Faculty of Arts News

• 2009 Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad
• Historical win for University of Sydney author
• Faculty of Arts Research Performance Day 2008
• Faculty of Arts success in ARC funding
• University of Sydney and Asia Pacific partners launch new human rights degree
• University of Sydney receives first Australian Mellon grant
• OzCLO 2008 - State Round
• Lingfest 2008 - Linguistics in Sydney
• The First Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad (OzCLO)
• NSW Premier's Prize for William Christie
• David Brooks nominated for Miles Franklin Award 2008
• 2008 Indigenous Youth Leadership Programme (IYLP)
• English Colloquium a big hit with Teachers
• CCTV visits the Faculty of Arts
• Ancient art brought to light
• New Director for CPACS
• Rich finds on royal road
• Hat Trick for humanities in the Department of History
• Teaching Excellence in the Faculty of Arts
• Sydney arts and humanities confirmed as world's best

The Faculty of Arts and the School of Information technologies will be co-hosting the 2009 Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad, a six-state competition for high school students.

Training Session: Wednesday 18 February 2009
State Round: Wednesday 4 March 2009
National Round: Wednesday 1 April 2009
Time and venue: To be confirmed
Enquiries: Jane Simpson /
Phone: (02) 9351 3655 / 0427 622 428
Further Information: Visit the website:www.ozclo.org.au

University of Sydney historian Dr Michael McDonnell took out a major award at this week's Premier's History Awards for a book about the state of Virginia during the American Revolution.

Dr McDonnell, a lecturer in the University's history department, won the General History Prize, worth $15,000, for the book The Politics of War: Race, Class and Conflict in Revolutionary Virginia.

The judges described the book as a "revisionist account that challenges and complicates earlier understandings of American history".

In The Politics of War Dr McDonnell considers how class and race shaped the course of Virginian history during the American Revolution.

"The enslaved and the poor, black and white, have their agency returned, allowing the reader to hear voices long forgotten," the judges commented.

"McDonnell's research is meticulous, and, despite its academic rigour, the writing style is accessible and engaging. Indeed, it offers a model approach for its field.

"The Politics of War can proudly take its place beside that small but influential group of Australian produced works that have dared to engage and shape American history."

"I am delighted at receiving the award, and rather taken aback," Dr McDonnell said. "It is a wonderful competition and there were so many great books submitted that it is a real honour to have won."

Professor Duncan Ivison, head of the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, said the win was yet another demonstration of the outstanding depth and breadth of talent in the University's history department.

"The Department of History boasts one of the best group of American historians working both inside and outside of the United States and this is yet another sign of their ever-growing prestige," he said.

"Mike McDonnell and his colleagues continue to produce outstanding work that helps not only Americans understand themselves, but the rest of the world understand America."

The award was presented by the Premier and Minister for the Arts, the Honourable Nathan Rees MP, on Monday 27 October 2008.

All are welcome to attend this event, which showcases the breadth and depth of research across the four schools of the Faculty of Arts. This year there will be a digital display in addition to the four panels of speakers, who will each talk for ten minutes about their research project.
When: Thursday 30 October, 1.30 - 5.30pm
Where: Woolley Common Room, John Woolley Building, The University of Sydney

Programme

1.30 – 2pm – Introduction by Professors Stephen Garton and Margaret Harris

2 – 2.35pm – Panel 1: Digital Scholarship in the Faculty

Aaron Corn: A Cartography of Manikay; the art of digitally recording a multimedia repertoire in multiple parts (SLAM)

Andrew Wilson: ‘How many clicks to Lachlan Macquarie? Database Modelling of historical phenomena for the Dictionary of Sydney Project (SOPHI)

Holly High: Database Optics and the Air War over Southeast Asia (SSPS)

2.35 - 3.10pm – Panel 2: Peace and Conflict

Rebecca Suter: It’s a kind of magic: creative misreadings of Christianity in modern Japanese literature and popular culture (SLC)

Glenda Sluga: The History of Internationalism (SOPHI)

Jake Lynch: New Directions in Peace Journalism (SSPS)

3.10 - 3.40pm Afternoon Tea

3.40 – 4.30pm – Panel 3: Postgraduate Showcase

Alana Mann: Competing for Media Access: NGOs and Social Movements (SLAM)

Cathy Campbell: Representing geo-temporal uncertainty. Amarna a Case Study: Counting Princesses (SOPHI)

Erin Taylor: Abajo el Puente: Place and the Politics of Progress in Santo Domingo (SSPS)

Tara Povey: Social Movements in the Arab and Muslim Middle East (SLC)

4.30 – 4.55pm – Panel 4: Histories of Emotion

Paolo Bartoloni: the Relation between the Organic and the Inorganic in regard to Desire (SLC)

Melissa Hardie: Crime. Affect and Ornament (SLAM)

5pm: Refreshments and draw for prize of book token: in N497, adjacent to Woolley Common Room.

The Faculty of Arts would like to congratulate the successful applicants for ARC funding from 2009. The awards include seven Post-Docs and three Professional Fellowships as well as grants to University of Sydney applicants through other universities.

