MAI Seminars, Conferences, Visitors and Events
Seminar
Wednesday 11 November 2009, 2:00 - 4:00pm
Building H - Room H5.95
Monash University, Caulfield campus
900 Dandenong Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3145
The Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology, the Monash Asia Institute and the UNESCO Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations, Monash University invite you to
Buddhism and Christianity as Indigenous Religion
John D'Arcy May, Associate Professor of Interfaith Dialogue, Irish School of Ecumenics, Dublin
It is often overlooked that ‘universal’ or ‘high’ traditions such as Buddhism and Christianity themselves began as ‘indigenous’ traditions in very particular cultures and societies, which they then ranscended as they engaged with cultures very different from those of their contexts of origin. It has been suggested that there are more commonalities between the Buddhist story and the Dreaming stories of Aboriginal Australia than initially meet the eye, and there is much to be learnt – both negatively and positively – from Buddhism’s extraordinary adaptability to its host cultures through the centuries. Christianity, too, has developed its own techniques for adaptation to cultures that are foreign to it, though its missionary history shows that it has also transformed cultures in its own image. In addition, both Buddhist and Christian traditions are increasingly confronted by a secularity whose exclusive humanism seems to portray them both as optional life choices rather than compelling truths.
This poses a challenge to emerging Christology and Buddhology in Australian and Asia-Pacific contexts. Are they capable of recovering the intense relationship to earth and cosmos, land and place that marked their origins without losing their absolute transcendence of an impermanent phenomenal world? Can traditions such as Australian Aboriginal religion help to ‘earth’ them, thus enhancing their contribution to ecological ethics, environmental sustainability and socio-economic justice? Is a fundamental re-interpretation of central teachings such as creation and incarnation, emptiness and interconnectedness feasible? What effects would such a re-interpretation have on ethics in a ‘time of many worlds’, of religious pluralism in the multi-cultural public sphere of an emerging global civil society? These are some of the questions to be addressed.
For John D'Arcy May's bio, presentation abstract and to register for this event please visit:
http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/psi/johndarcymay/index.php
Enquiries: UNESCOChair@arts.monash.edu.au
---
Distinguished Indian Historian speaks at Public Lecture in Melbourne
Monday 9 November 2009, 12:00 noon
Building H - Theatre HB32
Monash University, Caulfield campus
900 Dandenong Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3145
Political Religion in India: Hindu Raj? Hinduism? or Hindutva?
Professor Robert Eric Frykenberg
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Between the logic of an integrating constitutional pluralism and the more fissiparous logic of a sacralising, if not totalising, kind of "civic" religion operating within both parliamentary and an extra-parliamentary processes, political structures of India as a secular state have suffered dangerous stresses, and have survived - so far.
This paper will address stresses and tensions, between what Romila & Romesh Thapar called "Syndicated" Hinduism as a modern construction (or invented tradition), linked to the secular pluralism required for political stability, and Hindutva and the Sangh Parivar's agenda of militant nationalism.
Robert Eric Frykenberg is Professor Emeritus of History & South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Maddison, USA. He is widely regarded as one of the world's leading authorities on Indian history and religions, with a special focus on Christianity and its relationship with other religions in India. Born in India (1930) he grew up there before attending SOAS (University of London) to complete his doctorate in 1961.
He comes to us from a prestigious academic career in the USA, and as the founder of a number of important initiatives in South Asian Studies including the annual Wisconsin Conference on South Asian Studies (1972 onwards). He has been the recipient of a number of major international awards including the following foundations: Carnegie, Ford, Fulbright, Guggenheim, and Rockefeller.
His first book published in 1965 on GUNTUR DISTRICT used to be compulsory reading on any modern Indian history course until the recent decline of Indian history teaching in the West. After 1965 followed another 15 major books and he currently has two books in preparation, in addition to countless articles.
His book publications are:
Guntur District, 1788-1848: A History of Local Influence and Central Authority (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965.
