2012 News

Ien Ang discusses 'Racism is too complex to be captured in simple slogans'

21 December 2012

Professor Ien Ang discusses racism in this opinion piece following the Scanlon Foundation Mapping Social Cohesion national survey.

‘Is Sydney more racist than Melbourne?’ That’s the question summing up the gist of media interest in the recently released fifth Scanlon Foundation Mapping Social Cohesion national survey. So much so, that it was even chosen to be title of a debate hosted by the NSW Communty Relations Commission in Sydney last Wednesday. This is unfortunate. Authored by Professor Andrew Markus of Monash University, the survey provides detailed data on social cohesion, immigration and population issues, with the aim to further our understanding of the social impact of Australia’s increasingly diverse immigration program. Naturally, in such a context, the issue of racism is never far away. In our ways of thinking about immigration, the spectre of the White Australia Policy and, more recently, of Pauline Hanson, still looms large. Attitudes towards immigration are therefore commonly associated with notions of racial (in) tolerance and discrimination. But does it make sense to simplify the issues into a contest between Australia’s two largest cities? 

The provocative question is typical of the sensationalism which all too often drives media reporting today. But it only obscures the vastly more ambiguous, nuanced and complex picture that emerges from reading Markus’s report. As a consequence we risk overlooking some of the important lessons we might want to draw from the survey....Read more (UWS news page).

David Rowe in JOMEC Journal

12 December 2012

Professor David Rowe has been published in a special issue of JOMEC Journal: Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. Issue 2, November 2012 (opens in a new window) on Media and the Olympics 'engages in a range of ways with the cultural politics of the mediated Olympics, focusing on the recent London 2012 Games that took place in the same country as the journal is located, and also raising issues that resonate with past and future Games in this and other places,' David explains.

In his article, 'Opening Ceremonies and Closing Narratives: The Embrace of Media and the Olympics', David comments on the other articles in the journal.

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New paper in the Occasional Paper Series

10 December 2012

A new paper has been released in the Occasional Paper Series: Heritage and Nationalism: An Unbreachable Couple? by Dr Tim Winter, Institute for Culture and Society.

To download this paper see the Occasional Paper Series page.

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Occasional Paper Series on Australian Policy Online

5 December 2012

Two papers in the ICS Occasional Paper Series have featured on Australian Policy Online. The Convergent Media Policy Moment (opens in a new window)(PDF, 441KB) by Professor Terry Flew, and Boomerangs and Creativity (opens in a new window)(PDF, 535KB) by Dr Diego Navarro, featured in the Australian Policy Online weekly briefing email in the new research section, and have been published on the Australian Policy Online (opens in a new window)website. The papers also featured in the Creative Economy Research Newsletter, edited by Australian Policy online.

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New book: The City

3 December 2012

The cover of the book The City. White writing on a black strip across the middle. Behind this is a photo of a group of rectangle rock formations which are low at the front and higher at the back.Professor Deborah Stevenson has had a new book published: The City (opens in a new window).

This book is a fresh and engaging analysis of the city as a central concept in contemporary social thought. It probes the contested and negotiated ways in which cities are built, understood, lived and imagined. Taking a thematic approach and drawing on a range of theoretical, methodological and empirical points of reference, it examines such subjects as urban inequality, public space, creative cities, globalisation, the night-time economy, suburbia, and memory and emotion.

In The City Deborah Stevenson argues that, as theories and concepts shape what is known about cities and urban life, it is necessary to build conceptual frameworks that engage with the intersections and tensions between urban processes and trends, as well as with the complexities of everyday urban life.

This book’s combination of original insight and critical synthesis will make it an invaluable contribution for an international, interdisciplinary readership of students and scholars in sociology, geography, urban studies and wider social science and the humanities.

For full details of this book see The City (opens in a new window) on the Polity website.

Mapping Social Cohesion forum

29 November 2012

On Wednesday 12 December, Professor Ien Ang will take part in a forum on the findings of the 2012 Scanlon Foundation report on Mapping Social Cohesion. The forum will be held at the State Library of NSW, Sydney. For more information please see the forum flyer (opens in a new window)(405KB).

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Frances Williamson receives Office for Learning and Teaching Grant

28 November 2012

Congratulations to PhD student Frances Williamson who has received an Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching Grant. The grants is for funding for the project PASSwrite.

PASSwrite is a peer-facilitated, collaborative learning program that provides students with the opportunity to deconstruct academic texts in terms of meaning and structure, apply what is learned to their own writing, give and receive feedback on their academic writing in an informal environment, and practise writing within the session. The role of the peer facilitator is to model successful academic writing approaches, give feedback in small groups and move the attendees through structured writing activities.

Frances is a second-year student with ICS and the working title of her PhD is 'Generation 1.5: the LBOTE blind spot'.

Kearrin Sims in Asian Currents

27 November 2012

A shelter constructed out of wood, with a tin roof. Part of it is enclosed. Sheets hang from the roof. Underneath the roof are clothes, a table, water bottles, and other possessions.PhD student Kearrin Sims has had an article published in the October 2012 issue of the Asian Studies Association of Australia's Asian Currents (opens in a new window)newsletter. Kearrin's article, 'Finding Laos a Place in the Asian Century', discusses the price of progress, and how the rush to develop Laos, one of Asia's poorest countries, is impoverishing the majority to benefit a few.

Download the article as a PDF (opens in a new window)(PDF, 1MB) or read it in the ICS blog.

Right: Resettlement site, Vientiane.

 

James Arvanitakis receives Prime Minister's Award for Australian University Teacher of the Year

20 November 2012

Congratulations to Dr James Arvanitakis who has received the $50,000 Prime Minister's Award for Australian University Teacher of the Year, for his work supporting first year students and developing innovative teaching materials.

James is both a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, and a member of the Institute for Culture and Society. James researches in the transdisciplinary areas of globalisation, citizenship, young people, security and the cultural commons - incorporating issues around hope, trust, safety and intellect. He links this research back to his teaching, and at times invites other ICS researchers to talk to his students.

Recently, James received an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant to further his research in the area of developing active citizenship for young people.

‘The ARC Grant is very special to me, as I actively encourage students to see how they can have a positive impact on the world,’ says James. ‘The students really respond well to this. For example, a number of my students initiated a UWS Oxfam branch to pursue a fair trade agenda, which in turn became part of the class discussions.’

James received his award at the 2012 Australian Awards for University Teaching at the National Gallery Australia in Canberra last night, where Australia's best higher education teachers were recognised. He attended the national ceremony to receive an Award for Teaching Excellence in the ‘Humanities and the Arts’ category. To also walk away with the title of ‘University Teacher of the Year’ is an exceptional honour – one that is only bestowed on academics with an outstanding record of advancing student learning, educational leadership and scholarly contribution to teaching and learning.

