The 1998 ASANA Conference will be held March 6 & 7, 1998, at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, Canada. The conference sessions will be held in Ryerson's International Conference Centre at 240 Jarvis Street.
The Best Western Primrose Hotel at 111 Carlton Street will be the conference hotel. They have set aside a block of 40 rooms at the rate of CDN$85 (+12% tax) per night for single or double occupancy. Each conference attendee can make his or her reservation by calling 1-800-268-8082 or 1-800-528-1234. Please mention ASANA and make your reservations early. The hotel will open the block to the general public about four weeks before the conference. After this date you will not be guaranteed the conference rate. The hotel is an estimated ten minute walk to the conference site.
The ASANA Board is working on the conference program including a keynote speaker, dinner, cultural activities and a discussion panel. More information and registration forms will be forthcoming. Updates can be found on the ASANA website (http://www.austudies.org/asana).
Proposals for papers to be presented at the 1998 ASANA conference are invited. The conference theme is "The Construction Of Australian Identities", and papers on that or other topics dealing with Australia or its ties to North America are welcome. Please submit your proposal by December 1st to:
John Higley at the University of Texas, email: [email protected], fax: 512-471-8869
or to
Bob Williams at the University of Waterloo, email: [email protected], fax: 519-746-5622.
ASANA's officers and board members are concentrating on plans for our annual meeting, which is scheduled for 6-7 March 1998 in Toronto. Bob Williams, my predecessor as ASANA president, has persuaded Ryerson Polytechnic University to serve as host of the meeting and Bob has worked hard to firm up hotel and conference facilities, which are described elsewhere in this Newsletter. The meeting's theme will be "The Construction Of Australian Identities". We anticipate that the keynote speaker and at least one panel will address this theme, though as always papers on other Australian topics are most welcome (please see the article on page one). The December issue of the Newsletter will give details of what we think will be an exciting program. While in Australia during August, I met with David Carter (Griffith University), who has taken over from Jim Walter as president of the International Australian Studies Assn. (InASA). A focus of our discussion was cooperation between ASANA and InASA, possibly to include holding a joint meeting at the time of ASANA's 1999 meeting (which I very much hope will be held in sunny Texas).
I also carried the ASANA flag to meetings with Genta Hawkins Holmes, the new US Ambassador to Australia, Sheila Austrian at USIS, John Rowling, Chair of the Australian Studies Reference Group in DEETYA, Eurick Juszczyk, Acting Head of the Cultural Affairs Branch of DFAT, Peter Edwards and Rawdon Dalrymple at the Australian Centre for American Studies, plus, of course, sundry academics in Canberra and Sydney involved in North America-Australia affairs. All showed much interest in ASANA and promised to help it flourish.
A key step will be to make the Toronto meeting even more of a success than this year's meeting at Georgetown. I urge you all to plan now on joining us in Toronto.
ASANA President
John Higley,
University of Texas at Austin
Please contact any of the following if you have questions about or suggestions for ASANA:
Antipodes is the North American journal of Australian literature and culture. The journal was established in 1987 by the American Association of Australian Literary Studies. Since then the journal has become widely respected for its extensive and distinctive coverage of Australian literature and culture - and a valuable source for those interested in the Antipodes.
Antipodes publishes new work by Australian poets and fiction writers. The journal offers original essays on Australian writers' work, on film and art, on varied ways to examine the country's literature and culture. Contributors are from all parts of the world. Antipodes contains reviews and provides in-depth interviews with writers talking about their work.
If you would like more information about Antipodes and/or a subcription, contact Robert Ross, Editor, Univ of Texas at Austin, email: [email protected] or Jack Turner, Humboldt St Univ, email: [email protected]
You may read the current and past table of contents for Antipodes and learn more about AAALS at their new web site, http://www.austudies.org/aaals.
Thanks to those who have paid their membership dues. You should have received a receipt. If you did not, then please contact Lisa Murphy. This membership will be valid through the 1998 ASANA conference. We will follow this procedure for dues payment from now on. Non-members who attend the annual ASANA conference will be required to pay a non-member rate which does not entitle them to membership. Membership dues will remain at 25 dollars (US or Canadian) for individuals and 50 dollars for institutions. If you have not paid your dues and want to, then fill out the enclosed form and return to Lisa Murphy or Bob Williams.
Reflecting the Center's 15th anniversary, this past summer was programmatically abundant. There were two conferences. One served as a platform from which we are spearheading the formation of a Pacific Region Studies Network in distance education. The other, involving a number of Australian and American partners (including DEETYA, the Australian National Training Authority and two Australian academic institutions), addressed postsecondary education's contribution to economic development. The National Library of Australia published Center associate Nan Albinski's volume, Australian Literary Manuscripts in North American Libraries. The Center hosted a nationally assembled group of Australian university alumni, with substantive presentations by official and academic guests. We organized public screenings of Australian and New Zealand short films. Sydney University was added to the University's roster of Australian student exchange linkages.
