ICS Home
Distinguished Professor Ien Ang
Distinguished Professor Ien Ang is a Professor of Cultural Studies and the founding Director of ICS. She is one of the leaders in cultural studies worldwide, with interdisciplinary work spanning many areas of the humanities and social sciences. Her books, including Watching Dallas, Desperately Seeking the Audience and On Not Speaking Chinese, are recognised as classics in the field and her work has been translated into many languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Turkish, German, Korean, and Spanish. Her most recent book, co-edited with E Lally and K Anderson, is The Art of Engagement: Culture, Collaboration, Innovation (University of Western Australia Press, 2011).
Professor Ang’s innovative interdisciplinary work deals broadly with patterns of cultural flow and exchange in our globalised world, focusing on issues such as:
-
the formation of audiences and publics
-
the politics of identity and difference
-
migration, ethnicity and multiculturalism in Australia and Asia
-
issues of representation in contemporary cultural institutions.
Her current ARC research project is entitled Sydney’s Chinatown in the Asian Century: from Ethnic Enclave to Global Hub (with Donald McNeill and Kay Anderson in collaboration with the City of Sydney). She currently chairs an Expert Working Group on Asia Literacy: Language and Beyond, for the Australian Council of Learned Academies’ Securing Australia’s Future program.
As a prominent public speaker and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, she is frequently called on for keynote addresses in Australia and internationally. As an ARC Professorial Fellow, Professor Ang aims to explore the theoretical and practical implications of notions of ‘cultural complexity’, in a research program entitled ‘Cultural Research for the 21st Century: Building Cultural Intelligence for a Complex World’. She is a champion of collaborative cultural research and has worked extensively with partner organisations such as the NSW Migration Heritage Centre, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, The Special Broadcasting Service and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Professor Ang has had the title of Distinguished Professor conferred on her by the University of Western Sydney in recognition of her outstanding research record and eminence. She is the first person at UWS to be conferred with this honour.
Qualifications
PhD, 1990, Social and Cultural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Doctorandus/Mphil, 1982, Mass Communication, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Kandidaats/BA, 1977, Psychology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Honours and Awards
2006: Scholar in Residence, Scholars Program for Cultural and Communication, Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania
2005-2009: Australian Research Council Professorial Fellowship
2005: Visiting Professor, Advanced Cultural Studies Institute of Sweden, Linkoping University, Sweden
2004: Visiting Professor, City University of Hong Kong
2003: Recipient, Centenary Medal, Australian Commonwealth Government
2003: Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professor, University of Bristol
2001: Presenter of the Annual History Lecture, History Council of NSW
2000: Fellow, Australian Academic of the Humanities
2001-2003: Elected Member, Council of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
2000: Isaac Manasseh Meyer Fellowship, National University of Singapore
1998: Center for Cultural Studies Resident Scholarship, University of California, Santa Cruz
1998: Obermann Center Research Fellowship, University of Iowa
1994: Cultural Studies Research Fellowship, East West Center, Hawaii
1992: Visiting Professor, University of Stockholm, Sweden
1986: Fulbright Fellowship, junior scholar category, City University of New York
1986-present: Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the following journals: New Formations, Cultural Studies, Continuum: Australian Journal for the Media, Cultural Studies Review, Social Semiotics, European Journal of Cultural Studies, Hecate, Feminist Media Studies, International Feminist Journal of Politics, Topia: Canadian Journal for Cultural Studies, Traces: Multilingual Journal for Cultural Theory, Ethnicities, Comparative American Studies, American Ethnologist
2003-2004: External advisor, National Museum of Australia
2002-2004: Member, International Advisory Committee, Institute for Citizenship and Globalization, Deakin University
2002: Australian reader, Humanities and Creative Arts panel, Australian Research Council
2001: International (Non UK) Adviser, Communications, Cultural and Media Studies assessment panel, Research Assessment Exercise, United Kingdom
1999-2003: External Examiner, Cultural Studies Program, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, PRC
1999-2002: Member, Reference Group for the Migration Heritage Centre, Premier's Department, State Government of New South Wales
Selected Publications
Books
Lally, E., Ang, I. and Anderson, K. (eds) 2011, The Art of Engagement: Culture, Collaboration, Innovation (opens in a new window), Perth: University of Western Australia Press.
Ang, I., Hawkins, G. and Dabboussy, L. 2008, The SBS Story: The Challenge of Cultural Diversity (opens in a new window), Sydney: UNSW Press.
