Prof. Bruce Scates

Monash University historian, Professor Bruce Scates, has been appointed as chair of the Military and Cultural History Working Group, one of six expert committees advising the Anzac Centenary Board.

Prize winner Ernest Koh.

Monash history academic Ernest Koh has been awarded a major book prize for his first book. Singapore Stores: Language, Class, and the Chinese of Singapore 1945 – 2000 was based on his PhD thesis, and looks at the relationship between language and economic stratification in post-war Singapore. The book was published by Cambria Press.

The National Library Board of Singapore’s E.W. Barker Prize is in its inaugural year, and is meant to acknowledge innovative contributions to the study of Singapore in the humanities. There were forty titles that were submitted by publishers for consideration by the prize panel (made up of academics from the National University of Singapore and the National Library Board of Singapore)

Koh also a very accomplished teacher, having received Faculty recognition in the Faculty’s last round of awards and citations.

Borders obstruct through a variety of guises – geopolitically, between disciplines, across publics and counter publics. The 2012 InASA Conference will explore the conditions under which borders are breached and enforced. Attention to the transnational circuits of information, technologies, bodies and ideas is increasingly seen against the discontinuities, lapses and blockages that characterize the growing political preoccupation with border security, internet restriction and the trafficking of people and animals. Mobility itself is racialised and subject to the countervailing forces of disparate regimes of gender, class and sexuality. Security, sovereignty and secrets are pitted against protest, asylum and leaks.

The 2012 InASA Conference, jointly hosted by Monash University’s History Department and the National Centre for Australian Studies, will provide a forum for much needed complex analysis and discussion around these issues through its theme: Border Breach. The conference is designed to encourage reflection on both Australian effects in transnational circuits of meaning and ideas, but also the inherently interdisciplinary and global nature of Australian studies. The movement of ideas and people across Australian borders is mirrored in the academy, compelling an immensely productive, constantly shifting context for thought and contention that this Biennial InASA conference will showcase.

Panels and papers are invited which address the following themes, in terms of contemporary debates and historical/cultural perspectives:
• Debate: climate change, corporate accountability and democracy
• Mobility: migration, diasporas, refugees and trafficking
• Difference: citizenship and multiculturalism
• Economy: trade, ethics and counter publics
• Finance: crisis, trade barriers and sovereignty
• Security: resistance, protest and hacking
• Communication: cyber activism, media empires, citizen journalism
• Land: resource, territory and place
• Indigeneity: interventions, global and local connections

For further information & submission information
Conference Website http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/history/conferences/inasa-2012/
Email: InASA2012@gmail.com

For more information, please the attached PDF

Amos spoke on “Israel: Peace,War and Storytelling”. There were anecdotes, humorous tales, and more serious projections for the country and the region. It was a moving oration, replete with original ideas and idealism.

Our confirmed guest speaker is the eminent professor of Classics and Comparative literature David Konstan (New York State University, retired from Brown University). The conference will also host a Workshop run by the Ancient History Teachers’ Association and the launch of a new Classics journal for postgraduate students.

Depression is one of the chief health issues facing the developed world and there remains disagreement within the medical community about its treatment vis-à-vis the ethics and effectiveness of psychotherapeutic versus medicinal interventions. In his book The Ethical Treatment of Depression: Autonomy Through Psychotherapy Dr Biegler argues that whilst medication is effective in treating the symptoms of depression, doctors also have an ethical responsibility to prescribe cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, for patients with depression.

The findings of Dr Biegler’s research have the potential to alter current treatment paradigms, which can focus on the disease itself rather than the “whole” person of the patient.

The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes are the most prestigious and coveted awards in Australian science. Every scientist knows a “Eureka” moment comes only after decades of singular dedication and enquiry. Receiving an Australian Museum Eureka Prize is regarded as a pinnacle of achievement for any Australian scientist.

It is especially pleasing to see that two of the three finalists in this category were Monash Arts staff, the other being Dr Robert Sparrow, also from the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies, who was short-listed for his work on the ethics of the “new genetics”.

For more information see the award site and Dr Biegler’s and Dr Sparrow’s profiles.

The purpose of a MatchPoints Seminar is to create dialogue between Aarhus University and the surrounding society concerning subjects of wider societal interest. Seminars are open to the public and seminar speakers rank among the most highly esteemed national and international figures in the field and subject that the seminar is focused on.