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The Hawke legacy

A new book examining the legacy of the Hawke era was launched at the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial centre's '80 Hawke Years' celebration on 5 November. The Hawke legacy is edited by HRI researchers Gerry Bloustien, Barbara Comber and Alison Mackinnon and published by Wakefield Press. It features interviews with Bob Hawke and his former speechwriter Graham Freudenberg, contributions from former members of the Hawke government and scholarly chapters on equity, education, Indigenous education, environment, multiculturalism, housing and the economy. The book reviews the accomplishments of the Hawke government, assesses what remains to be done and what ground has been lost, and outlines challenges for the Rudd Labor government. The book was officially launched by former SA Premier John Bannon in the presence of Bob Hawke and many of his former parliamentary colleagues.
UniSA media release: Book celebrates the Hawke legacy

State of ageing in South Australia report

Prof Ed Carson was one of the researchers working on the 'State of ageing in South Australia' project, a joint project between the University of Adelaide, Flinders Uni, UniSA and the South Australian Ageing Research Round Table, an initiative of the Office for the Ageing. The project report was launched by the Minister for Ageing on 17 September 2009. The State of ageing in South Australia report provides a detailed snapshot of South Australia's older population. It provides a benchmark of the contemporary and impending situation of the South Australian older population in order to identify implications and opportunities both present and into the future that will influence policy and service directions as the population ages.
Summary report

ARC successes

Congratulations to the following Hawke researchers who have won ARC grants, announced in October 2009:

These grants were announced earlier in 2009:

Endeavour Research Fellow

We welcome Dr Rabindranath (Rabin) Bhattacharyya back to the Hawke Research Institute, this time as a Research Fellow in the Australian government's prestigious Endeavour Awards program. He will be based at Underdale from 26 October 2009 to 25 February 2010 and will collaborate 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 is '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. While based in Adelaide he is keen to meet Hawke researchers with interests in the northern Adelaide region, and to establish links with UNAP (University Northern Adelaide Partnerships), the City of Salisbury, and the City of Playford.

The Hawke's new home

The Hawke Research Institute is now based in sunny Underdale in the FLC Building, Arthur Lemon Avenue. See our contact page for details of how to contact us here.

Covert bullying study

Hawke researchers Barbara Spears and Bruce Johnson (with Phillip Slee and Larry Owens from Flinders University) have completed a study of covert bullying funded by the Department for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Read their report Behind the scenes: insights into the human dimension of covert bullying.

Food Cultures symposium

The Hawke Research Institute hosted the Food Cultures, Markets, Belonging and Citizenship in the Cosmopolitan City Symposium at its new Underdale home on 18–19 June. The symposium was presented with the support of UniSA's ARC Discovery Project Development Scheme, and additional sponsorship from the Hawke Research Institute and the School of Natural and Built Environments. The symposium was well attended and included presentations from international and national visiting scholars, in addition to UniSA researchers Prof Pal Ahluwalia, Dr Jean Duruz and A/Professor Peter Bishop (School of Communication, International Studies and Languages), Dr Matthew Rofe (School of Natural & Built Environments), and Prof Elspeth Probyn (HRI).

Awards and recognition for Hawke researchers

Prof Barbara Pocock has been elected to the Academy of Social Sciences. The academy is an autonomous, non-governmental organisation, devoted to the advancement of knowledge and research in the social sciences.

Prof Martin Shanahan, along with his 'Learning to Learn' team, has received a prestigious Award for Teaching Excellence from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council.

Prof Trevor Gale, Director of the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education, has been appointed as a founding member to the National VET Equity Advisory Council for a two-year period. The National VET Equity Advisory Council has been established to provide high level advice to the Ministerial Council for Tertiary Education and Employment to guide equity reform in the national training system.

Prof Roger Harris, Professor in Adult and Vocational Education, has been made a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators.

logoThird International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies

City West Campus, Adelaide, 6–8 April 2010. Hosted by the Hawke Research Institute and the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre.