After editing Land Control and Social Structure in Indian History (Madison 1969; New Delhi 1978), Land Tenure and Peasant in South Asia (Madison, New Delhi: 1977, 1981), Delhi Through the Ages (New Delhi, Oxford 1986, 1993), each of which broke new ground, History and Belief: The Foundations of Historical Understanding (Grand Rapids: Eerdmanns, 1996), he delved into philosophical issues and provided a framework for work on the history religious movements in India.
Four edited volumes followed: Christians, Cultural Interactions and India's Religious Traditions (London: Routledge Curzon; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), with Judith M. Brown; Christians and Missionaries in India: Cross-Cultural Communication since 1500 (London: Routledge Curzon; and Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003); Tirunelveli’s Evangelical Christians: Two Centuries of Family Vamsâvali Traditions (Bangalore: SAIACS, 2003), with D. & S Packiamuthu and Chris Barrigar; and Pandita Ramabai's America: A Translation from Marathi of her Conditions of Life in the United States, 1889 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), in collaboration Philip Engblom & Shitija Gomes. Completed in 2006, his Oxford History of Christianity in India (220,000 words is now in press) represents a decade of research.
Enquiries: MAI.Enquiries@adm.monash.edu.au with ‘Political Religion in India” in the subject heading of the email.
---
Seminar
Monash Asia Institute
Tuesday 27 October 2009, 12:00 noon
Theatre HB32, Building H
Monash University Caulfield campus
Islam in our Region - Is there a South East Asian Islam?
Dr Noor's lecture will look at the state of Islam and Muslim politics and intellectualism in the region, and pose a question: have we reached the point where there can be such a thing as 'South-East Asian' Islam? And if so, what impact can countries such as Indonesia have on informing and influencing Islam elsewhere?
 |
Dr Farish Ahmad Noor is a Senior Fellow at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Affiliated Professor at Universias Muhamadiyah Surakarta (Solo) Yogjakarta, Indonesia. At the NTU he is part of the research cluster on the contemporary development of trans-national religio-political networks across South and Southeast Asia, where he is studying the phenomenon of Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Buddhist religio-political mobilisation in the public domain. He was formerly attached to the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies in Berlin Germany, the Institute for the Study of Muslim Society Paris and the International Institute for the Study of the Muslim World, Netherlands. Dr Noor has published several books and articles examining Malay identity and the image of Islam in political discourse. RSVP: MAI.Enquiries@adm.monash.edu.au with ‘South East Asian Islam’ in the subject heading of the email |
---
The Global Terrorism Research Centre and Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, invite you to:
A PUBLIC SEMINAR
"Shape, Clear, Hold, and Build:” The Uncertain Lessons of the Afghan War
DR ANTHONY H. CORDESMAN
Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington, DC
Friday 23 October 2009, 11- 12.30pm
Room HB.36 Lecture Theatre
Building H, Monash University, Caulfield Campus
For further information, please contact Ela Ogru (ela.ogru@arts.monash.edu.au or 9903 4304).
ALL WELCOME
Anthony H. Cordesman holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at CSIS. He is also a national security analyst for ABC News. His analysis has been featured prominently during the Gulf War, Desert Fox, the conflict in Kosovo, the fighting in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War.
During his time at CSIS, he has been director of the Gulf Net Assessment Project and the Gulf in Transition Study and principle investigator of the Homeland Defense Project. He also directed the Middle East Net Assessment Project and was co-director of the Strategic Energy Initiative.
He has led studies on the Iraq War, Afghan conflict, armed nation building and counterinsurgency, national missile defense, asymmetric warfare and weapons of mass destruction, global energy supply, and critical infrastructure protection.
He is the author of a wide range of reports on U.S. security policy, energy policy, and Middle East policy, which can be downloaded from the Burke Chair section of the CSIS Web site (http://www.csis.org/program/burke-chair-strategy).
Cordesman formerly served as national security assistant to Senator John McCain of the Senate Armed Services Committee, as director of intelligence assessment in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and as civilian assistant to the deputy secretary of defense. In 1974, he directed the analysis of the lessons of the October War for the secretary of defense, coordinating U.S. military, intelligence, and civilian analysis of the conflict.
