Students on an excursion to Melbournes Chinatown. Image courtesy of the Monash Photography Club

Victorian students are taking advantage of a unique opportunity to improve their foreign language skills through regular meetings with migrant seniors whose first language is Chinese, German or Spanish.

Now in its third year, the Connecting younger second language learners and older bilinguals program is led by Dr Marisa Cordella from Monash University’s School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics. Working withDr Hui Huang from the Faculty of Arts,Professor Colette Browning from Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Dr Cordella’s project connects Year 11 and 12 students with ‘language and cultural gurus’.

For more information about this programme, please see the full article and the project Website.

Over 1400 local Zandspruit children will attend the Read-a-Thon

Children in Zandspruit, South Africa will have not one but two of their first-ever libraries to look forward to through the Monash Krishna Khetia Library initiative.

Zandspruit’s two local primary schools, Masakane Primary School and Zandspruit Primary, will house the libraries for the project, developed by the Community Engagement team at Monash South Africa (MSA) to give schoolchildren greater access to books and literacy.

The initiative is named in memory of Monash student, Krishna Khetia, who was known for her work in the community but was tragically killed in a car accident in 2010.

In preparation for the grand opening on 15 June 2012, staff and students from MSA have organised a month-long Read-a-Thon.

Brownyn du Rand, Community Engagement coordinator, said the Read-a-Thon provided the children of Zandspruit with an opportunity to discover the joy of reading.

“The Read-a-Thon will give the children a chance to nurture their natural curiosity and expand their horizons,” Ms du Rand said.

“Approximately 1400 are scheduled to attend, and we’re providing each of them with an information pack so that they can keep track of all the books they read over the month.”

The Read-a-Thon will begin at Zandspruit Primary on 11 May and a follow-up event will be held at Masakane Primary School on 16 May.

With no library in Zandspruit or either of its local primary schools, there was an increase in children hoping to attend the MSA’s Saturday school reading program. Since they could only accommodate 200 children, they had to turn away many who had walked long distances to attend.

“We’re working to decrease the number of illiterate children in South Africa. The future of a community lies in its children’s possibilities and there are over 700 children in each of these schools,” Ms du Rand said.

Ms du Rand said special thanks must go to Tamar Boddé, a third-year Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) student at MSA.

“Tamar assisted me with the concept and developed the criteria and all the information packs for the children. If it wasn’t for her hard work none of this would be possible,” Ms du Rand said.

The Monash South Africa Library team will provide skills training and cataloguing information for the new libraries, as well as assisting with staffing and management.

Working languages for the 2012 Winter School are: ITALIAN, JAPANESE & CHINESE (MANDARIN).

Invited authors and translators

Italian stream: Laila Wadia & Brigid Maher

Japanese stream: Zhong Zhang & Elise Foxworth

Chinese (Mandarin) stream: Shu Cai & Ouyang Yu

Programme details

Date: 3–7 July, 2012

Venue: LaTrobe University Campus, 215 Franklin St, Melbourne, VIC 3000 (map and directions to Latrobe University).

Registration fee: (including participation in daily workshops and all public events, all materials, morning tea and lunch on workshop days, plus welcome reception): Waged: AUD$400 (incl. GST); Student/Unwaged: AUD$290 (incl. GST). There will also be a closing luncheon on the final day (cost tba).

Expressions of Interest (cover letter, CV and sample translation) are due Friday 25 May 2012. For information on how to submit an Expression of Interest, or to view the provisional program and information about accommodation, please visit http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/translation-interpreting/transnation.php. Also, see our event flyer.

Dear student,

Applications for positions in the Vice Chancellor’s 2013 Ancora Imparo Student Leadership Program will open on Tuesday 8th May 2012.  The Ancora Imparo Program is a flagship program of the University. We are seeking applications from first year Monash undergraduate students from a diverse range of backgrounds, interests and courses to participate in the program in the second year of their studies. Forty students will be selected to join the program which will commence in mid-February 2013.

Leadership training helps to unlock your potential – enhancing your ability to make an impact on your peers and on the world.

Participants are given the opportunity to meet and hear from some of the nation’s most inspired leaders, with backgrounds ranging from politics to business, arts and the law. To illustrate, speakers for this year’s Program include Christine Nixon APM, Julian Burnside QC, Bernard Salt, and The Hon. John Brumby.

