News


ICS in the media

(Posted 20/02/12)

Recently published articles:

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Latest books by ICS researchers

(Posted: 20/02/12)

ICS researchers have published several three books in recent months. These are:

Other books published in 2011 were:

The Art of Engagement: Culture, Collaboration, Innovation (opens in a new window)edited by Elaine Lally, Ien Ang, Kay Anderson, published August 2011; and Pan-Germanism and the Austrofascist State, 1933–38 (opens in a new window)by Julie Thorpe, published June 2011.

Coming in 2012

  • Global Islamophobia, edited by George Morgan and S. Poynting
  • Shanghai Expo: an international forum on the future of Cities, edited by Tim Winter


CONTINUUM: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies - Special Issue: Navigating complexities

(Posted 20/02/12)

ICS Director Ien Ang is guest editor of the latest issue of Continuum Journal of Media & Cultural Studies. Vol. 25, No. 6 (2011) Special Issue: Navigating complexities (opens in a new window) also features articles by other ICS members.

Description

The feeling that the world is terribly complex has grown more pervasive in the first decade of the 21st century. How do we find ways of navigating the complex challenges of our time? And what role can we, as cultural researchers, play in this task? This special issue contains essays on a wide range of topics, each dealing with particularly complex realities, based on research undertaken at the Centre for Cultural Research. Going beyond the usual mode of deconstructive cultural critique, the authors explore the possibility for cultural research to contribute to what Ien Ang calls ‘cultural intelligence’. In the face of paralysing complexity, the key question is: how do we develop strategies of simplification without being simplistic?

Contents of this issue

Ien Ang, Navigating complexity: From cultural critique to cultural intelligence (opens in a new window)

Zoë Sofoulis, Skirting complexity: The retarding quest for the average water user (opens in a new window)

David Rowe and Nathaniel Bavinton, Tender for the night: After-dark cultural complexities in the night-time economy (opens in a new window)

Greg Noble, ‘Bumping into alterity’: Transacting cultural complexities (opens in a new window)

Megan Watkins, Complexity reduction, regularities and rules: Grappling with cultural diversity in schooling (opens in a new window)

Beatriz Cardona and Brett Neilson, The logics of human growth hormone and the predicaments of old age (opens in a new window)

F. R. Cameron, Saving the ‘disappearing islands’: Climate change governance, Pacific island states and cosmopolitan dispositions (opens in a new window)

Bob Hodge and Ingrid Matthews, Complexity theory and engaged research: Critical incidents in the Sydney rail system (opens in a new window)

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ICS contributions to the latest M/C Journal

(Posted: 04/01/12) 

ICS's two Postgraduate Liaison Officers, Bettina Röesler and Louise Ryan, are the editors of the latest issue of M/C Journal (opens in a new window)(Vol. 14, No. 6 (2011)). The theme of this issue is "impact". Past and present ICS students Justine Humphry and Ryan Al-Natour also contribute to the journal.

Congratulations to all including the ICS postgraduates who assisted with the reviewing process.

Contents of this issue

Editorial Impact (opens in a new window)- Bettina Gaby Rösler, Louise Ryan

Feature Measurable Progress? Teaching Artsworkers to Assess and Articulate the Impact of Their Work (opens in a new window)- Bree Jamila Hadley, Sandra Gattenhof

Making an Impact: Cultural Studies, Media and Contemporary Work (opens in a new window)- Justine Humphry

Measuring Impact: The Importance of Evaluation for Documentary Film Campaigns (opens in a new window)- Beth Karlin, John Johnson

Before and after A Night Out: The Impact of Revelation in Bangladesh (opens in a new window)- Kathryn Hummel

Stories with Impact: The Potential of Storytelling to Contribute to Cultural Research and Social Inclusion (opens in a new window)- Donna Hancox

Testing Citizenship, Regulating History: The Fatal Impact (opens in a new window)- Maria Chisari

Impacting on Intimacy: Negotiating the Marriage Equality Debate (opens in a new window)- Senthorun Raj

"Keeping It Real": Representations of Postnatal Bodies and Opportunities for Resistance and Transformation (opens in a new window)- Christina Amelia Rosa Malatzky

The Impact of the Researcher on the Researched (opens in a new window)- Ryan J. Al-Natour

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New Institute for Culture and Society

(Posted: 04/01/12)

As of 1 January 2012 the Centre for Cultural Research (CCR) has been incorporated into the new Institute for Culture and Society (ICS). The Institute builds on the successful work of the CCR in the past ten years with an enlarged brief and scope.

