PhD Studies in Philosophy

Tim Wilmot-Sitwell

Tim completed his BSocSc and MSocSc at Waikato University. After a 10 year break he returned to complete a Graduate Diploma in Education, which sparked off his interest in the area he has chosen for his PhD studies.

Thesis topic:

State, Business and Community in Educational Philosophy

Abstract:

The Tomorrow's Schools legislation that came out in 1989 was the beginning of a new way of administering and operating the schooling system in New Zealand. There seemed to be a large amount of support for the changes Tomorrow's Schools envisioned and yet a large amount of complaints at the results. Such disparity suggests something went wrong in the transition. My research aims to discover if anything went awry in the process and examines how the schooling system can be changed to better reflect more recent research into human development and philosophical understandings of the purpose of education.

Jane Cook

Jane completed a BSc majoring in Biological Sciences at Melbourne University, then a BSocSc majoring in Philosophy at Waikato University. This was followed by a BA(Hons) at Auckland University. She is currently in her first year of her PhD at Waikato University.

Thesis topic:

Sex, Metaphysics and Mental Dis-ease

Abstract:

In stark contrast to the old schoolyard retort - 'Sticks 'n' stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me', my PhD study seeks to explore the possibility that our words and their meanings are in fact, not only hurting us, but also killing us. Or in other words, that the development of sexed subjectivity (or selfhood) is being disrupted through the sociolinguistic construction of the infant mind/body/spirit by phallocentrically biased systems of language and discourse that depend for their meaning and (seeming) coherence on a repudiation and thus non-representation of the female form, or essence.

My contention is that this sociolinguistic disruption and distortion is causing a loss of one's essential self that, in women, is creating the foundation for certain forms of mental disorder or dis-ease - including eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, as well as other forms of self/substance abuse. My research project will therefore explore the possibility that a sexually differentiated (and thus, balanced) re-conception of our language and metaphysics might permit and foster wholeness and connectedness, rather than fragmentation and disorder, in the developing human self.

Ilan Goldberg

Ilan completed a degree in Business Studies at Massey University, then an MA in Malta. He is now embarking on a PhD at Waikato in Philosophy.

Thesis topic:

The Fourth R: Reasoning and Religion
Contributions from the academic study of religion and secular approaches to religious education to the theory and teaching of critical thinking.

Abstract:

I’m interested in philosophy of education - Critical Thinking (CT) and religious education, in particular – and method and theory in religious studies. In my research I’m trying to combine these subjects in an attempt to deal with some illicit effects that worldviews exercise on reasoning. One of the problems I am working on is weak-sense or sophistic critical thinking: CT students typically use their newly acquired capabilities one-sidedly, to attack the views of others, while shielding their own beliefs from criticism. The academic study of religion and secular approaches to religious education – as disciplines which are directly concerned with studying and teaching about worldviews - offer unique contributions for critical thinking pedagogy, with regard to weak-sense critical thinking and other worldview related fallibilities.

Carl Mika

Thesis topic:

Discourses of Sacredness in Language

Abstract:

Indigenous cultures seem to have retained elements of sacredness in language which appear to have disappeared from dominant Western languages such as English. My PhD explores discourses of sacredness in language which have evolved from certain German speaking writers and philosophers, to see whether they can assist indigenous cultures in developing contemporary theories around the sacredness of language in the face of dominant, instrumental discourses of language.

See Also:

Staff Research Interests
PhD Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Postgraduate Studies at Waikato