Our fall semester visiting fellows are Bob Catley (politics, Adelaide) and Shirley Richardson (business ethics, Monash). The list of short-term Australian and New Zealand visiting presenters remains to be filled out, but currently features persons in architecture, politics and the media, heritage and conservation, history, and education.
This semester we are publishing a major monograph on US-New Zealand commercial relations, and are delighted to be associated with the Penn State visit of the Sydney Dance Company. An educational relations program is being developed on behalf of the Australian Department of Environment, Sport and Territories in a communications course being taught by Center affiliate Ann Marie Major. (Submitted by Henry S. Albinski)
Thirty-five students from Rollins and several other select colleges and universities left for Sydney on June 14 for the Rollins Semester in Sydney. They will take courses in the area of Australian Studies, which will lead to an Australian Studies Minor at Rollins if they take two additional courses on campus. Two courses, one in history and one in literature, will be offered during our Winter term, taught respectively by the Australian Rosemary Broomham, and by Ed Cohen, Professor of English at Rollins.
Thomas Keneally will be visiting Rollins in January to participate in our Winter Term with the Writers Series, as well as helping to teach a creative writing course.
Several faculty members and graduate students affiliated with the Clark Center at Texas have attended conferences and conducted research in Australia during the summer. In addition to John Higley, Center Director, Desley Deacon gave a paper at Monash University's international conference on Biography during July; Don Graham has given several lectures on Australia-Texas literary parallels during September; Robert Solomon was in residence at the ANU's Research School of Social Sciences throughout the summer; and graduate students Jason Pierce and George Purcell were interns in the Australian Parliament for the past several months. Robert Ross, Research Assoc. of the Clark Center and Editor of Antipodes, is attending the European Australian Studies Assn. meeting in Klagenfurt, Austria, during late September.
The Clark Center is coordinating four Australian Studies courses to be taught during the coming spring semester. Details of these and other activities will be forthcoming in the Center's fall issue of Yacker.
On Tuesday, September 23, 1997, Sir Zelman Cowen, former Governor General of Australia, launched the Distinguished Speakers Lecture Series at Georgetown University. He spoke on "One Hundred Years a Nation: Australia Faces 2001". This event was sponsored by Melbourne University and the Center.
On October 23, internationally acclaimed immunologist Sir Gustav Nossal will speak on "The Biotechnology Revolution and World Health". This event is sponsored by the Georgetown Medical School and the Center.
On November 12, Australian Printmaker Jorg Schmeisser will give a lecture on his art work. He will have an exhibit in the Lauringer Library's Fairchild Gallery from mid-October to late November. See article in this newsletter for additional information on Mr. Schmeisser and his work.
Call 202-687-5300 to make a reservation or Kathy Burns at 202-687-7464 for more information.
As many ASANA members know, six Australians have been choosen to participate in the 1997-1998 North American Speaker Series. These six individuals will be availabe during the 97-98 academic year to speak on a variety of topics. The deadline for Host Site Applications has past, but applications may still be accepted depending upon the speaker's availabilty. The speakers include:
If you would like more information about the program, please contact Lisa Murphy.
The European Association for Studies on Australia (EASA) will hold their annual conference in Klagenfurt, Austria (the country with no kangaroos!) on 24-28 September 1997. Over seventy papers will be presented and a significant selection of academics from around the world will attend. The ASANA expects to be represented. Complete information is available online at http://www.austudies.org/europe/easa.conf.html.
This special joint issue will highlight the most recent significant work executed in the Comunications scholorship of both countries. Submissions are invited for contribution on topics related to communication practices in Canada and Australia/New Zealand. Single-country communications study also welcome. The deadline for submission is April 1998. Style sheets will be sent to authors forwarding an expression of interest.
The Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand will be holding a CONFERENCE 9-12 July, 1998. All topics and all disciplines in Canadian Studies and papers that deal with the theme of "diversity" are welcome. Conference organizers encourage contributors to interpret the theme fluidly and imagine addressing "diversity" will bring together individuals from a variety of backgrounds.
Abstracts due by January 15, 1998.
If you would like more information contact:
The Women's Forum of the Univ of Tech, Sydney is organizing an international CONFERENCE for 13-17 July in Sydney, Australia. They are accepting proposals for papers, posters, panel speakers and individuals to facilitate and lead discussion groups. The themes include: "Women-only structures and institutions", "Indigenous women's perspectives: global issues, local realities", "Studying women: gender, knowledge, curriculum, feminist pedagogy" and many more. Abstracts are due October 31, 1997.
