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Music and Dramaturgy: Opera and beyond. A composer/singer perspective
Get PDFThis thesis discusses different approaches to the composition of opera and new music theatre that include the perspective of the performer-composer as an important element contributing to the creative process. Among these approaches are: collaborative composition; transdisciplinary approaches, acoustic composition with electronic elements including traditional instruments and found objects; the inclusion
of the instrumental (as well as vocal) performers on stage; incorporating dancers as part of the score; approaches to composition that include certain degree of improvisation; writing for one’s own voice; employing a multilingual libretto; staged
concert music; and the relationship between music and dramaturgy among others. These different approaches to composition are discussed in relation to my own work included in the portfolio
False news discourse online: corpus-assisted discourse analyses
Get PDFThis thesis examines the discourse characteristics of online false news articles using a mixed-method corpus-assisted discourse approach. The study employs three corpus-assisted analytical methods: move analysis (MA), key semantic domains analysis (KSDA), and multidimensional analysis (MDA) to analyse online false news articles in terms of discourse structure, discursive news values, and stylistic patterns respectively, with the goal of understanding how false news influences its audience. The corpus includes 137 verifiably online false news articles (totalling 106,673 words) on climate change, vaccination, and COVID-19. It also includes a comparative corpus consisting of 548 news articles (totalling 350,798 words) from reliable and reputable broadsheets, tabloids, web-based publications, and blogs covering the same topics.
The MA findings indicate that the primary goal of false news articles is challenging mainstream narratives. This aim is reflected in the discourse structure of false news articles, which combines elements of expository, narrative, and argumentative genres. The KSDA uncovers that false news discourse emphasises meanings constructing unique news values, such as scepticism, corroboration, causality, mysticism, and historicity. The MDA showed that false news shares stylistic similarities with traditional and reliable news sources, especially broadsheets. Both false news and broadsheets exhibit informational, involved, narrative, and expository styles. However, false news differs from all other news types in that it does not tend to use an explicitly advocating style. Overall, the study reveals that these similarities and distinctive characteristics contribute to the persuasive and viral impact of false news discourse.
The study highlights the significant threat posed by false news, noting that false news can gain credibility and traction by imitating credible journalism and that false news can be difficult to detect by detection algorithms based on surface-level stylistic features. Moreover, the study emphasises that the key factor for the linguistic variations between false news and true news is false news’s primary goal of challenging mainstream narratives. Recognizing the contradictory nature of false news compared to established narratives and the potential for audience low credulity, false news writers strategically design their discourse to appeal to audiences in a manner distinct from true news. This finding underscores the pervasive issues of scepticism and information crisis in society. The thesis concludes with a reflection on the corpus and the mixed-method approach, as well as recommendations for future research and practical implications
“Nipping crime in the bud”: local magistracy and the criminalisation of juveniles in Staffordshire and Shropshire c.1810-c1860.
Get PDFThis thesis examines the criminalisation of juveniles in two neighbouring English counties – Staffordshire and Shropshire – between circa 1810 and 1860. It builds on the investigations of Peter King and Heather Shore to offer a new understanding of how juvenile behaviour and childhood were redefined in the nineteenth century and how toleration of once minor acts of misbehaviour diminished when fears surrounding idle youths intensified as society was transformed by urbanisation and industrialisation. It reappraises explanations behind the seemingly growing numbers of committals found in each county and the role of magistrates in creating this result, their self-awareness of their role and their efforts to find alternative penal regimes more suitable for a subsection of vulnerable criminals. Underutilised newspaper records of impassioned Quarter Session debates are used to illuminate the often-dry reporting of official committee records and to reveal the motivations and different opinions held by men who are often erroneously portrayed in previous histories as a homogenous entity shaped by desires of control and paternalism. Combining cross-referenced official court documents, census records, and colonial transportation logs allows a closer picture of the juveniles themselves to be uncovered – including their experiences in Tasmania – and fleshes out the criminal biographies of individuals that are otherwise obscured in