SOPHI News and Events
February, 2012
Themes from Cavell: Philosophy Conference, 27-28 February, 2012
Mon 27- Tue 28 February, 2012
The McRae Room, Quadrangle Building A14
University of Sydney
Click here for more information
Why Gender Matters
A co-presentation of Sydney Ideas and the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies
Friday 24 February, 2012
5-6:30pm,
Oriental Room S204, Quadrangle A14
University of Sydney
Click here for more information
AD Trendall Lecture in Classical Studies: Homer and Plato
Professor Richard Hunter, FAHA Regius Professor of Greek, University of Cambridge, will deliver the Autralian Academy of the Humanities AD Trendall Lecture in Classical Studies
Wednesday 22 February, 2012
6:30 - 7:30, CCANESA
Click here for more information
AD Trendall Lecture in Classical Studies: Homer and Plato
Professor Richard Hunter FAHA Regius Professor of Greek, University of Cambridge, will deliver the Autralian Academy of the Humanities AD Trendall Lecture in Classical Studies
Wednesday 22 February, 2012
6:30 - 7:30, CCANESA
Click here for more information
That was then: this is now — Contemporary Archaeology in Australia
Februrary 16-17 2012
9:30am – 4.30pm
Eastern Avenue F19
Seminar Room 312
University of Sydney 2006
This two-day workshop explores the role of contemporary archaeology and the state of research in Australia. It is aimed at exploring the methods, theories and subjects currently informing this nascent field of study.
Click here for more information
December, 2011
Dr Julia Kindt joint recipient of two ARC Discovery Projects.
Dr Julia Kindt, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Classics and Ancient History, has recently been a joint recipient of two ARC Discovery Projects.
Click here for more information
ARC success
Congratulations to colleagues for their successful ARC Discovery Project grants.
November, 2011
NEAF celebrates 25 years
25 November, 2011
7.30pm – Pre-dinner drinks from 7pm.
Women’s College, the University of Sydney
The Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation will be Celebrating 25 years with a talk given by NEAF president, Dr John Tidmarsh, who will give a short review of the history of NEAF at the University of Sydney.
The Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation at the University of Sydney facilitates research in the archaeology of the Near East, Egypt and Cyprus, and brings the world of Near Eastern archaeology to the general public.
NEAF activites include public lectures and seminars, archaeological study tours, publications, and sponsorship of the archaeological expedition to Pella in Jordan. NEAF also provides annual research grants to students in Australia and New Zealand.
Click here for more information and booking details
Symposium in honour of Richard Waterhouse
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
9am to 5:30pm,
followed by dinner at 6:30pm
CCANESA Boardroom,
Level 4, Madsen Building,
Eastern Avenue, The University of Sydney
Click here for more information and program
2011 Maritime Research Symposium
Friday 11 November, 2011
9 a.m. – 12 Noon
Kevin Lee Room
Quadrangle Building
The University of Sydney
Co-convenors: Prof Iain McCalman and Dr. Cindy McCreery (Department of History)
Click here for more information
Ethics and Religion in Post-Kantian Thought
Wednesday 9 November, 2011
9am to 5pm
Darlington Centre, City Road
The University of Sydney
All welcome. Registration is required for catering purposes.
Click here for more information
October, 2011
3rd William Ritchie Memorial Lecture
Iphigenia in the Black Sea and in Australia
6pm 27 October 2011
Eastern Avenue Lecture Theatre F19
Reception afterwards at CCANESA
Madsen Building,
University of Sydney
Click here for more information
Mark McKenna wins two Premiers’ Literary awards
Associate Professor Mark McKenna from the Department of History has won both the Victorian and Queensland Premiers’ Literary Awards for Non-Fiction for his book An Eye for Eternity: The life of Manning Clark, published by The Miegunyah Press.
