Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis explores the field of photography and studies its relationship with and its influence on the meaning and interpretation of privacy. The latter has been widely discussed in recent years...Show moreThis thesis explores the field of photography and studies its relationship with and its influence on the meaning and interpretation of privacy. The latter has been widely discussed in recent years because of the presumed lack thereof in our contemporary digitalized, globalized and 'free' world. Privacy is considered to be pivotal to our identity and being in this world. In this thesis I will argue that privacy is innately individual and can be considered as a personal desire to protect and demarcate everything that we do not know yet. It is a desire not to be a victim of everything that is happening in the world around oneself. In our contemporary world privacy is increasingly 'rational' and no longer concerned with physical access to something or somebody. Photography has the ambiguous task to lay bare the things we do not already know, and to be the threat to our privacy.Show less
This is a study of a colonial economy from an agricultural perspective, focusing on the interaction and conflicts between rice and sugarcane production in Java during the late colonial period. Rice...Show moreThis is a study of a colonial economy from an agricultural perspective, focusing on the interaction and conflicts between rice and sugarcane production in Java during the late colonial period. Rice is the most important staple food, while sugarcane has been the principal cash crop between 1870s and 1920s. Since the natural habitats for two crops are similar in many respects but large-scale intercropping was precluded due to different irrigation practices, rice and sugarcane have been competing for the limited resource of land since the dawn of mass production at the end of the nineteenth century. This thesis attempts to answer whether the proliferation of sugar plantation contributed to the rice shortage in Java, and how the shortfall in rice might influence the distribution and expansion of sugar plantation in the tropical island. Besides the quantitative analysis with agricultural statistics, it also investigates the process of policy-making, in which the colonial government exerted regulatory influence over different interest groups as far as the production of rice and sugar were concerned in the 1910s and 1920s.Show less
Hoe religie en de natuur op bepaalde punten samen lijken te komen volgens Charles Dupuis en George Faber. Twee perspectieven uit dezelfde tijd. Een Franse en een Engelse gedachte zien verbanden...Show moreHoe religie en de natuur op bepaalde punten samen lijken te komen volgens Charles Dupuis en George Faber. Twee perspectieven uit dezelfde tijd. Een Franse en een Engelse gedachte zien verbanden maar ook verschillen, hoe is dit verklaarbaar?Show less
Literature on wartime removal and incarceration of Japanese American describes the opposition and resistance to the governmental policies mostly in terms of deficiency. This interpretative bias is...Show moreLiterature on wartime removal and incarceration of Japanese American describes the opposition and resistance to the governmental policies mostly in terms of deficiency. This interpretative bias is characterized by privileging the governmental account of the removal and incarceration over the Japanese American accounts while disregarding any incident short of civil disobedience as unimportant. Moreover, Japanese Americans' cooperation is seen as contributing greatly to the success of the procedures that ultimately deprived them of their liberty. This view, though widely held, does not provide an accurate description of Japanese American attitudes and actions during the fateful months after the Pearl Harbor attack. I will argue that the number of strikes, the extent of community organization, and the scope of individual and group protest inside the relocation camps testify that Japanese Americans' reaction to their wartime removal and incarceration was anything but passive. Japanese Americans protested against the injustice of their evacuation and incarceration, but they were systematically silenced, intimidated, and punished by the government. Moreover, the relocation program officials and generations of relocation scholars contributed to the marginalization of Japanese American resistance by uncritically accepting the governmental account of mass removal and incarceration which refused to recognize evacuee resistance as legitimate protest.Show less
This thesis examines the cinematic cyborg as a figure which embodies technophobic fears expressed in film. By exploring the cyborg's representation, I will show how its portrayal in film expresses...Show moreThis thesis examines the cinematic cyborg as a figure which embodies technophobic fears expressed in film. By exploring the cyborg's representation, I will show how its portrayal in film expresses these technophobic fears, which are, as I will show, interwoven with xenophobia. The cyborg is viewed here as a figure in which technophobia and xenophobia collide. I will examine the so-called preferred meaning expressed in my case studies, which are eight films featuring a cyborg protagonist released in a period of three decades. Moreover, I will compare these messages to see if and how the expressions of technophobia differ and whether they change over time.Show less
In one way or another, the civilizations who ruled over Egypt in antiquity could all boast a close connection to the concepts of 'law' and 'justice'. Balance, justice, and order - all personified...Show moreIn one way or another, the civilizations who ruled over Egypt in antiquity could all boast a close connection to the concepts of 'law' and 'justice'. Balance, justice, and order - all personified by the goddess Ma'at - were the cornerstones of Ancient Egyptian religion and society. The Greek Ptolemies, who ruled over Egypt between 323 and 30 BC, would become famous for their advanced and intricate bureacracy, which also featured a highly effective law enforcement system. The Romans, more than any, prided themselves on their laws, which remain influential in modern societies to this day. This thesis sets out to discover the manner in which criminal justice in Egypt developed from the times of the New Kingdom, through the Ptolemaic era, and under Roman rule. Not only for the abovementioned anecdotal reasons, but also because the capability to deal with crime and to maintain order can serve as an indicator for a successful administration in general. Because criminal law forms an integral part of a legal system as a whole, which, in turn, is inseparable from the general administrative system of a country, all of these will be taken into account. The following questions will be answered in this thesis: how were the various legal and administrative systems organized?; which actions were considered to be crimes by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans?; who possessed the legal authority to deal with these matters?; and in what manner were criminal transgressions dealt with in practice? In the end, the aim is to not only find out how criminal justice developed in the course of nearly two millennia, but also to offer an explanation as to why these developments took their specific course.Show less
In deze scriptie wordt onderzocht hoe de informatie die in medicijnadvertenties gericht op artsen staat, wordt ingezet om de arts te overtuigen een bepaald medicijn voor te schrijven. Het onderzoek...Show moreIn deze scriptie wordt onderzocht hoe de informatie die in medicijnadvertenties gericht op artsen staat, wordt ingezet om de arts te overtuigen een bepaald medicijn voor te schrijven. Het onderzoek wordt gedaan aan de hand van de pragma-dialectische argumentatietheorie. Uit het onderzoek blijkt onder meer dat er een bepaalde argumentatiestructuur ten grondslag ligt aan medicijnadvertenties gericht op artsen. Het standpunt is ‘schrijf middel X voor aan uw patiënten’ en wordt altijd ondersteund met pragmatische argumentatie die het welzijn van de patiënt benadrukt. Die argumentatie wordt onderbouwd met de informatie die expliciet in de advertentie te vinden is: met kenmerken van het medicijn.Show less
Objective This study is a pilot study to investigate the relationship between the teacher training programme of Curious Minds and science learning in pupils aged nine to twelve years. By means of a...Show moreObjective This study is a pilot study to investigate the relationship between the teacher training programme of Curious Minds and science learning in pupils aged nine to twelve years. By means of a multiple mediation model it was explored whether social cognition and executive functions mediate the relation of the teacher training programme on science learning. Gain scores in mathematical performance were used to explain science learning. Methods In this quasi-experimental research sixty-nine pupils were assigned to either the teacher training programme condition (n = 29) or the control group condition (n = 40). A t-test for independent samples was used to explore the unmediated effect of the teacher training programme on mathematical performances. For the mediated effect a bootstrap resampling method (n = 5000) as described by Preacher and Hayes (2004) and Hayes (2009) was used. Mediating variables are social cognition and the executive functions inhibition, cognitive flexibility and working memory. These variables were tested in thirty-eight pupils, by means of the Dutch Social Cognitive Abilities Test (SCVT; Sociaal Cognitieve Vaardigheden Test) and a computerized test battery, which is part of the Amsterdam‟s Neuropsychological Tasks (ANT; Amsterdamse Neuropsychologische Taken) respectively. Results The results did not support the expectations. These data supported the view that the teacher training programme by Curious Minds significantly decreased mathematical performances. The teacher training programme had a positive effect on social cognition skills, though, no credible evidence indicated mediation. Discussion The examinations in this study were well able to make a contribution to knowledge in the neurological and educational climate. This study provided more knowledge in contribution of a training to children‟s executive functions and social cognition, and hence in mathematical learning. This knowledge must be reflected in education systems, and training must be re-examined. It is advisable for future research to examine the effect of the teacher training programme on practical and explorative science aspects, where Curious Mind initially aims for.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
closed access
The rise of camera phones, particularly smartphones, has changed personal photography and online image sharing practices. This thesis offers an anthropological view on these changes and researches...Show moreThe rise of camera phones, particularly smartphones, has changed personal photography and online image sharing practices. This thesis offers an anthropological view on these changes and researches cultural differences and similarities in user behavior.Show less
Reading comprehension is a complex skill that has been widely studied. Nevertheless, insights on the process of emotional inferences in children have remained limited. Therefore, the first aim of...Show moreReading comprehension is a complex skill that has been widely studied. Nevertheless, insights on the process of emotional inferences in children have remained limited. Therefore, the first aim of this study is to investigate reading time differences in emotion-eliciting and control narratives read by children. Furthermore, in previous studies perspective taking, working memory and visuospatial ability have been suggested to influence reading processes. This leads to a second aim: examine the influence of working memory, visuospatial abilities and perspective taking on reading times of emotion-eliciting and control narratives read by children. Participants were 84 students in grade 5 in the age group 10 - 12. Each participant read 10 emotion-eliciting and 10 control short narratives in random order. Narratives were characterized by either an emotion-eliciting or a control target sentence. Furthermore, measures of working memory, visuospatial abilities, perspective taking and reading fluency were administered. Results revealed RT differences between kinds of sentences (target or closure) and working memory was found to influence the RT of children. These results indicate a difference in the ability to make emotional inference between children and adults.Show less
This thesis focused on investigating the relationship between perceived social support by students and hidden school drop-out. The main research question was whether perceived social support by...Show moreThis thesis focused on investigating the relationship between perceived social support by students and hidden school drop-out. The main research question was whether perceived social support by students predicts hidden drop-out and if the relationship between perceived social support by students and hidden drop-out is moderated by students’ ethnicity. Differences in the perceptions of Dutch and immigrant students about the availability of social support (instructional or emotional) from various agents (teacher/classmate/parent) were also investigated using the SPASSQ questionnaire. Participants were 356 Dutch and 68 immigrant students of which 58% were male and 42% female aged between 14 and 16 years old (M = 14.21, SD = 0.88) from junior vocational high schools in the Netherland. Perceived emotional support from parents was a predictor of hidden drop-out for Dutch students, however for immigrant students perceived emotional support from teachers was a predictor of hidden drop-out. Students’ ethnicity is a moderator when predicting hidden drop-out with perceived emotional support from teachers and perceived instructional support from parents. No significant differences were found between the perceptions of Dutch and immigrant students about perceived social support from all agents, however different types of perceived social support are predictors of hidden drop-out for Dutch and for immigrant students.Show less
Aanleiding voor dit onderzoek zijn uiteenlopende claims afkomstig uit de neurowetenschappen en (neuro)marketingpraktijk waaruit blijkt dat consumenten ‘onbewust’ of ‘breingericht’ beïnvloed kunnen...Show moreAanleiding voor dit onderzoek zijn uiteenlopende claims afkomstig uit de neurowetenschappen en (neuro)marketingpraktijk waaruit blijkt dat consumenten ‘onbewust’ of ‘breingericht’ beïnvloed kunnen worden in hun (koop)gedrag. Verwacht werd dat de manieren om consumenten ‘onbewust’ of ‘breingericht’ te beïnvloeden verschillen van de manieren die Hoeken in het boek Overtuigende Teksten noemt om consumenten te beïnvloeden in hun gedrag. Uiteindelijk bleek dat inzichten uit adviesboeken over ‘onbewust’ of ‘breingericht’ beïnvloeden relatief weinig waarde hebben voor het bevorderen van de effectiviteit van teksten waarin producten of diensten gepromoot worden. Uitzondering hierop zijn beïnvloedingstactieken die samenhangen met ‘prijsperceptie’, ‘schaarste’ en ‘prijspijn’. Het lijkt mij van belang om een ‘passend’ theoretisch kader te ontwikkelen voor het ontwerpen en beoordelen van reclameteksten. Ik raad aan om daarbij, in tegenstelling tot de geraadpleegde (advies)literatuur, een context-georiënteerd marketingperspectief in te nemen waarin de behoefte van de consument centraal staat. Zo’n kader zou een waardevolle aanvulling op het boek Overtuigende Teksten zijn. Show less
In the theory of operators on Riesz spaces an important result states that Riesz homomorphisms on a C(Ω)-space are composition multiplication operators. Our aim is to extend this theorem to, not...Show moreIn the theory of operators on Riesz spaces an important result states that Riesz homomorphisms on a C(Ω)-space are composition multiplication operators. Our aim is to extend this theorem to, not necessarily Riesz, subspaces of such a C(Ω)-space. The main result entails the following, Riesz∗ homomorphisms on a pointwise order dense subspace X of C(Ω) are composition multiplication operators. Furthermore, we use this result to find additional results on Riesz∗ homomorphisms on these subspaces. We will exhibit, for example, that the inverse of a bijective Riesz∗ homomorphism on X is again a Riesz∗ homomorphism. As another corollary of the result we characterize which Riesz∗ homomorphisms on X are even complete Riesz homomorphisms. Results developed on pointwise order dense subspaces of C(Ω) can be applied in Sobolev space theory. As an analogy of the above we will develop a similar theory on subspaces of L p for a finite measure space. Most results carry over easily from the C(Ω) case. We will investigate difference in structure of Riesz∗ homomorphisms between these two type of space.Show less
