Australian Studies Centre: The University of Queensland

David Carter
Director
www.asc.uq.edu.au
austudies@uq.edu.au

In 2004 the Australian Studies Centre at the University of Queensland celebrated its 25th anniversary, making it the oldest such centre in Australia . The Centre will soon publish a collection of essays by past and present members of the Centre, including an introductory essay by Professor Laurie Hergenhan, the founding Director.

At the same time, the Centre is quite new (or 'born again'). In 2002, in a newly-restructured university, the Centre became a research centre within the Faculty of Arts. This means that it is now a research centre across all the Faculty's schools. We maintain a close relationship with the School of English , Media Studies and Art History, which hosts the undergraduate majors and Masters programmes in Australian studies. In July this year, the Centre moved into refurbished quarters in the Art's Faculty's newly designated Arts Research Precinct.

Alongside my own position as Director, the Centre's staff at present includes Dr Martin Crotty, Deputy Director and Lecturer in History, who is currently working on a history of the Returned Serviceman's League in Australia; Professor Robert Dixon, an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow, whose major project is a study of writer, photographer and cinematographer, Frank Hurley; and four post-doctoral fellows: Dr Maryrose Casey (Indigenous protest and performance); Dr Anne Galligan (the Australian publishing industry); Dr Aileen Moreton-Robinson (race and racialisation); and Dr Roger Osborne (Australian magazines and modernity).

The Centre supports research across a range of areas including Australian cultural history, critical race and whiteness studies, the history of print cultures, Asian-Australian identities, Australian rural popular cultures, and postcolonial and comparative studies.

Each year the Centre organises a calendar of events involving public seminars, Masterclasses and conferences. Full details can be found on the Centre's website at www.asc.uq.edu.au

The Centre has just held its annual Masterclass, this year on the topic of 'Embodiment, Performance, Performativity', convened by Maryrose Casey , 16-19 September. In December we host an international conference 'Whiteness and the Horizons of Race', convened by Aileen Moreton-Robinson, and including as guest speakers, Professor David Roediger, University of Illinois, Professor Marilyn Lake , La Trobe University, and Dr Suvendrini Perera, Curtin University.

The Centre manages the Australian Studies in China programme for the Australia-China Council (DFAT) and is involved in similar work for Japan , India and Indonesia .

The Centre welcomes postdoctoral fellowship applications both through the national Australian research Council scheme and the University's internal scheme (see the Centre's website). In addition, we will soon be launching our own suite of fellowships, including fellowships for research at the University's Fryer Library and an Indigenous Fellowship. All interested scholars should make contact with me, the Centre Director, at david.carter@uq.edu.au

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