He has also served in other government positions, including at the Department of State, Department of Energy, and NATO International Staff. He has had numerous foreign assignments, including postings in Lebanon, Egypt, and Iran, and he has worked extensively in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.
Cordesman is the author of more than 50 books, including a four-volume series on the lessons of modern war. His most recent works include Iraq's Insurgency and the Road to Civil Conflict (Praeger, 2007), Lessons of the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah War (CSIS, 2007), Iran's Military Forces and War fighting Capabilities (Praeger/CSIS, 2007), Iraqi Force Development (CSIS, 2007), Salvaging American Defense (Praeger/CSIS, 2007), and Chinese Military Modernization (CSIS, 2007).
Cordesman has been awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal. He is a former adjunct professor of national security studies at Georgetown University and has twice been a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution.
Monash Asia Institute
Briefing on Pakistan
Thursday 8 October 2009, 6pm to 8.30pm
Monash University Conference Centre
Level 7, 30 Collins Street, Melbourne
While the Indo–Pakistani border region has moved to the forefront of international concerns about regional stability and the war on terror, misinformation and misunderstanding about modern Pakistan have not abated. This forum is designed to provide three different perspectives into modern Pakistan and the resilience or otherwise of its people and government. Ms Zorica McCarthy is regarded as one of Australia’s most accomplished diplomats and was widely admired for restructuring the relationship between Australia and Pakistan during her period as the High Commissioner in Islamabad. Andrew MacLeod worked as the Emergency Co-ordinator in the UN’s response to the devastating Pakistan earthquake in 2005. Until the UN’s involvement the relief came mainly from Lashkar-e-Toiba. Dr Bukhari is writing a book about ethnic conflict in Baluchistan, one of Pakistan’s most contested provinces. He will speak on the role of Baluchistan in the construction of national identity.
Speakers
- Ms Zorica McCarthy, Former Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan
- Mr Andrew MacLeod, Former Chief of Operations, United Nations Emergency Co-ordination Centre, Islamabad
- Associate Professor Mussawar Bukhari ,International Research Fellow, Monash Asia Institute,
and Fellow of the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan
This is a special Monash Asia Institute public event following Chatham House rules.
DOWNLOAD Brochure: Briefing on Pakistan
RSVP: MAI.Enquiries@adm.monash.edu.au with ‘Pakistan Briefing’ in the subject heading of the email
-----
Special seminar on India: International collaborative research with Monash University
Monash Asia Institute with the Development Research Unit (DRU)
Thursday 27 August 2009, 2pm to 5pm
Room S822, Level 8 South, Building 11 (Menzies)
Monash University Clayton campus
Monash University is hosting a visit by four prominent Indian social scientists to discuss international collaborative research between Monash University, the Institute of Development Studies (Kolkata) and the University of Kolkata in the social sciences and humanities.
Our guests are:
Prof. A K Bagchi, Prof. Chakraborty, Prof. Chattopadhyay and Prof. Dasgupta
Our visitors will brief us about a new project between their institutes in Kolkata, the Faculty of Medicine Monash, the Health Economics Unit of the Department of Economics Monash and the Monash Asia Institute.
After the briefing, there will be a chance to discuss other collaborative research projects involving the Faculty of Business and Economics and the Monash Asia Institute.
RSVP (essential for afternoon tea catering):
MAI.Enquiries@adm.monash.edu.au with ‘Special Seminar on India’ in the subject heading of the email.