James Arvanitakis at graduation, with graduates standing behind him.

Double book launch: Global Media Sport and Sport Beyond Television

19 November 2012

The cover of Global Media Sport picturing the outline of a TV and the shoes of a runner.The cover of the book Sport Beyond Television - with a blue abstract pattern.On Friday 30 November, Professor David Rowe will hold a double book launch for his two latest books: Global Media Sport: Flows, Forms and Futures (opens in a new window)(Bloomsbury) and Sport Beyond Television: The Internet, Digital Media and the Rise of Networked Media Sport (opens in a new window)(Routledge, co-authored with Brett Hutchins).

  • Read the UWS news story: David Rowe on how digital technologies are changing the ways in which we interact with and consume sport.

Launch details

Date: Friday 30 November 2012
Time: 6:00pm (for 6:30pm start) - 8:00pm
Venue: 72 Erskine - Events and Exhibitions, Ground Floor, 72 Erskine Street, Sydney
RSVP: c.nguy@uws.edu.au by 26 November 2012

Light refreshments will be served.

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Launch of 'Keep It Tame' online campaign

19 November 2012

Australia’s most comprehensive youth, technology and mental health collaboration, the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre (opens in a new window), has launched an unprecedented online campaign targeting Australian teenagers, drawing attention to the consequences of thoughtless and hurtful use of social media and empowering them to act with respect online.

Up to 80 per cent of Australians aged between 12 and 18 will be exposed to the Young and Well CRC’s interactive online campaign, ‘Keep It Tame’ (opens in a new window), which is backed by the nation’s top 20 youth-focused websites and has been developed by young people, leading marketers and top academics.

Unique to the campaign is the application of an innovative digital tracking methodology, which – in conjunction with a cohort study that will survey and interview young people over time – will measure its impact on behaviour change.

The campaign guides teenagers through a series of mock social media posts. As things turn nasty, an animated creature slowly becomes more grotesque, highlighting the hurtful effects of the online exchanges and ultimately encouraging people to act with respect.

'Many people unfortunately experience hurtful behaviour online at some stage, and it’s crucial that this generation of Australians doesn’t grow up thinking this is the natural way to communicate online, because it isn’t,' says Young and Well CRC Research Program Leader and ICS researcher, Dr Philippa Collin.

'The reality is there are lots of young people who don't think it's okay to make fun, tease or bully someone online and this campaign is all about empowering young people to take advantage of the tools and techniques that are already available to them to take control of ugly situations and use mobile phones, computers and tablets positively to interact with each other.'

....Read more (full UWS news story)

A phone which has been made into a character with arms, legs and a face. The words beside it read: Keep It Tame: Respect each other online. You can use phones, tablets and computers to do awesome stuff. But things can turn nasty if you use them to disrespect each other. Treat each other with respect and Keep It Tame. 

New book: Mexico and its Others. A chaos Theory Approach

19 November 2012

Professor Bob Hodge and Dr Gabriela Coronado have had a new book published: Mexico and its Others. A Chaos Theory Approach (Ottawa: Legas). 


James Arvanitakis a panellist at 'Going Public: Intellectuals, Transformations, Responsibilities' event

14 November 2012

Tomorrow, Dr James Arvanitakis will be a panellist at University of New South Wales event 'Going Public: Intellectuals, Transformations, Responsibilities'. The event is part of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences' postgraduate conference Dis/Connections.

Overview

Both intellectual labour and the public sphere are undergoing profound transformations. There is an incredible diversity of social actors operating in early 21st century public life. New media, cultural hybridity, and the global nature of social, economic and environmental crises propel fascinating shifts in the dynamics of public life. Meanwhile, academic institutions are changing rapidly under the same forces. The ‘ivory tower’ is now online, reaching out in a ‘global marketplace of ideas’. With new reach, academics in the arts and social sciences are ‘going public’ with their knowledge in a variety of ways. The featured speakers will discuss how the intellectual can contribute to social, cultural and political life. What transformations are intellectuals contributing to, and what responsibilities come with this participation?

For more information and to RSVP see the UNSW Arts and Social Sciences postgraduate conference website (opens in a new window).

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ARC Discovery success

12 November 2012

Congratulations to Professor Brett Neilson and Professor Ned Rossiter, and Professor David Rowe for receiving ARC Discovery grants. The two successful projects are:

Logistics as global governance: labour, software and infrastructure along the new Silk Road

Researchers: Professor Brett Neilson and Professor Ned Rossiter from ICS with international colleagues Professor Ursula Huws, Professor William Walters, Professor Ranabir Samaddar, Associate Professor Sandro Mezzadra, Dr Eleni Kambouri and Dr Hernan Cuevas

Funding total: $390,000 over three years

Project summary

Australia's regional and economic position is changing with the growth of China-centred networks of trade and production. This project will increase public knowledge about how these changes affect our cultural and working lives. Digital strategies will inform citizens about the pressures and opportunities occasioned by expanding Asian trade power.

A nation of 'Good Sports'? Cultural citizenship and sport in contemporary Australia

Researcher: Professor David Rowe

Funding total: $200,000 over three years

Project summary

Australia is widely regarded as both characterised and united by sport, but the established sport-nation nexus is undergoing significant change. This project addresses current uses and meanings of sport, media and spectatorship in advancing knowledge and policy relating to sport's dynamic relationship to national identity and cultural citizenship.

 

ICS partners with UNESCO and the Australia Council

2 November 2012

Researchers from the Institute for Culture and Society have entered a new partnership with the Australia Council and UNESCO to analyse the next generation of Australian artists who draw on Australia's unique cultural diversity for their projects.

As part of a push to promote cultural diversity in the Asia Pacific, the Federal Government's arts funding body, the Australia Council for the Arts, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bangkok branch of UNESCO.

In the first research activity under the arrangement, the Institute for Culture and Society will evaluate seven significant Australian art projects that celebrate the wide range of people, cultures and communities in modern Australia.

The announcement comes days after the release of the Federal Government's Asian Century White Paper, a blueprint to ensure Australia positions itself to take advantage of the growth of Asia by increasing the study of its cultures and languages.

ICS Director, Distinguished Professor Ien Ang, says the new project allows Australian researchers and artists to be at the forefront of the debate on cultural diversity in the Asian century.

'We at the Institute for Culture and Society look forward to better understanding the dynamics of how culturally diverse artworks are actually created in Australia,' she says.

ICS researcher Dr Phillip Mar says Australian art is changing rapidly with an influx of new styles, whether its from migrant or Indigenous artists.

'If you look at the art festivals across Australia you can't help but notice a lot more influences,' he says.

