Past Events

Learn about events organised by the United States Studies Centre in 2008:

July: ANZASA Conference
June: Peter Scher Matt Bai Benjamin Goldsmith Eric Foner
May: Frank Fukuyama Shoot the President Black Metropolis
April: Yellow Future Research Seminar
February: Super Tuesday Election Watch
January: Professor Peter Schuck, Yale University

Learn about events organised by the US Studies Centre in 2007

ANZASA Conference

The US Studies Centre was pleased to sponsor the biennial scholarly conference of the Australia and New Zealand Association for American Studies (ANZASA) through its support of a keynote speaker and a roundtable discussion on Australian attitudes towards the US.

The Department of History at the University of Sydney hosted the conference 4 – 7 July 2008, which brought together 140 scholars from eight countries.

Amy Kaplan, Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, delivered the closing keynote paper, which explored the underlying meaning of homeland security as a new concept in the American lexicon.

• Listen to Professor Kaplan’s speech. Forthcoming.
• Listen to Professor Kaplan’s interview on ABC Radio PM with Mark Colvin that compares the US to the Roman Empire.

The Centre’s first national survey was the focus of a roundtable chaired by the US Studies Centre Chief Executive Officer, Professor Geoffrey Garrett. Panellists used the survey as a starting point to discuss Australian attitudes towards the United States as they experience them in their American Studies classroom. The roundtable panel provided a varied and interesting perspective ranging from the high school classroom to university level.

* Listen to the roundtable. Forthcoming.

Peter Scher: Will US trade policy change after the 2008 elections?

Peter Scher, former United States Special Trade Ambassador, delivered a lecture to guests of the United States Studies Centre on June 24.

Peter Scher served in senior US governmental positions for a decade. He was nominated by President Clinton as the US Special Trade Negotiator, with the rank of Ambassador, in the Office of the United States Trade Representative. In this capacity he was one of the lead US negotiators on China's entry into the World Trade Organization and negotiated the agreement by China to lift its twenty year ban on the exports of food and agricultural products from the United States.

Peter Scher has also been active in national Democratic political campaigns for more than twenty years, including the Clinton-Gore campaigns of 1992 and 1996 and the Gore-Lieberman campaign in 2000. In 2004, he was the Campaign Manager for the Vice Presidential Campaign of Senator John Edwards.

Peter Scher is currently the Executive Vice President for Global Government Relations and Public Policy for JP Morgan Chase and Co, one of the leading global financial services firms.

Matt Bai: US Political Journalism - The Next Generation

Matt Bai writes on national politics for The New York Times Magazine, where he is currently covering the 2008 presidential campaign. He is the author of The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics. The book, which chronicles the rise of the first Internet-age political movement and the people who built it, was honored as a New York Times Notable Book for 2007.

Bai’s 2004 coverage for the magazine included cover stories on the Republican machine in Ohio and the future of Democratic politics, as well as a seminal cover profile of John Kerry titled “Kerry’s Undeclared War.” His work was honored in both the 2005 and 2006 editions of The Best American Political Writing.

Dr Benjamin Goldsmith: US Public Diplomacy and International Public Opinion

In this US Studies Centre Research Seminar Series lecture, Dr Goldsmith shared his findings on the impact of high-level visits by US leaders on public opinion in the countries they visit.

Read Benjamin Goldsmith and Yusaku Horiuchi's paper: Spinning the Globe? U.S. Public Diplomacy and Foreign Public Opinion

Professor Eric Foner: The Idea of Freedom in the US, 1776 - 2008

In this exclusive lecture hosted by the United States Studies Centre and Sydney Ideas, Professor Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, traced how Americans have thought about the key concept of freedom through the course of history. He argued that freedom has never been a single idea, but has been the source of considerable disagreement and conflict.

Listen to the podcast (Running time 100:38)

Professor Frank Fukuyama: American Foreign Policy After Bush

About 400 hundred people attended the Centre's event in Sydney with the renowned American political scientist, thinker and author Professor Francis Fukuyama on 28 May. Chief Executive Professor Geoffrey Garrett conversed with Professor Fukuyama on a wide range of issues from the new administration's foreign policy, to the rise of China, the use of hard and soft power and the impact of climate change. The conversation was followed by a Q & A session.

	Watch the video (Running time 82:08)
	Listen to the podcast (Running time 82:40)
	Read the transcript

Shoot the President
The lives of the US presidents have been a rich source of stories for Hollywood films: of the 43 US leaders to date, all but three have been portrayed in at least one feature film. In this Centre for Continuing Education course, film critic Eddie Cockrell explored the intersection of Hollywood and Washington, presenting clips and features showing dramatic portrayals of US presidents. The course also examined fictional commanders in chief, as well as films, both fictional and documentary, that depict and question the American political system.

Black Metropolis
In this US Studies Centre research seminar series, Professor Shane White and Professor Stephen Robertson from the Department of History, The University of Sydney, shared their on-going research on Harlem in early 20th century. Their ethnographic study explores everyday life in Harlem and offers a new way of conceptualizing history.

Full details on Black Metropolis.

US Studies Centre Research Seminar Series
Yellow Future: Oriental Style in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema
Dr Jane Park, Faculty of Arts, University of Sydney
4:00 - 5:30 pm, Friday 18 April

Dr Park examined the ideological role of Asiatic imagery in US films from the 1980s to the present.

Super Tuesday Election Watch
Wednesday, 06 February

Whether fans of the left wing, right wing, or just the West Wing, more than 150 people flocked to the University of Sydney's Manning Bar to watch the Super Tuesday results live on a giant screen and mingle with fellow political pundits. Geoff Gray, executive director of the American Australian Association, and Harry Melkonian, US Studies Centre lecturer on the US Constitution, offered their analyses of the results.

The event attracted a diverse array of students, academics, retirees, and professionals from the business, government and media communities.

Results from the simulated voting centre revealed the following about the election watch guests:

• 50% cited Barack Obama as their preferred Democratic nominee, versus 45% for Hillary Clinton. Yet 69% of guests believed Clinton would win the most delegates, versus only 31% thought Obama would take the lead. (Obama claimed 837 committed delegates, with Clinton picking up 824).
• On the Republican side, 60% of guests listed John McCain as their preferred Republican candidate, with Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee each garnering 7% among election watch guests. An overwhelming 92% predicted McCain would take the most delegates. (McCain won 602 delegates on the day, compared to 201 for Romney and 152 delegates for Huckabee).

When asked which they thought was better for Australia, election watch guests responded as follow:

• 80% favoured a Democrat in the White House.
• 10% preferred a Republican in the White House
• 10% cited no difference.

The delegate draw tested participants' political astuteness by asking them to guess how many delegates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain each would win on Super Tuesday. Congratulations to first place winner Tim Andrews who came within 68 delegates of the total gained by the three candidates. Tim is a University of Sydney alumnus who holds a Bachelor of Economics and a Master of Public Policy. Tim indicated he wished the US Studies postgraduate program would have been offered at the time of his studies. Rounding out the top three delegate draw winners were University of Sydney staff members Lucinda Crossley and Emily Reid who came within 100 delegates of the correct total.

Super Tuesday: Super Diverse Nation?
Thursday, 31 January
Professor Peter Schuck, Yale University

Professor Schuck delivered a talk to a packed lecture theatre of 75 people on the electoral process in the US and analysis of the leading US presidential candidates. Professor Schuck offered a constitutional and historical framework of the American electoral system, and insights into American thinking and identity.

Learn more about Professor Schuck. He is co-editor, of the forthcoming Understanding America, scheduled for publication in 2008.

Listen to a podcast of the lecture (MP3, 14.3MB)