Click here for more information
Performance of scenes from Plautus’ classic comedy, the Mostellaria
Students and staff from the University of Sydney will present an abridged version of the play in the original Latin, with English surtitles
2pm, Sunday 16 October
Nicholson Museum
Quadrangle A14
The University of Sydney
Download flyer
Click here for more information
September, 2011
Workshop on Representation and Sensibility
19-20 September, 2011
Boardroom, Darlington Centre, H03
This workshop marks the beginning of a series of conferences and events exploring two core problems in early-modern philosophy: representation and sensibility.
Click here for more information
Department of Archaeology Public Lecture
Prof. Amihai Mazar
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Anthony McNicoll Visiting Lectureship, 2011
7pm, Wednesday 14 September, 2011
Footbridge Theatre, G2
University of Sydney
This event is free. No RSVP necessary
Click here for more information
Reimagining childhood and youth: University of Sydney Network for Childhood and Youth Research Seminar
Youth arts, pedagogy and affect
Anna Hickey-Moody
and
Interrupting the psychopathologisation of children
Valerie Harwood
Tuesday 13th September,
3.00-5.00pm,
Room 436, Building A35,
Faculty of Education & Social Work
Click here for more information
Fisher Library building activities
Information on both changes to the library shelving and closures for this weekend (Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 September) now available.
August, 2011
Professor Warwick Anderson Awarded Prestigious ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship
Prof Warwick Anderson, Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of History, has received one of two ARC Australian Laureate Fellowships awarded to the University of Sydney, for his project on Southern racial conceptions: comparative histories and contemporary legacies. The Fellowship is worth $2.1 million over the next five years.
Click here for further information
History and Antiquarianism Conference
12-14 August
University of Sydney
CCANESA (Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia)
This conference aims to expand a discussion on approaches to the past from Greco-Roman antiquity to the 17th century, and to assemble scholars interested in the relationship between history and antiquarianism in the ancient and pre-modern worlds.
Click here for more information
HARN Patron Michael Kirby speaks on animal rights
The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, former Justice of the High Court of Australia, is the Patron of HARN: Human Animal Research Network, a research network coordinated by Dr Fiona Probyn-Rapsey from SOPHI’s Department of Gender and Cultural Studies.
In a recent interview on ABC Radio National’s Breakfast program, Michael Kirby spoke about the announcement of his role as Patron of Voiceless: The Animal protection Institute.
Click here for more information
Elite Schools & Globalisation: Unfolding Narrations in Connected Locations
The Department of Gender and Cultural Studies will be hosting one of a series of research forums on Elite Schools and Globalisation:
8–9 August 2011
New Law School and Annexe,
Law Faculty on Eastern Ave,
The University of Sydney
Click here for more information
July, 2011
Professor Barbara Caine’s Inaugural Lecture: History and the Individual Life
Professor Barbara Caine, Head of the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry will be one of four new professorial appointments to take part in the Insights 2011: Inaugural Lecture Series.
Thursday 28 July 2011, 6pm
Nicholson Museum, at 6pm.
(Refreshments will be served from 5.30pm.)
Click here for more information
Imperial Frictions: Thinking through Impediments to Global Connection -- a Masterclass
Antoinette Burton, and Tony Ballantyne
Wednesday 27 July, 2011
5:30-7:30pm CCANESA Boardroom, Madsen Building F09
(Enter via Eastern Avenue)
University of Sydney
Over the past decade historians of British colonialism have increasingly turned to global or transnational analytical frameworks to explore the connections between empire building and the history of globalisation. In this lecture we critically evaluate this scholarly turn, assessing the centrality of ‘networks’ and ‘webs’ in the so-called ‘new imperial history’ and the relationships between the imperial and the global.