For more information on the Institute see the About page.

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CCR’s submission on the National Cultural Policy

(Posted: 21/12/11)

The Centre for Cultural Research has submitted feedback on the Australian Government’s National Cultural Policy discussion paper. This and other public submissions are available on the National Cultural Policy (opens in a new window)website.

The new National Cultural Policy is described by Minister for the Arts, The Hon. Simon Crean, as setting the framework for Australian Government support for arts, culture and creativity for the next ten years, providing a common strategic direction and rationale for current and future investment. It 'will reflect the important role that arts and creativity play in the daily lives of all Australians, and will help to integrate arts and cultural policy within our broader social and economic goals'.

The final policy is due to be released in 2012.

See the National Cultural Policy (opens in a new window)website for more information and CCR’s submission (opens in a new window).

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Art of Engagement book launched

(Posted: 06/12/11)

Around 100 people turned out to the launch of The Art of Engagement on Friday 2 December at Gleebooks.

Speakers at the launch included Professor Jill Bennett, College of Fine Arts (COFA) and founding director of the National Institute for Experimental Arts; Frank Panucci, Director of Partnerships, Australia Council for the Arts; and Associate Professor Elaine Lally, from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney, and former Assistant Director at CCR.

The Art of Engagement: Culture, Collaboration, Innovation, is edited by CCR members past and present Ien Ang, Kay Anderson and Elaine Lally and published by University of Western Australia Publishing.

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CCR graduate wins Thesis of the Year Award

(Posted: 15/11/11)

Congratulations Dr Nathaniel Bavinton who recently won the 2011 Australian and New Zealand Association for Leisure Studies Thesis of the Year Award. Nathaniel's thesis topic was 'To Socialise with Random Strangers: Cultures of Consumption in Night-time Urban Space’. This thesis, along with one other, was judged to make the most valuable recent thesis contribution to the development of leisure studies in Australia and New Zealand. Nathaniel's supervisors were Professors David Rowe and Deborah Stevenson.

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DECRA Grant for Dr Emma Waterton

(Posted: 15/11/11)

Dr Emma Waterton has received a DECRA grant of $375,000 for her project Photos of the past: the negotiation of identity and belonging at Australian tourism sites. This project will explore the way visitors construct and express identity at a range of tourism sites in Australia. Focussing upon the practices of photography, the research will provide a detailed analysis of negotiations of belonging, which in turn may be used to facilitate debate over the pressing contemporary issue of national cohesion.

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Dr James Arvanitakis receives College of Arts Teaching Award

(Posted: 15/11/11)

Congratulations Dr James Arvanitakis (CCR researcher and Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Languages) for receiving a College of Arts Award for Teaching Excellence 2011.

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Grant success for three CCR research projects

(Posted: 02/11/11)

Three new CCR research projects have received funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects scheme. Total funding for the projects is $515,000 over three years, commencing in 2012.

The successful projects are:

  • Promoting young people's citizenship in a complex world; Dr James Arvanitakis and Professor Bob Hodge
  • Violence and disengagement from violence in young men's lives; Professor Stephen Tomsen (with Professor David R Gadd, University of Manchester, UK)
  • Cool living heritage in Southeast Asia: sustainable alternatives to air-conditioned cities; Dr Tim Winter and Professor Donald McNeill (with Associate Professor Johannes Widodo and Dr Jiat-Hwee Chang, National University of Singapore).
ARC Discovery Grants are part of the National Competitive Grants Program, which supports high-quality research leading to the discovery of new ideas and the advancement of knowledge.

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Final project report and directory available - Cross-connections: linking urban water managers with humanities, arts and social sciences researchers

(Posted: 31/10/11)

The final report for CCR’s most recently completed project, Cross-connections: linking urban water managers with humanities, arts and social sciences researchers, and a directory of social and cultural researchers on water are now available.

Undertaken by Dr Zoë Sofoulis, this project investigated the Australian urban water sector’s engagement with humanities, arts and social sciences [HASS] research as part of developing socially sustainable water management. The research found mismatched expectations on how HASS research can or should contribute to water management strategies; it identified the need for HASS researchers to make their work more ‘translatable’ into action, and suggested initiatives to help overcome the enormous disparities between research funding and infrastructure for sciences and engineering compared to social and cultural research on water.

For more information on this project and links to the final report and directory see Research Projects.

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