---
Seeing Development in 3D: Density, Distance, Division
Friday 14 August 2009
Jointly hosted by Monash University, World Bank and AusAID
The World Bank’s
World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography
Launched by Professor Edward Byrne AO, Vice-Chancellor and President of Monash University
Keynote speaker: Dr Truman Packard, Senior Economist, World Bank
(L-R) Professor Marika Vicziany (Monash Asia Institute), Professor Brian Oldenburg (Dept. of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine), Professor Brett Inder (Dept. of Econometrics & Business Statistics), Professor Stephanie Fahey (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, International), Dr Truman Packard (World Bank), Professor Edward Byrne, AO (Vice-Chancellor & President of Monash University) and Ms Anita Nayar (Consul General, Consulate General of India, Melbourne)
There are:
- 1 billion slum dwellers in the developing world’s cities
- 1 billion people in remote lagging areas
- 1 billion people at the bottom of the global hierarchy of nations
These overlapping populations pose today’s biggest development challenges. How can nations help these three intersecting billions? Conventional wisdom prescribes responses that involve controlling growth of cities; reducing rural-urban gaps in wealth; developing programs that bring jobs to the people in lagging areas and
provinces; and protecting enterprises until they are ready to compete.
In setting the agenda for approaches to development, the World Development Report 2009 takes a provocative alternative view. The Report argues that economic development happens best when it is focused on particular geographical areas (mostly cities), and hence development is intrinsically inequitable. The Report then argues for redistributive policies to address these inequities, policies that do not compromise the primary focus on economic growth and development in high density urban areas.
This event will provide an opportunity to interact with World Bank’s senior economist, Dr Truman Packard and leading thinkers on the implications of the report.
Dr Packard is one of the Report’s leading authors. His presentation will be followed by a panel discussion and time for open questions and discussion.
DOWNLOAD Brochure for the event.
---
Special Public Lecture
organised by Monash Asia Institute, Monash European and EU Centre, Global Terrorism Research Unit and Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation
Thursday 16 July 2009, 3:00pm to 5: 00pm
Room H2.38, Building H, Monash University Caulfield campus
Prospects for peace and democracy in Afghanistan
Guest speaker: Malalai Joya, Suspended Member of Parliament, Government of Afghanistan
Malalai Joya was four days old when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Following a childhood spent in refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan, she returned to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s, where she worked for underground organisations promoting the cause of women. She was elected to the Afghan parliament in 2004 but was soon suspended for speaking out against fellow parliamentarians: criminals and warlords with a long record of human rights abuse. Since then, she has survived numerous assassination attempts and lives in hiding but continues to press the cause of those who elected her. She received the International Human Rights in Film Award at Berlin in 2007 and was awarded the Anna Politkovskaya Award in 2008. Her story is at her website: http://malalaijoya.com/index1024.htm
Ms Joya is in Australia to launch her book: Raising My Voice (Pan Macmillan).
Enquiries: MAI.Enquiries@adm.monash.edu.au with ‘Afghanistan’ in the subject heading of the email.
---
Monash Asia Institute & Centre of Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS)
Symposium: Institutions in Post-Soeharto Indonesia
9.30-5.30, Monday, July 13, 2009
Manton Room SG04, Building 11 (Menzies)
Monash University Clayton campus
Since the 1998 fall of Soeharto, the way institutions operate and the environment in which they work, has changed significantly. Presenters in this one-day symposium will draw on cutting-edge research to identify and analyse changes and continuities in three kinds of institutions. First, civil society institutions—namely NGO, press, and religious organisations—have flourished in the past decade, and yet face new operational and ideological challenges. Second, mining companies now deal more directly with increasingly empowered local and regional bodies, although this has created instability and other disincentives for the extraction of resources. Third, local government, made increasingly accountable to local people by decentralisation, has become more democratic, more amenable to ‘traditional’ arrangements, but also more complicated and, at times, compromised. All are welcome for what promises to be an incisive assessment of Indonesian institutions.
