President's Report |
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Gus Worby There have been appointments to positions in our area, collaborative initiatives taken between centres, conference arrangements pursued and new conferences planned, discussions initiated between InASA and other subject associations with a view to future co-operation and long term discussions engaged with a view to collaborative overseas events. Proposals for substantial policy change in higher education have also emerged. The Ministerial Discussion Paper, Higher Education at the Crossroads (2002), provides a useful starting cue for the detail of this Crossings report. Fourteen years after the last major reforms to higher education Minister Brendan Nelson, quoting Churchill, invites the nation to consider its educational future and to rise to the challenge of the 'empires of the mind'. There is undoubtedly food for thought here for Australianists considering ways in which our academic interests and abilities can best be represented and used to address imperial representations of a future for the nation based 'as much in knowledge as in those industries critical to our past'. Faced with the prospects of further reforms to administration, funding and support for our institutions - with a likely impact on the time and energy that we will have for our associations and collegial, professional co-operation - we will need to contemplate the questions asked by the Minister: what will happen to our regional institutions; how can we access state and federal governments for assistance and articulate those sources of assistance; what role will private sector investment have to play in our individual as well as collective endeavours and will such a shift influence the way we engage in critical enquiry; will Australian Studies become a mere servant to the cause of internationalisation or is there another more influential role to play; what would a policy of specialisation among universities do to our Australianist networks? Of course we are all struggling with these questions already and (for example) our Centres have policies in place which are especially addressing the internationalisation aspects of the role played by Australian Studies in our respective and collective attempts to generate income. But what of ideas, scholarship, influence beyond borders and balance sheet boundaries, what of another dimension of accountability altogether? Of particular interest to many of us will be the following passage in the discussion paper: In considering reform, consideration must be given to the critical importance of humanities, social sciences, languages, fine arts, literature and philosophy. These areas do not find it easy to source non-government funding though they play a key role in moulding our values, beliefs, the way we relate to one another and see our place in the world. (vii) Our attempts to address at least some of these issues are evident in the deliberations of our last Executive Meeting in March. Here is a brief and far from complete snapshot of a day's hard work. Communication between executive and editorial board and InASA visibility were very much to the fore in discussions on the role of the Association in the management, editorial process and production of the Journal of Australian Studies. The journal and the energy and initiative of its editor Richard Nile were acknowledged as vital to the 'presence' of InASA and Australian Studies around the nation and the world. It is also good to be able to acknowledge a jointly sponsored Editorial Studentship for the journal (editors will be appointed from the University of Melbourne, University of Queensland and Curtin University for each of the next three years to co-edit the post-graduate New Talents issue of JAS). The future of Crossings and its format - especially as a site for up to date information and exchange - was also discussed, with mixed response to the work involved in sustaining the new postgraduate Essays section in a more pressure-filled publish or perish climate. Who, then, will take up the challenge to give our postgraduates air-time in a refereed section of a publication which should guarantee that exposure and offer international students the opportunity to meet their postgraduate Australian peers there? Research undertaken by the Australian Centre (Melbourne) has given us a snapshot of the number and strength of Australian Studies programs across the country. There are currently at least twenty eight programs of various types in operation. Internationalisation was discussed, including further clarification of the idea of an international Australian Studies Institute. There will be a fuller report on this to the July Executive. In an attempt to assist the Australian Studies network, InASA has invited presidents of other associations around the world to become invited/honorary 'members' of the Executive. We have acceptances from Britain, America and Europe and we are pursuing further connections in Asia. This level of association has so far produced a proposal for a joint InASA-EASA conference in 2005 and a suggestion for a similar collaboration in Asia in the slightly nearer future. There have been positive reports on InASA panel discussions at conferences in Europe and America and our members will be travelling overseas again this year to a range of events - in Ireland, China and at Gallipoli, for example. Collaborations of another kind - between similar subject and professional associations in Australia - were discussed with a view to encouraging meetings and conferences of such associations at the same time in the same city at regular, though not close, intervals. Our colleagues in Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) and Australian Drama Studies Association (ADSA) have begun the process; we applaud the development and InASA will pursue the idea further with especial focus on occasional meetings of executive committees. As the national conference season approaches we can report that the InASA Sharing the Space event in Adelaide is well advanced and looking forward to strong registration for this collaboration between Australian Studies and Indigenous Studies. It offers a package of activities which includes the Elford Lecture in Australian Studies to be delivered by Justice Marcus Einfield, three days of seminar and plenary activity with Indigenous and non-Indigenous keynote speakers, a public discussion of Protocols in public representation of Indigenous stories and knowledges, a day of shared space screenings and an Australian Studies Teachers' Forum. Conference details can be accessed through the InASA website and in this issue of Crossings. Of especial relevance to the issues raised in the ministerial document is the Pasts and Futures Conference initiated and hosted by Lyndall Ryan and scheduled for October this year, which might well be subtitled 'From CRASTE to Crossroads'. We are looking for strong support for this event as well. It is a pleasure to be able to report that InASA will be associated, through Dave Headon and the Canberra Centre, with the sesquicentenary seminar on the publication of John Dunmore Lang's (1852) Freedom and Independence for the Golden Lands of Australia, to be held at Manning Clark House in October. The discussion might reasonably measure those one hundred and fifty year old aspirations for Australia against policy expectations, purposes and principles for higher education and test the quality of a present vision of 'empires of the mind'. < < < main > > > |