• Constant Mews, Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology
• Jan Pinder
• Karen Green, School of Philosophy and Bioethics

The prize was received for their work on The Book of Peace by Christine de Pizan.

Further information can be found on the German Studies site.

Project Description

This is the pioneering project on an unstudied but widely practised mode of music and dance in the world: female body percussion. The fieldwork locale is western Aceh, which recently experienced prolonged war and the tragic tsunami. The project aims to analyse the techniques and social functions of the body percussion genres, examine change caused by the conflict and tsunami, and develop the first theory of the functions of female body percussion. Research outcomes include archival deposits of audio-visual recordings, three refereed articles, an edited book on cross-cultural comparative body percussion, two book chapters, and a PhD thesis.

View Monash Magazine article ‘Taking Notes‘ for further information on Professor Kartomi’s research.

View Professor Kartomi’s profile.

Joseph Gelfer is an Adjunct Research Associate in the School of Political and Social Inquiry.

Travel in Atomic Sunshine

Robin Gerster’s book Travels in Atomic Sunshine: Australia and the Occupation of Japan has won the prestigious New South Wales Premier’s Australian History Prize for 2009. The prize was awarded by the NSW Premier the Hon Nathan Rees at a dinner in Sydney on 27 October.

Travels in Atomic Sunshine is published by Scribe Publications, 2008.

The Embedding in Afghanistan segment transcript and vodcast be viewed on the ABC Media Watch site.

Thursday 10 and Friday 11 December
Keynote speaker: Dr Alison Ross
Featuring a screening of the film Examined Life

The Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies organises an annual postgraduate colloquium, where postgraduate students from the Centre and the wider Faculty are able to share ideas. The colloquium is an opportunity for postgraduate students and emerging scholars, conducting research in literary studies, cultural studies or critical theory, to present aspects of their work. The colloquium seeks to provide a forum for stimulating academic exchange in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

The title of this year’s colloquium will be ‘How Do I Look? – Aesthetics through Theory’. While contemporary research in the humanities considers a broad range of questions, aesthetics arguably remains a central concern for us all. The organisers invite potential participants to reflect on their own research with regard to contemporary considerations of aesthetics. The overall intention remains the sharing of original ideas and research; accordingly, participants are under no obligation to narrow their focus.

Prospective participants are invited to present a paper of 25–30 minutes length (plus discussion). Proposals should be emailed to colloquium09@arts.monash.edu.au by 30th October. Please include a title and an abstract of 100–150 words. Presentations incorporating audiovisual media are welcome. Please mention any technical requirements and preferences as to date and time.

Further information is available on the CCLCS Postgraduate Colloquium page.

Changing the Climate: 4th Utopias Conference

Changing the Climate: 4th Utopias Conference invites papers from scholars, writers and others interested in the interplay between ecology and ecocriticism, utopia, dystopia and science fiction.

This conference will directly address the questions of dystopia and catastrophe with special reference to a problem that increasingly haunts our imaginings of the future, that of actual or possible environmental catastrophe. As Jameson himself wrote in The Seeds of Time: ‘It seems … easier for us today to imagine the thoroughgoing deterioration of the earth and of nature than the breakdown of late capitalism; perhaps that is due to some weakness in our imaginations’. Hopefully, this conference will play some small part in changing that particular climate of opinion.

Its keynote speakers will be:

• Tom Moylan, author of Demand the Impossible (1986), Scraps of the Untainted Sky (2000) and Dark Horizons (2003)
• Kim Stanley Robinson, author of Antarctica (1997) and the Science in the Capital Trilogy – Forty Signs of Rain (2004), Fifty Degrees Below (2005) and Sixty Days and Counting (2007).

Full information on submitting papers and registration is available on the conference site.

Anzac Beach, Gallipoli 1915 (from Australian War Memorial Collection)

Interested in studying abroad as part of your Monash degree?

Want to visit Anzac Cove and walk in the footsteps of legends?

In 2010, the National Centre for Australian Studies is offering three $3,500 scholarships to take you to Gallipoli and then on to our historic campus in Prato, Italy. You can earn 12 points towards your degree and also be eligible for further Monash subsidies.

To be eligible for the scholarships you need to complete (or have completed) any of the Australian Studies units offered on our Clayton Campus. If you complete AUS1060 Australian Idol or AUS2001/3001: Broken Earth: Journeys through the Australian Landscape in Semester 1, 2010, you are also eligible for the Monash Gallipoli Travelling Scholarship.

For further information on how to apply view NCAS Monash-Gallipoli Prize 2010.

A podcast of the program may be download from the ABC site: Searching for Sappho – exploring the legacy of the famous ancient Greek poet.