Malouf lecture at Mildura
Celebrated Australian writer David Malouf delivered the inaugural La Trobe University Lecture at the Mildura Writers' Festival in July — a highlight of this year's event, of which the University is also a regular sponsor. Malouf spoke about the direction of Australian culture.
The University's Thesis Eleven Centre for Cultural Sociology was also a major contributor, with a session on Australian rock music. This featured two sociologists, Thesis Eleven Centre Director Dr Trevor Hogan and Professor Peter Beilharz, former Visiting Professor of Australian Studies at Harvard. They were joined by historian and author Clinton Walker, well–known for his works on Australian popular music.
The University also hosted a series of weekend sessions on the Mildura campus — where speakers included Sonya Hartnett, Nicolas Rothwell, Alice Pung, Alex Miller and Les Murray — and a special workshop for VCE literature students.
Vice–Chancellor Professor Paul Johnson said sponsorship of both the Melbourne and Mildura writers' festivals reflect the University's longstanding support for major cultural, artistic and literary events in Melbourne and regional Victoria.
They also highlight La Trobe's strong and growing role as a major centre for public intellectuals and for studies of society, literature and the humanities in general.