'Many of these artists are now sharing influences and working together to form uniquely Australian expressions, which comes out of the mixing of identities and arts practices to create new meanings.'

'What this project will do is examine some outstanding art projects arising from cultural interaction. We aim to present examples to show how we can best develop and promote art that celebrates our incredible cultural diversity.'

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ICS responses to the government's White Paper, Australia in the Asian Century

2 November 2012

The Australian Government has commissioned a White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century to consider the likely economic and strategic changes in the region, and what more can be done to position Australia in Asia. The White Paper aims to deepen ties with other countries in Asia through measures such as lifting Australia's GDP, bolstering its universities, and encouraging the teaching of Asian languages in schools.

The Institute for Culture and Society researches widely in the areas covered by the White Paper. Dr Tim Winter, Professor David Rowe and Professor Brett Neilson, who work extensively in these areas, have provided responses to the White Paper....Read more.

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 Antarctica Futures ARC Discovery workshop

1 November 2012

On 25 and 26 October the Heritage, Environment and Society research theme convened a workshop on Antarctica as part of a developing ARC Discovery grant application lead by Dr Juan F Salazar. From left to right, Associate Professor Alan Hemmings, Dr Daniela Liggett, Dr Elizabeth Leane and Dr Juan F Salazar. From left to right, Associate Professor Alan Hemmings, Dr Daniela Liggett, Dr Elizabeth Leane and Dr Juan F Salazar, standing in front of the ICS building.

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Tony Bennett receives Academy of Social Sciences award

29 October 2012

Professor Tony Bennett has received the award of Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences in the UK for his services to social sciences. For a full list of recipients see the Academy of Social Sciences website (opens in a new window). Congratulations Tony.

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David Rowe is an Associate Editor of Communication and Sport journal

29 October 2012

The cover of Communication and Sport which has 6 black and white photographs on it showing: people watching sport at a stadium, a TV with a soccer ball on it, a girl with a film camera, the sport section of a newspaper, a couple watching sport on their TV, and an iPad with a sport game on it.Professor David Rowe is an Associate Editor of a new journal, Communication and Sport.

Communication and Sport is a peer-reviewed quarterly journal that publishes research to foster international scholarly understanding of the nexus of communication and sport. The journal publishes research and critical analysis from diverse disciplinary and theoretical perspectives to advance understanding of communication phenomena in the varied contexts through which sport touches individuals, society, and culture.

It examines both communication in sport and the communication of sport by considering sport in light of communication processes, strategies, industries, texts, and reception. The journal welcomes studies of sport and media in mass and new media settings, research on sport in interpersonal, group, organisational, and other communication contexts, and analyses of sport rhetoric, discourse, and narratives.

Further information on this journal is available on the Sage website (opens in a new window).

ICS September graduates

25 October 2012

On 25 September, Georgie McClean (Doctor of Cultural Research), Sebastian Byrne (Doctor of Creative Arts), Granaz Moussavi (Doctor of Creative Arts) and Hilary He (PhD) graduated from ICS. Georgie McClean is the second person to graduate with a Doctor of Cultural Research from the Institute. She is pictured below with with Professor David Rowe, and with her family.Georgie McClean with Professor David Rowe and her mother at graduation.

Above: Georgie McClean with Professor David Rowe, and her mother Wendy Power. Below: Georgie McClean with Wendy, her daughter Billie and husband Ned Lander.

Georgie McClean with her mother, daughter and husband at graduation.

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New book: Shanghai Expo: An International Forum on the Future of Cities

23 October 2012

The cover of the Shanghai Expo book featuring two images from the Shanghai Expo. The top image shows crowds of people walking through the expo. The bottom image show rows of red men statues. Dr Tim Winter has had an edited volume published: Shanghai Expo: An International Forum on the Future of Cities.

In 2010 Shanghai hosted the largest, most spectacular and most expensive expo ever. Attracting a staggering 73 million visitors, and costing around US$45 billion dollars, Shanghai Expo broke the records in the history of world's fairs and universal expositions. With more than half of the world's population now living in cities, many of which face uncertain futures, this mega event confronted some of the key challenges facing humanity in the 21st Century, with its theme Better City, Better Life. Just two years after the Beijing Olympics, Shanghai Expo encapsulated a moment in history defined by China's rise as a global superpower, and by the multiple challenges associated with developing more sustainable cities.

The thirteen essays here, written by a team of interdisciplinary researchers, offer a uniquely detailed analysis of this globally significant event. Chapters examine displays of futurity and utopia, the limitations of inter-cultural dialogue, and the ways in which this mega-event reflected its geo-political and cultural moment. Shanghai Expo also concentrates on the interplay between declarations towards urban sustainability, and the recent economic, demographic and socio-political trajectories of Shanghai and China more broadly.

For more information on this book see the Shanghai Expo book website (opens in a new window)and Shanghai Expo: An International Forum on the Future of Cities (opens in a new window)on the Routledge website.

Tim Winter to speak at Heritage in Times of Transformation symposium

19 October 2012

Dr Tim Winter will give a keynote address at Heritage in Times of Transformation: a special symposium in honour of Professor Bill Logan.

The symposium will be held 19-20 November in Melbourne, and is organised by the Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and the Pacific (CHCAP), in association with the Alfred Deakin Research Institute, to honour the achievements of Professor Bill Logan as he approaches his official retirement from Deakin University.

This symposium is interested in the association between heritage and discontinuity. What roles does heritage take in times of rapid transformation? What is its relationship to notions of change?

For more information on the event see the Australia ICOMOS (opens in a new window) website.

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Global Islamophobia: Muslims and Moral Panic in the West launched

19 October 2012

Global Islamophobia: Muslims and Moral Panic in the West (opens in a new window)was launched yesterday at the Boilerhouse, UWS Parramatta campus.

Dr Alana Lentin from UWS spoke, followed by Dr George Morgan (co-editor with Scott Poynting from Manchester Metropolitan University).

Dr Alana Lentin presenting at the launch.

Above: Dr Alana Lentin launching the book, with Dr George Morgan and guests looking on.

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Call for papers for PhD students

15 October 2012

Where is Home? Place, Belonging and Citizenship in the Asian Century

The ceiling of a building - painted green and red with yellow patterns.In March 2013, Hong Kong Baptist University, the University of Amsterdam, the International Institute for Asian Studies and the Institute for Culture and Society of the University of Western Sydney will hold a two-day workshop examining the transformations of place-making and cultural citizenship in the era of Asian influence.

During the first day, leading scholars in the field of cultural studies from different localities in Asia, including Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea, will explore the notion of place and citizenship in the context of the geopolitical shifts that are taking place today. In the second day of the workshop, PhD students will present and discuss their work with these scholars.