Invited speakers include:

One special theme of the conference is 'Consuming and Producing Affective Spaces of Taste'. Focusing on the relations of production and consumption we want to examine how spaces of tastes are being refigured within the cultural economics of transglobalisation. We are especially interested in specific studies of the changing geographies of food, tourism, and other material commodities, as well as more general theoretical investigations of the connections between production, consumption, emotions and space.

Enquiries: CPCSGlobalisation@unisa.edu.au
 

Interim Director

Victoria CarringtonProf Victoria Carrington was appointed as the Interim Director of the Hawke Research Institute for 2008 to August 2009. She replaced Prof Barbara Comber, who acted in the position for the preceding 18 months.

Victoria has been a Research SA Chair and Professor with the Hawke Research Institute and the Centre for Studies in Literacy, Policy and Learning Cultures since mid 2007. Before joining UniSA, she was Associate Dean (Research and Innovation) in the Faculty of Education at the University of Plymouth (UK), where she developed and led their research strategy, oversaw the development of postgraduate research students and, until her departure, was the faculty's Unit of Assessment Coordinator for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. While at the University of Plymouth she also held the position of Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) with responsibility for quality assurance, the development of new programs, faculty performance management and professional development for academic staff. Before moving to the UK, Victoria was based at the University of Queensland where she was part of the team that developed and delivered Australia's first specialised middle years of schooling dual degree program. That program's innovative qualities were recognised by a University of Queensland Teaching Innovation Award.

Victoria writes extensively in the fields of sociology of literacy and education (including five single author and edited volumes and more than 30 refereed international journal articles and book chapters) and has a particular interest in the impact of new digital media on literacy practices both in and out of school. Her work has drawn attention to issues of text production, identity and literacy practices within the affordances of digital technologies and new media. Her contributions to the field have been recognised in the many keynotes and seminars she has presented at a range of national and international forums in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada and the UK and via the take up of her work across a range of national and international under/postgraduate education programs.

Victoria is co-editor of the well known international journal Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, and sits on the editorial boards of Literacy, Journal of Early Childhood Education, Digital Culture and Education, and Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement. She was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the University of Edmonton in 2007.

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Hawke researchers at international conferences

Prof Alan Mayne delivered the opening presentation at the 'Poverty In-Depth: New International Perspectives' symposium, which was held by the York Archaeological Trust and the University of York, 6–8 July 2009. The symposium's focus was the trust's current excavations in York's Hungate neighbourhood, which is revealing 2000 years of human settlement. At the symposium Mayne's critique of 'slum' stereotypes and his interweaving of history with archaeology in order to interpret vanished communities were used to frame analysis of nineteenth and early twentieth century Hungate. Prof Mayne gave an invited presentation, 'Satyagraha for our times: the public sector, social inclusion, and gender justice' at the 2009 International Congress of Women, held at Parliament House Annex, New Delhi, on 3 March 2009. He received a special award for his presentation at the valedictory session of the Congress.

Prof Pal Ahluwalia, PVC EASS and co-director, Centre for Post-colonial and Globalisation Studies, delivered the keynote presentation at the South East Asia Research Centre for Communication and Humanities (SEARCH), School of Communication, Taylor's College, Petaling Jaya. Prof Ahluwalia gave the keynote address on 19 September at the Communication University of China (CUC) Media and Communication Higher Education Forum, celebrating CUC's 55th anniversary. Professor Ahluwalia's keynote address was entitled 'Innovation, collaboration and action'. Prof Ahluwalia also gave a keynote address on 12 September at the Difficult Forgiveness: Sikhs and the Memory of Politics After 1984 Conference in Berkeley, California. Pal's address was entitled 'The politics of intimacy: (re)thinking 1984'.

Prof Ian Richards was an invited presenter at an intensive media ethics colloquium organised by the University of Montreal and McGill University in Montreal, Canada on 17–18 April. Speakers at the colloquium, titled 'Media Ethics: From Information to Markets', included Judith Lichtenberg (Georgetown), Arthur Applbaum (Harvard), Marc Raboy (McGill) and Daniel Weinstock (Montreal)
 

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