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Asian Studies
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postgraduate workshop
On Friday the 19th of September, honours, masters and Higher Degree Research students from across the Faculty of Asian Studies gathered in the Hedley-Bull Centre for a Post-Graduate Workshop. The workshop had two aims. The first was to bring students together to discuss strategies for overcoming research and thesis-writing difficulties. The second was to facilitate collegiality between students in the Faculty. The workshop was highly successful on both counts.
Dr John Makeham opened the event and introduced Dr Gail Craswell from the Academic Skills and Learning Centre. Dr Craswell gave an insightful presentation on the difficulties commonly faced by honours and post-graduate students. This formed an excellent foundation for the rest of the workshop; students realised that many of their own dilemmas had also been experienced by their colleagues.
Students then gave five-minute presentations on their thesis-topics, and on the difficulties they faced in pursuing them. Following on from this was a peer-led roundtable discussion in which students discussed the issues raised during these presentations. The conversation was free-flowing and dynamic. Everyone had lots of great ideas on solving problems related to doing research.
In the final session, Dr Ruth Barraclough spoke on making the transition into academic life, and Dr John Monfries spoke on non-academic career options. All speakers on the day were excellent and their contributions were warmly appreciated.
The Hedley-Bull Centre was a superb venue for the workshop. University House provided coffee, tea and cake throughout the afternoon. Afterwards, refreshments were served inside the foyer. The event provided a great opportunity for students to learn about each other's work and to share their experiences. Overall, the workshop was both wholly enjoyable and highly productive. Thank you to all who came along and helped to make it a success!
Japanese Program, ANU Secondary College
The Faculty's Japan Centre has offered its new Japanese program in the ANU Secondary College, the aim of which is to provide an enhanced learning experience for Year 11 and 12 students in ACT schools and colleges. The Japanese program has been newly added this year. The College now has courses in Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Conservation Biology and Japanese [photo: ANU Secondary College, Japanese Year 11 class].
Many thank to Barber-sensei and Honda-sensei, and our excellent students, the Japanese program has been very active and productive with 26 students (14 students in Year 11, and 12 in Year 12) in 2008. We now have our first graduations on Thursday, 25th of September. We congratulate Year 12 students on their successful completion of the program.
We hope that we will be able to continue developing many programs and activities like this Japanese program so as to further strengthen our ties with schools and colleges.
Birthday celebrations for Shun Ikeda
Mr Shun Ikeda [right], Senior Lecturer and Head of the Japan Centre, who recently turned sixty, was treated to a birthday party yesterday at the Faculty's regular Thursday morning tea.
Shun has taught Japanese in the Faculty of Asian Studies for many years.
He is enormously popular with students and staff and widely admired for the energy and dedication he has brought to the teaching of Japanese.
Shun's birthday party, attended by a large number of his colleagues and friends, began with a spirited rendition of 'Happy Birthday' led by Carol Hayes and Tomoko Akami and accompanied by Jane Ferguson on her guitar. There were three rousing cheers and Shun cut his birthday cake.
We congratulate Shun on passing this milestone and wish him many more years of happiness and success.
Hindi Day
Hindi Day was held from 3 to 5 PM at the Hindu Temple and Cultural Centre on Ratcliffe Cr. in Florey, A.C.T. on Sunday the 14th of September.
The observance of Hindi Day went off very well and everyone seemed to feel warm and happy at the conclusion. Hindi Day included:
- Addresses by the Deputy High Commissioner of India, the High Commissioner of Fiji and the Trade Commissioner of Mauritius
- Poetry recitations by two Hindi poets
- Plays and songs by children and adults studying at the two Hindi schools in Canberra
- Talks on Hindi, including talks by two members of the College of Asia and the Pacific, one being on Hindi at the Australian National University by Richard Barz [photographed] and the other on the process of learning Hindi and the Hindi Conversation Group at the A.N.U. by Kate Sullivan
- A tongue-twister competition for children organised and conducted by Kate Sullivan.
Simla Conference re-enacted
[In 1945, the Viceroy of India, Lord Wavell, held a conference at Simla, summer capital of the Raj, to discuss the future of India. The conference, which came to be known as the Simla Conference, was attended by leaders of both the Indian National Congress and the All India Muslim League.]
Students enrolled in the course Religion and Politics in South Asia are currently 'attending' an important conference at Simla in the foothills of the Himalayas. [photo:' Muslim League representatives' listen attentively ...] There they are putting perspectives that will ultimately help the British Viceroy to decide on the shape of post-1945 India.
This engagement follows an intensive period in which they have surveyed the historical lead-up to the event via intensive readings and discussion cemented in a 'Civil Service Examination'. This also comes after they have made submissions to take particular 'parts', been appointed to role play roles (many of which are specific historical personalities) and then followed-up with pointed 'autobiographical' research.
The structure of this event and its participant list echoes real events. It has been substantially ‘fed’ by plans, resources and pedagogies developed by Ainslee Ambree and Mark Carnes. These have been supplemented and adapted to local needs by Faculty of Asian Studies colleagues Ashvin Parameswaran and McComas Taylor. Working as a team, they have added roles and resources, assessments and other activities. Plus they have developed a supporting website calculated to effectively place this activity as the centerpiece of their Religion and Politics of South Asia B course.
