Arts Faculty News

A Double Masters in Translation Studies between France and Australia

A new double master between Monash University and Jean Moulin University (Lyon, France) will start in July 2009 under the coordination of Marc Orlando (professional translator and interpreter, member of the AUSIT, the NZSTI and the SFT).

The course will provide training of future translators. Students will work in both language directions — English to French or French to English — and will be taught by academics and by professional translators from both institutions.

Students will spend a year in Australia and a year in France and will undertake practical training with French or Australian companies, providing them with key contacts and excellent opportunities for their future career. On successful completion of both academic programs, students will obtain two distinct masters degrees.

View more information on the Translation and Interpreting Studies site

Image © Elizabeth Burns Coleman

The conference will have a wide interpretation of ‘religious communication’, including, but extending religious communication beyond ‘communication studies’ understood as ‘mass media’, to include religious modes of communication such as prayer, sermons, revelation, art, theatre and ritual, as well as religious uses of mass media. We invite papers from the perspectives across the humanities and social sciences, including literature, music, performance, film and television, anthropology, sociology and history, as well as religious studies and theology. We also invite papers from all religious perspectives.

The conference is particularly interested in exploring:

• Religious affect and its relationship to different media (e.g. song, prayer, architecture, film, performance, images in general)
• Religious interpretation and textual hermeneutics (e.g. literalism versus symbolism)
• The use of communication media and art forms by religious groups to create a sense of community
• Communication as a ‘portal’ or window to the ‘divine’ and/or the ‘sacred’
• Cross-cultural adaptation and the creolisation of religious forms
• Religion and the sacred in popular culture
• Modernity, post-modernity and religious communication.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 22 June 2009

View full submission details

Professor Mark Peel, Head of School of Historical Studies is delighted to announce that last week Constant Mews was elected as the next President of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies.

In an election contest that spanned the continent, Bass Strait and the Tasman Sea, Constant was the clear choice of his scholarly community, a clear sign of the esteem in which he is held and of the very great strength of medieval and early modern studies in our School.

Professor Constant Mews is the Director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology in the School of Historical Studies.

Professor Joanna Bourke

A research workshop for all Monash staff and students working on the topic of sexual violence was held Wednesday 1 April. Our guest speaker, Professor Joanna Bourke (Birkbeck, University of London), gave a stirring talk on the challenges and necessity of sexual violence research. All participants shared their work, and addressed a range of topics including: violence against women in conflict; the intersection of women, sexual violence and the law; genocidal sexual violence in Rwanda and the Holocaust; the ‘use’ of sexual violence by the media; and more. We thank the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation and the Faculty of Arts for making Professor Bourke’s visit possible. We are looking forward to the continuation of these workshops, which will bring together expertise on sexual violence across at least three Faculties of Monash University (Law, Arts and Medicine).

Dr Mark Manolopoulos has published his PhD thesis with SUNY Press. Entitled “If Creation is a Gift”, the work traverses Continental philosophy, ecological criticism, and contemporary theology to offer an original perspective on interpreting and interacting with what-is.

View further information on the SUNY Press website

Figure 1: virtual dentistry

Mohommadreza Arbabtafti, a PhD student from Tarbiat Modares University in Iran, has been visiting The Bionics and Cognitive Science Centre (BCSC) for the past nine months. During his visit he has developed a simulation for training dentists and bone surgeons, under supervision of Dr Barry Richardson Director of the BCSC. Located in the School of Humanities Communications and Social Sciences on the Gippsland Campus, the BCSC has internationally recognized facilities for research in virtual reality and Mr Tafti has been using these.  Figure 1 shows a user drilling virtual teeth with a virtual drill (visible on the PC monitor) and haptic (touch) feedback can be felt at the hand holding the stylus of the “Phantom”, as the haptic device is called.

The challenge is to make the simulation look and feel real and to achieve this Mr Tafti has been assisted by Professor Bijan Shirinzadeh Director of Robotics and Mechatronics Research Laboratory in the Engineering Faculty, Clayton Campus, where a robot manipulator equipped with a force sensor and a surgical air-turbine is used to machine real bone to measure and validate the forces involved. Subjective evaluations have also begun in which skilled dentists and surgeons will rate the system for how real it feels. The results of this collaborative research will be reported in a paper to be submitted to IEEE Transaction on Haptics. Mr Tafti returns to Iran this month to complete his PhD but collaboration between Monash and Tarbiat Modares University will continue.

