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Leaving: making sense of poignant memories

Alistair Thomson's Inaugural Professorial Lecture

We all have stories about leaving. Leaving is a universal human experience, though its nature and meaning vary across time and culture. I realise now that over more than 25 years many of my oral history interviews have included very ordinary and yet quite extraordinary leaving stories. In this lecture we’ll listen to the leaving stories of men who went to war and women who migrated to the other side of the world. How have they told stories and made sense of leaving? Why are those stories so jagged and sharp, etched with the sounds of silence? How can historians make useful sense of poignant memories?
Download flyer [pdf 2.02MB]

  • Date: Monday 16 November
  • Time: 6.00pm-7.30pm
  • Venue: Monash University Caulfield Campus
    Building H, Level 1, Theatre H1.25
    followed by drinks & nibbles on the 8th floor in the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation
  • RSVP: Susan.Grist@arts.monash.edu.au for catering purposes no later than 14 November 2009
  • Admission: Free and all are welcome to attend

2009 Calendar of Events

January

February

March

Rethinking Polish-Jewish Dialogue

The Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, together with the Australian Institute of Polish Affairs, the Federation of Polish Jews and the Jewish Holocaust Centre, presents a public lecture on Polish-Jewish relations in contemporary Poland by Zbigniew Nosowski. Download flyer [pdf 104kb]

  • Date: Thursday 5 March 2009
  • Time: 8.00pm
  • Venue: Building H, Ground Floor, Theatre H.126
    Monash University Caulfield Campus
  • Entry: $5

Social Justice and the Right of the People: the 17th Century Reads the Hebrew Bible

Fania Oz-Salzberger, Monash University and the University of Haifa.

  • Date: Wednesday 11 March 2009
  • Time: 12.00pm-1.30pm
  • Venue: Monash University Caulfield Campus
    Building H, Level 8, the Lounge
    900 Dandenong Road, Caulfield
  • Admission: Free, all welcome to attend
  • Download flyer [pdf 20kb]

Mindfulness Counselling: Buddhist Traditions and Mental Health


followed by book launch of Padmasiri Da Silva's book

This public seminar, offered in collaboration with the Monash Asia Institute, will involve a presentation by Ven. Naotune Vijitha Thero, Chief Incumbent of the Dhammasarana Temple in Keysborough. He is a scholar well versed in Pali and Buddhist studies. It will be followed by a panel discussion with: the Ven. Sucinta, trained as a psychologist in Germany, and a fully ordained nun (Bhikkhuni) in the Theravada tradition since 1998, residing at Sanghamittarama in East Bentleigh; Professor Padmasiri de Silva, Adjunct Research Associate with CSRT, formerly Head of the Department of Philosophy & Psychology at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. He has also obtained an advanced diploma in counselling, and is practicing in the field.

Dr Craig Hassed, of the Department of General Practice, in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Monash University, will then launch a new book by Dr Padmasiri de Silva, An Introduction to Mindfulness-Based Counselling: The Magic of the Ordinary & the Elegance of Small Things (Sarvodaya Vishvalekha Publication, Ratmalana, Sri Lanka). Light refreshments will be served. Download program [12kb]

Who am I? Religion, Identity and public life

With Waleed Aly and Stephen Crittenden

Free public conversation series leading up to the Parliament of the World's Religions.

  • Date: Monday 16 March 2009
  • Time: 6.00pm-7.30pm
  • Venue: Village Roadshow Theatrette, State Library of Victoria
    328 Swanston Street, Melbourne
    Entry 3 La Trobe Street
  • Bookings: susan.grist@arts.monash.edu.au
  • Admission: Free

Recording Everyday Life and 'Writing for History': Mass Observation in Britain and Australia

Making Public History Seminar. Download flyer. [pdf 36kb]

How have pioneering approaches to recording everyday lives generated innovative and influential public histories? Dorothy Sheridan (Mass Observation Archive Development Director & Honorary Professor at Sussex University) will discuss the British Mass Observation project www.massobs.org.uk/index.htm and consider issues it raises in the digital age. Kate Darian-Smith (Professor of Australian Studies & History, University of Melbourne) will respond, reflecting on Australian equivalents to MO.

Wrestling With God Poster

Wrestling With God: Jewish Theological Responses to the Holocaust

Professor Steven Katz is a prominent American philosopher who has published numerous books on Jewish thought, mystical traditions and the Holocaust.

In this public lecture Professor Katz will critically examine the main Jewish theological responses to the Holocaust, including such thinkers as Emil Fackenheim, Richard Rubenstein, Yitz Greenberg, Eliezer Berkovits, Ignaz Maybaum, Menachem Schneerson, and Arthur Cohen.