DOWNLOAD Abstract and Programme
RSVP by 10 July 2009 (essential): nicholas.herriman@adm.monash.edu.au
Seminar
Presented by Monash University and the NGV International
New discoveries by Melbourne Archaeologists
Sunday 17 May 2009, 1-5 pm
Venue Clemenger BBDO Auditorium
NGV International
180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Join Melbourne archaeologists as they discuss:
Ancient Egyptian Colonisation of the Western Desert in the Pyramid Age
Associate Professor Colin Hope, Centre for Archaeology & Ancient History, Monash University
Gill Bowen (Monash)
New Light on early Christianity in Egypt's Western Desert
Dr Gillian Bowen, Centre for Archaeology & Ancient History, Monash University
The Stupa Complex in Kashgar, western China
Dr Andrea DiCastro, Monash Asia Institute & School of Historical Studies, Monash University
Australian excavations in Cyprus
Professor David Frankel, Archaeology Program, La Trobe University
Erotes on the Euphrates: A figured frieze in a private house at Hellenistic Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates
Dr Heather Jackson, University of Melbourne
In the Wake of the Sea Peoples and in the Footsteps of Goliath: Excavating the Philistine site of Tell es-Safi/Gath'
Dr Louise Hitchcock, Centre for Classics and Archaeology, University of Melbourne
From the Field to Repository: Tell Qumluq and Qala'at Nejim - new research in North Syria
Dr Andrew Jamieson, Centre for Classics and Archaeology, University of Melbourne
Cost $25 Adult / $20 NGV Member / $22 Concession / $18
Student (includes afternoon tea)
Venue Clemenger BBDO
Auditorium, NGV International
Event code P0979
*Special for Students: Bring another student, show your current Student ID cards, and you will be able have two tickets for the price of one.
---
Brown Bag Seminar
Tuesday 21 April 2009, 12:00 - 2:00 pm
W218/11 (West Wing) Level 2
Menzies Building (11), Monash University Clayton campus
Son of a Lion
A film presented by Prof John Baily
Son of a Lion, which has been described as a political discussion, follows the story of a young boy from the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, who would rather go to school than follow the footsteps of his father into gun-production. The film is a debut by Australian film-maker Benjamin Gilmour, a former ambulance officer who travelled to the NWFP prior to 9/11. Gilmour uses non-professional actors and the script was written in collaboration with Pashtun friends.
John Baily is Emeritus Professor of Ethno-musicology at Goldsmiths, University of London. He and Veronica Doubleday have numerous publications on the music and culture of Afghanistan. They are currently Visiting Academics at Monash University.
About the movie: http://www.sonofalion.com/
Enquiries: sharmini.sherrard@monash.edu.au
---
Lecture and Demonstration
Monash Asia Institute, School of Music-Conservatorium, Monash University and Australian Institute of International Affairs (Victoria)
Both Sides of the Curtain: Discovering the Music of Afghanistan
Emeritus Professor John Baily and Dr Veronica Doubleday
Wednesday 25 March 2009, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
Australian Institute of International Affairs Victoria
Dyason House
124 Jolimont Road, East Melbourne, 3002
In the 1970s, before the start of the long war in Afghanistan, John Baily and his wife Veronica spent over two years researching music in the historic city of Herat. Together they bridged the gender divide. John studied the music of men’s gatherings, concerts and wedding ceremonies, and Veronica frequented the separate world of women’s parties and rituals. They also learned to perform the music they were studying. In this talk they describe the challenges and excitement of their work, illustrating their account with their own musical performance, and visual and audio recordings from that time. They provide a refreshing picture of musical life in Afghanistan before the Taliban.
John Baily is Emeritus Professor of Ethnomusicology at Goldsmiths, University of London. He and Veronica Doubleday have numerous publications on the music and culture of Afghanistan. They are currently Visiting Academics at Monash University.
DOWNLOAD Brochure for this presentation.
Admission free, booking (recommended): MAI.Enquiries@adm.monash.edu.au with "Afghanistan music lecture" in the subject heading of the email.