Prof WH Anderson; Dr RL Jones
Anatomies of Empire: Race, Evolution and Scientific Networks in the Twentieth-Century British World
2009 : $ 120,000
2010 : $ 110,000
2011 : $ 90,000
Primary RFCD 4301 HISTORICAL STUDIES
APD Dr RL Jones

A/Prof AC Bashford; Dr J McAdam; Dr SS Amrith
Immigration Restriction and the Racial State, c. 1880 to the present
2009 : $ 95,000
2010 : $ 120,000
2011 : $ 78,000
2012 : $ 50,000
Primary RFCD 4301 HISTORICAL STUDIES

Prof JS Castles
Social transformation and international migration in the 21st century
2009 : $ 88,000
2010 : $ 90,000
2011 : $ 90,000
2012 : $ 90,000
2013 : $ 90,000
Primary RFCD 3701 SOCIOLOGY

Dr CA Driscoll; Dr K Bowles; Prof K Darian Smith; A/Prof CR Gibson; Dr D Nichols; A/Prof G Waitt
Cultural sustainability in Australian country towns: amenity, mobility, and everyday life
2009 : $ 97,000
2010 : $ 68,486
2011 : $ 158,000
Primary RFCD 4203 CULTURAL STUDIES

Dr M Fillios
The Taphonomy of Waterhole Faunal Death Assemblages: A model for Archaeological Contexts in the Australian Semi Arid Zone
2009 : $ 78,978
2010 : $ 95,000
2011 : $ 95,000
2012 : $ 67,000
Primary RFCD 4302 ARCHAEOLOGY AND PREHISTORY
APD Dr M Fillios

Prof PR Freebody; Prof JR Martin; Dr KA Maton
Disciplinarity, knowledge and schooling: Analysing and improving integrated, cumulative learning in classrooms.
2009 : $ 150,000
2010 : $ 130,000
2011 : $ 80,000
Primary RFCD 3302 CURRICULUM STUDIES

A/Prof I Gardner; A/Prof J Be Duhn; Mr P Dilley
The digital restoration of the Dublin Kephalaia codex and its importance for the history of religions
2009 : $ 100,000
2010 : $ 80,000
2011 : $ 80,000
2012 : $ 100,000
Primary RFCD 4402 RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS
APD Mr P Dilley

Prof SW Gaukroger
Science and the Shaping of Modernity, 1690-1755
2009 : $ 141,000
2010 : $ 100,000
2011 : $ 107,000
2012 : $ 79,000
2013 : $ 191,000
Primary RFCD 4401 PHILOSOPHY
APF Prof SW Gaukroger

Dr MJ Hendrickson; Dr C Pottier; Prof Dr HJ Leisen; Dr DE Cook; Dr Q Hua
Industries of Angkor: Material Production and the Decline of the Khmer Empire (11th to 15th centuries CE)
2009 : $ 128,000
2010 : $ 108,000
2011 : $ 93,000
Primary RFCD 4302 ARCHAEOLOGY AND PREHISTORY
APD Dr MJ Hendrickson

Dr EM Lamb
Reading Children in Early Modern Culture
2009 : $ 60,978
2010 : $ 67,000
2011 : $ 68,420
2012 : $ 60,991
Primary RFCD 4202 LITERATURE STUDIES
APD Dr EM Lamb

Dr MA McDonnell
Charles Langlade, the Anishinaabeg, and the making and unmaking of the Atlantic World
2009 : $ 60,000
2010 : $ 20,000
2011 : $ 21,000
Primary RFCD 4301 HISTORICAL STUDIES

A/Prof J Milam
The Business of Art: Corporate Interventions into the Production, Display, and Reception of the Visual Arts
2009 : $ 50,000
2010 : $ 52,000
2011 : $ 92,000
Primary RFCD 4199 OTHER ARTS

Dr KL Miller
Fundamental Ways the World Could Be: Challenging Metaphysical Orthodoxy
2009 : $ 33,000
2010 : $ 31,000
2011 : $ 45,000
Primary RFCD 4401 PHILOSOPHY

Dr AD Moses
Genocide: Critical History of an Idea
2009 : $ 70,000
2010 : $ 28,000
2011 : $ 33,000
Primary RFCD 4301 HISTORICAL STUDIES

Dr D O'Reilly; Dr RA Armstrong; Dr KM Domett; Dr LG Shewan; Prof CF Higham; Prof R Chhem; Dr N Beavan Athfield; Dr C Pottier
History in their bones: A diachronic, bioarchaeological study of diet, mobility and social organisation from Cambodian skeletal assemblages
2009 : $ 74,000
2010 : $ 56,000
2011 : $ 24,000
Primary RFCD 4302 ARCHAEOLOGY AND PREHISTORY

Prof DT Potts
From village to empire in the Zagros highlands: Archaeological investigations at Tole Nurabad (Fars Province, Iran)
2009 : $ 104,000
2010 : $ 104,000
2011 : $ 104,000
2012 : $ 78,590
2013 : $ 104,000
Primary RFCD 4302 ARCHAEOLOGY AND PREHISTORY
APF Prof DT Potts

Prof EC Probyn
Taste and Place: the transglobal production and consumption of food and drink
2009 : $ 79,000
2010 : $ 70,000
2011 : $ 75,000
Primary RFCD 4203 CULTURAL STUDIES

Prof CJ Pybus; Prof RL Isaac; Prof I Berlin; Prof OV Burton; Prof J Sidbury
Approved Interrogating the Book of Negroes: explorations of slavery and freedom in the Atlantic
Project Title world in the era of the American Revolution.
2009 : $ 130,000
Primary RFCD 4301 HISTORICAL STUDIES

Prof PJ Read
A history of Aboriginal Sydney since 1788
2009 : $ 130,000
2010 : $ 120,000
2011 : $ 120,000
2012 : $ 79,000
2013 : $ 186,000
Primary RFCD 3799 OTHER STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY
APF Prof PJ Read

Prof PM Redding; Dr PD Bubbio
The God of Hegel's PostKantian Idealism
2009 : $ 151,000
2010 : $ 108,000
2011 : $ 151,000
2012 : $ 32,972
Primary RFCD 4401 PHILOSOPHY
APD Dr PD Bubbio