PhD students are invited to submit their abstracts. The best proposals will be selected. Students from outside of Hong Kong will be fully funded for their travel and accommodation expenses. There will be no workshop fee.

For more information on the workshop and how to submit paper proposals please download the call for papers flyer (opens in a new window)(844KB).

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Upcoming book launch: Global Islamophobia: Muslims and Moral Panic in the West

5 October 2012

The cover of Global Islamophobia which has on it a man holding a sign saying 'Sharia'.Global Islamophobia: Muslims and Moral Panic in the West (opens in a new window), edited by George Morgan and Scott Poynting, will be launched on Thursday 18 October by Dr Alana Lentin.

Book description

The decade since 9/11 has seen a decline in liberal tolerance in the West as Muslims have endured increasing levels of repression. This book presents a series of case studies from Western Europe, Australia and North America demonstrating the transnational character of Islamophobia. The authors explore contemporary intercultural conflicts using the concept of moral panic, revitalised for the era of globalisation. Exploring various sites of conflict, Global Islamophobia considers the role played by 'moral entrepreneurs' in orchestrating popular xenophobia and in agitating for greater surveillance, policing and cultural regulation of those deemed a threat to the nation's security or imagined community.

This timely collection examines the interpenetration of the global and the local in the West's cultural politics towards Islam, highlighting parallels in the responses of governments and in the worrying reversion to a politics of coercion and assimilation.

Launch details

Date: Thursday 18 October 2012
Time: 1-2pm
Venue: Boilerhouse, UWS Parramatta campus, corner James Ruse Drive and Victoria Road, Parramatta
RSVP: ics@uws.edu.au by 12 October

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Stephen Tomsen to give public lecture at Flinders University

2 October 2012

Professor Stephen Tomsen will speak on 'The Criminalisation of HIV transmission: sexual rights, grievance and safety' at Flinders University on Wednesday 10 October.

Hosted by the School of Social and Policy Studies and Flinders Law School, this public lecture will address how in the last decade the global trend of criminalising sexually transmitted HIV infections has been reflected in a series of criminal investigations and trials in Australia. This development is anathema to the wider goal of community health prevention founded in the collective ethical project of safe sex that was a critical aspect of Australia's success in containment of the HIV epidemic.

Event details

Date: Wednesday 10 October
Time: 6-8pm
Location: Level 1, 182 Victoria Square, Flinders University Victoria Square campus
RSVP: carolyn.corkindale@flinders.edu.au

This free event will be followed by light refreshments.

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New papers in the Occasional Paper Series

25 September 2012

Two new papers are available in the Occasional Paper Series. They are:

  • Boomerangs and Creativity by Dr Diego Navarro, Universidad del Salvador, Argentina, and
  • The Convergent Media Policy Moment by Professor Terry Flew, Queensland University of Technology.

See the Occasional Paper Series page to download these papers.

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Upcoming events

21 September 2012

Challenging (the) Humanities

The Challenging (the) Humanities logo - a blue and white line drawing of a branch, with �Challenging (the) Humanities� in white over a red/purple rectangular shape, which has moved away from a blue shape.The Institute for Culture and Society is hosting the 43rd Annual Symposium of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (opens in a new window), 15-16 November at the UWS Parramatta campus. The theme for this year's symposium is 'Challenging (the) Humanities'. The symposium will debate the contemporary challenges that face the humanities and the responses that these have elicited. Professor Tony Bennett is the convenor of this conference, and Professor Kay Anderson and Professor Brett Neilson are among the speakers.

Tapping the Turn

The logo of Tapping the Turn - with the writing in white text and three blue water drops beside it.The Institute for Culture and Society is co-sponsor of the Tapping the Turn: Water's Social Dimensions Conference (opens in a new window). Inspired by a growing interest in more effectively combining scientific and humanities and social sciences (HASS) research, the conference will be held in Canberra, 15-16 November. Papers will highlight the links between the natural, physical and technical aspects of water, and its social roles and cultural meanings. 

 

Upcoming book launch: Rethinking Social Justice: From 'Peoples' to 'Populations' by Tim Rowse

18 September 2012

Cover of Rethinking Social Justice which has a blue, yellow, grey and white abstract pattern on it.Professor Tim Rowse's new book, Rethinking Social Justice: From 'Peoples' to 'Populations', will be launched on Friday 28 September at Gleebooks. The book will be launched by Associate Professor Tess Lea, University of Sydney.

Book description 

In the early 1970s, Australian governments began to treat Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders as 'peoples' with capacities for self-government. Forty years later, confidence in Indigenous self-determination has been eroded by accounts of Indigenous pathology, of misplaced policy optimism and persistent socio-economic 'gaps'. In this collection of new and revised essays, Tim Rowse accounts for this shift by arguing that Australian thinking about 'Indigenous' is a continuing, unresolvable tussle between the idea of 'peoples' and 'population'.

Rowse's essays offer snapshots of moments in the last forty years in which we can see these tensions: between honouring the heritage and quantifying the disadvantage, between acknowledging colonisation's destruction and projecting Indigenous recovery from it. Rowse asks not only 'Can a settler colonial state instruct the colonised in the arts of self-government?', but also, 'How could it justify doing anything less?'

Launch details

Date: Friday 28 September 2012
Time: 6pm for 6.30pm start
Venue: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe, Sydney
Cost: Free
RSVP: Gleebooks (02) 9660 2333 or Secure Online Booking (opens in a new window)

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ICS Expo

18 September 2012

On Friday 14 September ICS continued the tradition of an annual expo day, an opportunity for researchers, professional staff, research assistants, and HDR students to get together to talk about, and reflect on, the activities of the past year and to hear about upcoming activities.

This year's program included reflection on conferences organised by ICS and attended by members, updates on a selection of ICS projects, and presentations by HDR students.

Conferences discussed included the Asian Studies Association of Australia conference and the Governing City Futures conference, which were hosted by ICS this year.

Some of ICS' new projects were presented: Photos of the Past: The Negotiation of Identity and Belonging at Australian Tourism Sites (DECRA) - Emma Waterton; Sydney's Chinatown in the Asian Century: From Ethnic Enclave to Global Hub (ARC Linkage) - Ien Ang, Kay Anderson, Donald McNeill; Governing Digital Cities (Future Fellowship 2013) - Donald McNeill; Online Social Marketing for Safety and Wellbeing (A Young and Well CRC project) - Pip Collin; and Promoting Young People's Citizenship in a Complex World (ARC Discovery) - James Arvanitakis.

Tim Rowse also presented his new book: Rethinking Social Justice: From 'Peoples' to 'Populations' and five HDR students (Neroli Colvin, Louise Ryan, Kev Dertadian, Luh Micke Anggraini and Deborah Wall) each delivered a 3-minute presentation on their research in an ICS version of the UWS 3-minute thesis competition.