Click here for more information
Death of Drama or Birth of an Industry? The Greek Theatre in the Fourth Century BC: A Conference
Conference 19-20 July, 2011
The conference will be hosted by CCANESA — The Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia at the University of Sydney
Click here for more information
Archaeology in the News: Emeritus Professor Richard Wright receives Order of Australia and Department gets $1.6m bequest
Emeritus Professor Richard Wright, former member of the Department of Archaeology, has been made a Member of the Order of Australia, and the Department of Archaeology receives $6.9 million dollar bequest from former student and collector Tom Austen Brown
Click here for more information
Silius Italicus and Flavian Culture: Pacific Rim Latin Literature Conference
4-6 July, 2011
Venue: Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia (CCANESA):
The University of Sydney
Silius Italicus’ epic on the Hannibalic War, the Punica, has moved from scholarly neglect and even contempt to being the focus of immense interest and research. Yet much scholarship has tended to divorce the poet and his poem from its context in Flavian and especially Domitianic Rome. This conference, only the second ever devoted to Silius and the first in the English-speaking world, aims to resituate Silius and the Punica in its Flavian context.
In association with the Flavian Epic Network
Conference organiser: Dr Bob Cowan
Click here for more information
A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change
Associate Professor Stephen Gardiner,
Department of Philosophy and the Program on Values in Society at the University of Washington, Seattle
Monday 4 July, 2011, 6.00pm to 7.30pm
Law School Foyer, Eastern Avenue, the University of Sydney
A co-presentation between Sydney Ideas and Co-presented with the Environmental Humanities Group, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney
Click here for more information
June, 2011
Research by Department of Philosophy PhD student, Pierrick Bourrat, in the news
From religion to politics: why it matters if we think someone is watching
People are more likely to condemn the bad behaviour of others when they sense someone else may be watching, research by Pierrick Bourrat, PhD student in the Department of Philosophy shows.
The research, published in Evolutionary Psychology, confirmed the prediction that participants who believed they were being watched, although possibly not conscious of that thought, would express greater disapproval of moral transgressions, than those did not.
"The research is also part of Explaining Religion, a three-year, multinational project looking at religious practice and the kinds of behaviour, involving moral judgement, that religion often claims to control." The project was supported by the European Commission and the John Templeton Foundation.
Humanities Salon runs a series on Ancient cities: Carthage, Athens, Rome
Click here for more information
Prof Iain McCalman awarded a 2011 ARC Linkage Project
Prof Iain McCalman, Research Professor in SOPHI’s Department of History, has just been awarded an ARC Linkage Project for 2011. The project is entitled 'Cultures of Coast and Sea: maritime environmental, cultural and ethnographic histories of north-east Australia, 1770-2010'. The University of Sydney had 19 successful Linkage Projects, however this is one of only two to come to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Click here for more information
Professor Linda Colley (Princeton) presents ‘Constitutions and Global History, 1780-2000' for the Department of History
5- 6:30, 9 June, 2011
CCANESA Boardroom,
Madsen Building F09
The University of Sydney
Click here for more information
May, 2011
Bob Cowan (Classics and Ancient History) writes on Horace, free speech and WikiLeaks on the OUPblog
Dr Bob Cowan from SOPHI’s Department of Classics and Ancient History has written a post for the OUPblog entitled “Horace and free speech in the age of WikiLeaks†to coincide with the publication of a new translation by John Davie of Horace’s Satires and Epistles (Oxford World’s Classics).
Click here for more information
Humanities Salon event: The Politics of Surveillance Narratives: From Creative Visions to Experiential Reflections
10 May, 2011
Dr Peter Marks, Department of English, and Dr Gavin Smith Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Sydney
March, 2011
19th Todd Memorial Lecture
Symptoms and Sympathy in Latin Letter-writing
Dr Miriam Griffin, University of Oxford
31 March 2011
6.30 pm
General Lecture Theatre
Quadrangle, A14
University of Sydney
The lecture will be preceded by drinks in the cloisters of the Quadrangle at 6 pm
RSVP Elia Mamprin to secure your place
E: | P: 9351 5658
SOPHI students top in Australasian Society for Classical Studies prizes
The Department of Classics and Ancient History, the Department of Archaeology and the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry warmly congratulate their students, who have won all three of the undergraduate prizes awarded by the Australasian Society for Classical Studies, and announced at its annual meeting in January 2011. First prize winners were:
Essay competition prize: Harrison Jones, on “Oikist cults at Cyrene, Delos and Eretriaâ€
Greek translation prize: Paul Touyz
Latin translation prize: Nicholas Olson
Richard Miles (Classics and Ancient History) writes on Carthage in The Guaridan
Dr Richard Miles from SOPHI’s Department of Classics and Ancient History, writes on the recent political events in Tunisia and their consequences for the Archaeology at the site of the ancient city of Carthage.