Prof GA Sluga
The International History of Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism, 18141822
2009 : $ 70,000
2010 : $ 57,028
2011 : $ 70,000
2012 : $ 88,000
Primary RFCD 4301 HISTORICAL STUDIES

Dr R Torrence; Mrs NA Kononenko; Dr EA Carter
Valuing Stones: obsidian stemmed tools in the creation of social complexity in Papua New Guinea
2009 : $ 149,000
2010 : $ 100,000
2011 : $ 101,000
2012 : $ 107,000
Primary RFCD 4302 ARCHAEOLOGY AND PREHISTORY

Dr JS Wilkins; Prof PE Griffiths
Contemporary scientific explanations of religion: A methodological and philosophical analysis
2009 : $ 87,195
2010 : $ 88,506
2011 : $ 88,446
Primary RFCD 4401 PHILOSOPHY
APD Dr JS Wilkins

In conjunction with other universities:

At University of Wollongong
DP0986748 Dr SJ Bennett; Dr KA Maton
Living and Learning in a Knowledge Society: The implications of young adults' knowledge-creating practices for higher education
2009 : $ 40,000
2010 : $ 40,000
Primary RFCD 3301 EDUCATION STUDIES

At University of Technology Sydney
Prof DS Goodman; Dr B Carrillo; Dr M Chen
The New Rich and the State in China: The social basis of local power
2009 : $ 120,000
2010 : $ 120,000
2011 : $ 120,000
Primary RFCD 3601 POLITICAL SCIENCE
APD Dr M Chen

At UNSW/ADFA
Prof PR Eggert; Prof EA Webby; Dr PM Robinson
Brought to book: Textual-editorial studies and the methodology of book history with a scholarly edition of Charles Harpur's complete poetry
2009 : $ 170,000
2010 : $ 90,000
2011 : $ 106,000
2012 : $ 124,000
2013 : $ 170,000
Primary RFCD 4202 LITERATURE STUDIES
APF Prof PR Eggert

With Griffith University
Prof Dr H Schippers; Dr P Dunbar-Hall; Prof PR Hayward; A/Prof LM Barwick; Prof K Howard; Prof P Campbell; Prof J Drummond; Dr H Lundstrom; Dr RA Letts
Sustainable futures for music cultures: Toward an ecology of musical diversity
2009 : $ 133,000
2010 : $ 130,000
2011 : $ 130,000
2012 : $ 168,000
2013 : $ 60,000
Primary RFCD 4101 PERFORMING ARTS

Thirty students from the Asia Pacific region will undertake post graduate study in human rights at the University of Sydney after the University secured its largest-ever grant from the European Union (EU).

The proposed new degree, called Asia Pacific Masters in Human Rights and Democratisation, will be the only regional program of its kind. It will be funded by an EU grant of Euro 1.498 million (currently worth AU$2.6 million).

Partner universities include Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia, Kathmandu Law School in Nepal, the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka, and Mahidol University in Thailand.

Jointly managed by the University’s Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific and the Faculty of Arts, along with the other partner institutions, the program will bring together teachers and researchers in human rights and democratisation from faculties across the University to form a unique multidisciplinary network.

The Dean of Arts, Professor Stephen Garton, said it was a recognition of the University’s standing as an important centre for the study of human rights. “It represents the highest aspirations of the faculty – cutting-edge scholarship and meaningful partnerships to address some of the world’s most pressing and significant issues. It will make a genuine contribution to the public good,” he said.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International), Professor John Hearn, also recognised its significance, stating that “the degree program is a prominent example of how globalisation of research and education can benefit international learners and leaders and provide a greater understanding of human rights and democratisation in the Asia Pacific region.”

A second tier of associate partners who will be involved in the new degree include the Calcutta Research Group in India, Ataneo de Manila University in the Philippines and the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Academic Director Dr Danielle Celermajer emphasised that the program is about developing educational programs together with our partner institutions. “Historically, the Asia Pacific has not had the opportunity to develop its own regional human rights institutions and programs, but we are now at a moment in time where there are some very exciting developments in this area. This regional Masters will form the educational dimension of regional human rights development, and for the first time, it will be developed from the ground up, across the Asia Pacific.”

Students from the partner countries will be targeted, with a particular emphasis on economic disadvantage, social marginalisation and gender. The EU grant will fund 30 students from the region for two years, including travel, fees, and per diems.

“That is an extremely important part of the program. It will be accessible to people who really need it, like mid-career professionals in NGOs. This is people who would be excluded from most existing programs for financial reasons” said Dr Celermajer.

Clinical Professor Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn, President of Mahidol University said: “This partnership is a bold step for human rights education at the regional level.”

“We hope to see the expansion of human rights study and research in the region, and more importantly the increased connection between these different countries in the promotion of human rights.”

The new program will welcome its first intake of students in 2010.

More about the program

Students will spend a ‘foundational’ semester and a one week intensive course at Sydney. They will then study at a partner university. During this time they will do an individually tailored combination of electives, research dissertation and an internship.

“The research collaborations that this is going to open up will be extraordinary,” said Dr Celermajer. Professor Garton agreed: “This project will foster significant international collaboration and interdisciplinary research between Sydney University and major researchers and universities in Europe and Asia.”

This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of the University of Sydney and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.”

For more information about the program, contact , Academic Director.

The University of Sydney has become the first Australian institution to win a prestigious Sawyer Seminar grant from the US-based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The grant will support a one-year program of research and expert seminars into the way in which ideas flowed between the Indo-Pacific worlds and the Atlantic worlds over three centuries, from 1700 until today.

