MAI Seminars, Conferences, Visitors and Events 2003
Public Lecture
Monash Asia Institute, The Monash Science Centre and Centre for Archaelogy & Ancient History, Monash University
"The Search for Human Ancestors on the Roof of the World: Archaeological Explorations in Tibet and Mongolia"
Speaker: Professor John W. Olsen, Head of Anthropology Department and Professor of East Asian Studies, University of Arizona.
Wednesday 8 October 2003
About the lecture
Prof Olsen has explored human origins in China and adjacent territories since 1981. His work has increasingly focused on human cultural responses to long term ecological changes in arid lands and high elevations. Based on archaeological fieldwork conducted in Tibet beginning in the mid-1980s and in Mongolia since 1995, Prof Olsen and his Russian, Mongolian, and Chinese colleagues have begun to decode the Ice Age ebb and flow of ancestral human populations across some of the highest and driest territories on Earth. Prof Olsen's illustrated presentation will explore the theoretical underpinnings of his archaeological endeavors as well as provide examples of principal discoveries and their interpretation.
About the speaker
Professor John W. Olsen is Head of the Anthropology Department and, concurrently, Professor of East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona. He attended Florida State University and received BA degrees (summa cum laude) in Anthropology and Oriental Studies (Chinese) from the University of Arizona. Olsen holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. His research focuses on the Pleistocene prehistory of arid lands and high elevations in central and eastern Eurasia. Dr. Olsen has conducted archaeological fieldwork recently in the now independent Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, and in Russia, China, East Turkistan, Tibet, and Mongolia. He is currently Co-Director of the Joint Mongolian-Russian-American Archaeological Expeditions and the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Zhoukoudian International Paleoanthropological Research Center in Beijing. Olsen is one of only a few foreign scholars to be awarded academic titles by the Mongolian Academy of Humanitarian Sciences (Academician, 1998) and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences (Doctoris Scientiae Honoris Causa, 2003).
Professor Olsen's visit to the Monash Asia Institute on 29 September - 10 October 2003 is supported by a grant from the North America Steering Group of Monash University.
Panel Discussion
Is Australia ambivalent towards Asia?
Speakers:
Professor Ashis Nandy, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies,
New Delhi and
Professor David Walker, Deakin University
Professor Joseph Camilleri, La Trobe University
Friday 29 August 2003
Book Launch
We will also celebrate the launch of a new book, Australia's ambivalence towards Asia, by JV D'Cruz and William Steele.
This confronting work analyses the difficulties that Australia has in establishing a meaningful relationship with Asia. It considers contemporary and historical examples from Australian culture, politics, media and society, contrasting Asian traditions and the experience of non-Anglo migrants in Australia. It also provides an extensive analysis of an Australian novel set in Malaysia, Blanche D'Alpuget's Turtle Beach
Visit and Talk by Dr Omkar Goswami
Friday 21 March 2003
Dr Omkar Goswami, Chief Economist to the Confederation of Indian Industries will be visiting Melbourne as a guest of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australia India Council.
Dr Goswami will present a seminar at a luncheon to be hosted by the Monash Asia Institute on Friday 21 March 2003. Dr Goswami will address invited guests on the subject of: "An Overview of India's Economy & Polity: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow".
About the speaker
Dr Omkar Goswami is the Chief Economist of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India's apex industry association located in Delhi.
With a master in economics from the Delhi School of Economics and a Ph.D from Balliol College, Oxford, Dr Goswami has taught and researched economics for over 18 years at Oxford, Harvard, Tufts, and Rutgers University besides Delhi School of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Indian Statistical Institute. He was briefly editor of Business India before joining the CII. Dr Goswami has served on several government committees; he was the Chairman of the Committee on Industrial Sickness and Corporate Restructuring in 1993, a member of the Working Group on Companies Act, and a member of the Trade Advisory Council of the Ministry of Commerce. He has been a consultant to the World Bank, the IMF, the Asian Development Bank and the OECD.
As the CII's Chief Economist, Dr Goswami is a key player in economic policy-making in India. He is also a keen advocate of closer trade and investment ties with Australia, especially in finance and industry. Dr Goswami has been mooted as a future chief economic adviser to the Indian Finance Minister, so he can be expected to play an increasingly important role in Australia-India economic relations.
Symposium
The management of emotions in Buddhism
A free symposium hosted by Monash Asia Institute and The Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology, Monash University
Saturday 22 February 2003
The symposium will celebrate the launch of Padmasiri de Silva's new book,"Buddhism, ethics and society: The conflict and dilemmas of our times"
Program
| 2.00 pm |
Welcome |
| 2.10 pm | Keynote Address |
| 2.50 pm | Handling the emotions in Tibetan Buddhist
tradition David Templeman |
| 3.20 pm | Break (Tea/Refreshments provided) |
| 3.50 pm | A Buddhist approach to emotional intelligence Padmasiri de Silva |
| 4.30 pm | Emotions in health and sickness Mark Shackleton |
| 5.00 pm | Book Launch |
Speakers
The Venerable Mahinda is a Buddhist monk under the Theravada Buddhist Order. He undertook basic Buddhist studies and training in Sir Lanka, and has studied Buddhist meditation in Sri Lanka, India, Burma and Thailand. He is currently the spiritual director of the Australian Buddhist Mission, based at Aloka Meditation Centre in NSW.
Professor Padmasiri de Silva is a Buddhist philosopher in the Theravada tradition, and has written a number of books about Buddhism in the modern context. He has held teaching positions in Sri Lanka, Singapore, the US and New Zealand, and is at present a research associate with the School of Historical Studies at Monash University.
Mark Shackleton MD is a medical oncologist at the Breast Cancer laboratory at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. He has studied Vipassana meditation under the guidance of the Venerable Bhante Kassapa and was involved in the formation of the Vipassana Insight Meditation Foundation in 1997. With Ven. Kassapa he helped establish a hospital-like palliative care service in Sri Lanka, as well as a meditation program for cancer patients at the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre in Melbourne.
David Templeman has a long-standing interest in translating Buddhist and historical texts, which he first encountered when he worked with Tibetan Buddhist refugees over thirty years ago. He is also engaged in research on spiritual biography and the cultural beliefs of pre-Buddhist Tibet.
Exhibition at McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin
Precious Elements: From the Poynton Collection, Japanese and Chinese Decorative Arts
4 May - 29 June 2003
Monash Asia Institute honorary research fellow, Dr Kate Brittlebank, has curated this exhibition of selected items from McClelland's permanent collection, focusing on works in metal from the Japanese Meiji period (1868-1912).
Precious Elements presents sparkling vases from cloisonné's golden age, elaborately decorated censers, and simple, patinated bronzes, all of which attest to the Meiji craftsmen's skills. Also on display are examples of older, Qing dynasty cloisonné from China and exquisite works of Chinese jade.