---
PhD Confirmation Seminar
Monday 23 March 2009, 2:00 pm
Room S822, Level 8 South, Building 11 (Menzies)
Monash University Clayton campus
Ethno-cultural aspects of mental health in Cambodia: A comparison of a local trauma response 'Baksbat' and western trauma response 'PTSD'
Dr Sotheara Chhim, PhD Candidate, Monash Asia Institute
This study is designed to compare the features of a Cambodian local response-set called Baksbat (a break down of courage, never daring to do something again, fear of something bad happening again etc) to that of the Euro-American disorder called “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” (PTSD). PTSD is classified in both the WHO International Classification of Diseases, version 10 (ICD-10) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV). Baksbat has been formally recognised (Saing, 1973), but to date no formalised study of the phenomenon has been conducted. An emic approach of qualitative study on psychological responses to trauma will be used to interview approximately 50 convenience samples of "experts" who have an understanding of historical, cultural and health contexts of Cambodia. In-depth interviews with the "experts" will be performed in order to understand phenomenology of trauma in Cambodian ways (Baksbat) and to develop a local classification "culture bound syndrome of distress" and its scale.
This emic approach will be followed by a quantitative survey in which the newly developed scale of Baksbat and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) will be administered to approximately 200-300 clinical samples in order to compare the different features of both problems, Baksbat and PTSD and also will validate the newly develop Baksbat scale. Determining the statistical significance of this category of culture-specific distress is essential for better-outcome research and responsive care in Cambodia.
As a confirmation seminar the discussions will cover all the key headings required of the confirmation process.
Enquiries: MAI.Enquiries@adm.monash.edu.au with "Cambodia trauma seminar" in the subject heading of the email.
Public Seminar
organised by the Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology, Monash University and Monash Asia Institute
Mindfulness Counselling: Buddhist Traditions and Mental Health
Sunday 15 March 2009, 2.00-4.00 pm
Room K309, Monash University Caulfield Campus
This public seminar includes a presentation by the Ven. Naotune Vijitha Thero, Chief Incumbent of the Dhammasarana Temple in Keysborough. He is a scholar well versed in Pali and Buddhist studies.
The seminar 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 Dept of Philosophy & Psychology at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Prof de Silva has an advanced diploma in counselling, and is practising in the field.
Dr Craig Hassed, of the Dept of General Practice, 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.
Free admission, but bookings recommended Susan.Grist@arts.monash.edu.au
For further enquiries, contact Constant.Mews@arts.monash.edu.au
Prof. Constant J. Mews, Director, Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology, School of Historical Studies, Monash University
Public Lecture
sponsored by the Australian Institute of International Affairs Victoria
Afghanistan: War Without End?
Dr Faridullah Bezhan, Monash Asia Institute
Thursday 12 March 2009, 5.30pm – 7pm
Dyason House
124 Jolimont Road, East Melbourne
More than eight years after the Taliban's removal from power by US-led international forces, followed by the election of a new government, Afghanistan has entered into an entirely different phase of war. It is marked by challenges of a revitalised Taliban-led insurgency which has not only stepped up activities in its heartlands around the south and east, but is now operating in other parts of Afghanistan. The Taliban groups conduct operations and are holding territories within the tribal belt of Pakistan alongside the Afghan border. This situation demonstrates the lack of an effective strategy or even an unwillingness by the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the coalition forces to combat the Taliban. These developments require the Obama administration, which has given Afghanistan top military priority, to review its strategies and consider a military surge among other approaches to the problem. All this raises a vital question: is war winnable in Afghanistan, if so, how? These questions are vital for Australia, with its military involvement in Afghanistan and amid growing fears for the stability of the region.
Dr Faridullah Bezhan is a senior research fellow at Monash Asia Institute, Monash University. Currently he is working on an Australian Research Council (ARC) project, "The Jihadi, Revolutionary and Antiwar Fiction in Afghanistan, 1978-2007". He has written several books and articles in English and Persian on the literature, politics and history of Afghanistan. His most recent monographs are: 'The Politics of Satire': Tarjoman, the First Afghanistani Satirical Newspaper' (Monash University Press, 2008), 'Gift of Badakhshan: literature and history' (Mawqofat Afshar, 2007), which he edited and annotated, and 'Afghanistani Storytelling and Writing: history, performance and forms’ (Monash Asia Institute, 2006).