Titled 'The Antipodean laboratory: Humanity, Sovereignty, and Environment in Southern Oceans and Lands, 1700-2009', the Seminar will support cross-disciplinary research into how "the northern hemisphere used comparisons with the Pacific and the Antipodes as a way of thinking about the world," says Professor Iain McCalman AO.

"Awareness of the South shook all sort of people's ideas, but it also became a great comparator," he says. "Travellers in scientific and exploratory expeditions such as Darwin used voyages to the Pacific and elsewhere as a kind of laboratory, resulting, for example, in theories of evolution as a way of explaining how species of animals and plants spread across the world."

Throughout 2009, in a series of ten workshops, scholars from the University of Sydney, elsewhere in Australia and around the world will explore themes and topics such as ecology, health, climate, oceans, anthropology and sexuality. Other seminars will look at human rights, disease and human biology, and the limits and role of states, political power and colonisation.

Alison Bashford and Andrew Fitzmaurice will convene a seminar of experts on the Antarctica and its influence on our ideas about sovereignty and property, as well as how the new problem of global warming has created challenges for science and law in that region.

Cassandra Pybus and Emma Christopher will host a seminar on the history of "unfree labour in the Antipodes", and the curious fact that while "slavery was being questioned in other parts of the empire … increasingly ferocious set of punishments were being devised" in the Antipodes.

A seminar led by Robert Aldrich, Sexuality in the South Seas, will range from Malinowski and Mead to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, considering how the "South Pacific has been a laboratory for the investigation of human behaviours, the projection of foreign fantasies and the metamorphosis of sexual cultures."

The program is being organised by fifteen scholars from the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI), based in the Faculty of Arts. "Our faculty has been repeatedly acknowledged as one of the leading centres for research in the humanities in the region and the world," says Professor Duncan Ivison, head of SOPHI.

"We have not only internationally-famous and eminent professors, but also the best mid- and early-career researchers in many disciplines," he says. "Many of these happen to concentrate on one of the most cutting edge fields in the humanities today - that of the border between Atlantic studies and Pacific studies."

A series of books and special journals, as well as a two-day international conference in July 2010, titled The Atlantic World in a Pacific Field, will be among the key outcomes of the Seminar. Each session will be open to the public and scholars of all disciplines are encouraged to attend.

About the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and John E Sawyer Seminar program
The non-profit Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, established in 1969, makes grants in the areas of: Higher Education and Scholarship; Scholarly Communications; Research in Information Technology; Museums and Art Conservation; Performing Arts; and Conservation and the Environment.

Grant applications are by invitation only, and recipients are selected through a rigorous international competition from submissions invited from a select group of research universities.

The Sawyer Seminar provides funding for international visitors, a one year Postdoctoral Fellowship, PhD student incentive grants and administrative support.
For more information about the foundation, visit the website.

Contact: Kath Kenny
Phone: 02 9351 2261 or 0434 606 100

It has been a successful start to the State Round of the Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad (OzCLO) with 64 high schools attending. OzCLO is a Linguistics contest for high school students in years 9-12. It challenges students to develop strategies for solving problems in real languages. Linguistics requires and builds skills in languages, logic and "computational thinking", as well as helping students to build teamwork skills.

The National Round will be held on Wednesday 6 August.

The Sydney State Round was successfully coordinated by Dominique Estival, Jane Simpson, Elwin Cross, and Diego Molla. The OzCLO Organising Committee would like to thank all of those involved.

OzCLO 2008 is proudly sponsored by the ARC Network in Human Communication Science (HCSNet).

A series of linguistics conferences and workshops will be held over 2 weeks at the University of Sydney from Monday 30 June - Friday 11 July 2008.

Conferences and Workshops

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association Annual Conference 2008
When: Monday 30 June - Wednesday 2 July

Australian Linguistic Society (ALS) Annual Conference 2008
When: Wednesday 2 - Friday 4 July

Applied Linguistics Association of Australia
Critical Dimensions in Applied Linguistics
When: Friday 4 - Sunday 6 July

International Lexical-Functional Grammar Annual Conference 2008
When: Friday 4 - Sunday 6 July

Australian Linguistics Institute 2008
When: Monday 7 July - Friday 11 July

The Indigenous Languages Institute 2008
Speak and listen in Dharug, the Sydney language
When: Tuesday 8 – Thursday 10 July

For further information about Lingfest 2008 events and register for any of the conferences, visit the website: Lingfest 2008. For general enquiries about Lingfest 2008, please email .

Lingfest 2008 is hosted by the School of Letters, Art, and Media (SLAM), School of Languages and Cultures (SLC), the Koori Centre, the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Arts.

The Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad (OzCLO) is a Linguistics contest for high school students. It challenges students to develop strategies for solving problems in real languages. Linguistics requires and builds skills in languages, logic and "computational thinking", as well as helping students to build teamwork skills. Students from years 9-12 in the Sydney and Melbourne regions are invited to take part in this learning experience.

The competition will be held on Wednesday 25 June in Sydney and Melbourne hosted by the University of Sydney and Melbourne University. The winners will move on to the national round which will be held in each location on Wednesday 6 August 2008.

Registrations close on Wednesday 18 June. For more information about the Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad, visit the website: OzCLO.

Contact your local OzCLO Organiser:
Sydney:
Melbourne:

Associate Professor William Christie has won the NSW Premier's Prize for Literary Scholarship for his biography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the British Romantic poet, philosopher and political thinker.

Associate Professor Christie is an expert in British Romantic literature and culture and is based in the Department of English. He was delighted to receive the award for his 2007 book, Samuel Taylor Coleridge: a Literary Life.

The Faculty of Arts would like to congratulate Associate Professor William Christie.

Lecturer in Australian literature David Brooks has been shortlisted for the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award.