official court documentation or anonymously represented in statistics in classical historical approaches. This thesis offers quantitative research alongside new perspectives with which to measure the rhetoric of the magistrates in charge of juvenile justice. Utilising micro-historical methods of record linkage provides a deep picture of individual juvenile criminals and allows their criminal associations to be reconstructed. It critiques the accuracy of the ruling magistrates’ assumptions about juvenile criminals and assesses the reasons behind decisions to alter the course of juvenile punishment in mid-Victorian England. The actions of the most impassioned magistrates exacerbated the numbers of juveniles committed to gaols and, as local justice was largely overseen by these men, it is only through local investigation that the move towards reform and reclamation in the mid-century can be fully understood. This thesis analyses the mechanisms behind juvenile criminalisation during the nineteenth century and the role of the local magistracy through a multi-perspective analysis that combines both traditional and novel methods of historical study
Emotion and impegno in Italian migration cinema
Get PDFThis thesis investigates how emotion functions in Italian migration cinema to reinforce political and ideological narratives. That is, it considers how an analysis of emotional engagement can aid our understanding of a film’s level of impegno (socio-political commitment). Since the 1990s, immigration to Italy has increasingly become a topic of public and political discourse, which has led to numerous filmmakers interpreting the phenomenon. This thesis explores this growing corpus by analysing films from the period 2005-2018 which engage with the theme of immigration to Italy, whether by depicting the recent arrival of migrants in Italy (films such as Once You Are Born You Can No Longer Hide and Mediterranea), or the experiences of first-generation Italians who are the children of immigrants (such as Good morning Aman and Lezioni di cioccolato 2).
The thesis provides an in-depth analysis of seven films to question how emotional engagement with a film can lead to ethical reflection of socio-political issues, and conversely how it can also reinforce problematic and exclusionary discourses surrounding immigration. Within this thesis, films are analysed for the ways in which they engage with the topics of migration, national identity and belonging. Therefore, impegno is understood as the ability to challenge hegemonic powers and discourses which both impact the experiences of migrants and reinforce limited conceptions of Italian national identity.
The theoretical framework draws on cognitive and phenomenological film theories to interrogate how films encourage emotional and empathic responses from audiences which function in relation to political and ideological narratives surrounding immigration and national identity, taking into consideration intersecting notions such as gender, sexuality, and race. In doing so, this thesis demonstrates how emotional and empathic engagement can contribute to a film’s ability to challenge or reinforce dominant and exclusionary conceptions of national identity and belonging. It contributes to discussions of cinema d’impegno by reconsidering how socio-political narratives and emotion work together in the cinematic experience in ethically significant ways
“Our lives are completely different to anyone else”: An exploration into the experiences of Pakistani parents’ accessing and engaging with services and professionals who work together to support children with special educational needs and disabilities and their families
Get PDFSchool census data from 2005 to 2011 showed that students from minoritised ethnic groups such as Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds were half as likely to be identified with autism as their white British peers (Strand & Lindorff, 2018). This may be the consequence of parents not engaging with services and professionals who work to support children and their families with SEND due to their limited understanding or awareness of SEND. Research highlights that minoritised ethnic communities experience significant difficulties in accessing and engaging with services due to factors such as power imbalances, communication difficulties and lack of knowledge of the roles of professionals and services (Akbar & Woods, 2020; Lawrence et al., 2014; Nnalue & Mahmud, 2024). To date, there is limited research on minoritised ethnic communities accessing and engaging with services conducted in their own language.
This research aimed to explore the experiences of five Pakistani parents accessing and engaging with services and professionals working together to support children and their families with SEND. Participants were parents who identified as belonging to the Pakistani community, with a child with SEND and they had been through the EHCP process. Semi-structured interviews in Urdu were used to gain the views of the parents. Inductive analysis was applied to develop key themes from the parents’ views of their experiences. Reflexive thematic analysis was used as a method to analyse data and the theoretical assumptions and researcher’s prior knowledge, and experience were used to guide this.
