Moving ideas and people across borders
Australia is currently preoccupied with the issue of border protection and this preoccupation has reignited sovereignty anxiety and debate about the way Australians see themselves and imagine their future.
The 2012 International Australian Studies Association (InASA) Biennial Conference, jointly hosted by Monash University's Department of History and the National Centre for Australian Studies, will bring together Australia and international experts to discuss both where Australian fits into the world, but also the interdisciplinary and global nature of Australian studies.
Monash University’s Dr Tony Moore, Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies said the conference has been designed to encourage discussion on the movement of ideas and people across Australian borders.
“The Conference will explore the conditions under which borders are breached and enforced, giving attention to the transnational circuits of information, technologies, bodies and ideas increasingly seen against the discontinuities, lapses and blockages that characterise the growing political preoccupation with border security, internet restriction and the trafficking of people and animals,” Dr Moore said.
The conference will be opened by awarding winning Australian author Professor Kim Scott from Curtin University with his keynote address Welling which will consider regional Australian history, identity and ownership.
Joining Professor Scott as keynote speakers will be The Hon Susan Ryan, AO, Discrimination Commissioner (Aging) with the Australian Human Rights Commission discussing and chairing the panel Australian Studies: 25 Years On; Professor Adrian Franklin from the University of Tasmania on Slipping across the boundary from culture to nature – and back again: the strange case of feral animals as defenders of the Australian border; and Professor Gillian Whitlock from the University of Queensland discussing Outside Country.
Plenary panels will focus on war and memory, crossing the border between academia and national debate, and our engagement with Asia.
The conference will also provide the opportunity for discussion of the future of Australian studies.
“The inter-discipline of Australian studies, now in its 25th year, is facing the challenges of changing to embrace areas of study such as cultural and media studies and understanding Australia’s past, present and future in a global, and especially Asian context,” Dr Moore said.
Co-Convenor and InASA President Christina Twomey from the Department of History said in the late 1980s, when Australian Studies was launched there was a political, cultural and economic context vastly different from that which has prompted the recently-published Australia in the Asian Century whitepaper.
“A much anticipated panel Chaired by Professor David Walker, the inaugural BHP Billiton Chair of Australian Studies at Peking University, will explore Australian-China relations,” Associate Professor Twomey said.
“We need to look at how research in Australian studies might engage with the broader national debate, through the media, in public policy and in the new national curriculum.”
The 2012 International Australian Studies Association (INASA) Biennial Conference, Border Breach: Australia and the Global Circulation of Ideas will take place on 5 - 7 December at Building H, Monash University, Caulfield campus (Melways ref: Map 68 F1).
Program and other details are available on Department of History website.