His novel The Fern Tattoo is a portrayal of Australian family life spanning from the late 19th to the 20th century, with big themes about the certainty of fate and the randomness of love.

It was described by the judges as "a demanding but satisfying book in which there are often moments of pure beauty."

Better known as a highly acclaimed poet and short story writer, as well as the co-editor of Southerly magazine, Brooks says he's delighted to have been selected.

"Being a full-time writer and academic is a juggling act, and I couldn't have done it without the wonderful support of my colleagues in the English department and the Arts Faculty," he said. "This might even encourage other writers on staff to persevere."

As the director of the University's graduate writing program, David is hopeful the publicity surrounding his second novel will stimulate even more interest in the MA course. It's the largest program of its kind in Australia, now with around 40 full time students.

Brooks wrote much of the novel while overseas on study leave, and says he already has another novel awaiting publication. "The next one is something of a Joseph Conrad-style adventure set in Papua New Guinea," he said. And as if he hasn't enough to do, David has collaborated on a forthcoming publication of Slovenian poetry.

Among the five authors shortlisted for the nation's most prestigious literary prize, Brooks is the only debut nominee. He joins previous two time winners Alex Miller and Rodney Hall, as well as Gail Jones and Steven Carroll, who have each been nominated three times.

The Miles Franklin Literary Award has been running since 1957. It is awarded for the novel of the highest literary merit and is designed to celebrate works of Australian character and creativity.

The winner, who will receive $42,000, will be announced at a gala dinner at the State Library of NSW on June 19.

Contact: Media Office
Phone: 02 9351 2261

Hannah Donnelly, a Bachelor of Global Studies student in the Faculty of Arts, has been selected for the 2008 Indigenous Youth Leadership Programme (IYLP).

The IYLP aims to create opportunities for young indigenous people who have demonstrated academic excellence and leadership potential.

The IYLP is a national initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). During 2006-2009, the IYLP will offer up to 250 scholarships and leadership opportunities to young indigenous Australians aged 12-25 undertaking secondary or tertiary studies within Australia. The programme is targeted at students from remote and regional areas.

The Foundation for Young Australians has been appointed by DEEWR as the Programme Administrator for the IYLP. The Foundation is a dynamic non profit organisation committed to developing innovative initiatives that support and empower the lives of young Australians aged 12-25. The Foundation commits over $4 million each year to provide opportunities for young people and at least 20% of The Foundation’s total funding is committed to programs that benefit Indigenous young people.

The Faculty of Arts would like to congratulate Hannah on this fantastic achievement!

COLLOQUIUM ON THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH STUDIES AT SECONDARY SCHOOL

On Saturday, 16 February 2008 Prof. Will Christie from the Department of English at the University of Sydney organised and chaired a Colloquium on the Future of English Studies at Secondary School in the University’s Eastern Avenue Auditorium.
Over the last eight years, there has been a good deal of sometimes heated discussion in the media and in the classroom about the direction of English studies, particularly at the Stage 6 level of study. The colloquium was designed to be a place where representatives of the many interested parties – English teachers at schools and universities, educationalists, parents, and even the general public with an interest in the critical and cultural literacy of the nation – could meet together in friendly circumstances and offer their thoughts on what our priorities should be, now and in the future.
As it turned out, the colloquium proved not only important but timely. Within a week of its taking place, the Rudd government endorsed plans for a national curriculum and nominated Professor Barry McGaw to head a committee to design and implement it.
The vast majority of the audience were teachers of English in NSW schools, some from as far afield as Maclean, Deniliquin, and Scone. They heard eight half-hour papers from different perspectives, delivered by a varied and distinguished group of educationalists and English teachers and academics:

Mr Don Carter (BA DipEd MEd [Hons] MEd) is Inspector for English at the New South Wales Board of Studies.

Dr Jackie Manuel, senior lecturer in English Education in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney, where she is also convenor of the Arts, English, and Literacy Education Research Network (AELE). She is a member of the NSW Board of Studies, was on the HSC English (Standard and Advanced) Examination Committee from 2004 to 2006, and its Chief Examiner in 2007.
Assoc. Prof. Wayne Sawyer , co-ordinator of English education at the University of Western Sydney, a former Chair of the NSW Board of Studies English 7-10 Curriculum Committee, editor of English in Australia, and president of the NSW English Teachers’ Association, where he is currently the manager of Curriculum and Assessment.
Assoc. Prof. Simon Haines Reader in English at ANU, where he was Head of Humanities from 2005 to 2007. A former English representative on ACT Board of Senior School Studies, he is also an honorary member of the Arts, English and Literacy Education Research Network in the Faculty of Education, here at the University of Sydney.
Dr Wendy Morgan was a senior lecturer in Cultural and Language Studies in Education at Queensland University of Technology until last year, in charge of the pre-service secondary English teacher education program. She has long served on curriculum development committees in Victoria, South Australia, and Queensland, where she is now the State Panel Chair for the Senior English Extension (Literature) Syllabus.
Dr Sarah Golsby-Smith has a BA (Hons) in English and a DipEd from the University of Sydney, where she did a PhD on the 1999 HSC syllabus.
Ms Heather Cobban has taught and supervised at Condell Park High School and St George Girls High School, and been Head Teacher of English at Cherrybrook Technology High School and Fort Street High School, where she still works, as well as serving on syllabus committees for the DET.
Prof. Roslyn Arnold lectured in the Faculty of Education at the University of Sydney in English and Drama for twenty five-years and until recently was Dean and Head of School in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania. She is currently an Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work here at the University of Sydney, and a regular commentator on the ABC on education matters.

The day concluded with the audience participating in a general forum on the topic of where English studies might go from here.

