Monash Anthropology News
XANANA: Leader of the Struggle for Independent Timor-Leste - launch of the new book by Sara Niner
Thursday 10th December 2009 (Human Rights Day) 6-8pm
Bella Union Trades Hall - corner Lygon, Russell and Victoria Sts, Carlton
Launched by Terry Bracks
Timorese and World Music by Zelda Da
For more information about the author and the book go to http://saraniner.blogspot.com/
To purchase the book go to http://www.scholarly.info/purchase.htm
Faculty of Arts 2008 Postgraduate Publication Award
Lejla Voloder (Anthropology, School PSI) has won the Faculty of Arts 2008 Postgraduate Publication Award.
Announcing the award, Joel Crotty (Associate Dean, Graduate Research, Faculty of Arts) said that the list of nominees for the 2008 Postgraduate Publication Prize was particularly strong. After much deliberation the panel, consisting of Alison Tokita (LCL), Natalie Doyle (MEEUC) and Joel Crotty (Chair, Arts Research Graduate School), found much to praise in the strength of Lejla Voloder's application. Published in "The Australian Journal of Anthropology", a convincing case was made that Voloder's article "Autoethnographic challenges: confronting self, field and home" demonstrated a challenging, innovative methodology in which to encase the ongoing concerns of "insiderness" in the research paradigm.
Congratulations to Lejla Voloder on this outstanding achievement.
Splashed by the saint: Ritual reading and Islamic sanctity in West Java - new book by Julian Millie
April 2009
Dr Julian Millie's new book Splashed by the saint: Ritual reading and Islamic sanctity in West Java has just been published by KITVL Press.
Sanctity is a concept recognized by Muslims throughout the Islamic world, and often motivates observances with highly localized characteristics. This first, book-length study of intercession through ritual reading in Indonesia will be of interest to scholars of Indonesian religions, Sufism and the anthropology of Islam. It expands our knowledge of Sufism and sanctity, and seriously considers the liturgical forms of village Islam, paying special attention to the use of Arabic supplications in localized ritual practice.
http://www.kitlv.nl/book/show/1261
In God's Image: The Metaculture of Fijian Christianity - new book by Matt Tomlinson
April 2009
Dr Matt Tomlinson's new book In God's Image: The Metaculture of Fijian Christianity has just been published by the University of California Press.
"In God's Image is at once a textured, consistently engaging, and revelatory ethnography; a significant contribution to our broader understanding of the complex intersections of religion, culture, and history within and beyond Fiji; and a subtle and provocative theoretical exploration of semiotics in and as social practice."
Donald L. Brenneis, University of California, Santa Cruz
Read more about In God's Image
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/11269.php
The book is available online at Amazon
Issues in Environmental Research: Politics, Anthropology and Sociology by Liam Leonard and Michael O' Kane
We welcome publication of this new e-book based on Dr Mick O'Kane's Monash Anthropology PhD.
The success of civil society groups and social movements in the Lisbon Treaty referendum has increased our focus on the relationship between activism and power. This, the third book in the Ecopolitics Series, presents a series of studies on activists in Ireland between the 1997 and 2007 general elections.
Here, the relationship between activism and research is explored through a series of case studies, interviews and articles. Activists with the Irish Green Party in working class areas of Dublin provide the ;focus for Irish-Australian anthropologist Michael O'Kane's in depth study on the 1997 election campaign. This is followed by a series of articles by Irish-American political sociologist Liam Leonard, based on his work as a researcher and journalist in Galway between 1999 and 2008.
Issues in Environmental Research: Politics, Anthropology and Sociology provides an chronological account of political events an activist's perspective, thereby creating further understandings of the motivations of those in society who are so often on outside of the mainstream, but who have influenced events both nationally and throughout Europe in recent political campaigns. As such, this book offers a significant record of activist's perspectives at a pivotal moment in the relationship between the grassroots and the political elite, both in Ireland and in the wider European Union.
The book is available to you to download for free at www.ecopoliticsonline.com
The fifth annual Herb Feith Lecture: "Observing Indonesia - then and now"
Thursday 22 November 2007
Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank Centre
Corner Sturt Street and Southbank Boulevard, Melbourne
Presented by The Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, in association with
ABC Radio Australia and the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne.