Cover of Splashed by the saint

Abdul Qadir al-Jaelani (d. 1166) is a truly global saint. Born just south of the Caspian Sea in Iran, his tomb is now a prominent place of pilgrimage in Baghdad. He is the subject of intercessionary practices performed by Muslims the world over.

Dr Julian Millie (PSI) spent more than a year (2002-2003) attending intercessionary rituals amongst Muslims of Bandung, West Java. His book on the subject, ‘Splashed by the Saint: Ritual reading and Islamic sanctity in West Java’ has just been published by the Royal Anthropological Society of the Netherlands.

In West Java, the intercessionary ritual takes the form of reading or singing the tales of Abdul Qadir’s saintliness in a ritual setting. The practice is of long standing in West Java, and has left a large legacy of literary translation (from Arabic and Javanese) in the holdings of Sundanese manuscripts. But the ritual reading tradition has received stimulus from the recent regeneration of the sufi order known as the Tarekat Qadiriyyah wa Naqsyabandiyyah, the most popular sufi order in Java.

The book, heavily reliant on Millie’s fieldwork and his skills in Sundanese and Arabic, explores the meanings the ritual has for Sundanese Muslims of the past and of contemporary Bandung. It explores how the contemporary resurgence of the sufi order brings a supralocal nuance to an event which has traditionally displayed string signs of local tradition, and discusses the multiple and contested meanings of sanctity in Islamic society.

View a sample chapter

The National Centre for Australia Studies in conjunction with industry partner Tourism Victoria and the Yarra Valley’s tourism sector hosted 41 students from the Master of Tourism program in a combined seminar and tour of the Yarra Valley on 6 April 2009.

The objective of the field trip was to gain a thorough understanding of how the region is re-establishing visitor and tourism industry confidence. The students included locals as well as an international group comprising students from Guatemala, Oman, India, China, Canada, Taiwan, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Singapore, Turkey, Indonesia, and South Africa saw first hand world’s best practice tourism in action.

Tourism students in the Yarra valley

Tourism, one of the key industry sectors in the Yarra Valley, suffered immeasurably following the events of ‘Black Saturday’. Following the crisis, the Victorian Government responded immediately announcing a $10 million package to assist the tourism sector’s recovery efforts.

In his press release Premier John Brumby stressed that rebuilding local economies is crucial to rebuilding communities. Tourism as one of the key sectors in the region will play a big part in ensuring the region bounces back quickly.

Dr Jeff Jarvis, Director of the Graduate Tourism Program, emphasised that having students exposed to the tourism industry in this way during the course of their studies was critical in developing an applied understanding of how the tourism sector responds in times of crisis.

“Tourism destinations are always going to be subject to crisis from time to time and we have seen many destinations like New York, London, Bali, Fiji and now Regional Victoria experience a crisis and the key to any recovery is having the tourism industry respond in a coordinated and decisive manner.”

At the morning Seminar conducted in Melbourne Ms Jennifer Hutchison, CEO Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges Marketing, emphasised the swiftness of the tourism industry in responding to the crisis. The tourism industry in the Yarra Valley enacted the existing crisis management plan in the hours following Black Saturday.

“While a crisis of this nature was not expected, having a defined approach to dealing with the crisis was of enormous assistance,” Ms Hutchison said. “Crisis of this nature require the entire tourism industry in the region working in together to quickly reaffirm the Yarra Valley as open for business, and the signs emerging are promising.”

The Regional Marketing Manager of Tourism Victoria, Mr Phil Harman, reiterated Ms Hutchison’s comments and added that keeping the media informed is critical in times of crisis.

“It was important for the tourism industry to ensure that the media was made aware that the entire region had not closed for business, because negative press about the destination had travelled globally very quickly and controlling perceptions of the Yarra Valley was critical to maintaining visitor and industry confidence.”

“Generating positive media coverage to dispel negative perceptions is critical and it is vital that a consistent message persists.”

Mr Harman added that while the publicity received by the region was invaluable in terms of building awareness of the region, it was also crucial that this awareness of the region was not overwhelmingly negative.

The Tourism Manager of Zoos Victoria, Ms Nola Cuddy, spoke about the key role Healesville Sanctuary plays as one of the key domestic and international tourist drawcards for the region and how the tourism sector in the region relies heavily on its operations. “The Sanctuary was closed for 11 days during the crisis and during this time our efforts were directed towards ensuring that the animals who are the key assets of the Sanctuary were cared for.”