A number of things stood out on a day in which there was certainly plenty of good feeling and a shared sense of responsibility. The first was a genuine optimism about the future of English studies at secondary level; a shared, arguably Romantic conviction that literature and its study genuinely mattered. The second was the need to keep the thinking, feeling school student at the centre of the pedagogical process – the need to shift the responsibility for critical discrimination back onto the student, and make the classroom and not a prescriptive syllabus the centre of critical and creative activity. (The opportunity for creative activity was stressed by a number of the people present.)
With regard to the culture wars fought in classrooms and in the media over the 1999 stage 6 HSC syllabus, there was a prevailing distrust of the kind of reading that reduced creative literature to a covert set of ideological positions or propositions. Most of the speakers and participants urged different kinds of rhetorical and ethical approach that saw the excitement of a child’s contact with imaginative literature as necessary to his or her intellectual and emotional – and indeed social – development. However, many of those present also welcomed the kind of social and cultural awareness brought about by the adoption of recent critical approaches, and saw no incompatibility between a politically aware and what is loosely termed an ‘aesthetic’ approach. It was widely felt that the media, focusing on a document and taking a reductive, combative approach to the issue, had consistently underestimated the way good teachers can adapt syllabus requirements to their own constructive purposes.
Perhaps if there was unanimity amongst the various speakers and members of the audience it was over the need to ensure that a highly competitive examination system and its exigencies not be allowed to preoccupy the classroom and dictate either the choice of text or the way in which it is taught.
The proceedings of what proved a very successful colloquium will be forwarded to the national curriculum committee.

On 31 August, a crew from China Central Television (CCTV), the national television
broadcaster in China, came to the University of Sydney and filmed a debate in the Great Hall between teams from Tsinghua (Beijing) and Sydney Universities. The debate, on the topic of whether people should be cloned or not, was conducted in Chinese and involved several students who had studied Chinese in the School of Languages and Cultures in the Faculty of Arts. Organised by the Chinese Ministry of Education,the debate was part of a series aimed at promoting Chinese language and culture throughout the world. The Tsinghua team will also debate teams from the University of NSW and the University of Melbourne – the winner of which will head to China to take part in a televised debate.

As part of their visit, the crew also filmed an interview with Professor Stephen Garton, Dean of the Faculty of Arts. Professor Garton spoke about the diversity of offerings that has contributed to the Faculty’s fifth place ranking by the UK Times Higher Education Supplement (2006). He said that he was particularly proud of the broad range of subject areas for study such as philosophy, history and sociology, but also the huge range of studies of other cultures and languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Hindi, Sanskrit, Pali, Korean, and many of the European languages and cultures. Professor Garton told CCTV that, to understand a language well, you have to understand the culture and to understand the culture, you must know the language. Integrating the two is, therefore, absolutely central to the way area and language studies are approached in this Faculty.

Professor Jeffrey Riegel, Head of the School of Languages and Cultures in the Faculty of Arts, was also present at this interview and told CCTV that his own interest in Chinese studies was developed thanks to some very good teachers when he was an undergraduate. Their passion for Chinese literature and the emphasis they placed on solid language training led to his decision to study Chinese as a postgraduate student at Stanford University. Professor Riegel added that, while he looks back on his graduate-school years with great gratitude and fondness, the experience that benefited him the most was a year of in-country Chinese language study in Taiwan. Not only did he make lifelong connections at the universities there, he lived with a Chinese family (that had emigrated from Beijing after 1949) and learned from them lessons about Chinese values and daily life that remain with him still. Professor Riegel encourages students now to pursue language study and take advantage of opportunities to study abroad. These experiences, together with the kind of broad-based education the University of Sydney offers in the humanities, will prepare students well – no matter what career opportunities come their way.

Making the most of their visit to Sydney University, the crew wrapped up the day by filming an interview with the acting Chair of Chinese Studies, Dr David Bray. Dr Bray gave a brief overview of the history of Chinese Studies at Sydney, which includes 51 years of Chinese language teaching, and the current fields of research undertaken by staff in the department. He especially emphasised the point that while language teaching is an important part of the work undertaken here, academic staff also have expertise in a wide range of fields related to China, including classical and modern literature, pre-modern and modern history, cultural studies, sociology and politics, and that staff teach as well as
research within these diverse fields.

We wish the Sydney University debating team well in their efforts to be judged as the winning Australian team that will be bound for China.

12 April 2007

Archaeologists working in Uzbekistan have uncovered an extraordinary group of 2000-year-old wall paintings - the most extensive, best preserved and among the oldest murals ever discovered in Central Asia.

The team of University of Sydney archaeologists and specialists from the Uzbek Academy of Sciences found the paintings in a monumental building, probably a temple, within the massive fortified settlement of Kazakl'i-yatkan near the Aral Sea. On the evidence so far, the paintings may have covered more than a kilometre of wall.

The site lies in modern day Karakalpakstan, part of north-western Uzbekistan, in the delta of the Amu-darya river, the ancient Oxus. This was a flourishing centre of civilisation from the seventh century BC until it was laid waste by the Mongols.

Many magnificent ruins lay undisturbed for centuries until the early years of the 20th century when the canals were rebuilt and the land was turned over to cotton production. The work of the Karakalpak-Australian Expedition has shown that many secrets are still waiting to be uncovered beneath the desert sands.

"We are trying to discover where the people who did the paintings got their ideas from, what kind of cultural background they had and what these pieces mean because obviously there was symbolism built into them," said Professor Betts.

"We are still working on finding out whether they are just portraits of kings and queens, or whether they are in some way related to gods. The king was regarded as a god or given the right to rule by god - it reflects a connection between religion and kingship," Professor Betts said.