Click here for more information
Humanities Salon — Past Futures: Angkor and the debate on sustainable low-density urbanism
22 March 2011
Professor Roland Fletcher, Department of Archaeology and Christophe Pottier, Ecole Française d’Extrème Orient
Societies of every known socio-economic system and magnitude have used low density settlements patterns from dispersed hunter-gatherer camps to the industrial megalopolis. Between the late 1st millennium BCE and the mid 2nd millennium CE three regions in the tropics in Mesoamerica, South Asia and South-East Asia produced vast, agrarian-based, low-density urban settlements. The largest, situated in modern Cambodia, was Angkor. Click here for more information
SOPHI welcomes Professor Barbara Caine as new Head of School
The School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry welcomes its new Head of School, Professor Barbara Caine, who took up the post last week (24 January 2011).
Barbara (FAHA, FRHS, FASSA) comes to us from Monash University, where she was the Professor of History and ARC Professorial Fellow from 1995 to 2010.
February, 2011
Philosophy Conference -- The Sublime: A Re-Evaluation
21-22 February, 2011
The Refectory, Quadrangle Building
University of Sydney
This event is free
This is the first conference sponsored by SHAPE (Social, Historical, Aesthetic, Political and Environmental Philosophy), a group dedicated to explorations in the philosophy of value broadly conceived. This conference brings together members of the Philosophy Dept at Sydney University who have a research interest in aesthetics with new and interesting voices from overseas who are involved with the SHAPE group.
Click here for more information
January, 2011
The Inspired Voices Research Cluster receives Faculty of Arts Collaborative Research Scheme grant
Assoc Prof Rick Benitez (Philosophy), Prof Peter Wilson (Classics and Ancient History), Dr Julia Kindt (Classics and Ancient History), and Assoc Prof Ian Maxwell (Performance Studies) have received a Faculty of Arts Collaborative Research Scheme grant as part of The Inspired Voices Research Cluster.
Click here for more information
December, 2010
NEAF AGM and Lecture: Travels in Mongolia with Alison Betts
NEAF (the Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation) is holding its Annual General Meeting and end of year celebration. The AGM will be followed by the lecture Travels in Mongolia, by Assoc Prof Alison Betts.
When: Wednesday 1 December, 2010
Where: Women’s College, University of Sydney
Time: 8-9pm (approx)
Cost: $35 per person
Click here for more information
November, 2010
SOPHI receives over 70% of the Faculty’s funding in latest round of ARC grants
The ARCs have been released and we congratulate SOPHI staff on another successful round of ARC application. History has won an APF and an APD, and Philosophy an ARF, and various others were successful in their DP applications. As a School we won over 70% of the total Faculty amount.
Click here for more information
Book Launch for Penny Russell’s Savage or Civilised? Manners in Colonial Australia
To be launched by Professor Jill Julius Matthews, Professor of History, Australian National University.
When: 6 for 6.30pm, Friday November 12, 2010
Where: Gleebooks Bookstore, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
RSVP: www.gleebooks.com.au or phone (02) 9660 2333
Click here for more information
NEAF Lecture: Temple, Town and Tombs
Dr Stephen Bourke
The University of Sydney’s NEAF-sponsored excavations at Pella in Jordan have been in the field for 30 years. This lecture will highlight some of the more memorable discoveries spanning the last 10000 years of settled life at Pella.