Below, from left to right: Professor Ien Ang, Dr Megan Watkins and Associate Professor Greg Noble, and HDR candidate Louise Ryan presenting at the ICS Expo.

Three photos from the ICS Expo 2012: from left to right: Ien Ang presenting, Megan Watkins and Greg Noble presenting, and Louise Ryan presenting.

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New book series: call for proposals

13 September 2012

Routledge Studies in Culture and Development

There is a burgeoning interest among academics, practitioners and policy-makers in the relationships between 'culture' and 'development'. This embraces the now well-recognized need to adopt culturally-sensitive approaches in development practice, the necessity of understanding the cultural dimensions of development, and more specifically the role of culture for development. Culture, in all its dimensions, is a fundamental component of sustainable development, and throughout the world we are seeing an increasing number of governmental and non-governmental agencies turning to culture as a vehicle for economic growth, for promoting social cohesion, stability and human wellbeing, and for tackling environmental issues. At the same time, there has been remarkably little critical debate around this relationship, and even less concern with the interventions of cultural institutions or creative industries in development agendas. The objective of the Routledge Studies in Culture and Development series is to fill this lacuna and provide a forum for reaching across academic, practitioner and policy-maker audiences.

The series editors welcome submissions for single- and jointly-authored books and edited collections concerning issues such as the contribution of museums, heritage and cultural tourism to sustainable development; the politics of cultural diplomacy; cultural pluralism and human rights; traditional systems of environmental management; cultural industries and traditional livelihoods; and culturally-appropriate forms of conflict resolution and post-conflict recovery.

Series Editors

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Willem Paling in Urban Studies journal

29 August 2012

ICS HDR candidate Willem Paling, who recently submitted his PhD, has had an article published in Urban Studies (Volume 49, Issue 13, October 2012). The article, entitled 'Planning a Future for Phnom Penh: Mega Projects, Aid Dependence and Disjointed Governance' (opens in a new window), presents an analysis of the growth and diversification of international involvement in urban planning and development in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

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Latest editors of Global Media Journal

24 August 2012

The cover image of Global Media Journal - Australian Edition, Volume 6, Issue 1, 2012: two circles of the globe.Dr James Arvanitakis and Professor David Rowe are guest editors of the latest issue of Global Media Journal - Australian Edition (opens in a new window)(Volume 6, Issue 1, 2012). The articles in this issue come from the collaboration between researchers at the Institute for Culture and Society; the Department of Cultural Studies at Linkoping University, Sweden (Tema Q); and the Advanced Cultural Studies Institute of Sweden (ACSIS). The title, Across the Hemispheres, reflects this collaboration.

This issue of the journal approaches the theme of globalisation, analysing various dimensions of globalism/transnationalism, culture and media from the perspectives of cultural researchers based in Scandinavia (particularly Sweden) and Australia.

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Cross Roads forum - overview

15 August 2012

Traffic passing by the coca cola sign at Kings Cross at night.Time Out Sydney has published a story and video of the Cross Roads: Where to next for Sydney's nightlife forum, of which Dr James Arvanitakis was a panelist. The forum was held on 1 August and addressed the issue of how to solve the problem of booze-fuelled late night violence, and what can be done to improve Sydney's nightlife, particularly in the Kings Cross area.

To read the story and watch the video, see the Time Out Sydney website (opens in a new window).

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Olympic Nationalism study

13 August 2012

Gold medalist Anna Meares of Australia (centre) poses on the podium with Silver medalist Victoria Pendleton of Great Britain (left), and Bronze medalist Shuang Guo of China (right) during the medal ceremony for the women's Sprint Track Cycling final on Day 11 of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Photo from Official London 2012 website www.london2012.comProfessor David Rowe is joining with fellow researchers in Bulgaria, China, the Netherlands, Slovenia and the United States in exploring the connections between the Olympics and nationalism.

'When the Olympics were revived in 1896 they were officially designed as a vehicle for international understanding, and open displays of nationalism were frowned upon. But many people continue to think of them in national terms rather than as a universal celebration of sport, youth and friendship,' says David. 'The International Olympic Committee has always opposed the construction of medal tables, but this position has been to no avail, and national tallies appear in all media and are constantly updated. At the same time, the Olympics encourage cosmopolitan exchanges between people from very different cultures and so foster a sense of global citizenship, while the strength of sporting nationalism and the profile of the Olympics is likely to vary between countries.'

David is conducting the Australian component of the six-nation study to address these issues surrounding nationalism and the Olympics. An online survey has been developed to gather information on this area.

To take part in the survey, follow the link below by 20 August.

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Latest guest journal editors

9 August 2012

The cover image of Global Media Journal - Australian Edition, Volume 5, Issue 2, 2011: a pattern made of quarter-circles in brown, grey and green colours.Associate Professor Kaye Shumack is guest editor of the latest issue of Design Philosophy Papers (opens in a new window)(Volume 2, 2012). Kaye also has a paper in the journal with Abby Mellick Lopes: '"Please Ask Us" Conversation Mapping as Design Research: Social Learning in a Verge Garden Site'.

Associate Professor Kaye Shumack and Professor-Emeritus Helen Armstrong are joint guest editors of the latest issue of Global Media Journal - Australian Edition (opens in a new window)(Volume 5, Issue 2, 2011). This issue also includes an essay authored by Kaye and Helen, a refereed paper co-authored by Kaye, and a book review by Dr Juan Francisco Salazar.

The papers in these journal issues came about as a result of the 'Mapping Ecologies of Place: Local, Virtual, Digital' workshop which was held at the University of Western Sydney in 2011, and convened with the support of the Centre for Cultural Research. 

Research exchange to Sweden

2 August 2012

In April and May, a group of four ICS researchers and two postgraduate students visited Sweden on a research exchange to the Advanced Cultural Studies Institute of Sweden (ACSIS) and the Department of Culture Studies (Tema Q) at the Norrköping campus of Linköping University. The group attended the STINT (Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education) workshop on 9 May with the theme of Cultures, Histories, Institutions: Knowledge Practices and Professional Encounters.

One of the group's extra activities was looking at Swedish rock art with a Swedish archaeologist. Pictured from left to right on this very rainy day are: Swedish PhD student Johannas Dahlin, Professor Ien Ang, ICS PhD student Kearrin Sims, Dr Tim Winter, Dr James Arvanitakis, Professor David Rowe, and their guide, Swedish PhD student and archaeologist Per Nilsson. The photo was taken by ICS PhD student Louise Ryan.