The paintings were lifted from the ground and walls before being cleaned and transferred to local museums. Some of them are expected to feature in a travelling exhibition.

Kazakl'i-yatkan became independent around the 5th century BC and grew increasingly isolated, but during this period it developed a rich indigenous civilisation. The region was never conquered by Alexander and remained cut off from almost all outside influence until around the 1st century AD.

The work is part of an ARC-funded archaeological study of cult and religion, and will continue at the site in September 2007. The project has a volunteer program which allows members of the public to take part in excavation work for a short time, and also provides the opportunity for them to visit Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, the great cities of the Silk Road.

Contact: Kath Kenny
Phone: 02 9351 2261

27 February 2007

In December last year, Jake Lynch and his wife, Annabel McGoldrick, took a 16-hour trip into the south Philippine jungle to interview Comrade Ka Oris, the leader of the New People's Army.

Recently designated as a terrorist group, the NPA was busy fighting its 38-year-long Maoist insurgence. Lynch had made contact with Oris through a 'fixer'.

"The NPA - and Oris in particular - gets demonised by national and international governments and by the press. I wanted to make the NPA members visible, so that they could speak to us directly about their agenda, even if we don't agree with their methods," explains Lynch.

The decision to appoint him as the new director of the University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies is "great and highly imaginative", according to Stuart Rees who recently retired from the position. An experienced international reporter in television and newspapers, Lynch has been a presenter for BBC World News, the Sydney correspondent for London's Independent newspaper, and a political correspondent for Sky News. He has covered conflicts in the Middle East, South East Europe and East Asia.

"Jake is one of the world's best journalists on the influence of the media on public understanding of wars and other forms of violence," says Professor Rees.

When working on a news production team for the BBC, Lynch's attitude towards journalism radically shifted. He realised it involved more than just reporting the facts.

"I noticed that, because of the way media companies run, the most interesting stories never make it to air," he says. He knew he would need to work hard "to ventilate the important issues".

Together with McGoldrick, also working at CPACS, Lynch has spent the past decade developing and campaigning for Peace Journalism.

"Peace Journalism involves editors and reporters using their journalism to create opportunities for society at large to consider and value non-violent responses to conflict," he explains. He is the founding member of the Peace Journalism Commission of the International Peace Research Association.

Lynch and McGoldrick have been leading a silent global revolution, taking professional training workshops for editors and reporters in many countries. They had great success in Maluku in Indonesia where their work brought together Christian and Muslim journalists for the first time. "The reporters swapped information, quotes, and exchanged ideas as to how to work together," says Lynch.

For Lynch, the move from England to Sydney, and the appointment to CPACS, is the natural next step. "CPACS is the most hospitable home to Peace Journalism. Annabel and I have taught courses at Sydney several times over the years. It makes sense for us to be here permanently," he explains. Lynch is an engaging teacher, says Professor Rees, and helooks forward to the "street wisdom" Lynch will bring to the Centre.

During his transition from journalism to academia, Lynch built up a strong record of publications, and the position at CPACS will enable him to further develop his work. He is preparing to receive a PhD by Published Works from City University, London.

And then there's his age. "At 41, I'm too old to rock 'n' roll, too young to die. I'm too old to be a reporter, too young to be a professor." His freelance reporter days appear to be over - but, with a two-year-old son, perhaps that's not a bad thing, he says.

"Journalists tend to be rude, pushy, impatient, sharp and not very formal," he explains. Is he all these things? "Yes, I suppose I can be those things. But you need different qualities in academic life. You need patience."

Lynch has covered many political and diplomatic gatherings of world leaders. He's interviewed Nelson Mandela and Tony Blair. But he is most proud when he gives a voice to the voiceless. The recent interview with Oris was a career highlight.

"For privileged Westerners like us, encountering the NPA was a romantic dream - a bunch of guerrillas emerging from the misty jungle; the Che Guevara of South East Asia. But of course, for them it's life and death."

Contact: Kate Rossmanith

Phone: 02 9351 3168

5 March 2007

University of Sydney archaeologists are uncovering the remains of a building used by travelling Persian royalty in the 5th century BC.

Situated in a fertile valley about 125 kms west of Shiraz, the building served royal travellers on the famous Royal Road - the route linking the capital Persepolis with Persia's westernmost provincial capital Sardis, in Lydia*, according to the University of Sydney's Professor Dan Potts.

"The so-called Royal Road was the main artery linking Lydia with Persepolis, and yet apart from a description by the contemporary Greek historian Herodotus, we know virtually nothing about it" said Professor Potts from the excavation site in Iran.

"For all the fame of the Persian empire and its founder Cyrus, and for all of its enormous territorial extent, from Turkey, Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean in the east, to the Hindu Kush in the west, extraordinarily little archaeological research has been done in Iran itself."

The site, called Jinjun, was first noted in western literature by the German scholar Ernst Herzfeld in 1924. "It was briefly investigated in 1959 by a Japanese expedition, but has lain dormant ever since," said Professor Potts.

"Now for the first time we have excavations at this site, which was a stopping point on the Royal Road - not for messengers, bureaucrats, or other travellers, but rather for the royals themselves, since the building we're excavating is no ordinary road house.

"It is set back from the main road, across a river and at the base of a mountain for security. The building looks out north towards the road and the river beyond. It offered an ideal, well-watered, very beautiful location which is about 150kms west of Persepolis, or about seven days journey."

The building appears to have measured 50m by 30m, and test excavations have uncovered elaborate column bases comparable to those at the Achaemenid Persian capital Persepolis. The bases probably formed part of a larger portico or entrance.