Wednesday 3 November 2010
6.30-8.30 pm
General Lecture Theatre 1 Main Quad
Price: $20 Non Members, Members $15 and Student members $5
All welcome
Click here for more information
Richard Miles (Classics and Ancient History) says ‘Civilisation is still worth striving for’
Archaeologist and historian Richard Miles from the Department of Classics and Ancient History was interviewed recently for the Guardian's 'Bright Ideas' series.
October, 2010
Key Thinkers - Herodotus And The Discovery Of History
Speaker: Julia Kindt, Classics and Ancient History, Faculty of Arts
When: 27 October 2010
Where: Lecture Theatre 101, Sydney Law School Building, Eastern Avenue, Camperdown Campus
Free event. No booking required.
Click here for more information
Humanites Salon on Angkor cancelled
Please note that due to illness, the Humanities Salon on Angkor scheduled for Thursday 21 October has been cancelled. We hope to re-schedule the event for next year's program. Details of the 2011 program will be published at a later date.
Apologies for any inconvenience.
Clare Corbould wins literary award for first book
Dr Clare Corbould, senior lecturer from the Department of History, has been awarded the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for a First Book of History, for Becoming African Americans: Black Public Life in Harlem, 1919-1939 The prize comes with a prize of $15,000.
September, 2010
Sydney Humanities Salon on Cities – Shanghai: Colonialism, Cosmopolitanism and Chinese Modernity
30 September, 2010
Professor David Goodman, Director, Institute of Social Sciences, Dr Yiyan Wang, Associate Professor Suzanne Rutland and Dr Yi Zheng, School of Languages and Cultures
Venue: Sydney Law School foyer, Eastern Avenue, Camperdown Campus.
Time: 6.00pm to 7.30pm
Evolving the Future Workshop
Fom 9am, 28 September, 2010
New Law Seminar Room 102, University of Sydney
Evolution is an essential theory for understanding the living world–including our own species. Even our capacity for open-ended learning and culture evolved, and culture itself is an evolutionary process. With understanding comes the capacity for improvement. This workshop examines three fields in which the understanding offered by contemporary evolutionary theory may offer practical guidance: conservation, public health, and the urban environment.
The workshop will be led by evolutionary biologist Prof. David Sloan Wilson, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University.
Click here for more information
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 story on Facebook
A Night of Ancient Comedy
The Classics and Ancient History Department of the University of Sydney
and the Nicholson Museum invite you to:
A Night of Ancient Comedy
Thursday, 23 September 2010
6:00 pm (performance starts at 6:30)
Featuring:
‘Playing with Frogs’: A brief introduction by Dr. Alastair Blanshard
Scenes from Aristophanes Frogs (an abridged version of the play in Greek with surtitles)
Tickets: $25, $20 (Friends of the Nicholson Museum), $10 (students)
Bookings should be made through the Nicholson Museum
E-mail: or ph: 9351 2812
Honours week: 13-17 September, 2010
September 13-17 is Honours week across the University of Sydney. If you’re thinking of Honours in the SOPHI, now is the time to find out more. An Honours year at Sydney gives you the opportunity to follow your passion. You’ll be exposed to the latest research, ideas, and facilities to help develop your enquiring mind. And the best thing? You could already be eligible!
History week, 4-12 September, 2010
The theme for History Council of New South Wales’ History Week 2010 is ‘Faces in the Street’. Staff from the Department of History will be presenting three fascinating talks during this year’s History Week.
Furious Faces on the Streets: Public Protests in history
Prof Robert Aldrich, Dr Frances Clarke and Dr Jim Masselos
Monday 6 September 2010, 6:00pm – 7:30pm, Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia (CCANESA), Room 409 Madsen Building F09, University of Sydney
Faces from Australia’s Underworld
Penny Russell (Sydney); Amanda Kaladelfos (Sydney); Jill Matthews (ANU)
Tuesday 7 September 2010, 6:00pm – 7:30pm, Nicholson Museum, Main Quadrangle, University of Sydney
Contact: 9351 2812, Bookings essential.
