, evaluating whether the story that they tell of themselves, and their agenda, constitutes a coherent whole. In preparing the thesis, she did fieldwork in all of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) After submitting her thesis, Carolijn enjoyed the generous Publishing Bursary from the University of Otago and submitted two articles, of which one is already published in the International Journal of Cultural Policy.
In December, Carolijn left New Zealand to return to her family and friends in Europe. As a great surprise on her flight home, she received a positive call about one of her job applications. Since January, Carolijn has been working as a Lecturer in Politics and Public Policy for the School of Media, Culture & Society, University of the West of Scotland, at the London Campus. She teaches modules for the MSc in Policy Analysis and Global Governance. Carolijn teaches a great group of students in London, enjoys the lively debates in class and enjoys working with her colleagues. Furthermore, she is actively writing new articles in the area of strategic narratives, in particular, exploring the strategic narratives of the One Belt One Road Initiative with a focus on Central Asia.
Darren Russell
Contemporary Rangatiratanga: Do Treaty Settlements enable Rangatira to exercise Rangatiratanga?
Supervisors:
Professor Janine Hayward
Te Tumu
Darryn Russell was the Director of the Office of Māori Development at Otago University until 2010. In 2011 he moved to Christchurch to take up the position of Assistant Vice Chancellor Māori at the University of Canterbury. At the same time, he enrolled part-time in his PhD studies at Otago, jointly supervised by Prof Janine Hayward (Politics) and Professor Poia Rewi (Te Tumu). Darryn's thesis investigated the impact the Treaty settlement process has on Māori leadership, asking whether Treaty settlements allow rangatira (chiefs) to exercise rangatiratanga (chiefly authority), using the case studies of Ngāi Tahu and Ngati Whatua settlements with the Crown.
Ruby O'Connor (MA)
Ideologies of the Asylum Seeker Debate in Australia: A Comparative Study
Supervisor: Associate Professor Brian Roper
Ruby received the Department’s Didem Yaman Master of Arts Prize in 2017. Her MA thesis was a comparative study of the ‘Ideologies of the Asylum Seeker Debate in Australia’. In 2017 she was also a teaching fellow for the Politics Department and convened POLS207 Environmental Politics.
Chris Hacon
The algorithmic subject: the neo-liberal apparatus and the social media technology of power.
Supervisors:
Media, Film and Communication
Associate Professor Brian Roper
Sarah Harrison (MPH)
Framing the Health Implications and Opportunities of Climate Change in New Zealand’s Online Media
Supervisors:
DSM - Preventive and Social Medicine
Dr Chris Rudd