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This page contains highlights of news from 2010. See also: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003 and 2001–2002



Inaugural director of ICMNU

Dr Salman Sayyid has been appointed inaugural Director: International Centre for Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding (ICMNU), based at the Hawke Research Institute. The role of Director is a very significant one given that the ICMNU has received over $10M of federal and state funding to support scholars to develop and share ideas within the framework of a broader social justice agenda devoted to understanding and transcending the divide between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds. Professor Sayyid will be responsible for consolidating the centre, and providing leadership to progress the objectives of the ICMNU.

Previously, Professor Sayyid has been the Director: Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies at the University of Leeds since 2007, as well as the Reader in Rhetoric and Postcolonialism and Racism Studies since 2008. Professor Sayyid has worked in a number of UK Universities including the University of Salford, and the University of East London, and in 2007 was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar to the International Islamic University, Islamabad.

His teaching interests have focused on racism, postcolonialism, critical theory and 'political Islam', and he has taught, supervised and been an examiner at postgraduate level for many years. Professor Sayyid's research interests encompass ethnicity and racism; the relationship between culture and politics; postcolonial political studies, and in particular, the way in which the analysis of postcolonial conditions inform and affect so-called 'mainstream' political and social processes and structures.

He has written extensively, with his most recent books: Thinking through Islamophobia: a global perspective (C Hurst & Co Publishers, London, 2010), and Recalling the caliphate: decolonization and world order (Columbia University Press, New York, 2010). He is currently a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Social Movements Journal, and has presented keynotes at various national and international conferences.
 

Interim Hawke Director

Elspeth ProbynProfessor Elspeth Probyn was appointed interim director of the Hawke Research Institute in 2010. Professor Probyn is Research SA Chair and Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies, as well as co-director of the Centre for Postcolonial and Globalisation Studies. She has taught media studies, sociology and literature in Canada and the US, and most recently was the Professor of Gender Studies at the University of Sydney. She has held several prestigious visiting appointments, including the Mellon Distinguished Scholar, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Honorary Professor, Albert Schweitzer International University, Geneva. In 2002 she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Elspeth has published several books, including Sexing the self, Outside belongings, Carnal appetites and Sexy bodies. Her book, Blush: faces of shame (University of Minnesota Press and UNSW Press, 2005) developed an analysis of affects from a psychological and cultural perspective. She is also interested in ethics, the media and popular culture, and recently co-edited Remote control, a book on media ethics, and new forms of television such as reality TV and food shows. She is currently involved in research on the cultural economics of the production and consumption of place, tourism, food and wine within a global system. Her forthcoming book is Taste and place. She has held numerous ARC Discovery grants on issues such as youth obesity, young people and sport, the food media and girls' media cultures. This year she was awarded a three-year ARC Discovery grant on the global transformation of the consumption and production of food and wine.

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logoThird International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies

The Hawke Research Institute and the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre hosted the Emotional Geographies Conference, Adelaide, 6–8 April 2010. Conference delegates considered new ways of studying the natures, cultures and histories of emotional life.

Invited speakers included:

Selected papers will be published in Emotion, Space & Society (editors: Liz Bondi, Joyce Davidson, Elspeth Probyn and Mick Smith: http://ees.elsevier.com/emospa/)

Conference website
 

The Hawke helps you finish your thesis

The Hawke Research Institute conducts world class cross-disciplinary research in the humanities and social sciences. In 2010, instigated by Director Prof Elspeth Probyn, the Hawke hosted visiting PhD students for two weeks each to support them to finish their thesis. Each doctoral student was provided with a quiet office, with computer and printing facilities, a stipend for living expenses, mentoring by a Hawke scholar, and professional development and networking opportunities, such as presenting their work to peers, introductions to senior scholars and invitations to Hawke and UniSA events.

The Hawke Helps recipients for 2010, and their thesis topics, were:

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ARC successes

Congratulations to the following Hawke researchers. These ARC grants were announced in October 2010:

These ARC Linkage grantswere announced in June 2010:

Rabin BhattacharyyaEndeavour Research Fellow

Dr Rabindranath (Rabin) Bhattacharyya returned to the Hawke Research Institute in 2009, this time as a Research Fellow in the Australian government's prestigious Endeavour Awards program. He was based at Underdale from 26 October 2009 to 25 February 2010 and collaborated with Prof Alan Mayne.

Dr Bhattacharyya previously visited the Hawke in 2007 as an Australia-India Council Senior Fellow. He is a distinguished Indian political scientist and Reader in Political Science at the University of Burdwan in West Bengal. Dr Bhattacharyya studied at the University of Calcutta (BA, MA, MPhil, PhD), and has published many journal articles and book chapters on participatory democracy, marginalisation and empowerment, and e-governance in rural and urban West Bengal. He also co-edited Essays on international terrorism (Kolkata, 2006) and Governance and poverty reduction (New Delhi, 2009).

At the Hawke Research Institute Dr Bhattacharyya's research project was 'Reducing poverty and encouraging awareness: a study on the impact of NGOs and self-help groups on the life chances of people living in poverty'. He aims to develop the conceptual and methodological framework for future research on social disadvantage and neighbourhood empowerment in urban India, with the aim of influencing social justice programs in India.
 

Awards and recognition for Hawke researchers

Prof Barbara Pocock, Director, Centre for Work + Life, was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday 2010 Honours list. Barbara received her award for service to industrial relations as an academic and researcher, particularly in the areas of employment, gender relations and vocational education, and as an advocate for social justice.

Assoc Prof Rosie Le Cornu received an Australian Learning and Teaching Council citation for outstanding contributions to student learning in 2010 for sustained commitment to innovation and scholarship in professional experience (practicum) in the field of teacher education.

Prof Ian Richards was awarded a Dart Foundation Fellowship at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in New York. During the fellowship he will take part in a program of seminars and presentations focusing on ethical issues raised when journalists report human tragedy.

Prof Trevor Gale, Director, National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE), was appointed by the Deputy Prime Minister as a Member of the National Quality Council (NQC) Australia, reporting directly to the Ministerial Council for Tertiary Education and Employment (MCTEE), 2010–2012.

Dr Tom Stehlik, Associate Dean: Research Education in the School of Education (EDS), was appointed an assessor for the Australian Research Council (ARC).
 

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