SOPHI News and Events

Professor Warwick Anderson awarded the 2010 Ludwik Fleck Prize

Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of History, Professor Warwick Anderson, has achieved the highest international honour in the field of science and technology studies with his most recent book, The Collectors of Lost Souls: Turning Kuru Scientists into Whitemen (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).

The Ludwik Fleck Prize celebrates the best book in science and technology studies (STS) each year. The prize is awarded by the Society for Social Studies of Sciences (4S). Anderson joins previous winners of the esteemed award Donna Haraway, Steven Shapin, and Londa Schiebinger.

Read the full article here

Warwick Anderson awarded William H. Welch Medal of the American Association for the History of Medicine

Congratulations, AGAIN, to Warwick Anderson from the Department of History. His his most recent book, The Collectors of Lost Souls: Turning Kuru Scientists into Whitemen (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008) already awarded the NSW Premier's General History Prize, has received the 2010 William H. Welch Medal of the American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM).

The Medal was first presented in 1950 to Henry Sigerist and is awarded to one or more authors of a book of outstanding scholarly merit in the field of medical history published during the five calendar years preceding the award. Other past winners include Charles Rosenberg, Roy Porter, Philip Curtin, Richard Evans, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Nancy Siraisi, and Erwin Ackerknecht.

Oxford Studies in Metaphysics: Young Scholar Award

The Department of Philosophy's Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Rachael Briggs, has just won the prestigious Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Younger Scholars Prize, for her joint paper with Graeme Forbes,"The Real Truth About the Unreal Future", sponsored by the Ammonius Foundation. Our congratulations to Rachel.

2009 David Harold Tribe Philosophy Award winners announced

The School of Philosophical Inquiry is pleased to announce the joint winners of the 2009 David Harold Tribe Philosophy Award. They are:

Dr Tom Conley, for The Vulnerable Country

Dr John Forge, for The Responsible Scientist

In their report the judges said that The Vulnerable Country ‘addresses contemporary concerns in a solidly researched and sensible way’, and that the author ‘weaves an interesting, independent, and balanced course, that transcends the usual lines of division of these issues.’

The judges described The Responsible Scientist as ‘An original, careful, and thorough account of just what the ethical responsibilities of scientists are. In an area that is very prone to dogmatic argumentation, the questions are explored in a well-argued and non-partisan way.’

It is hoped that the award will be presented by the donor Mr David Tribe at the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry Prizes ceremony at MacLaurin Hall on Tuesday 18 May 2010.

SOPHI initiates the Humanities Salon

The Humanities matter. And so the new Head of School, Glenda Sluga, has devised a new forum to bring the Humanities to a wider audience.

The Sydney Humanities Salon brings together local and international scholars to share their work with a wider audience. A new lively and intellectually stimulating gathering, the Salon showcases inspiring, award-winning and intriguing research in the fields of history (classical and modern), archaeology and philosophy, as well as gender and cultural studies. The Humanities Salon promises to be an engaging forum for ideas and debate.

The Humanities Salon will work in conjunction with Sydney Ideas Open.

For information on upcoming events please visit the Humanities Salon website

Two of the Univerity's four Fellows elected to the Australian Academy of the Humanities from SOPHI

Two of the four University of Sydney academics elected to the prestigious Australian Academy of the Humanities are from the SOPHI: Professor Duncan Ivison and Professor Glenda Sluga.

Established by Royal Charter in 1969, the Australian Academy of the Humanities is dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of the humanities and to supporting scholarship in those fields. It comprises around 500 of Australia's finest scholars, all internationally renowned in their fields of knowledge.

Fellows elected to the Academy are residents of Australia who have achieved the highest distinction in scholarship in the humanities across a range of disciplines:

• Archaeology;
• Asian Studies;
• Classical Studies; English;
• European Languages and Cultures;
• History;
• Linguistics; Philosophy, Religion and the History of Ideas; Cultural and Communication Studies; The Arts

Read the full article here

Faculty of Art teaching awards

Congratulations to Martin Gibbs (Archaeology) and Chris Hilliard, who have won the 'Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Excellence in Teaching (Design and Practice)' award.

The Faculty’s awards recognise outstanding contributions to teaching and learning, and winners are strongly encouraged both to develop their applications with a view to applying for Vice Chancellor’s and Australian Learning and Teaching Council Awards, and, as importantly, to share their work with their colleagues across the Faculty.

Award recipients will be presented with their citations at a ceremony in Semester 1 next year, where they will each make a brief presentation about their work.

