The African Research Institute
was established in November 1985, with a duty statement to:
(a) stimulate and promote
research and postgraduate teaching in the field of African Studies
at La Trobe University,
(b) to promote interaction and cooperation in research and teaching
with members of academic or research staff of other institutions
in Victorian, elsewhere in Australia and overseas,
(c) to initiate postgraduate and post-doctoral interchange between
institutions,
(d) to give institutional structure to links with organizations
and institutions outside La Trobe University,
(e) to provide advisory services to government and non-government
bodies, such as the corporate sector, trade unions, aid agencies
and the media.
Oliver Tambo, President of the African National Congress,
on the occasion of his Address to the University in 1987, accompanied
by the Vice-Chancellor of LaTrobe University, Professor John
Scott.
The Institute played an active
role in sponsored major addresses to the University by such luminaries
as Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1987), Mr Oliver Tambo (1987), President
of the African National Congress, and His Holyness, Pope Shenouda
III (1989), Patriarch of Alexandria and Spiritual Head of the
Coptic Orthodox Church.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
addressing the University on the occasion of his first visit
in 1987.
Other activities: Since its establishment, the
number of postgraduate students attracted to undertake African
Studies at La Trobe University has increased dramatically. Many
African Studies postgraduates have been joint supervised by members
of the Institute from different departments and faculties, thereby
facilitating a more multidisciplinary dimension to their research.
Graduates of the Institute are now teaching at universities in
Canada and Africa, one is serving in the Africa Section of the
Department of Foreign Affairs, while another is personal assistant
to the President of Namibia.
Members of the Institute have been involved in various co-operative
teaching programmes with other institutions, particularly in distance
education programmes offered through Deakin University. There
is an effective liaison between the Institute and other Africanists
at other Victorian universities and colleges on matters relating
to teaching, thesis research and library acquisitions. Dr James
Polhemus, Dean of Social Sciences at Deakin University, and Dr
David Goldsworthy, Reader in Politics at Monash University, have
both been Associate Members of the Institute.
The Institute has forged strong links with the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade, the Australian Council for Overseas Aid and
many of its constituent organizations, such as the Overseas Service
Bureau and Community Aid Abroad, the Africa-Australia Business
Council and a broad spectrum of African community and special
interest groups. Members of the Australian diplomatic corps regularly
visit the Institute before departure to postings in Africa and
provide briefings for members of the Institute upon their return
to Australia.
His Holyness, Pope Shenouda III, Patriarch of Alexandria
and Spiritual Head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, arriving to
deliver an address to the University in 1989.
Other are Father Tadros of the Melbourne
Coptic Orthodox community, Dr Dorward, Justice Richard McGarvie,
Chancellor of La Trobe University.
In addition to its regular African Studies
seminars, the Institute has organized a number of successful conferences
over the years, attracting participants from across Australia
and abroad, including;
"Comparative Conference on African
and the Pacific" in 1988, in conjunction with with the Research
Centre of South West Pacific Studies
"The Development of Constitutional Order in Sub-Saharan
Africa" in 1988, organized by Penny Andrews and and joint
sponsored by the Institute and the Department of Legal Studies
"Eritrea, 1988" , conference organized by the Institute
in conjunction with the Australian Council for Overseas Aid
Professor Bereket Habt Selassie,
one of the principal speakers at the 1988 conference on Eritrea,
organised by the Institute in conjunction with the Australian
Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA)
"Horn of Africa Symposium; The Struggle
of Oromo and the Oganden", in 1989, organized by the Institute
in conjunction with the Horn of Africa Information Committee
As
part of its commitment to broader public awareness of African
culture, the Institute organized a major touring exhibition of
Yoruba art which travelled throughout much of rural Victoria,
as well as Tasmania and Queensland, generating considerable favourable
publicity for the African Research Institute and La Trobe University.
The Institute published an 88 page colour illustrated catalogue
on the exhibition, Yoruba: Art in Life and Thought (Melbourne:
African Research Institute, 1988)
His Holyness, Pope Shenouda III, Patriarch of Alexandria
and Spiritual Head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, arriving to
deliver an address to the University in 1989.
As
part of its commitment to broader public awareness of African
culture, the Institute organized a major touring exhibition of
Yoruba art which travelled throughout much of rural Victoria,
as well as Tasmania and Queensland, generating considerable favourable
publicity for the African Research Institute and La Trobe University.
The Institute published an 88 page colour illustrated catalogue
on the exhibition, Yoruba: Art in Life and Thought (Melbourne:
African Research Institute, 1988)