Registration and costs: http://www.aiia.asn.au/cde.cfm?event=254627
---
PhD Confirmation Seminar
Friday 6 March 2009, 10:00 am (postponed from 27 February 2009)
Room S822, Level 8 South, Building 11 (Menzies)
Monash University Clayton campus
The place of the Armenian Christians in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Mr James Barry, PhD Candidate, Monash Asia Institute
Tolerance and acceptance of religious minorities are not usually what people in the English speaking world associate with the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, contrary to this notion, four of Iran's six religious minorities are afforded official recognition by the Islamic Constitution of 1979 and are guaranteed five seats in the Majles (Iranian Parliament).
This research is an analysis of the recognised religious minorities (Jews, Zoroastrians, Assyrian Christians and Armenian Christians) using the largest of these, the Armenian Christians, as a case study. Essentially, the question this study asks is: to what extent is the treatment of the Armenian Christians by the Islamic Republic of Iran favourable vis-à-vis the other religious minorities, and why this is the case?
As a confirmation seminar the discussions will cover all the key headings required of the confirmation process.
Enquiries: MAI.Enquiries@adm.monash.edu.au with "Armenian Christians seminar" in the subject heading of the email.
---
Seminar
Hosted by Monash Asia Institute, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, and Asian Business and Economics Research Unit (ABERU), Monash University
Tuesday 24 February 2009, 1.00 pm
Lecture Theatre H7, Ground Floor Building 11 (Menzies) (enter via northern side of the building)
Monash University Clayton campus
Reform Wrongfooted: What the Global Crisis Reveals about China's Patchwork Governance
Prof David Kelly
David Kelly is Professor of Chinese Politics at the China Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney. A resident of Beijing in recent years, he previously carried out research and teaching on Chinese Politics at the ANU, UNSW (ADFA) and, between 2004 and 2008, the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore.
Professor Kelly’s work ranges widely across Chinese politics: intellectual history, especially of Marxism and liberalism; political sociology, mainly of intellectuals, urban homeowners and migrant workers; and public policy, focusing on the dilemmas of governance under turbulent current conditions.
His publications include:
India and China: The Lessons of Globalisation, Singapore and New York: World Scientific Publishing Co., 2007 (ed. with Ramkishen Rajan).
‘The Rise of Social Justice,’ Contemporary Chinese Thought, vol. 37, no 4 (Fall 2006), guest editor and translator.
‘The Mystery of the Chinese Economy: Selected Writings of Qin Hui,’ The Chinese Economy, vol. 38, nos. 4, 5 and 6 (September, October and November 2005); guest editor and translator of three special issues.
Asian Freedoms: Journeys of an Idea in the Cultural Contexts of East and Southeast Asia, Cambridge University Press, 1998 (ed. with Anthony Reid).
Chinese Marxism in the Post-Mao Era, Stanford University Press, 1990 (with Bill Brugger).
‘Realistic Responses and Strategic Options: An Alternative CCP Ideology and its Critics,’ Chinese Law and Government, 29(2), Spring-Summer 1996, pp. 1-96; guest editor and translator.
ALL WELCOME
Enquiries: MAI.Enquiries@adm.monash.edu.au with "China seminar" in the subject heading of the email.
---
Seminar
hosted by Monash Asia Institute, Monash University
Child health care in Xinjiang, western China
Dr Chang Feng, Chief Paediatrician and recently retired Head, Urumqi Children's Hospital, China
Wednesday 11 February 2009, 12:00 noon for 12:30 pm start
Room S822, Monash Asia Institute
Level 8 South, Building 11 (Menzies), Monash University Clayton
Dr Chang Feng is a visiting scholar to the Monash Asia Institute in February and will be speaking about Child health care in western China. The liberalisation of the Chinese economy has given rise to a major debate about China's social welfare, aspects which will be discussed in the seminar.
Enquiries: MAI.Enquiries@adm.monash.edu.au with "Child health care in western China seminar" in the subject heading of the email.
---
Other seminars hosted by Asian Business and Economic Research Unit (ABERU), a Monash University research unit that works closely with the Monash Asia Institute.
Other Monash Asia Institute Seminars held in 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002