http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/2701 2026-04-05T16:19:48Z 2026-04-05T16:19:48Z Xu, Yier http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6708 2026-03-27T14:51:01Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Who is the Modern Citizen: Diseases, Professions, and Identities in Guangxi and beyond, 1920 to 1950 Authors: Xu, Yier Abstract: This dissertation studies how the discourse of citizenship became a tool for governance in the Republican era under public health regimes by examining the conceptualisation of disease and the development of medical professions in the 1930s and 1940s in Guangxi and beyond. From the late 1920s, the GMD government promoted an ideal citizenry based on the discourse of hygiene, patriotism and moral codes. The Guangxi government incorporated this ideal into strategies to prevent malaria, cholera and leprosy. It relied on the authority of science to justify the new ideas about the aetiology and methods for disease prevention. Through the creation of health regimes, disease prevention and staying healthy became obligations of citizens. This discourse of citizenship pushed patients to the margin. The experience of leprosy patients was an example. The patients used the same discourse to eliminate stigmas, yet its impact was limited. On the other hand, patients with neurasthenia not only avoided being implicitly marginalised, but also created modern identities for themselves. Political elites played an important role in making the discourse of neurasthenia a powerful tool to create a modern identity. Medical professionals also benefited from the discourse of citizenship. The medical practitioners in Guangxi improved their social status and established their professionalism by working with the government and demonstrating their patriotism, responsibility to society and advocation for science. Female nurses also demonstrated that they lived up to the criteria of ideal citizens to justify their taking nursing as an occupation. However, female nurses’ gender identity overshadowed their professional identity in public discussion. By studying the identities of patients and medical professionals, I establish that the boundary of citizenship was flexible in the Republican era under public health regimes, which compelled the literate classes to align their own goals with the ones of the government. Description: Ph. D. Thesis.

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Armigliato, Alessandro http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6622 2025-12-10T14:39:47Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Reassessing early copper metallurgy : insights from the prehistoric site of Orti Bottagone, Tuscany Authors: Armigliato, Alessandro Abstract: This research focuses on the study of the metallurgical assemblage discovered at the Final Neolithic (early 4th millennium BC) site of Orti Bottagone, Tuscany (Italy). It has two objectives: understanding the copper reduction technology employed at the site and exploring the feasibility of one-step sulphide ore reduction experimentally. The overarching goal is to comprehend how prehistoric smiths might successfully have smelted sulphide ores at a time when most were still engaged in the reduction of copper oxides and carbonates. The answer, although based on evidence from a single site, has important implications for our understanding of technological change in Western Europe. Traditional belief has it that metal technology progressed from the working native copper in the Neolithic to the small-scale smelting of copper oxides and carbonates in the Chalcolithic and the large-scale reduction of copper sulphides in the Bronze Age. However, recent research has challenged this belief, highlighting that sulphide ores were already being reduced in the Chalcolithic, when most communities still relied on copper oxides and carbonates. Orti Bottagone can shed light on the transition from oxide/carbonate to sulphide smelting due to its early chronology and its location at the heart of a copper-rich ore district. The research has employed a multi-analytical approach, combining materials science and experimental archaeology. Several samples of slags and a crucible fragment were analysed using Optical and Digital Microscopy (OM and DM), X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) and Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (SEM-EDX). Slag analysis has revealed that, at Orti Bottagone, copper was obtained from sulphide-rich charges through an immature slagging process. The experimental reconstruction of the process showed that sulphide ores were likely smelted through a one-step process without any roasting. These findings indicate that sulphide ores could be reduced at the initial stages of metallurgy under conditions that, although inefficient, secured the transformation of the ore into metal. Description: PhD Thesis

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Waugh, Katherine Emmerson http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6600 2025-11-14T11:15:37Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The Industrial Past in the Deindustrialised Present: A Cross-Generational Oral History of County Durham Mining Towns Authors: Waugh, Katherine Emmerson Abstract: This thesis explores cross-generational experiences of deindustrialisation in County Durham, with a focus on three former coal mining villages: Bearpark, Brandon, and Langley Park. By analysing oral history life narratives from individuals connected to these communities, it investigates the ever-evolving relationship between collective memory, individual experiences, and the dominant narrative of deindustrialisation. Memory is a central theme, not only in comprehending how people conceptualise deindustrialisation but also in understanding industry’s place within collective memory. Adopting a longue durée approach, deindustrialisation is understood here as an ongoing process, that continues to shape individuals and communities, both in its emotional legacies and physical remnants. The thesis assesses how past industrial communities are reconstructed in the present and their contemporary relevance. In doing so, it seeks to interrogate how memories of the past are used to inform understandings of belonging, identity, commemoration, and politics. Moreover, while the conventional narrative of coal industry decline in the UK centres on the 1984-85 miners' strike and subsequent closures, deindustrialisation had been occurring in earnest in County Durham since the 1960s. This research therefore seeks to explore this longer timeline and understand its place within the prevailing strike-centric narrative. It also aims to critically interrogate the construction of ‘imagined mining communities’ in memory, by unpacking the more complex and nuanced responses to deindustrialisation within life narratives. Throughout, a spatial perspective is adopted, examining how industry shaped the social dynamics of villages within space. Rather than offering an exhaustive history of coal mining in County Durham, this thesis focuses upon how these villages were socially and spatially constructed around industry, as well as how this has been remembered, and how interviewees make sense of the transformations in space following deindustrialisation. Description: Ph. D. Thesis

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Chen, Yichi http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6594 2025-11-04T16:08:22Z 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The war of resistance in Hunan : power, disaster, and survival, 1937-1945 Authors: Chen, Yichi Abstract: This work is a history of the War of Resistance in Hunan province, 1937-1945. I first discuss the political struggles of the Nationalists from 1927 to 1944 and the military campaigns that occurred in Hunan from 1937 to 1944. I argue against the notion that Chiang Kaishek and the Hunan governor, Xue Yue had a weak connection before and during the war. 1944 saw a decline in the cooperative dynamic between Chiang and Xue. A strategic disagreement between them led to disruption within the chain of command of the Chinese army, ultimately resulting in the complete collapse of Nationalist forces in Hunan in 1944 as the Japanese gained control over the area. The early phases of the war had seen some successes. After 1939, the Nationalists changed their military principle to guerrilla tactics from merely conventional warfare. This delivered some victories in battles surrounding Changsha. In addition, the Nationalists demonstrated their superior performance in a propaganda campaign over their Japanese competitor during the Second Battle of Changsha. The Nationalists attempted to mobilize the Hunanese populace to be involved in providing military assistance to Chinese troops at the front. Common people, particularly those originating from the rural regions of Hunan, were expected to enroll in classes aimed at teaching essential military skills and ideological doctrine. These classes did not fully awaken the people of Hunan to Chinese nationalism but did change their previously indifferent attitude toward the war. Hunan, a province known for its abundant rice output played a crucial role in the war by becoming the main supplier of rice to the Nationalist armies and the population residing in Nationalist-controlled China. The war also led to extensive destruction in Changsha, as much of the city was destroyed by consecutive Japanese air raids since 1937 and a fire in 1938. Description: PhD Thesis

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