Students selected for the program participate in a fully-funded three-day residential workshop which is also attended by senior University staff and key speakers drawn from across Australia.  This is followed by eight evening forums held on Tuesday nights, during which students hear outstanding speakers tackle a range of contemporary leadership issues. Small group presentations will also be made on a range of stimulating topics by student participants, following which you will have the opportunity to contribute by way of debate and discussion.

As a member of this unique program, you will have the opportunity to engage in a number of events usually open only to Senior Monash Staff, including attendance at leadership summits and leadership lunches.

Successful applicants are provided with a small stipend in recognition of being awarded a position in the program. There are no exams or assignments to complete.

For more information about the program please visit www.monash.edu.au/students/leadership or come along to one of the following information sessions:

Caulfield Campus on Monday 14th May from 12:00 — 1:30pm in Building S, Room 232

Clayton Campus on Tuesday 22nd May from 12:00 — 1:00pm in Building 11, Room H7

Applications close Monday 30th July 2012.

Dr Kerry O’Brien, from the School of Political and Social Inquiry, is currently heading an international study on discrimination against obese women in the workplace.

The study has found that obese women are more likely to be discriminated against when applying for jobs and receive lower starting salaries than their non-overweight colleagues.

The findings were recently published in the International Journal of Obesity, and examined whether a recently developed measure of anti-fat prejudice, the universal measure of bias (UMB), predicted actual obesity job discrimination.

Dr O’Brien said the nature of the study was initially concealed from the participants to avoid biased results.

“Participants viewed a series of resumes that had a small photo of the supposed job applicant attached, and were asked to make ratings of the applicants’ suitability, starting salary and employability,” Dr O’Brien said.

For more information about the study see the Monash news service.

Co-ordinator: Professor Bain Attwood

Notes

Previously coded HSY2260/3260

Synopsis

This unit will consider relations between indigenous and non-Aboriginal people in Australia since 1770. The main topics will include the legal basis of British sovereignty; the nature of frontier contact; violence and the dispossession of Aborigines; Aboriginal depopulation; Aborigines’ responses to colonialism; government policy and practice, from segregation to assimilation; and Aboriginal political movements.

Staff

Professor Attwood is a leading historian in this field. He is the author of The Making of the Aborigines (1989), A Life Together, A Life Apart (1994), Rights for Aborigines (2003), Telling the Truth about Aboriginal History (2005) and Possession: Batman’s Treaty and the Matter of History (2009). In 2013-14 or 2014-15, he will hold the Visiting Professorship of Australian Studies at Harvard University.

Contact hours

A two-hour lecture class (Tuesday 11.00-1.00); and a one hour tutorial.

Bruce Scates' "On Dangerous Ground"

In 1915 Lt. Roy Irwin goes missing at Gallipoli. The young woman who loves him, and the men who fought beside him, begin their search. Later, in 1919, historian C.E.W. Bean returns to Anzac Cove with artist George Lambert and soldier Harry Vickers to solve the greatest mystery of the campaign and to discover Gallipoli’s secret. Forward to 2015, and Dr. Mark Troy’s quest to preserve the peninsula from road works is sidetracked by political intervention and diplomatic intrigue. But a flirtation with a dynamic young woman from Army Intelligence uncovers long-forgotten documents protecting Gallipoli’s graves.

Bruce Scates’ eagerly awaited On Dangerous Ground is a playful hybrid of history and fiction from one of Australia’s leading historians. Moving between the historical realm and the world of the imagination it recreates the most dramatic moments of the Gallipoli campaign in the Great War. It is about unresolved loss, the need to know, and a story of reconciliation that bridges countries and generations. Fusing literature, fiction and history, On Dangerous Ground journeys across a real and imagined landscape, empowering voices and lives too long locked in the archives.

Steeped in a deep knowledge of the past and courageously contemporary, it asks what Gallipoli means in the twenty-first century. Thorough research and a compelling semi-fictional narrative shape an “imagined history” that enriches our understanding of the Great War.

Professor Scates addresses the audience at the launch

Bruce Scates is a prize-winning teacher, historian and storyteller. He is based in the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University. On Dangerous Ground was recently launched at Readings Carlton and then at the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne.

On Dangerous Ground: A Gallipoli Story is available now from UWA Publishing.