Professor Ien Ang, PhD student Kearrin Sims, Professor Tim Winter, Dr James Arvanitakis and Professor David Rowe and two Swedish colleagues standing in the rain with umbrellas.  

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Cross Roads forum: Where to next for Sydney's nightlife?

1 August 2012

Tonight Dr James Arvanitakis will join panelists including Lord Mayor Clover Moore for Time Out Sydney and FBi Radio's Cross Roads: Where to next for Sydney's nightlife? (opens in a new window)forum. The topic for discussion will be how to solve the problem of booze-fuelled late night violence, and what can be done to improve Sydney's nightlife, particularly in the Kings Cross area.

The panel will be chaired by Time Out Sydney publishing director Angus Fontaine. Panelists are James Arvanitakis, Lord Mayor Clover Moore, Small Bars Association president Martin O'Sullivan, Solotel CEO Andrew Gibbs, FBi president Cass Wilkinson, Matthew Noffs from the Ted Noffs Foundation, Guy Cooper from the Wayside Chapel and Inthemix Editor Jack Tregoning.

The aim is to initiate change, and the panel's findings will be presented to the City in October.

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ARC Future Fellowship Grant

26 July 2012

Looking across Sydney harbour to Circular Quay.Congratulations to Professor Donald McNeill for receiving a prestigious ARC Future Fellowship Grant. Donald's project is entitled Governing Digital Cities and it has been awarded $834,770 over four years.

This project will examine the relationship between private interests and urban governments that underpin Australia's transition to a digital economy. Drawing on international case studies, it will help to close the policy gap between digital infrastructure strategy and urban planning within Australian political debate.

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ARC Linkage success

4 July 2012

The gate at the entrance to Sydney's Chinatown. By Claire Raborar.Congratulations to Professor Ien Ang, Professor Donald McNeill and Professor Kay Anderson on their successful ARC Linkage application with Steven Hillier entitled Sydney's Chinatown in the Asian Century: From Ethnic Enclave to Global Hub. This project, which will be conducted with the City of Sydney, has been funded at $254,533 from 2012-2015.

The project will examine the role of Sydney's Chinatown as a bridge in supporting economic and cultural links between Australia and Asia, and the activities undertaken by the City of Sydney to enhance those links in the era of rapid globalisation and rising Chinese power.

Photograph by John Marmaras. Source: City of Sydney.

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New thematic section from Culture Unbound: 'Culturalisation at an Australian-Swedish Crossroads'

6 June 2012

Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research has published a new thematic section entitled 'Culturalisation at an Australian-Swedish Crossroads'. It is edited by Johan Fornäs and Martin Fredriksson and consists of a number of articles that in various ways reflect upon processes of culturalisation, capturing some of the complex interactions between different levels, meanings, and concepts of culture in a globalised world. The articles presented here emanate from the research project Culturalisation and Globalisation which is a collaboration between ICS researchers and researchers from the Advanced Cultural Studies Institute of Sweden (ACSIS), with funding from STINT (The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education). Another set of corresponding articles, focusing mainly on issues of globalisation, is to be published in the Australian edition of Global Media Journal.

Featured articles in Culture Unbound are:

  • Erling Bjurström: 'Whose Canon? Culturalisation versus Democratisation'
  • Bodil Axelsson: 'History in Popular Magazines: Negotiating Masculinities, the Low of the Popular and the High of History'
  • Hilary Hongjin He: '"Chinesenesses" outside Mainland China: Macao and Taiwan through Post-1997 Hong Kong Cinema'
  • Hart Cohen: 'Database Documentary: From Authorship to Authoring in Remediated/Remixed Documentary'.

The articles are available on the Culture Unbound website (opens in a new window).

Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research is an open access e-journal that seeks to be a forum for contemporary, cutting edge cultural research from a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary areas.

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Upcoming event: the Inaugural NSW Timor-Leste Forum

25 May 2012

Village in amongst green hills in East Timor.On 14 July, a forum on 'Building Collaborative Partnerships for Timor-Leste' will be held at UWS Parramatta campus. A partnership between the Institute for Culture and Society, UWS's Sustainability and Social Research Group, and the Blue Mountains East Timor Sisters (opens in a new window), this forum aims to create a space for new dialogues between organisations and community groups that have experienced the challenges of, and developed expertise in, collaborating with Timor-Leste communities.

The keynote address will be given by Ms Kirsty Sword Gusmao, Former First Lady of Timor-Leste, Goodwill Ambassador for Education and Director of the Alola Foundation. Speakers also include Jude Finch (Blue Mountains East Timor Sisters, Former AVI Timor Leste); and Professor Damien Kingsbury (Director, Centre for Citizenship, Development and Human Rights, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University, Melbourne).

In the workshops attendees will have the opportunity to engage with others on issues such as culture, language, partnerships and challenges in supporting education in Timor-Leste.

For more information and to register see the Inaugural NSW Timor-Leste Forum page.

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New Book: Global Islamophobia: Muslims and Moral Panic in the West

14 May 2012

The cover of Global Islamophobia which has on it a man holding a sign saying 'Sharia'.Dr George Morgan has edited a book, Global Islamophobia: Muslims and Moral Panic in the West (opens in a new window), with Scott Poynting from Manchester Metropolitan University.

The book includes a chapter by George and HDR candidate Ryan Al-Natour: 'Local Islamophobia: The Islamic School Controversy in Camden, New South Wales', and a chapter by Associate Professor Greg Noble: 'Where's the Moral in Moral Panic? Islam, Evil and Moral Turbulence'.

Description

The decade since 9/11 has seen a decline in liberal tolerance in the West as Muslims have endured increasing levels of repression. This book presents a series of case studies from Western Europe, Australia and North America demonstrating the transnational character of Islamophobia. The authors explore contemporary intercultural conflicts using the concept of moral panic, revitalised for the era of globalisation. Exploring various sites of conflict, Global Islamophobia considers the role played by 'moral entrepreneurs' in orchestrating popular xenophobia and in agitating for greater surveillance, policing and cultural regulation of those deemed a threat to the nation's security or imagined community.

This timely collection examines the interpenetration of the global and the local in the West's cultural politics towards Islam, highlighting parallels in the responses of governments and in the worrying reversion to a politics of coercion and assimilation.

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Julie Thorpe to present at The Society for the Study of French History conference

9 May 2012

Dr Julie Thorpe will be presenting a paper at The Society for the Study of French History's 26th Annual Conference (opens in a new window) at the University of York in July. The conference theme, France and its Neighbours: Towards a Transnational History, is prompted by the challenge of globalisation and the notion that Europe can no longer be studied primarily through the lens of particular national histories and historiographies. Julie will be presenting on 'A French Saint for Republican Austria'.

