Arts Faculty News

Dr Angela Woods and Professor Rae Frances sign the agreement

An enthusiastic crowd gathered at the Monash Club at Clayton on 13 May to celebrate the launch of a three year partnership between Monash and the Emerging Writers’ Festival. Professor Rae Frances and  Dr Angela Woods, Chair of the Emerging Writers’ Festival, spoke about a shared commitment to “building new forms of literary community”.

The audience enjoyed a taste of the festival with an abbreviated version of the very popular session titled ‘Seven Enviable Lines’. A panel of three writers from contrasting genres, including Pooja Mittal from Monash’s Centre for Postcolonial Writing, spoke about the seven things they wish they had been told before they launched into a writing career.

The festival runs until 31 May and features an extensive program of original events and participation by Monash Arts academics and students.

Visit the Emerging Writers’ Festival website.

Vice Chancellor Professor Richard Larkins

Application for positions in the Vice Chancellor’s 2010 Ancora Imparo Student Leadership Program open on the 20th of May.  All first year students studying on Victorian Campuses of Monash University are eligible to apply.

WHY YOU SHOULD APPLY

Leadership training helps to unlock your potential – enhancing your ability to make an impact on your peers and on the world.  The Ancora Imparo program is a unique opportunity available only to first year Monash University students.

Participants get to meet and hear from some of the nation’s most inspired leaders, with backgrounds ranging from politics to business, arts and the law.

Students selected for the program participate in a fully-funded three-day residential workshop involving students, senior university staff and key speakers drawn from across Australia. This is followed by eight evening forums held on Tuesday nights, where you will hear outstanding speakers tackle a range of contemporary leadership issues.  Combined with small group presentations on selected topics, you will have the opportunity to debate, discuss, challenge, enlist and consider a range of stimulating topics.
As a member of this unique program, you will have the opportunity to engage in a number of exclusive events open only to Senior Monash Staff, including attending leadership summits, leadership lunches and addressing staff forums.

In recognition of your success in being awarded a position in the program, there is a small stipend – and best of all, no exams or assignments to complete.

For more information please visit Student Leadership Program, Monash University or email leadership.enquires@adm.monash.edu.au

The Gendered Newsroom

Sally Jackson, from The Australian, interviews Louise North about her recently released book, The Gendered Newsroom: how journalists experience the changing world of media

Read the full article: Book reveals female journalists’ survival strategies, Sally Jackson | May 18, 2009

Dr Louise North is a senior lecturer with Monash Journalism.

Do you want to study in Italy?

Looking for another elective? Why not utilise your opportunity for doing an inter-faculty elective unit?

Then this Intensive Study unit on the European Union at the Monash University Prato Centre in Italy is for you.

Winter Semester (Block mode) 8 June to 10 July 2009.

Enrolments close soon!

For more information:

Visit www.monash.edu/europecentre

Professor Pascaline Winand, Monash European and EU Centre
Tel: 9903 4633
Email: pascaline.winand@general.monash.edu.au

Dr Susan Freeman, Faculty of Business & Economics
Tel: 9903 2674
Email: susan.freeman@buseco.monash.edu.au

Richard Trostel rehearses Thomas Reiner’s Alaska Sinfonietta with the Juneau Student Orchestra and the Alaskan Youth Choir.

Dr Thomas Reiner, from the School of Music – Conservatorium, has recently returned from Alaska, where his Alaska Sinfonietta, commissioned by the Juneau Student Symphony, was given its first performance.

Alaska Sinfonietta was performed in March at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center where Dr Reiner was composer-in-residence thanks to generous support from the Association of Alaska School Boards, the Rasmuson Foundation and the Juneau Student Symphony.

The work, in three movements, is response to Aanti Yéili’s lament-song, Ch’a aadei yei unateegaa (1912) which is often misunderstood as an anthem. The first movement, ‘Innocence’ is simple in tonality, harmony and melody. The second movement is the most sonically adventuresome. It is in the last movement that the form of the Sinfonietta takes cultural and artistic license to extend the lament of Aanti Yéili’s song into hope for the future. The final movement is a setting of Nora Marks and Richard Dauenhauer’s poignant and optimistic poetry sung by a two-part youth choir: the Alaska Youth Choir and singers from Gustavus and Hoonah. Significantly, Richard’s poetry was also written in hopeful response to Aanti Yéili’s song.

From his office at Monash, Thomas shared drafts of his work with the Juneau Student Symphony and the Alaska Youth Choir. The musicians tried out the music and gave feedback to the composer as to the playability of their parts. Alaska Sinfonietta is scored for full orchestra and youth choir and runs for approximately ten minutes. Future performances of single movements of the work a planned for every concert of the Juneau Student Symphony; the idea here is to use the Sinfonietta much like a musical logo for the orchestra.

Bruce Scates and Liz Beattie at Anzac Cove

Professor Bruce Scates, Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies, joined Ms Liz Beattie MP and several of her colleagues on a study tour of Korea and the Gallipoli Peninsula over April/May. The Premier’s ‘Spirit of Anzac Tour’ is funded by the State Government and involves the selection of 10 students each year from secondary schools across the State for a two week study tour of Australian battlefields overseas.

Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Premier in Multicultural Affairs, Ms Beattie led the delegation and officiated at several commemorative services in both Turkey and Korea, including ANZAC Day functions hosted by Australian Embassies and Consulates.

Professor Scates acted as historical advisor to the tour at the invitation of the Premier. He led the 18 member delegation across the ANZAC battlefields, interpreting the site and fostering student exchanges with Turkey. The National Centre for Australian Studies has played a leading role in establishing an Australian Studies Centre at the University on 18 March near Gallipoli.

Dr Matt Tomlinson’s new book In God’s Image: The Metaculture of Fijian Christianity has recently been published by the University of California Press.

“In God’s Image is at once a textured, consistently engaging, and revelatory ethnography; a significant contribution to our broader understanding of the complex intersections of religion, culture, and history within and beyond Fiji; and a subtle and provocative theoretical exploration of semiotics in and as social practice.”

View more information and an excerpt from the book