Heroic Culture: E. P. Thompson’s Histories and the Experience of the Oppressed
Dr Chris Hilliard
Wednesday 8 September 2010, 6:00pm – 7:30pm, Law Lecture Theatre 101, Sydney Law School, University of Sydney.
Cities – Sydney, Freetown and Cape Town: Convicts and Empire
Dr Kirsten McKenzie, Dr Emma Christopher
Thursday 9 September 2010, 6:00pm – 7:30pm, Sydney Law School Foyer, Eastern Avenue, University of Sydney.
Click here for more information on History Week 2010 at Sydney University
August, 2010
Sydney Humanities Salon
For information on the Salon's events, please go to the Humanities Salon website
The Humanities Salon is generously sponsored by the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry.
History’s Emma Christopher interviewed in ‘Spectrum’
Dr Emma Christopher was interviewed recently for the Spectum magazine in the weekend edition of the Sydney Morning Herald.
Sydney Humanities Salon presents: Scholarship at Large
19 August, 2010
Sydney Law School foyer, Eastern Avenue, Camperdown Campus.
6.00pm to 7.30pm
How often do we hear that academics can't write? That academic prose is leaden, burdened with excessive theory? Lacking wit and narrative drive? These days, most Australian publishers run screaming from scholarly book manuscripts. Yet in the United States, Duke University Press has made academic publishing cool-and popular. Do the people at Duke know something we don't? Ken Wissoker, the editorial director at Duke, believes his press not only produces smart books, it also shapes intellectual inquiry.
NEAF -- A Double Lecture Notice
Wednesday 18th August 2010
The Dromedary Camel and Shifts in the Geopolitics of the Iron Age Middle East
Associate Professor Peter Magee
Tuesday 24th August 2010
Current Cypriot Archaeology
Dr Thomas Davis
New book for Javier Álvarez-Món, Department of Archaeology
Dr Javier Ãlvarez-Món, Lecturer in Near Eastern Archaeology at the Archaeology Department, has just published a new book entitled The Arjan Tomb: At the Crossroads of the Elamite and the Persian Empires, a study based on archaeological evidence from the Arjan tomb, an undisturbed elite burial site near the town of Behbahan in south-western Iran.
The Impact of the Declaration of Independence – Symposium 11-12 August, 2010
Thomas Jefferson’s virtuoso performance in drafting the Declaration of Independence has secured him a special place in world history. For nearly 250 years his words have been a source of inspiration and adoration, as well as exasperation and revulsion.
July, 2010
Moira Gatens elected President of the Australasian Association of Philosophy
Congratulations to Professor Moira Gatens, ARC Professorial Fellow in the Department of Philosophy, who has just been elected President of The Australasian Association of Philosophy (AAP).
AAP is the professional organisation of academic philosophers in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, and the Association's journal, the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, is ranked as one of the top 10 professional philosophical journals in the world.
Caroline West awarded 2010 AAP Media Prize
Dr Caroline West from the Department of Philosophy has won the 2010 AAP Media prize for "Work four hours, then rest" which appeared as the lead opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald on 4 August 2009, and also in the Brisbane Courier-Mail and National Times.
Caroline is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, and is currently writing a book on Happiness, forthcoming with Routledge in 2011.
2nd William Ritchie Memorial Lecture to be given by John Marincola
Marathon and the Persian Wars in the Greek Imagination
John Marincola, Florida State University, Tallahassee
29 July 2010 at 5:00 pm
General Lecture Theatre 1
Reception afterwards in the Nicholson Museum
2010 J.M. Ward Memorial Lecture to be given by Joyce E. Chaplin, Harvard University
The Circumnavigating Body: Why it Hurts to go around the World
Joyce E. Chaplin, Harvard University
Thursday 22 July, 2010
5:30 for 6:30pm
Reception: Nicholson Museum
Lecture: Ward Lecture Theatre
History Room S223,Quadrangle Building,University of Sydney.