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Handel Wright visits ICS

2 May 2012

Professor Handel Wright with the UWS Female Orphan School building in the background.Handel Kashope Wright, a professor of education and Director of the Centre for Culture, Identity and Education (opens in a new window)CCIE at the University of British Columbia, Canada spent the months of February and March as a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society conducting research on Australian multiculturalism, youth identity and belonging. Professor Wright's areas of specialisation include cultural studies (especially cultural studies of education, youth studies and Africana identity politics); multiculturalism and its alternatives (cosmopolitanism, interculturalism, diaspora); post-reconceptualisation curriculum theory and qualitative research. The research he conducted in Sydney is part of his larger international project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada entitled 'Multiculturalism Without Guarantees: Glocal Models for Addressing Sociocultural Difference in Liquid Communities'. The study involves both conceptual elements dealing with the critique and defence of multiculturalism as a pliant concept and empirical elements in the form of interview research in Vancouver, Canada; San Diego, United States; Sydney, Australia; London, United Kingdom and Dublin, Ireland. The international empirical research consists of individual interviews with both academic and policy experts; individual and focus group interviews with "new youth" in each city as well as collection and analysis of policy documents. (Wright identifies multiracial, immigrant and queer youth together as the three identity categories that make up the comprehensive identity he is referring to in his work as "new youth")....Read the full story.

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Journal articles authored by ICS members are among Routledge's most popular

30 April 2012

Four journal articles by ICS members are among Routledge's most popular in the area of media and cultural studies. The articles by ICS members are:

30 of Routledge's most popular articles in media and cultural studies (including the four above) are free to access online until the end of June.

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Dr Emma Waterton and Dr Tim Winter to present at The Re/theorisation of Heritage Studies conference

30 April 2012 

Dr Emma Waterton and Dr Tim Winter will be presenting at the Association of Critical Heritage Studies Inaugural Conference (opens in a new window)in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 5-8 June.

The conference, The Re/theorisation of Heritage Studies, aims to re-theorise the field of heritage and to develop current theoretical debates to make sense of the nature and meaning of heritage.

Emma and Tim will each present two papers at the conference. Emma will present with Steve Watson (York St John University) on 'New Sources of Heritage Theory: Affect and the non-representational paradigm' (opens in a new window)and with Annie Clarke (University of Sydney) on 'Signs of a Distant Past: interpretive signage and the representation of Indigenous history in Australian protected areas' (opens in a new window). She will also chair two sessions at the conference. Tim will present on 'Heritage Studies: unfolding complexities and knowledge practices' (opens in a new window)and 'Post Conflict Heritage in Asia; shifting geographies of cultural aid' (opens in a new window). 

In presenting these papers, Emma and Tim are working towards a special issue of the International Journal of Heritage Studies (opens in a new window) which they will be guest editors of. This issue will focus on critical heritage studies and will be published next year. 

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New Book: The Cultural Moment in Tourism

30 April 2012 

The cover of The Cultural Moment in Tourism which has a blue and white abstract pattern.Dr Emma Waterton has had an edited volume published with Steve Watson and Laurajane Smith: The Cultural Moment in Tourism (opens in a new window).

Routledge describes the book as a 'groundbreaking volume' which provides 'a theoretical and empirical account of what it means to be a cultural or heritage tourist'. The book is 'a response to the burgeoning interest in cultural tourism and the associated need for a coherently theorized approach for understanding the practices that such an interest creates'.

For a full description of this book see The Cultural Moment in Tourism (opens in a new window) on the Routledge website.


 

Institute for Culture and Society officially launched

17 April 2012

The Institute for Culture and Society was officially launched by UWS Chancellor Professor Peter Shergold and UWS Vice-Chancellor Professor Janice Reid on Friday 13 April. 

The Institute builds on the successful work of the Centre for Cultural Research with an enlarged brief and scope. 

'The work of the Institute for Culture and Society will be a unique combination of internationally cutting-edge academic scholarship and grounded, engaged research in partnership with a broad range of communities and organisations,' says Institute Director Professor Ien Ang.

Keynote speaker at the ICS launch, Professor Yudhishthir Raj Isar (opens in a new window), UWS Eminent Research Visitor and Professor of Cultural Policy Studies with The American University of Paris, has been impressed by the 'uniquely collegial spirit that reigns' at the Institute and by the range of fields and topics explored by its members.

'As an institution deemed to be "well above world class", the Institute for Culture and Society should be confident of its capacity to do just that, of its authority to think globally,' said Professor Isar in his keynote address.

Read more about the ICS launch and the research of the Institute in the UWS media release.

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    ICS material available at the launch

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    A group of guests before the launch beings

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    ICS Research Director Professor Tony Bennett and Professor Stephen Tomsen

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    UWS Vice-Chancellor Professor Janice Reid and a guest talking before the launch begins

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    Guests enjoying refreshments before the launch begins

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    Guests enjoying refreshments before the launch begins

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    Guests enjoying refreshments before the launch begins

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    UWS Vice-Chancellor Professor Janice Reid presenting at the launch

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    ICS Director Professor Ien Ang presenting at the launch

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    Guests watching the presentations

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    UWS Chancellor Professor Peter Shergold and Professor Yudhishthir Raj Isar, UWS Eminent Research Visitor, watching the presentations

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    UWS Vice-Chancellor Professor Janice Reid watching the presentations

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    Professor Yudhishthir Raj Isar presenting at the launch

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    Dr Tim Winter presenting at the launch

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    Dr Amanda Third and Dr Philippa Collin presenting at the launch

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    Professors Peter Shergold, Raj Isar, Ien Ang, Janice Reid and Andrew Cheetham watching the presentations

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    ICS Research Director Professor Tony Bennett presenting at the launch

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    UWS Chancellor Professor Peter Shergold presenting at the launch

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    Professor Peter Shergold declares the Institute officially launched

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    Guests enjoying Professor Peter Shergold’s presentation

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    Professor Ien Ang waits to make the final speech

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    Professor Ien Ang, Professor Tony Bennett and Professor Peter Shergold

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    Professors Yudhishthir Raj Isar, Andrew Cheetham (Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research)), Janice Reid, Ien Ang, Tony Bennett and Peter Shergold

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    Professors Andrew Cheetham, Janice Reid, Ien Ang, Tony Bennett and Peter Shergold

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    Guests talking outside after the launch

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    Guests enjoying refreshments

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    Dr Amanda Third and Professor Kay Anderson

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New book: Sport Beyond Television

10 April 2012

Professor David Rowe has just published a new book with Brett Hutchins: Sport Beyond Television: The Internet, Digital Media and the Rise of Networked Media Sport (opens in a new window).