This lecture is sponsored by the Monash Program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Monash Excavations in Dakhleh 2009

Centre for Archaeology and Ancient History and The Egyptology Society of Victoria present an illustrated public lecture. Download flyer [pdf 98kb]

  • Date: Thursday 26 March 2009
  • Time: 8.00pm-9.15pm
  • Venue: Building 72, Lecture Theatre E7
    Monash University Clayton Campus

April

Joanna Bourke Poster

Atrocities: Anglo-American Violence in Modern War

Free Public Lecture

The School of Historical Studies and the Faculty of Arts together with the Program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies presents Professor Joanna Bourke with an introduction by Professor Rae Frances, Dean of Arts, Monash University.

Joanna Bourke is Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London. She is the award-winning author of nine books, on Irish history, gender and "the body", the history of psychological thought, modern warfare, the emotions, and sexual violence. She is currently writing a history of humanity and animality.

Who am I as citizen of Earth? Ecology, spirituality and the future

Free public conversation series leading up to the Parliament of the World's Religions. This conversation brings together three individuals all involved in organisations with a strong commitment to ecological spirituality, but from different religious and spiritual traditions

With Rabbi Jonathan Keren Black, founder of GreenFaith Australia and also the Jewish Ecological Coalition, Anne Boyd, founder of EarthSong, and Jacques Boulet, Head of School of Oases, based at the Augustine Centre, Hawthorn.

Remembering Australia's Great War

Making Public History Seminar. Download flyer. [pdf 36kb]

How and why is the history and memory of the Australian experience of the Great War changing? A panel of expert authors will explore continuity and change in the ways we represent and remember the war that created an Anzac legend. Chaired by Alistair Thomson (Anzac Memories, OUP, 1994); with Marina Larsson (Shattered Anzacs: Living with the Scars of War, UNSW Press, 2009); Bart Ziino (A Distant Grief: Australians, War Graves and the Great War, UWA Press 2007) and Ross McMullin (biographer of Pompey Elliot, 2002, and Will Dyson: Australia's radical genius 2006, both published by Scribe).

May

The Wallenberg Oration 2009
The Holocaust and Genocide: Remembering the Twentieth Century

The annual Wallenberg Oration explores important themes in Holocaust and genocide scholarship. It is named in memory of Raoul Wallenberg, who risked his life to save Jews during the Holocaust. Presented by Professor Omer Bartov. Download flyer [pdf 223kb]

  • Date: Thursday 14 May 2009
  • Time: 8.00pm
  • Venue: Monash University Caulfield Campus
    Building H, Ground Floor, Exhibition Space
    900 Dandenong Road, Caulfield
  • Contact: (03) 9902 9933 or acjc@arts.monash.edu.au

Who am I? Spiritual identity in a secular society

Two lovers of literature discuss issues of searching for spiritual identity in a secular society: David Tacey and Michelle Prawer.

Dr David Tacey is Associate Professor of English at La Trobe University and a frequent commentator on issues of spirituality in Australia, having appeared in programs broadcast by the ABC, SBS and Channel Four (London). He is frequent contributor to a number of national and international journals on psychology, psychoanalysis, religion, literature, and the arts.

Michelle Prawer a librarian specializing in Young Adult literature at Leibler Yavneh College in Melbourne. She is also Head of English and teaches English to middle and senior level students. She is a VCE assessor, a member of the Victorian Premier's Reading Challenge selection panel, a YABBA committee member and actively involved in the Children's Book Council of Australia, Victorian branch.

The event is free, but bookings recommended

  • Date: Sunday 17 May 2009
  • Time: 3.00pm-4.30pm
  • Venue: The Jewish Museum of Australia
    26 Alma Road, St Kilda Vic 3182
  • Bookings: (03) 8534 3600 or RSVP@jewishmuseum.com.au

Europa Sacra

Launch of a new book series, published by Brepols.

Europa Sacra is a series of books published by the distinguished academic publisher, Brepols (Turnhout, Belgium), devoted to studying the way religion shapes and is shaped by different forms of community life within Europe, from late antiquity to the eighteenth century. The series welcomes monographs relating to aspects of social and religious history, whether dealing with official ecclesiastical structures or with less clearly defined local communities, within a broadly European context.

June

Water Histories-Lessons for Australia in a Changing Climate

Making Public History Seminar. Download flyer. [pdf 36kb]

What can we learn from Australian history that might help us deal with our water crisis and climate change today? Michael Cathcart (Australia Centre at the University of Melbourne) will draw lessons from his new book, Water Dreamers: How Water and Silence Made Australia (Text, 2009). Paul Sinclair (Healthy Ecosystems Program Manager at the Australian Conservation Foundation) will draw lessons from his current work and previous research on the Murray River and its people.

Who am I as a citizen? Religion, ethnicity and citizenship

How do religion, ethnicity and citizenship shape us?
Find out in this fascinating public conversation. With two speakers: the Venerable Thich Phuoc Tan OAM and Toltu Tufa.