A large area of intact paving made of irregularly shaped stone slabs, immediately to the south of the column bases, probably marks the entrance way to the building's interior.

"We have also found several fragments of white and pink highly polished stone vessels, comparable to examples known from Persepolis, as well as pieces of unusually thin, clear glass. All of this suggests elite usage of the sort consistent with the Persian ruling family itself, rather than commoners or even government officials," said Professor Potts.

The site is one of about 50 within the research area of a joint Australian-Iranian archaeological expedition led by Professor Potts, along with Edwin Cuthbert Hall, Professor of Middle Eastern Archaeology, and Alireza Askari Chaverdi, of the Iranian Center of Archaeological Research.

Other University of Sydney people taking part in the excavation are recent graduates in archaeology Amanda Dusting and Kat McRae, and Edna Wong, a current PhD student supervised by Professor Potts.

The excavation is funded by an ARC Discovery grant that involves a five-year agreement for collaborative research between the University of Sydney and the Iranian Center of Archaeological Research. Future excavations are planned to expose the entirety of this unique monument.

*Now western Turkey


Contact: Kath Kenny

Phone: 02 9351 2261 or 0434 606 100

19 February 2007

One of Australia's top humanities awards has gone to a Faculty of Arts academic who recently published a history of amateur and aspiring writers in twentieth century Britian.

Dr Christopher Hilliard, a lecturer in modern European history will be presented with the Max Crawford Medal in a ceremony at the University on Monday 19 February.

Described as Australia's most prestigious award for early career researchers, the Australian Academy of the Huamities award is made biennially to a researcher who combines scholarly excellence with a contribution "to a deeper understanding of a humanities discipline amongst the general public".

"It's a wonderful honour to be awarded the Crawford Medal-partly because of the tradition of scholarship it represents, and partly because it means a great deal to be honoured by the fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities," said Dr Hilliard.

Dr Hilliard's award represents a hat trick for the University of Sydney's history department; the previous two receipients were his colleagues Kirsten McKenzie (2004) and Glenda Sluga (2002). "It's an exciting time to be part of the Sydney University History Department, which is going from strength to strength," said Dr Hilliard.

The award recognises Dr Hilliard's book, "To Exercise our Talents: The Democratization of Writing in Britian". Dr Hilliard said that the book "tells the story of how ordinary people became writers and formed writing groups in large numbers from the 1920s onwards, and about what creativity and literature meant to them."

The award also comes in the wake of the University of Sydney's humanities faculty being ranked fifth best in the world by the respected ranking system, the Times Higher Education Supplement league table.

Contact: Kath Kenny,
Phone: 02 9351 2261
Email:

Dr Hilliard's Full Profile

22 December 2006

Each year the Faculty of Arts Teaching and Learning Committee coordinates the faculty Teaching Awards, promoting and recognising excellence in teaching. Students and staff are encouraged to nominate academic staff for the awards. Three award categories have been designed to encourage this:

• Award for Teaching Excellence
  This is the premier Faculty award, recognising strong overall excellence and achievement in all facets of teaching and student learning.
• Award for Tutoring
  This award is designed to identify excellence among tutors who have committed themselves to good practice and have enhanced student learning.
• Award for Teaching Initiatives
  This award recognises teaching initiatives so as to encourage staff desirous of support in implementing new ideas, programs evaluations, and so on. This award is program-oriented.

Congratulations to all those listed below:

2007 Faculty of Arts Teaching Excellence Awards
Dr David Kelly, Department of English
Dr Susan Thomas, Department of English
Dr Ahmar Mahboob, Department of Linguistics

2007 Faculty of Arts Tutoring Excellence Awards
Ms Kate Flaherty, Department of English
Ms Yuri Takahashi, Department of Japanese and Korean Studies

2007 Faculty of Arts Initiative Awards
Dr Kate Crawford, Department of Media and Communications
Dr Steven Maras, Department of Media and Communications

30 October 2006

In further confirmation of the University of Sydney's international standing, its humanities faculty has been judged the fifth best in the world by one of the most respected global ranking systems.

The UK Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) league table, released on the weekend, only ranks Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and UC Berkeley higher than the University of Sydney in humanities.

The University of Sydney outperformed the ANU (6th), the University of Melbourne (7th), Yale (8th) and Princeton (9th).

The THES World University Rankings, now in its third year, is based on a survey of more than 3,700 academics and over 700 international graduate employers as well as measures including staff to student ratios. This year the University of Sydney was ranked 35 in the overall university rankings, up from 38 last year.

And in the recently published Newsweek global 100, the University of Sydney was one of two Australian universities placed in the top 50 in the world.

Sydney's latest success is largely due to its strengths in traditional humanities combined with its cutting edge work in new areas of teaching and research, said the Dean of Arts, Professor Stephen Garton.

"We have worked very hard over the last few years at sustaining the great humanities traditions of the world, including Classics, Sanskrit and the widest array of language offerings in the country. At the same time we are at the cutting edge of new developments in the humanities, particularly in the e-humanities area," he said.

Humanities at the University have undergone considerable renewal and revitalisation in recent years, Professor Garton said.

As well as significant successes in achieving ARC grants over the last few years, a number of major appointments, including the recruitment of top international scholars, have been made in disciplines such as history, philosophy, classics and the languages.

The current curriculum encourages students to view Australia, and their own contributions to the world, in a broader global context, said Professor Garton. "We have created a curriculum focused on international perspectives and cross cultural communication."

Each year 200 students spend time overseas as part of their degree, contributing to "a very dynamic and vital academic culture, with great scholars and excellent graduates," he said.

Media Contact: Andrew Potter
Phone: +61 2 9351 4514 or 0414 998 521

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