Speakers: Emeritus Professors John Legge and Jamie Mackie
Emeritus Professor John Legge AO was Foundation Professor of History and Dean of Arts, 1978-1986, at Monash University and Emeritus Professor Jamie Mackie was Foundation Professor in the Department of Political and Social Change, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. Both first worked in Indonesia in the 1950s, not long after Herb Feith. In the 1960s and 1970s, all three worked at Monash University, establishing its Centre of Southeast Asian Studies in 1964.
In this lecture, Professors Legge and Mackie reflect on Indonesia, as they have observed its politics, history, society and relations with Australia over more than fifty years. Prof John Legge's books include Sukarno: a political biography (3rd ed., 2003), Indonesia (3rd ed., 1980) and Democracy in Indonesia, 1950s and 1990s (joint ed., 1994). Jamie Mackie has just completed a Lowy Institute paper with the title Australia and Indonesia, Current problems: future prospects - one of the few sustained analyses of the relationship between our two countries yet published. In his talk, he will summarise and enlarge upon various aspects of this study, which analyses the reasons behind the turbulence in bilateral relations over the last decade and whether it is likely to continue. Prof Mackie's previous publications are Bandung 1955: Non-Alignment and Afro-Asian Solidarity (2005), Konfrontasi: the Indonesia-Malaysia dispute, 1963-1966 (1974), The Chinese in Indonesia (ed., 1975), Indonesia: the making of a nation (joint ed., 1980) and Balanced Development: East Java in the New Order (joint ed., 1993).
Prior to the lecture, refreshments will be served from 6.00pm and 7.00pm start. ALL WELCOME
Please RSVP to Monash Asia Institute, citing "Herb Feith Lecture 2007" in the subject line of your email to Tony.Donaldson@adm.monash.edu.au
The Limits of Meaning: case studies in the anthropology of Christianity
Dec 2006
Monash Anthropology lecturer, Dr Matt Tomlinson, has collaborated with Matthew Engelke, a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at London School of Economics, to produce an important book challenging and exploring the theoretical context of "meaning" in Christian anthropology.
Their book draws on research in the anthropology of Christianity from around the world to draw attention to meaning in a way that other volumes have for key terms like "culture" and "fieldwork".
The work offers one of the most comprehensive overviews of theories of meaning published in anthropology and examines case studies that challenge their theoretical and practical relevance.
Prof Gillian Cowlishaw visits Monash
Aug 2006
Prof Gillian Cowlishaw, ARC Professorial Fellow in Anthropology at the University of Technology in Sydney is visiting Monash in September to talk with anthropology undergraduate students studying her work. Gillian is an acclaimed author whose book, Blackfellas Whitefellas and the Hidden Injuries of Race, was awarded the Gleebooks Prize for Critical Writing in the 2005 NSW Premier's Literary Awards.
While at Monash, Prof Cowlishaw is also presenting a paper in the Anthropologists@Monash Seminar series at 3.00pm on Tuesday, 19th September 2006. Her seminar paper is entitled: Erasing Social Trauma: Contemporary Australian History and Ethnography
Later that evening, Prof Cowlishaw will be at Readings for the launch of her new book "Moving Anthropology: Critical Indigenous Studies".
More information and program times for Prof Cowlishaw's visit
Ethnographic Methods Course
Aug- Sept 2006
The Social Science and Health Research Unit of the School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine is running a course in Ethnographic Methods. The course aims to provide grounding in the research methods used by anthropologists and other social scientists interested in qualitative research. The emphasis is on ethnographic research but the course will also discuss how such methods are used in applied contexts and gain practical skills in anthropological methods, including with other research methods and study designs, and in conducting rapid assessments.
Ethnographic Methods course webpage
Two research fellows joining Anthropology in 2006
March 2006
From early 2006, Dr Trudy Jacobsen and Dr Thomas Reuter are taking up research fellowships in Anthropology at Monash University. Trudy's appointment is held jointly with the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies.
New book Iban Art by Research Associate Dr Michael Heppell
December 2005
Dr Michael Heppell worked with Iban collaborators Limbang anak Melaka and Enyan anak Usen over many years to research their new book Iban art. Provocatively argued and richly illustrated, the book deals with weaving, sculpture and other arts of the Iban of Borneo. Published late in 2005 by Zwartenkot Art Books and KIT Publishers in Amsterdam.
Two new academic appointments to Anthropology in 2005
July 2005
From mid 2005 Dr John Bradley, formerly of the University of Queensland, and Dr Matt Tomlinson, from the the University of Pennsylvania, are joining the academic staff in Anthropology at Monash University. John's appointment is jointly in Anthropology and the Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies.