Dr Elizabeth Burns Coleman
- BA (Hons.) Ph.D (ANU)
- Research Fellow
- Contact details
- Full Curriculum Vitae
(PDF)
Background
Elizabeth Burns Coleman is a Faculty of Arts Postdoctoral Fellow working within the Philosophy and Communications sections. She has lectured in moral and political philosophy (La Trobe University), philosophy of law (Wollongong University) and aesthetics (Australian National University), where she also held a postdoctoral fellowship at the ANU’s Centre for Cross Cultural Research. Her books include Aboriginal Art, Identity and Appropriation (Ashgate, 2005) and an edited collection (co-edited with Kevin White) Negotiating the Sacred: Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society (ANU E-press, 2006).
Research Interests
My research is engaged in debates about multiculturalism, the ethics of appropriation, and law (such as intellectual property and inalienable property). I am fascinated by ‘normative’ symbols and signs. An example of a normative symbol would be a signature. A signature can only be a sign of an individual’s authority and consent, if no one else is allowed to use it. The norms of the symbol are expressed in the moral concepts of forgery and fraud.
I am currently writing a book analysing blasphemous art within the context of debates about multiculturalism, religious tolerance and the politics of recognition. One element of this research involves the nature of a sacred symbol (as opposed to a ‘mere’ symbol, such as the words on this page). A sacred symbol is set apart from other symbols by the ways in which we engage with it (such as genuflecting in front of a Cross or image of the Madonna) and is capable of desecration in a way that other symbols are not. In this research I will analyse blasphemy as a communicative act. I will argue that blasphemy in the arts lacks the virtue of civility. Blasphemy is a prima facie harm of offensiveness that is a form of incivility. Civility is not identical with respect, consideration or tolerance, rather, it is a communicative display of respect, consideration and tolerance, regardless of what one thinks. Incivility destroys the possibility of social cohesiveness and collaboration between groups, contributes to a sense of social alienation for minority groups, and is capable of being the cause of significant civil and international unrest.
My research into the negotiation of the sacred has spanned several years and includes the organisation of a series of conferences on different aspects of the theme. In collaboration with Dr Kevin White (reader in Sociology at the Australian National University), and Dr Maria-Suzette Fernandez-Dias (formerly at the Centre for Cross Cultural Research at the ANU), I have organised conferences on Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society (2004), Blasphemy and Sacrilege in the Arts (2005), Religion, Medicine and the Body (2006), and am currently in the process of organising conferences on Tolerance, Education and the Curriculum (2007) and governance and the family (2008). These are cross disciplinary, cross faith conferences that aim to bring new approaches to religious difference by understanding how the sacred is negotiated within religious frameworks and between these frameworks.
I have also been researching cultural property for several years. I am in the process of completing an international, interdisciplinary project on the ethics of cultural appropriation organised by the Philosophy Department and Centre for Religion and Society at the University of Victoria, BC. I have been collaborating with Rosemary J. Coombe (Professor of Law, York University, Canada) in writing a chapter on the appropriation of Canadian First Nations music and their protection as cultural property. This year I will be collaborating in an international workshop on the protection of traditional cultural expressions with the Center for International Copyright Law, Lucerne, Switzerland.
Areas of supervision:
- political philosophy
- visual communication
- arts law
- indigenous arts.
I am interested in supervising cross-disciplinary projects in communications, arts, anthropology, law, and indigenous studies.
Selected Publications
Selected Publications
Aboriginal Art, Identity and Appropriation
The belief held by indigenous people that their art is intimately related to their identity, and the continuing existence of their cultures, has made the protection of indigenous people’ art a pressing matter in many postcolonial countries. The issue has prompted a call for stronger protection of their art in law. This book analyses the claims Australian Aboriginal people make about their art, identity and appropriation, and finds their claims to be substantially true. Aboriginal art is an insignia linking people to images, land and culture. It should be protected in the same ways that other insignia is protected.
Negotiating the Sacred: Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society
Contemporary societies have constituted their identities as ‘secular’, both in terms of a division between the church and the state, and in terms of public discourse. Without an understanding of the sacred, however, we cannot understand or engage with the claims made by religious groups for special accommodations to law, or to the respect of the religion. This book explores the place of religion in contemporary societies, and the effects of attacks on religious groups through blasphemy and sacrilege, and the role of the state in regulating religion and managing disputes. It seeks to establish the ground for a dialogue not only between religious faiths, but between believers and non-believers.