Warwick Anderson (History), wins NSW Premier’s General History Prize

Congratulations to our colleague Professor Warwick Anderson (History), who has won the 2009 NSW Premier’s General History Prize for his extraordinary recent book, The Collectors of Lost Souls: turning Kuru scientists into whitemen (Duke University Press), which tells the story of kuru, a disease which caused muscle weakness, uncontrollable tremors, then loss of all coordination and ultimately death.

This was a remarkable category this year, as the three other nominated books were also from the Department of History! They were: Clare Corbould for Becoming African Americans: Black public life in Harlem 1919-1939; Judith Keene, Treason on the Airwaves: three Allied Broadcasters on Axis Radio during WWII; and Iain McCalman, Darwin’s Armada: how four voyages to Australasia won the battle for evolution.

Two of the History department’s alumni also took out awards; Rachel Landers won the Multimedia History Prize for her documentary, A Northern Town, which is about race relations in Kempsey. Caroline Ford was awarded the NSW Archival Research Fellowship.

Read the full article here

SOPHI secures 2 of the university's 17 ARC Future Fellowships

The Australian Research Council (ARC) recently announced a new scheme, ARC Future Fellowships, aimed at retaining highly qualified mid-career researches in Australia. The scheme aims to boost Australia’s research and innovation capacity in areas of national importance.

The University has been successful in securing 17 of the newly created fellowships, and SOPHI congratulates its two successful fellows, Fiona Allon and Dr Martin Thomas.

Dr Fiona Allon
Project title: The Wealth Effect: A cultural analysis of prosperity, financialisation and everyday life in contemporary Australia

Dr Martin E Thomas
Project title: Expedition to Arnhem Land: Intercultural inquiry in a transnational context

Read the full article here

Archaeological Computing Lab collaborates with the ABC on Gallipoli

Staff from the University of Sydney's Archaeological Computing Laboratory (ACL) have collaborated with the ABC Digital Innovation Unit to develop an immersive, interactive website about the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. The ABC launched the Gallipoli: The First Day site to coincide with Anzac Day.

A number of SOPHI staff were involved in the 'Gallipoli: The First Day' project, including the Director of the ACL, Dr Ian Johnson. Andrew Wilson, GIS Data Coordinator for the ACL, undertook geo-referencing of historical maps for the project. Steven Hayes, Business Development Manager for the ACL, worked extensively on the Heurist database, along with Kim Jackson and Maria Shvedova.

Read the full article here
Enter the Gallipoli: The First Day site

Moira Gatens appointed to the Spinoza Chair, University of Amsterdam

Congratulations to Moira Gatens (Philosophy), who has been appointed to the Spinoza Chair at the University of Amsterdam in 2010.

This is a great honour for Moira - and through her, for philosophy at Sydney and in Australia more generally. Previous holders of the chair include Hilary Putnam, Robert Pippin, Judith Butler, Jonathan Israel, Albrecht Wellmar, Nancy Fraser….to name just a few. The Chair involves giving two public lectures as well as a series of staff and student seminars at the University of Amsterdam. Given her pathbreaking work on Spinoza, among other things, we can think of no better holder of such a Chair!

Read the full article here

Sawyer Seminar Series

Generously supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the University of Sydney

Session Six
Sexuality in the South Seas
Friday 19 March, 2010
1-5pm, Holme & Sutherland Rooms, Holme Building, University of Sydney

Download Session Five flyer, 30th October

Convenor: Robert Aldrich

Chris Brickell (University of Otago)

Yorick Smaal (University of Queensland)

Lee Wallace (University of Auckland)

Diane Losche (University of New South Wales)

Ever since the first visits by European explorers, the sexual mores of the South Seas have fascinated, attracted and appalled foreigners. From seamen who believed that they had found a sexual paradise and missionaries who endeavoured to stamp out vice, through to the research of Malinowski and Mead, and on to the imagery of contemporary tourist brochures advertising the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the South Pacific has been a laboratory for the investigation of sexual behaviours, the projection of foreign fantasies and the metamorphosis of sexual cultures. This interdisciplinary session will examine the history and historiography of sexuality in Oceania and Australasia in the period of culture contact and after.

The session is free to attend, but registration is essential. Please email to register.

Go to the Mellon Seminar webpages

Other SOPHI News

Archaeology and ABC Earth

ABC Earth, a project developed by the Archaeology Computing Laboratory (ACL) at the University of Sydney and the ABC has now been launched, at http://www.abc.net.au/earth/

The layer, which can be viewed in Google Earth, includes national news and video news updated every 5 minutes, stories from 50 Years of national and international news, Foreign Correspondent as well as Local Radio.