National Conversations

Community engagement

2008 marks the 50th Year of Monash University and for the next 50 years the National Centre for Australian Studies, in partnership with the country’s leading cultural institutions, will field a series of public lectures the length and breadth of Australia. These will explore, celebrate and debate the books, individuals and ideas that have changed the way we imagine the Nation.

Sacred places: War memorials in the Australian landscape

A conversation with Professor Ken Inglis

Date: Thursday 3 April, 2008
Venue: The Shrine of Remembrance, Visitor's Centre.

This was the first of a series of public forums hosted by the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University. It featured Australia's leading scholars of war and memory joined together for the launch of a new edition of Ken Inglis' multi-award winning work.

This conversation explored the meaning of Australia's war memorials.

Monash University has a long and historic association with the Shrine and General Sir John Monash was a founding member of the memorial's executive committee. Monash scholars based at the National Centre for Australian Studies are currently researching the first major History of the Shrine. It will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2009 and mark the 75th Anniversary of the Shrine's dedication.

You can reach the Monash Shrine Research team on shrinehistorybook@shrine.org.au

This event was hosted by the National Centre for Australian Studies and the Shrine of Remembrance in association with Melbourne University Press.

Scholars in attendance

• Ken Inglis: author of Sacred Places War Memborials in the Australian Landscape
• Bill Gammage: author of The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War
• Hank Nelson: author of Chased by the Sun: The Australians in Bomber Command and Prisoners of War: Australians Under Nippon
• Kate Darian Smith: author of On the Home Front: Melbourne in Wartime 1939-1945
• Bruce Scates: Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies, author of Return to Gallipoli: Walking the Battlefields of the Great War
• Katti Williams: doctoral research student