Bulletin

Issue: October 2004

News

Free Trade, War in Iraq... and 'Chick Lit' Burgeoning interest in Australian Studies

Australian Studies is coming out from the shadow of the bush hat and Ned Kelly's helmet.

The emphasis today is on Australia's place in the world and the region. For better or worse, our identity in the 21st century is being forged in the context of Iraq, Timor, Solomon Islands and the US Free Trade Agreement.

And this shifting emphasis is reflecting strongly in what students are choosing for their research at La Trobe University, where Australian Studies is a rapidly growing field.

In September the public was invited to sample some of this research, show-cased at 'Australian Perspectives: An Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference' held on La Trobe University's main Melbourne Campus at Bundoora. The conference was attended by about 100 students, 50 of them from interstate and two from New Zealand.

Dr Corinne Manning, Project Officer for Australian Studies, says the field encourages students to explore aspects of the Australian experience within the framework of a global society.

'An intellectually stimulating, evolving and growing research area, Australian Studies is increasingly recognised as one of La Trobe University's strengths in research and teaching,' she says.

For example, highlighting the University's leadership, La Trobe has provided three of the last five Visiting Professors in Australian Studies at Harvard University in the US. They are Professor of Social Theory, Peter Beilharz, who heads Australian Studies at La Trobe; Professor of History, Marilyn Lake; and Professor of Politics, Dennis Altman, who takes up his Harvard post shortly.

Dr Manning says the interdisciplinary nature of the program allows students to apply different methods and theories to issues such as popular culture, race, class, gender, politics, heritage, environment, and visual and literary arts.

Postgraduates work with academics from archaeology, anthropology, art history, cinema studies, English, history, linguistics, media studies, politics, sociology, and theatre and drama.

At the conference, 18 papers were presented in six categories: Australia and the Asia-Pacific; Living on the Margins; Australia and Beyond; Narratives of Nation; Evolving Feminisms; and Land and Identity.

Among the La Trobe contributions, a presentation titled The Australian New Left and the Vietnam War: Lessons for Iraq? examined the role of New Left activists in the anti-war movement, the success of this opposition, and the current situation in Iraq.

Another, Arguing Cultural Rights, dealt with the US Free Trade Agreement. It explored the undeveloped nature of cultural rights and how these might be 'understood in an Australian context where the notion of an Australian culture is itself a highly problematic concept'.

A third, Representations of the European Union in the Australian Media, noted that the European Union - 'our largest merchandise trading partner, our largest partner for trade in services, our principal source of import goods, and our leading investor' - remains 'virtually invisible in local media, and is perceived as incomprehensible and esoteric by the Australian public'.

Other subjects ranged from poetry, the visual arts, and extremist graffiti in Australian prisons to Queer death, White Pentecostal Australian women, and local 'Chick Lit'.

The conference was opened by La Trobe Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor Roger Wales, and wrapped-up by Professor of Politics, Robert Manne.

Contact Dr Manning Tel: (03) 9479 3300 or Email: c.manning@latrobe.edu.au

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