  • Date: Sunday 14 June 2009
  • Time: 3.00pm-4.30pm
  • Venue: Immigration Museum, Old Customs House
    400 Flinders Street, Melbourne
  • Admissions: Free, bookings required
  • Contact: Immigration Museum 13 11 02
Bain Attwood Possession Book Cover

Bain Attwood in conversation with Arnold Zable

Possession: Batman's Treaties and the Matter of History tells the fascinating story of the only treaties ever made between settlers and Aboriginal people in Australia. It contemplates why whites forged these agreements, how the Aboriginal people understood their terms, why the government repudiated them, and how whites claimed to be the rightful owners of the land. It considers the ways settler society has endeavoured to make good its possession by repeatedly creating histories that have recalled or repressed the memory of Batman, the treaties, and the Aborigines' destruction and dispossession. And it charts how Aboriginal people have unsettled this history through their remembering.

This book is published June 2009 by Miegunyah Press, an imprint of Melbourne University Publishing, and is now available at all good bookstores or online at MUP.

Bain Attwood is a leading scholar in the field of cross-cultural history. He is professor in the School of Historical Studies, Monash University, and adjunct professor in the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, The Australian National University. He is the author of The Making of the Aborigines, Rights for Aborigines and Telling the Truth about Aboriginal History.

  • Date: Monday 22 June 2009
  • Time: 6.30pm
  • Venue: Readings Carlton
    309 Lygon Street, Carlton
  • Bookings: (03) 9347 6633 or email events@readings.com.au
  • Admission: Free Download flyer [pdf 306kb]

July

Who am I in sickness and in health? Spirituality and wellbeing

Free public conversation series leading up to the Parliament of the World's Religions. With Ian Gawler and Rob Moodie.

  • Dates: Monday 20 July 2009
  • Time: 6.00pm-7.00pm
  • Venue: St Michael's Uniting Church Hall
    cnr Collins and Russell Streets, Melbourne
  • Admission: Free

Making Migrant Histories

Making Public History Seminar. Download flyer. [pdf 36kb]

What are the approaches and issues in making migrant community histories? Featuring: Maria Tence (Manager, Immigration Museum Community Gallery) will talk about approaches adopted and issues encountered when working with diverse communities; public historian Peg Fraser will discuss some of the challenges she encountered when working with community members; community group members (including Patricia Kimtia from the Mauritian community) will reflect on the value and challenges of their experience working with the Museum.

August

Book Cover Image

Drawing the Line: Using Cartoons as Historical Evidence

Special Monash launch of Drawing the Line: Using Cartoons as Historical Evidence (Clayton: Monash University ePress, 2009), edited by Richard Scully (Lecturer in Modern European History, University of New England) and Marian Quartly, to be launched by Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington, Professor and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning & Teaching) elect'. Download flyer [pdf 2.05MB]

Who am I in my inner life? Mysticism across religions

Free public conversation series leading up to the Parliament of the World's Religions.

With Constant Mews, Padmasiri de Silva, Ken and Elizabeth Mellor, Isobel Crombie, Nathan Wolski, Claire Renkin, and Salih Yucel. Co-Sponsored by the Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology, Monash University and the Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University.

Alessandro Portelli image

In Conversation with Professor Alessandro Portelli

Making Public History Seminar. Download flyer. [pdf 36kb]

Alessandro Portelli is one of the most influential and exciting oral historians in the world. His prize-winning books on oral history and popular memory include The Order Has Already Been Carried Out: History, Memory and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and The Death of Luigi Trastulli: Form and Meaning in Oral History (State University of New York Press, 1991).

The talk about town image

Talk About The Town: Urban History and Oral Sources in 20th Centre Australia

Sponsored by The Institute for Public History, University of Melbourne, Macquarie University, The State Library of Victoria and LaTrobe University present a two day conference featuring a keynote address by Professor Alessandro Portelli.

September

Head of Sphinx of Taharqo

Excavations in the Town and Cemetery at Kawa

Centre for Archaeology and Ancient History and The Egyptology Society of Victoria present an illustrated public lecture by Dr Kerek Welsby, Assistant Keepr, Department of Ancient Egypt and the Sudan, The British Museum. Download flyer [pdf 80kb]

All welcome to attend.

  • Date: Wednesday 2 September 2009
  • Time: 8.00pm
  • Venue: Monash University Clayton Campus
    Building 8, Lecture Theatre R2

Who am I in cyberspace? Spirituality and identity online

Free public conversation series leading up to the Parliament of the World's Religions. With Mandy Salomon and Rev. Francis McNab.