Ang, I. 2001, On Not Speaking Chinese: Living Between Asia and the West (opens in a new window), London and New York: Routledge.
Ang, I. 1996, Living Room Wars: Rethinking Media Audiences for a Postmodern World (opens in a new window), London and New York: Routledge.
Ang, I. 1991, Desperately Seeking the Audience (opens in a new window), London and New York: Routledge.
Ang, I. 1985, Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination (opens in a new window), London: Methuen.
Book Chapters
Ang, I. 2010, 'Complex', in, Tsoutas, N. (ed.), Australian, Casula: Casula Powerhouse, pp 32-38.
Ang, I. 2010, 'Sobre no hablar Chino: Identificaciones diasporicas y etnicidad postmoderna', in, Rodriguez, P.B. and Gonzalez, C.R. (eds), Nacion, diversidad y genero: Perspetivas criticas, Rubi: Anthropos, pp 185-214. [Reprint of: Ang, I. 2001, ‘On Not Speaking Chinese: Postmodern Ethnicity and the Politics of Diaspora’, in, On Not Speaking Chinese: Living Between Asia and the West, London and New York: Routledge].
Ang, I. 2008, 'Cultural Studies', in, Bennett, T. and Frow, J. (eds), The Sage Handbook of Cultural Analysis, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore: Sage Publications, pp 227-248.
Ang, I. 2007, 'Beyond Asian Diasporas', in, Parrenas, R. S. and Lok, C. D. S. (eds), Asian Diasporas: New Formations, New Conceptions (opens in a new window), Palo Alto, Ca.: Stanford University Press, pp 285-290.
Ang, I. 2006, ‘The Art Museum as Monument: Cultural Change Contained’, in, Lake, M. (ed.), Memory, Monuments and Museums: The Past in the Present, Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press, pp 138-150.
Ang, I. 2005, 'Diaspora', 'Difference' and 'Multiculturalism', in, Bennett, T., Grossberg, L. and Morris, M. (eds), New Keywords in Culture and Society, Oxford: Blackwell.
Ang, I. 2005, 'Who Needs Cultural Research?', in, Leystina, P. (ed.), Cultural Studies and Practical Politics: Theory, Coalition Building, and Social Activism, New York: Blackwell, pp 477-483.
Ang, I. 2004, 'Beyond Transnational Nationalism: Questioning the Borders of the Chinese Diaspora in the Global City', in, Yeoh, B. S. A. and Willis, K. (eds), State/Nation/Transnation: Perspectives of Transnationalism in the Asia-Pacific (opens in a new window), London and New York: Routledge, pp 179-198.
Ang, I. 2004, ‘The Cultural Intimacy of TV Drama’, in, Iwabuchi, K. (ed.), Feeling Asian Modernities: Transnational Consumption of Japanese TV Dramas (opens in a new window), Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, pp 303-309.
Ang, I. 2003, ‘Im Reich der Unsicherheit. Das Globale Dorf und die kapitalistische Postmoderne’, in, Hepp, A. and Winter, C. (eds), Die Cultural Studies Kontroverse, Hamburg, Germany, pp 84-110
Ang, I. 2003, ‘From White Australia to Fortress Australia: The Anxious Nation in the New Century’, in, Jayasuriya, L., Walker, D. and Gothard, J. (eds), Legacies of White Australia: Race, Culture and Nation, Crawley, Western Australia: University of Western Australia Press, pp 51-69.
Ang, I. 2003, 'Cultural Translation in a Globalised World', in, Papastergiadis, N. (ed.), Complex Entanglements: Arts, Globalisation and Cultural Difference, London: Rivers Oram Press, pp 30-41.
Ang, I. 2001, ‘Desperately Guarding Borders: Media Globalization, 'Cultural Imperialism' and the Rise of ‘Asia’’, in, Yao, S. (ed.), House of Glass: Culture, Modernity and the State in Southeast Asia (opens in a new window), Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, pp 27-45.
Ang, I. 2001, ‘Trapped in Ambivalence: Chinese Indonesians, Victimhood and the Debris of History’, in, Morris, M. and de Bary, B. (eds), ‘Race’ Panic and the Memory of Migration (opens in a new window), Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, pp 21-47.
Ang, I. 2000, 'Identity Blues', in, Gilroy, P., Grossberg, L. and McRobbie, A. (eds), Without Guarantees. In Honour of Stuart Hall, London: Verso, pp 1-13.
