The Committee for the 2024 John Legge ASAA Thesis Prize has awarded the first prize to two researchers:

• To Alison Darby (ANU) for: Patriotic Marriage: Eugenics, Colonial Intimacy and the Politics of the Marital Family in the Japanese Empire, 1931–1945.
• And, to Phyu Phyu Oo (Griffith University) for: The Role of the State in Preventing and Responding to Conflict-related Sexual Violence: A case study in Myanmar

The committee congratulates Alison Darby and Phyu Phyu Oo for their fine work, and their supervisors for their contributions.

Summaries
Patriotic Marriage: Eugenics, Colonial Intimacy and the Politics of the Marital Family in the Japanese Empire, 1931–1945.
By Alison Darby (ANU)

In the words of the nominating professor: ‘Patriotic Marriage examines discourses on marriage in Imperial Japan, colonial Korea and colonial Taiwan. The thesis contributes to the fields of gender studies, the history of eugenics and population management, the history of Japanese empire, disability studies, and the modern political and social histories of Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Alison’s dissertation is the first analysis of colonial intimacy in the Japanese empire to tackle the history of both Taiwan and Korea, and the first study of Japanese eugenics to significantly consider the issues of empire and interethnic marriage. Patriotic Marriage is a work of great skill and originality that brings together two political discourses that sought to reshape marriages in service to the empire, which she terms “patriotic marriage discourses”: The first, in support of eugenic marriage, and the second in support of interethnic marriage. Through a close reading of the divergent and often contradictory attempts to influence the marital decisions of Japanese subjects and their Korean and Taiwanese colonial counterparts, Alison reveals tensions within state sanctioned visions of the ideal martial family. Patriotic Marriage highlights how the moment of selecting a spouse exposes anxieties not just over personal and familial happiness, but broader social concerns over public health, colonial relations, sexual morality and patriotic service to the empire.’

The Role of the State in Preventing and Responding to Conflict-related Sexual Violence: A case study in Myanmar
Phyu Phyu Oo (Griffith)

In the words of the nominating professor: ‘This is a fascinating and empirically rich thesis that explores why Myanmar has had limited effectiveness in prevention of, and response to, conflict related sexual violence (CRSV), despite having an agreement in place, developed with the United Nations, that explicitly tackles this issue…Very little feminist institutionalist work has been undertaken outside advanced western liberal democracies. As an exponent of the value of this conceptual framework, I was delighted to see it applied to the Myanmar case in such a sophisticated manner. The framework as it was applied exposed the nature of gendered institutions – both formal and informal – in the Tatmadaw-led militaristic environment of Myanmar, and the effect of these institutions in limiting international efforts to prompt governmental responses to CRSV through the Joint Communique process. I very much appreciate the personal challenges and security interests involved in writing such a dissertation. I thought the thesis dealt very well with explaining the limitations of the interview method in this case, as well as demonstrating that how these limitations in themselves became a sign of the failure the new regime to address CRSV. As such, the method presented a salutary and sobering perspective.’

June 19, 2024
The Committee (Julian Millie, Sarah Gosper, Lukas Fort and Kaira Zoe Canete)