The results indicated facilitators and barriers for parents accessing and engaging with services and professionals who work together to support children and their families with SEND. Barriers for parents included access to services including awareness and understanding of services. They also included parents not feeling valued during decision making processes and delays in accessing support. Other barriers included relationships between professionals and parents including communication difficulties and their perceptions of services and professionals. Facilitating factors included parental motivation and advocacy, open and honest communication between parents and professionals and flexibility of professionals. A key implication of this research was that that parents would prefer the negotiation model, where parents and professionals are able to negotiate and work together collaboratively. However, this may not be the case, dependent on their confidence levels, and their personal journey and attitudes towards disability
Disordered alkali-niobates for use as a sodium-ion battery anode material
Get PDFNanostructured and disordered materials have been shown to possess improved and emergent properties which are distinct from the bulk material. Top-down and bottom up nanostructuring methods of alkali-niobates have been explored in this study. The synthesis of three nanostructured phases is demonstrated, two of which are 2D nanostructured materials showing turbostatic disorder based on the layered structure of KNb3O8 and K4Nb6O17. The third nanostructured niobate shows a very high degree of disorder, posing challenges in characterisation, however was determined to be a corner sharing niobate structure. Solid state structural analysis was carried out using x-ray diffraction (XRD), x-ray pair distribution function (XPDF), microscopy and Raman spectroscopy.
Alkaline-niobates are electronically active, this has mostly been investigated as a lithium-ion anode material, however little is known about their capabilities as a sodium-ion battery anode material. Due to increasing supply chain risks and our ever depleting lithium resource it is imperative global energy storage systems are diversified
to meet the energy demands of our growing populations. Sodium-ion batteries have potential cost, safety and resource-availability advantages over lithium-ion batteries, albeit generally with some loss of energy density, which is not a concern for stationary battery applications.
KNb3O8, HNb3O8 and the three aforementioned nanostructured niobates were studied within sodium half cell, coin cells by galvanostatic (dis)charge and cyclic voltammetry (CV). HNb3O8 showed the highest capacity (122.0 mAhg-1 after 20 cycles at 3mAg-1) consistent with previous work, theorised to be due to the small interlayer ion H+. The
nanostructured materials showed poorer capacities, however the 2D nanomaterials of KNb3O8 and K4Nb6O17 showed almost no capacity loss when comparing the 20th cycle capacity at rates of 10 mAhg-1 and 40 mAhg-1, whilst crystalline KNb3O8 showed a capacity loss of over 50 %. Most interestingly, at a rate of 3 mAhg-1, coin cells made from KNb3O8:C:CMC (7:1.5:1.5) anode coatings were found to show capacity increase from 161 mAhg-1 (second cycle) to 200 mAhg-1 (15th cycle), an increase of around 25 %.To the best of our knowledge, a new phenomena which has not been previously reported. The same coating made with PVDF (Poly(vinylidene fluoride)) binder instead of CMC (sodium carboxymethyl cellulose) binder did not exhibit this behaviour, therefore, this
increase in capacity is most likely related to the superior stability of CMC over PVDF in this system.
These results indicate the careful choice of nanostructure and electrode-level fabrication methods (e.g. binder) have the potential to optimise capacity, capacity retention and power capabilities
Development of novel super-resolution and volume imaging techniques for visualising cellular function and ultrastructure in biomedical applications
Get PDFFluorescence and electron microscopy are at the forefront of resolving the complex intracellular dynamics at the cellular nanoscale, a task that continues to push the limits of biomedical research.
Within this thesis significant advancements in cellular nanoscale imaging are achieved through the development of novel super-resolution and volumetric imaging techniques. Central to this work is the custom-built super-resolution microscope, which underpins the methodological advancements elaborated in the subsequent chapters. These developments tackle key challenges in microscopy, including determining the degree of labelling for protein-tags, preserving fluorophores in acrylic resins for correlative light-electron microscopy (CLEM) and implementing novel super-resolution microscopy techniques in a cellular context.
Furthermore, the thesis demonstrates the utilisation of advanced super-resolution techniques in various biomedical applications. It unravels the structural changes of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells in a senescent microenvironment, shedding light on the underlying response mechanisms correlated to hepatocellular cancer.