Description

Television is no longer the only screen delivering footage and news to people about sport. Computers, the Internet, Web, mobile and other digital media are increasingly important technologies in the production and consumption of sports media. Sport Beyond Television analyses the changes that have given rise to this situation, combining theoretical insights with original evidence collected through extensive research and interviews with people working in the media and sport industries. It locates sports media as a pivotal component in online content economies and cultures, and counteracts the scant scholarly attention to sports media when compared to music, film and publishing in convergent media cultures.

An expanding array of popular sports media – industry, user, club, athlete and fan produced – is now available and accessible in networked digital communications environments. This change is confounding the thinking of major sports organizations that have lived off the generous revenue flowing from exclusive broadcast contracts with free-to-air and subscription television networks for the last five decades. These developments are creating commercial and policy confusion, particularly as sports audiences and the advertising market fragment in line with the proliferation of niche channels and sources of digital sports media.

Chapters in this title examine the shift from broadcast to online sports media markets, the impact of social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook, evolving user and fan practices, the changing character of sports journalism, and the rise of sports computer gaming. Each chapter traces the socio-cultural implications of trends and trajectories in media sport.

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Upcoming book launch: Discipline and Learn: Bodies, Pedagogy and Writing by Megan Watkins

4 April 2012

The cover of Discipline and Learn which has on it an old black and white photo of school children sitting in a classroom, with their arms behind their backs, and a teacher at the blackboard.Discipline and Learn: Bodies, Pedagogy and Writing by Dr Megan Watkins explores how discipline is typically construed as a form of subjection in contemporary educational thought and in critical and cultural theory more broadly. It provides a critique of this emphasis on the repressive aspects of discipline highlighting its enabling potential and role in the development of dispositions to learning. The book engages with the work of a range of theorists: Foucault, Bourdieu, Merleau Ponty, Mauss and Spinoza and considers their usefulness in theorizing embodiment and learning in the teaching of writing in the early years of school. Emphasis, however, is placed on the work of Bourdieu and his notion of habitus melding theory and practice in an ethnography of contemporary classrooms. This text is invaluable reading for students and academics across the social sciences and humanities interested in questions of embodiment, affect and their relation to learning.

The book will be jointly launched by Dr David McInnes, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, University of Western Sydney and Professor Elspeth Probyn, Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney.

Date: Friday 27 April 2012
Time: 6pm for 6:30pm start
Venue: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe, Sydney
Cost: Free
RSVP: Gleebooks (02) 9660 2333 or Secure Online Booking (opens in a new window)

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Tim Winter to speak at Australia ICOMOS symposium

26 March 2012

On 18 April, Dr Tim Winter will speak on 'World Heritage Asia: vulnerable communities and the shifting global economy' at an Australia ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) symposium.

The symposium marks the International Day for Monuments and Sites and will be held at Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney, one of 11 Australian Convict Sites on the World Heritage List.

This is one of many activities organised by Australia ICOMOS around Australia to celebrate the diversity of the world’s cultural heritage. The focus this year is “World Heritage and Sustainable Development: the Role of Local Communities”.

For more information on the event see the Australia ICOMOS website (opens in a new window).

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Philippa Collin attends Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation launch

19 March 2012

Dr Philippa Collin, ICS researcher and Research Program Leader at the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, recently attended the launch of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation (opens in a new window)at Harvard University. Read her first-hand account of the launch on the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre (opens in a new window)website.

The Born This Way Foundation was founded in 2011 and is led by Lady Gaga and her mother Cynthia Germanotta. It aims ‘to foster a more accepting society, where differences are embraced and individuality is celebrated’ and ‘is dedicated to creating a safe community that helps connect young people with the skills and opportunities they need to build a braver, kinder world’.

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ASAA Conference registrations open

2 March 2012

Registrations for the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) 19th Biennial Conference 2012 are now open. A draft conference program is also available.

 

Adam Trau in Tourism Planning & Development journal

29 February 2012

As part of his thesis PhD candidate Adam Trau has published an article in Tourism Planning & Development. The journal article Beyond Pro-Poor Tourism: (Re)Interpreting Tourism-Based Approaches to Poverty Alleviation in Vanuatu (opens in a new window)is one of four articles Adam will publish for his Thesis as a Series of Papers. Adam's thesis is entitled 'Tourism, Development and World Heritage at Chief Roi Mata’s Domain, Vanuatu'.

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ICS visiting scholars 2012

29 February 2012

ICS welcomes the following visiting scholars to the Institute in 2012:

  • Handel Wright; Professor of Education; Director of the Centre for Culture, Identity and Education; University of British Columbia
  • Wiebke Gronemeyer, PhD candidate, Goldsmiths, University of London
  • Sophie Watson, Professor of Sociology, Open University
  • Raj Isar, Professor of Cultural Policy Studies, American University of Paris
  • Rodney Harrison, Senior Lecturer in Heritage Studies, Open University
  • Andrew Ross, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University
  • Amanda Wise, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Macquarie University
  • Jason Ditmer, Reader, Department of Geography, University College of London (UCL)
  • Jack Barbalet, Professor, Department of Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University
  • Dick Hobbs, Professor of Sociology, Mannheim Centre for Criminology, London School of Economics and Political Science.

The first of our visiting scholars, Professor Handel Wright, joined us at the beginning of March and spoke on Liquid Community and the Awkward Resilience of Multiculturalism at the first ICS seminar of the year.

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Welcome to new students

29 February 2012

We are pleased to welcome these students who have recently joined ICS:

  • Giulia Dal Maso - Young Chinese Knowledge Workers Employed by Transnational Companies. An Enquiry From Shanghai
  • Andrea Del Bono - Identities Outside the Box: Italianness and Chineseness in Contemporary Sydney
  • Nigel Eades - The Impact of Culture and Communication: Living in Immigration Detention
  • Kecia Fong - Globalising Conservation: Dialogues in History, Spaces of Culture
  • Sky Hugman - Cross-Sector Knowledge Brokering
  • Mithilesh Kumar - State and the Working Class in the Making of the Global Metropolis of Delhi
  • Jenny Li - Public Libraries and the Reconfiguration of the Public Sphere
  • Alejandro Miranda Nieto - Migration, Identities and Amateur Music Making in Mexico
  • Keith Parry - The Cult Hero in Professional Sport
  • Valeria Pashkova - Social, Political and Cultural Aspects of Economic Integration
  • Galia Saouma - The 'Cultural Diversity' Convention
  • Lisa Worthington - Muslim Women on Campus: Islamophobia and Public Space.

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Latest books by ICS researchers

29 February 2012

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 and 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
  • Shanghai Expo: an international forum on the future of Cities, edited by Tim Winter

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

20 February 2012

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

4 January 2012

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

4 January 2012

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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