SOPHI initiates Humanities Salon
Inviting the public to share in the research of the Faculty of Arts
June, 2010
Public talk by Professor John Barrell (University of York)
A Common in Wales
Midday, Monday 21 June, 2010
The Refectory, Main Quadrangle
In 1794 the Welsh-speaking artist Edward Pugh (1763-1813), the son of a country barber, published in London a series of six engravings of the area around his home town Ruthin in North East Wales. By focusing on one, the image of a tract of common land on the Flintshire-Denbighshire border, I shall examine the conflicts and compromises involved in making them: between the expectations of a metropolitan audience and the local and
provincial nature of the material; between Pugh’s status as an aspiring artisan-class artist and the genteel Welsh squirearchy to which he looked for patronage; between the anti-industrial ideology of the ‘picturesque’ and his concern for the development and modernisation of the Welsh economy; between the grand
style to which as a relatively humble artist he did not aspire, and what Henry Fuseli dismissed as ‘tame delineations of a given spot’.
Humanities Salon: Digging up Sydney
6pm, Thursday 17 June, 2010, New Sydney Law Building Foyer
A conversation between the disciplines of History and Archaeology on ways of researching Sydney’s past
Beneath the streetscapes and parklands of Sydney lie the fragments and material traces of both the Indigenous and Colonial/Settler past. All of us probably consider the history of Sydney to be familiar and well-documented, yet archaeological research across the Sydney Basin constantly brings to the surface surprising discoveries that challenge and contest the existing historical narratives about our city. In this Salon four archaeologists will present aspects of their research that challenge the received histories of the city in a conversation with pre-eminent Sydney historian Dr Grace Karskens.
Humanities Salon: Harlem -- The Black Capital of the world
6pm, Thursday 10 June, 2010, Sydney Law School Foyer
Shane White, Stephen Robertson and Stephen Garton are part of a collaborative team working on everyday life in Harlem in the 1920s, when the neighbourhood became the black capital of the world. Their award-winning web site maps everything from street speakers to parades, traffic accidents to basketball games, house fires to arrests for numbers—the form of gambling invented in Harlem that became its largest black business, and the subject of the team’s recently published book—to recreate what it was like to live in this ‘black metropolis.’ One finding of this research was that Harlem was not the segregated place it has been long thought, but a neighbourhood in which whites remained a significant, influential presence.
Making the emergency permanent: Augustus and the establishment of the Principate
A Lecture by Professor John Rich
Augustus held monarchical power, but claimed to be merely the Republic's first citizen. This paper examines the ways in which he resolved this paradox, in particular by claiming to accept powers merely as a temporary and emergency provision.
3 June 2010 5pm
May, 2010
Book launch: The Unknown Nation - Australia after Empire
The Unknown Nation - Australia After Empire is co-authored by 2010 Fulbright scholar and University of Sydney senior lecturer James Curran, and University of Copenhagen historian Stuart Ward.
The book, which examines Australia's hesitancy to define itself post Empire, will be launched next week by one of Australia's most strident republicans, former Opposition leader, the Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP.
April, 2010
Out of Iran: Professor Dan Potts (Archaeology) on Tol-e Nurabad
Dan Potts is co-director of an ARC-funded excavation, called Tol-e Nurabad, which is located in the Mamasani district of the Fars province in Iran. Tol-e Nurabad was occupied from c. 6000 BC to the time of Christ, and Dan’s team are currently excavating in the earliest levels dating to the first Neolithic occupation at the site in c. 6000 BC. Dan will speak about what it's like being in Iran in the current political climate, what it's like to work there and about Iran's significance in the modern and ancient worlds.
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
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.