Ms Cuddy also spoke about the importance of ensuring that communication lines with the tourism industry were clear and up to date to avoid erroneous information being distributed. “One of our key clients in China was unaware that the Sanctuary was open for business and was advising tour planners that the Sanctuary was closed.”

Following the Seminar in Melbourne, the students boarded a coach and headed into the Yarra Valley for a familiarisation of the region and to visit two of the key tourism sector firms, Domain Chandon Winery and the Sebel Heritage Yarra Valley Resort. Steven Downes, Hospitality Manager at Domaine Chandon emphasised that while there was a lull in visitation during the crisis, the Winery was almost back to normal now and that it was pleasing to see confidence returning.

“It is critical that visitors keep coming back and the rescheduling of the Yarra Valley Grape Grazing Festival to 18–19 April will allow visitors to see that despite the bushfires we are well and truly open for business.”

The Sebel Heritage Yarra Valley, a Mirvac hotel and one of the key businesses attracting conference and meetings business to the Yarra Valley saw the cancellation of over 100 events following the events of Black Saturday.

“Despite the resort not being directly impacted by the bushfires, our clients were reluctant to have their delegates exposed to any danger and promptly cancelled their events, and although over 100 events were cancelled, we have been fortunate to have been able to reschedule these events before the end of the 2009 financial year,” Mr Kelvin Dodt, Director of Sales and Marketing said.

All the industry partners were in agreeance that special events will boost the return of visitors to the region and the Yarra Valley Grape Grazing event rescheduled to 18-19 April will be an opportunity for visitors and the tourism industry to see the evidence of the efforts of the entire tourism sector in the region first hand. For more information on our industry partners please visit their websites:

• www.domainechandon.com.au
• www.mirvachotels.com/sebel-heritage-yarra-valley
• www.zoosvictoria.com.au
• www.grapegrazing.com.au
• www.destinationyvdr.com.au
• www.visitvictoria.com.au

For more information on the graduate tourism program please contact the Course Director, Dr Jeff Jarvis, jeff.jarvis@arts.monash.edu.au, or visit the NCAS Graduate tourism program for a course brochure.

Students of the Master of Tourism Program will be embarking on another field trip to hear from key industry bodies in Canberra and Sydney on 26–28 April 2009.

By Joseph Cheer

Lecturer, Graduate Tourism Program Monash University

Turkish flag

The National Centre for Australian Studies has hosted a number of events exploring the ongoing significance of Gallipoli in the lead up to Anzac Day.

The Director of the Centre, Professor Bruce Scates, spoke at a community event attended by several hundred members of the Turkish Australian community and chaired by the Turkish Consul General, Mr Aydin Nurhan.

On 25 March, Tony Robinson MP launched the “Return to Gallipoli” Exhibition at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance, an event attended by diplomatic representatives from Turkey, New Zealand, the United States and Great Britain. A powerful exploration of pilgrimages past and present it will remain at the Shrine until June this year and the Turkish flag shown in this article is one of its many fascinating exhibits.

The Shrine also hosted a recent lecture by NCAS Professor Ken Inglis, recounting his own return to Gallipoli in 1965, the 50th Anniversary of the Landing.

All these events noted the need for reconciliation in the wake of war and explored the contested meanings of the ANZAC in popular memory. Anzac Day is considered Australia’s national day by many and the involvement of the National Centre for Australian Studies hopes to promote a more balanced and reflective understanding of this tragic and costly campaign.

Indonesia at the Margins

Between Three Worlds Asian films and videos is proud to announce the release of a new DVD, Indonesia at the margins: political documentaries and essay films.

The executive producer of this DVD is David Hanan of Film and Television Studies in the School of English, Communications and Performance Studies, who re-subtitled the documentaries, designed and authored the DVD and wrote a essay on the films, which is included in the DVD as a pdf file.

The four films on this DVD are the most important early documentary and essay films by Indonesia’s leading director of features, Garin Nugroho. The subjects examined in this collection include environmental issues in Jakarta, the plight of young street kids in Yogyakarta, the past and future of  West Papua, and Nugroho’s relationship to his own films. The first two films are pioneering works in the development of critical and investigative documentary in Indonesia, made in the Suharto era, at a time of considerable political repression. The two later films are innovative documentary-essay films, made by Nugroho with the resources of his SET Workshop.

View ‘Indonesia at the margins: Political documentaries and essay films‘ on the MAI site for further information.