Last but not least, a major focus within the thesis is put on the refinement and application of in-resin super-resolution microscopy as well as volumetric CLEM, facilitated by novel resin compositions. These compositions quantitatively preserve fluorophores during embedding, promising markedly improved imaging fidelity in super-resolution and volumetric CLEM. The findings within this thesis will have widespread implications in future research in resolving the functional organisation within the cellular ultrastructure
Towards switchable biological surfaces for on-demand biosensing in cell therapy bioprocessing
Get PDFOver the past two decades advancements in our understanding of biological processes has opened the door to new and effective therapeutic products. In particular, cell and gene therapies have established themselves as pillars of modern medicine, which are often used to respond to diseases not effectively treated by other methods. However, therapies derived from biological sources have a higher degree of natural variability compared to small drug molecules obtained through traditional chemical synthesis. Manufacturing of such therapeutics requires constant monitoring to ensure product yield and efficacy. However, current bioprocesses used for the manufacturing of cell therapy products rely on off-line or end-point diagnostics. This results in long feedback loops limiting the capacity to react to needs of the cell culture in real time. Therefore, the need for integrated biosensing platforms has never been higher. To this end, this research explores combining nanobodies (Nbs), electropolymerised films, and stimuli response surfaces for the robust, sensitive, and on-demand detection of key cellular biomarkers. The capacity of oligopeptides to modulate surface Nb-antigen interactions was successfully confirmed using electrochemical surface plasmon resonance. Furthermore, surface characterisation techniques including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, ellipsometry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy highlighted the need for better insulation of the gold surface to prevent non-specific interactions. This led to the fabrication and optimisation of different electropolymerised films which also facilitated the covalent attachment of the biomolecules at the interface. Gold arrays were successfully fabricated in-house through clean-room manufacturing processes including thermal evaporation, spin coating, photolithography, and wet-etching. This platform was integrated with pre-existing potentiostats and the capacity of the working electrodes to be individually electrically addressed was demonstrated. This would allow the detection of multiple analytes from the same sample in an on-demand fashion. Different surface activation and receptor coupling strategies were then adopted from the literature, along with a tailored strategy being developed for the site-specific coupling of Nbs in a controlled orientation. This led to the development of a robust label-free biosensing platform by utilising changes in surface capacitance.
Overall, this works provides a solid foundation and outlines a road map to develop a sensitive biosensing platform with the capacity to modulate receptor-antigen interactions
Theosis in Robert Barclay (1648-1690): a way forward in ‘true Christian divinity’
Get PDFRobert Barclay (1648-1690), a key Quaker theologian, claimed that the Quaker path of the Christian faith is the final end of the Protestant reformation of Roman Catholic Christianity, which concluded in the United Kingdom with the implementation of the Tolerance Act of 1688 by royal assent in 1689. This thesis, using the Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) Method in Theology, argues that Barclay’s articulation of ‘true Christian divinity’ corresponds with the salvation economy of theosis in Eastern Orthodox Christianity. This idea is a variance fundamentally from what became Reformed Protestantism. Through a chronological exegesis of Barclay’s collective work (1670-1679) using the Lonergan Method, each Barclay chapter begins with recent scholarship on Robert Barclay and concludes with Eastern Orthodox scholarship while using the Lonergan Method with a Quaker and Orthodox practitioner in the footnotes of the main of Barclay’s work. This dissertation demonstrates that Barclay’s ‘true Christian divinity’ aligns with the salvation economy of theosis in Eastern Orthodoxy, namely, ‘Humanity becomes by Grace indwelling what God is by nature’
Exploring parental experiences of emotionally based school avoidance: using interpretative phenomenological analysis
Get PDFEmotionally based school avoidance (EBSA) is a term that has evolved over time and is used to describe a child’s non-attendance to school as a result of emotional factors. There has been a greater focus on school absence and reintegration following the reopening of schools after the partial school closures, between March 2020 to March 2021, due to Covid-19 Pandemic. This research aims to explore parental perspectives of their children’s experience of emotionally based school avoidance, since parents are important stakeholders who may be able to support the understanding of a child’s attendance difficulties and assist in their return to school. Interviews were conducted with three mothers and one father of secondary school aged children, using a semi-structured interview guide. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse data. This involved following the seven stages of IPA, where Personal Experiential Themes (PETs) were constructed for individual participants before Group Experiential Themes (GETs) across participant accounts were formed. The five GETs were: Understanding and Meeting Special Educational Needs, Sacrifice and Loss, Impact on Health, Battle for Support and Power Imbalance. Implications for educational psychologists, school staff and parents are discussed. The key messages which emerged from this research include the importance of trust in building relationships with parents, the impact of power imbalances between school staff and professionals on parents and the difficulties that poor communication can cause
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