Bulletin

Issue: August/September 2006

News

Arts at La Trobe - writ large

La Trobe University this year sponsored the Melbourne Writers’ Festival opening Keynote Address at the Melbourne Town Hall. It was delivered by internationally acclaimed scientist, explorer, conservationist and author, Tim Flannery. Professor Flannery spoke about climate change at a session chaired by ABC Radio National’s Robyn Williams.

Dr Thwaites with Edmundo Paz Soldán
on the Bundoora campus.

Ten members of La Trobe University took part in the Festival. And one of the Festival’s major overseas guests, Bolivian writer, Edmundo Paz Soldán, brought a segment of the Festival to the main Melbourne campus at Bundoora.

A leading figure in the urban, pop culture realist Latin American literary movement known as ‘McOndo’, Paz Soldán gave a talk on recent trends in Latin American literature, chaired by La Trobe Spanish scholar and Deputy Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr Lilit Thwaites.

Dr Thwaites describes Paz Soldán as an important new voice in world literature. He has won the National Book Award in Bolivia and divides his time between Bolivia and the USA, where he is an academic at Cornell. He has written six novels - including The Matter of Desire and, Turing’s Delirium, recently translated into English - and four short story collections, as well as co-editing two collections of scholarly essays.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Brian Stoddart, said La Trobe was delighted to sponsor the Festival’s opening session. ‘Following the recent publication of Reflected Light: La Trobe Essays by Black Inc., this is a further way to highlight the role the University plays as a principal centre for public intellectuals.

‘We are building on our previous strong support for this Festival, as well as for other major cultural, artistic and literary events in Melbourne and regional Victoria. ‘

Another focus of the Festival involved La Trobe History scholar and ‘Summiteer’, Dr John Hirst, author of Sense and Nonsense in Australian History. He chaired a conversation with Geoffrey Blainey - as well as the Festival’s controversial closing night ‘The Last Word’ debate on ‘Stolen Generation or hijacked history?’ This was the longawaited debate between Professor Manne and Melbourne journalist, Andrew Bolt.

Other La Trobe authors at the Festival included multi-award winning Australian author, Emeritus Scholar Dr Inga Clendinnen, whose latest book is Agamemnon’s Kiss; Professor Marilyn Lake, who is working on biographies of Australian Federal fathers, HB Higgins, Alfred Deakin, Edmund Barton and WM Hughes; Dr Richard Broome, who specialises in the history of Aboriginal Victorians; Adjunct Professor and media commentator, Morag Fraser; Media scholar, Dr Sue Turnbull; historian Dr Corinne Manning, co-author (with Richard Broome) of the recent biography of Melbourne Aboriginal activist, Alick Jackomos; and anthropologist Sally Warhaft, editor of Well May We Say: the Speeches that made Australia and The Monthly magazine.

Trifecta in Premiers’ literary prizes

Works by La Trobe University authors have been short-listed in Premiers’ literary awards in all three mainland eastern states this year.

Professor of Politics, Judith Brett’s ‘Quarterly’ Essay, Relaxed and Comfortable: The Liberal Party’s Australia was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards for ‘an essay advancing public debate’.

The judges described it as a ‘subtle and persuasive essay (that) identifies the way John Howard has skilfully positioned himself in the centre of national life, marginalising critics in parliament and the media. ‘

‘Using a series of deftly sketched profiles of “ordinary people who vote Liberal”, she shows how the Coalition government has been able to transcend longstanding partisan divides in Australia. This entails, as Brett puts it, “taking seriously what people say about what they believe”. ‘

Professor Brett’s latest book, Ordinary People’s Politics: Australians talk about Life, Politics and the Future of their Country, written with Anthony Moran, was launched by former Labor Senator, John Button, in mid September.

Historian Dr Richard Broome was short-listed in the non-fiction category for his book, Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800. It was cited as ‘an important and timely contribution to our understanding of frontier conflict and race relations at a local level,’ ‘Based on impressive scholarship, it offers a brave and compassionate analysis of Aboriginal survival in the face of changing government policies of segregation and assimilation,’ the judges noted.

In the Queensland Premier’s Awards, David Corlett has made the shortlist for his book Following Them Home: The Fate of the Returned Asylum Seekers, in the section for advancing public debate. The book is based on his La Trobe PhD thesis, supervised by Professor of Politics, Robert Manne.

And to complete the La Trobe east-coast trifecta in Premiers’ literary awards, Head of Chisholm College, Terry Collits, earlier this year won the $15,000 biennial prize for literary scholarship in the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards for his book Postcolonial Conrad: Paradoxes of Empire, on Joseph Conrad, one of the most important and debated western novelists of the 20th century.