For an opinion piece on Anzac Day, see Bruce Scates, Gallipoli a global calamity, The Age, 25 April, 1212.

For a discussion of Anzac Day and imagined history, see Bruce Scates, Margaret Throsby Interview, ABC Radio National, 3:05pm, 23 April 2012.

And Bruce Scates, Anzac Day Stories, Radio National, ABC Radio National, 10.05am, 25 April 2012.

Dr Muhammet Erat, *Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University and Serdar Baycan a prominent member of Australian Turkish community spoke at the launch.

Former parliamentarian Paul Jenkins speaks with Professor Scates at the launch.

The joint programmes complement Monash’s objective of building strategic global collaborations that will create opportunities for students to engage with international experts and gain valuable experience in managing research projects.

Goethe University is recognised as a leading university in Germany with an international research profile. Established in 1914 it is best known for producing some of Europe’s leading thinkers in philosophy and the social sciences. More recently it has expanded its research presence into areas such as languages and humanities.

The collaboration is a development of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Faculties of Arts at Monash and Goethe University initiated by the Centre for Postcolonial Writing (CPW) at Monash and The Centre for New Anglophone Literatures at Geothe FranKurt (NELK).  Associate Professor Chandani Lokuge from CPW says “this new venture will further enhance the research links that have developed between CPW and NELK while enriching the international collaborative research profile of each university.

The University of Bologna is probably the first University in the western world with history dating back to the 11^th Century and is among Monash’s priority partners.  The university is historically notable for its teaching of canon and civil law and is renowned for interdepartmental research centres in the sciences and the humanities. In the last three years, it has consistently been ranked within the top 200 in THE /QS World University Rankings lists

The Joint PhD programmes with the University of Bologna was initiated by the Faculty’s School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics (LCL).  Monash and Bologna share research strengths in the area of translation and intercultural studies and the programmes will support existing activities by bringing supervising academics closer together.  Head of LCL Associate Professor Rita Wilson says the partnership will give a significant boost to international research collaboration in interdisciplinary studies in translation, languages and cultures, and greatly enhance our ability to recruit excellent graduate students. For the students, it provides exposure to two different research environments, cultures and sets of resources and a head start in future career planning, professional development and employment prospects on an international scale.

Divers on the Clarence shipwreck (photo courtesy of Heritage Victoria)

The secrets of the deep will be uncovered when archaeologists excavate a significant colonial shipwreck in Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay later this month.

Leading Monash University archaeologist Adjunct Senior Research Fellow Dr Mark Staniforth from the School of Geography and Environmental Science and a 60-person team will examine the excavation, reburial and preservation of the Clarence, a historically significant colonial wooden trading vessel wrecked off Portarlington in 1850.

Dr Staniforth, a specialist in Australian colonial shipbuilding and maritime archaeological excavation and one of three chief investigators on the three-year Australian Historic Shipwreck Preservation Project (AHSPP) said Australian wooden shipwrecks had huge potential to tell us about historic connections, technological innovation and daily life in colonial Australia.

“Their archaeological potential is often under enormous threat from natural and human impacts and we must find ways to preserve them for future generations,” Dr Staniforth said.

“One of the main aims of the project is to develop a protocol for the excavation, recording and reburial, as well as the preservation of significant shipwrecks and their associated artefacts on the sea bed.”

Excavation work will start on the site on 16 April and continue for a month. It will involve maritime archaeologists and conservators from Monash University, UWA, the Australian National University, the Western Australia Museum, the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology, and many State and Territory museums and heritage authorities as well as students and volunteers. Six maritime archaeologists from Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines New Zealand and the USA have also been invited to participate in the research.

“The research will foster the development of a consistent national methodology for shipwreck and artefact storage and preservation underwater. It will be critical to the future development of national, and international, policy and guidelines for site managers of historic wrecks,” Dr Staniforth said.

“The researchers will record the degree to which domestic versus traditional (namely British) shipbuilding techniques were used, study how shipbuilding methods were designed to suit new environments and the use of different timbers.

After recording artefacts in purpose-built laboratories, artefacts will be re-buried in controlled environments so specialist conservators can monitor them over the next three years.

“This project offers an ideal pathway for developing a national collaborative approach to the sustainable management of maritime cultural heritage.”

The project is supported by the Australian Research Council.

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.