Stratton, J. and Ang, I. 1998, 'Multicultural Imagined Communities: Cultural Difference and National Identity in the USA and Australia', in, Bennett, D. (ed.), Multicultural States: Rethinking Difference and Identity (opens in a new window), London and New York: Routledge, pp 135-162.
Ang, I. 1995, 'I'm a Feminist but...: 'Other' Women and Postnational Feminism', in, Caine, B. and Pringle, R. (eds), Transitions: New Australian Feminisms, St. Leonards: Allen and Unwin, pp 57-73.
Ang, I. 1994, 'In the Realm of Uncertainty: The Global Village and Capitalist Postmodernity', in, Crowley, D. and Mitchell, D. (eds), Communication Theory Today, Oxford: Polity Press, pp 193-213.
Journal Articles
Ang, I. 2010, 'Australia, China, and Asian Regionalism: Navigating Distant Proximity', Amerasia Journal, 36(2): 127-140.
Ang, I. 2009, 'Provocation - Beyond Multiculturalism: A Journey to Nowhere?' (opens in a new window)(PDF), Humanities Research, XV(2).
Ang, I. and Pothen, N. 2009, 'Between Promise and Practice: Web 2.0, Intercultural Dialogue and Digital Scholarship (opens in a new window), Fibreculture, 14.
Ang, I. 2009, ‘Henry Mayer Lecture 2009 – From Dallas to SBS: The Popular, The Global and The Diverse on Television’, Media International Australia, 131: 6-15.
Ang, I. 2008, 'Passengers on Train Australia' (opens in a new window), Griffith Review: Re-Imagining Australia, August: 227-239.
Ang, I. 2007, 'Television Fictions around the World: Melodrama and Irony in Global Perspective', (opens in a new window)(PDF), Critical Studies in Television, 2(2): 18-30.
Hawkins, G. and Ang, I. 2007, 'Inventing SBS: Televising the Foreign' (opens in a new window)(PDF), ACH: The Journal of the History of Culture in Australia, 26: 1-14.
Ang, I. and Cassity, E. 2006, 'Humanities-Industry Partnerships and the 'Knowledge Society': The Australian Experience'(opens in a new window)(PDF), Minerva, 44(1): 47-63.
Ang, I. 2006, 'From Cultural Studies to Cultural Research: Engaged Scholarship in the 21st Century', Cultural Studies Review, 12(2): 183-197.
Ang, I. 2005, 'The Predicament of Diversity: Multiculturalism in Practice at the Art Museum' (opens in a new window)(PDF), Ethnicities, 5(3): 305-320.
Koser, K., Werbner, P. and Ang, I. 2004, 'Cultural Research and Refugee Studies: New Knowledge, Methodologies, and Practical Implications; A Panel Commentary'(opens in a new window)(PDF), Social Analysis, 48(3): 59-65.
Ang, I. 2003, ‘Representing Social Life in a Conflicting Global World: From Diaspora to Hybridity’, Hong Kong Journal of Sociology, 4: 1-12.
Ang, I. 2003, ‘Intertwining Histories: Nation, Migration and Heritage’, AUMLA: Journal of the Australian Universities Language and Literature Association, 99: 23-35.
Ang, I. 2003, 'Together-in-difference: Beyond Diaspora, into Hybridity' (opens in a new window)(PDF), Asian Studies Review, 27(2): 141-154.
Ang, I. 2002, ‘After ‘911’: Defending the Global City’ (opens in a new window)(PDF), Ethnicities, 2(2): 160-162.
Ang, I. 2001, 'Intertwining Histories: Heritage and Diversity' (opens in a new window), Australian Humanities Review, Nov/Dec.
Reports
Ang, I., Brand, J., Noble, G. and Sternberg, J. 2006, Connecting Diversity: Paradoxes of Multicultural Australia, Sydney: Special Broadcasting Service Corporation.
Ang, I. and Cassity, E. 2004, Attraction of Strangers: Partnerships in Humanities Research (opens in a new window), Canberra: Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Ang, I., Brand, J., Noble, G. and Wilding, D. 2002, Living Diversity: Australia’s Multicultural Future, Sydney: Special Broadcasting Service Corporation.
Selected Presentations
Ang, I., 'Intertwining Histories: Heritage and Diverstiy' (opens in a new window), presented at the Annual History Lecture of the History Council of New South Wales, Sydney, 24 September 2001.
