Creating value: the humanities and their publics
The Symposium was opened by Matilda House on behalf of the local Ngunnawal people, Ian Chubb, Vice-Chancellor of co-host ANU, and John Hearn, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of our other co-host, the University of Sydney. Participants were then treated to two days of stimulating discussions on the humanities and the medical community; the humanities and public behaviour; the humanities and the media; the humanities and research policy; the humanities at the intersection between universities and public life; and much more.
President Prof. Graeme Turner (pictured) delivered the Academy’s Annual Lecture entitled ‘Informing Public Opinion: Is there a place for a critical humanities?’ which was in part a reflection on his first year in office and in part an argument for the role of critique within the Academy alongside the role of advisor and advocate on humanities issues.
Prof. Meaghan Morris FAHA, Chair Professor of Cultural Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, delivered the Sir Keith Hancock Lecture on “Foreign Values; or, On English as Chinese Language.” Her paper discussed the reputation of cultural studies as an ‘anglophone event’, and raised important issues about the role of humanities scholarship in general in a China-centred world.
Prof. Cary Nelson (pictured), Jubilee Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in USA, delivered the Louis Triebel Lecture on ‘Globalization, Piecework & the Future of the Humanities,’ which raised urgent questions about the erosion of academic freedoms in the western world. A lively discussion session followed Prof. Nelson's address, with many attendees anxious to probe him aobut his opinions on the future of Australian academic freedoms and other issues.
Our other keynote was John Holden from the UK think-tank DEMOS, who delivered a thoughtful and timely paper on ‘capturing cultural values.’ Other sessions featured cogent arguments from a wide variety of speakers, including Jill Gordon, Catharine Lumby, Zoë Sofoulis, Michael Duffy, Larissa Behrendt, Mandy Thomas, Peter Høj, and Academy Fellows Stuart Cunningham and Deryck Shreuder.
The Symposium convenors (pictured) are warmly congratulated for pulling together a successful event: the Academy extends its thanks to Prof. Stephen Muecke FAHA (University of Technology, Sydney), Prof. Elspeth Probyn FAHA (University of Sydney), and Prof. Adam Shoemaker (Australian National University).
As usual, a selection of papers from the symposium will be published by the Academy in the near future.
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 Prof. Cary Nelson delivering his keynote address |
 Symposium convenors Profs Adam Shoemaker, Elspeth Probyn and Stephen Muecke |
More pictures from the Symposium, the Annual General Meeting and the Fellow's Dinner are available here.