For more information visit:
The 20th Denver International Film Festival & Goanna Productions Presents: "Down Under Films On Top" and "A Tribute To Bryan Brown". The film festival will be held October 23rd through October 31st in Denver, Colorado. This festival was assisted by the Embassy of Australia, Washington DC, Australian Film Commission and the Denver Film Society. The program includes several Australian film screenings including:
If you would like to volunteer or somehow be involved with this festival please contact Tearlach Hutcheson. (see below)
Trevor Graham, highly regarded Australian anthropological documentary film maker, will be available after October 23rd to screen his film, "Mabo - Life of an Island Man", in the US. He will be appearing at the Denver International Film Festival and also at UCLA. For more information about Trevor Graham's availability, please contact Tearlach Hutcheson. (see below)
"MABO - Life of an Island Man", is the story of a small island and an extraordinary man. Eddie Koiki Mabo was born on Murray Island in the Torres Strait, but lived most of his life in exile. Only after his death did the island wholeheartedly welcome him home. By then the island and Eddie had changed the legal and political landscape of Australia.
On June 3rd 1992, five months after Eddie Mabo's tragic death, the High Court of Australia upheld his claim that Murray Islanders held "native title" to three islands on the eastern fringe of the Torres Strait.
Aboriginal and Islander communities across Australia greeted the Mabo judgment with jubilation. The legal fiction that Australia was an empty land when first occupied by white people had been laid to rest - by the highest court in the land. After more that 200 years of struggle, European law was at last coming to grips with preexisting indigenous law.
But the world knows little of Eddie Mabo, the man who gave his name - and much of his life - to a legal judgment which continues to reverberate throughout Australia.
Filmmaker Trevor Graham counted Eddie as a friend during the last few years of his life. The movie tells the story of an island man so passionate about family and home that he fought an entire nation and its legal system. Though he died before his greatest victory was won, it has forever ensured his place - on Murray Island and in Australian history.
Virtuoso printmaker Jorg Schmeisser will be visiting the United States. He will start his tour in San Francisco and finish in Washington,DC. While in the US he will be giving a number of public lectures as well as serving as a Whitney T Oates Distinguished Visitor at Princeton University in October and November.
Jorg Schmeisser has produced over 500 etchings in a thirty-year career. He was born in Germany where he studied at the Hamburg Fine Art Academy. He taught at the International Design Institute in Kyoto, Japan before moving to Australia in 1978. Mr Schmeisser established the Department of Printmaking at the Canberra College of Art, Australian National University. He continues to live and work in Canberra, Australia.
The Australian Studies Network continues to gain a large world wide following. Electronic visitors have come from over seventy-five countries and the web site receives an average of over seven hundred "hits" a day. This is the place to look for the latest in off-shore Australian studies.
Of special interest is the new directory of academics. Arranged by geographical region, the directory intends to include every academic involved in Australian studies who works outside of Australia. Many ASANA members are included in the North America section. Please check your personal listing for accuracy and please email information about colleagues who should be included. There is a seperate directory for post-graduate students. (http://www.austudies.org/info/aca/academics.html)
The Australian Studies Network has found a home in Europe on the computers of the University of Wales at Lampeter. Now the Australian Studies Network can be easily accessed from North America, Australia, and Europe. The European address is http://www.lamp.ac.uk/ASN (it is necessary to capitalize the "ASN" in the address).
The Australian Studies Network is one of the only nine Australian web sites listed as a prime reference by CNN and only one of six prime Australian references listed by the Washington Post.
The National Library of Australia has established a major project called "Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia", or PANDORA. This is an electronic archive "to provide long term access to significant Australian online publications". They are selecting WWW sites which will be copied and preserved at the NLA. Since the web changes fast, what is online today may not be available six months from now. The NLA archive will allow an historical record of important web sites. The ASANA web site has been selected for inclusion in the project. For further information see "Review of Progress to June 1997" at: http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/pandje97.html.
The ASANA WWW site continues to provide a service to members. There is now a membership list online. Members are encouraged to insure that their information is correct, especially their email addresses.
This is the first of the quarterly ASANA newsletters for the 1997-98 academic year. We aim to make the newsletters more reader friendly and are hopeful that they will provide a more comprehensive guide than in the past about a variety of academic and non-academic events involving Australia and North America. These newsletters are joint efforts between me and Lisa Murphy, Australian Studies Officer.
We welcome your comments and suggestions for items to be included; so please keep in touch with
about your ideas for the newsletters. All the best for the new academic year. John M. Keller
Return to ASANA homepage.