  • Date: Monday 21 September 2009
  • Time: 6.00pm-7.30pm
  • Venue: St Michael's Uniting Church
    cnr Collins and Russell Streets, Melbourne
  • Admission: Free
  • No charge and no bookings required

Gathering the threads: weaving the early medieval world

Australian Early Medieval Association Sixth Annual Conference. Download flyer [pdf 77kb]

From the Middle East to the North Atlantic, cultural differences were woven into the new social fabric of the early medieval world. Peoples, languages, religions, traditions and technologies were the threads woven into the period's complex tapestry.

Plenary speakers are Dr Carol Williams (Monash University), Dr Felicity Harley-Mcgowan (University of Melbourne) and Dr Pamela O'Neill (University of Sydney). Conference convenor Natasha Amendola.

October

History Online

Making Public Histories Seminar

How is history being made and contested online, and how are historians responding to online histories? Using a sample of websites and discussion forums, Megan Blair (a lecturer in International Studies at Monash University) will explore the example of the current state of American Civil War history online, and discuss how professional and popular historians do - and might - use the Internet to engage not only with the past, but with each other. Megan Sheehy (a public historian with SHP, a heritage production house based in Port Melbourne) will draw on her research into the use of Web 2.0 technologies for public history, and discuss new approaches to using the web to make public histories.

Human Rights: A Longer History

ARC Network for Early European Research (NEER)-sponsored Planning and Scoping Meeting. Convenors: Professor Michael Bennett (University of Tasmania) and Dr. Jason Taliadoros (Monash University). Download flyer [pdf 3.48MB]

Ancient Egyptian Queens
Dr. Gae Callendar

Public lecture hosted by the Egyptology Society of Victoria & the Centre for Archaeology and Ancient History.

November

Who am I in a multi-religious society? Religion across generations

Free public conversation series leading up to the Parliament of the World's Religions. Co-Sponsored by the Institute of Public History, Monash University and the State Library of Victoria.

Vibrant speakers from the Muslim, Sikh and Jewish communities reflect on religious identity across the generations. Speakers include Esma Yucel, Manpreet Kaur Singh and Sam Lipski AM

  • Date: Monday 9 November 2009
  • Time: 6.00pm-7.00pm
  • Venue: Village Roadshow Theatrette, State Library of Victoria
    328 Swanston Street (Entry 3 LaTrobe Street)
  • Admission: Free

Recovering and remembering the Australian war dead at Fromelles

Making Public Histories Seminar

Mike O'Brien was a Major General in the Australian infantry who left full-time service in 2001. He has written a history of his battalion in Vietnam and was in charge of the reburial of five First World War Australian soldiers found in Westhoek Belgium in 2007, and more recently of the trial excavation, exhumation, identification and re-burial of the remains of several hundred Australian soldiers at Fromelles, France. He will outline the origins, process and outcomes of the Fromelles’ exhumation, and will consider developments leading to the opening of the new cemetery in July 2010.

Bruce Scates (Professor of History and Australian Studies, Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University, and author of the forthcoming Cambridge History of Victoria's Shrine of Remembrance) served on the National Committee which confirmed the existence of mass graves at Fromelles, and will reflect on the significance of these events for Australian history and memory.

Leaving: making sense of poignant memories
Alistair Thomson's Inaugural Professorial Lecture

We all have stories about leaving. Leaving is a universal human experience, though its nature and meaning vary across time and culture. I realise now that over more than 25 years many of my oral history interviews have included very ordinary and yet quite extraordinary leaving stories. In this lecture we’ll listen to the leaving stories of men who went to war and women who migrated to the other side of the world. How have they told stories and made sense of leaving? Why are those stories so jagged and sharp, etched with the sounds of silence? How can historians make useful sense of poignant memories?
Download flyer [pdf 2.02MB]

  • Date: Monday 16 November
  • Time: 6.00pm-7.30pm
  • Venue: Monash University Caulfield Campus
    Building H, Level 1, Theatre H1.25
    followed by drinks & nibbles on the 8th floor in the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation
  • RSVP: Susan.Grist@arts.monash.edu.au for catering purposes no later than 14 November 2009
  • Admission: Free and all are welcome to attend

Practicing Gender History: A Symposium with Kathleen Canning

Keynote speaker Kathleen Canning

  • Date: Friday 27 November 2009
  • Time: 10.00am-4.00pm
  • Venue: Monash University Caulfield Campus
    Building H, Level 2, H2.38
  • RSVP: Susan.Grist@arts.monash.edu.au no later than Monday 23 November
  • Admission: Free all is welcome to attend

December

Who am I? The visions of Jung, Darwin, Mondrian and Ramana Maharshi

With Swami Shankarananda, Patrick Mahaffey, Doug McCann and Jason Smith.

  • Date: Sunday 6 December 2009
  • Time: 2.00pm-4.00pm
  • Venue: Great Hall, National Gallery of Victoria
    180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
  • Admission: Free
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