Full report at http://www.anu.edu.au/asianstudies/data/Simla.doc
Observers are welcome to attend remaining Conference Cessions, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays. Please email Dr McComas Taylor for further information.
Faculty scholar in ASEAN Relationship Inquiry
On 12 September, Professor Tony Milner [left], Basham Professor of Asian History in the Faculty of Asian Studies at the Australian National University, appeared before the Inquiry into Australia's Relationship with ASEAN, an inquiry of the Commonwealth Parliament Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.
Professor Milner stressed the need to acknowledge that Australia requires a highly sophisticated diplomatic and intelligence operation. This needs proper resourcing as a matter of national interest, and national security. He pointed out that organizations formally independent of government but which maintain close working relations with government officials are a strong feature of the ASEAN region and should also be encouraged and promoted. Professor Milner stressed the importance of education, presenting depressing figures relating to the study of Southeast Asian languages in the university system, and suggested that this educational base is inadequate in terms of Australia's national interest.
Text of submission
Dalai Lama's illness raises succession question
For decades, the Dalai Lama has been the international symbol and frontman for the Tibetan independence movement. He has travelled the world meeting state leaders, and was in the middle of a gruelling world tour, which included Australia, when he was admitted to hospital last week. Although doctors have now given him the all-clear, he has cut his lecture tour short. It has again raised the question of succession, and what might happen to Tibet's independence campaign, if it loses the man so closely associated with it...
Dr John Powers of the Faculty's Centre for Asian Societies and Histories, in an ABC Radio Australia interview.
Audio file (wmv format).
Regional Security Issues Forum
The 'Regional Security Issues Forum' of the Australian Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) was held in Melbourne last Thursday/Friday (4-5 September), and included a breakfast lecture from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Stephen Smith MP [photo, right]. The Co-Chairs of the Australian Committee are Professor Des Ball (SDSC) and Professor Tony Milner [photo, left] of the Faculty of Asian Studies. The Forum was held in the Sidney Myer Asia Centre at the University of Melbourne, and was hosted by Asialink. It is the first time CSCAP has held a meeting outside Canberra: and the Forum brought together ANU academics and Commonwealth Government specialists (from DFAT, the Department of Defence and the Australian Federal Police) with leading representatives of the Victorian business and academic community. All of the Melbourne-based universities were represented at the Forum. The Commonwealth officials included Ambassador Bill Paterson, whose appointment as the new Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism was announced at the meeting by the Minister.
The Minister's speech stressed ASEAN and especially Indonesia, and pointed out that the Prime Minister's Asia Pacific Community initiative had "started a conversation with our friends and neighbours". Mr. Smith said that "shaping our evolving regional architecture in ways that suit the diverse nation states of our region is a challenging task, but it's a task which the Government believes Australia must be engaged in". He suggested that the Prime Minister's proposal might lead to a "new piece of architecture" or change might "evolve and emerge from and through the existing architecture". One of the sessions of the Forum itself examined regional architectures - noting the degree of fluidity and contest, and seeking the underlying reasons for the architectural "messiness". Other panels examined the security aspects of foreign (in particular, Chinese) ownership in our resources sector, the prospects for controlling nuclear proliferation (including discussion of the government's new initiative), the crisis in Pakistan (and its implications for the war in Afghanistan) and current progress in the struggle against terrorism. A special session was devoted to Indonesia - examining current ethnic, religious and regionalist issues from a security viewpoint. The results of a new survey of Indonesian and Australian opinion - carried out by Roy Morgan Research specifically for the CSCAP Forum - were also presented.
The poll suggests wide divergence in security perceptions. Seventy-nine percent of Indonesians questioned saw the United States as the country most likely to create difficulty for their country (compared with 23% of Australians). The country causing Australians most anxiety was Indonesia (53%) - although only 29% of Indonesians considered Australia in this way. The security development most Indonesians feared was "the break-up of their country" (66%); and only 6% of Australians expressed that fear. What Australians most feared was climate change (58%). The area in which there is convergence is terrorism: 51% Indonesian, 50% Australians.
The survey suggested a significant difference in views between younger (under 35) and older Australians: younger Australians are much less likely to be anxious about Indonesia than older ones, and much more likely to be concerned about the United States.
Survey results: http://occident.anu.edu.au/AUS_CSCAP.ppt (PowerPoint format)
Learning Oceania in Oceania: Pacific Studies students travel to American Samoa
Students from ANU's new Pacific Studies program were inspired to attend the 10th Festival of Pacific Arts in Pago Pago, American Samoa. The convergence at the Festival of 22 Pacific nations and territories provided a spectacular array of cultural expression, allowing students to learn about Pacific peoples, places, histories, geographies and cultures through direct experience and interaction.
Having been introduced to the contemporary Pacific through ANU's inaugural undergraduate Pacific Studies course, students were able to contextualise and thus better understand what they saw and heard in Pago Pago. However, this learning experience worked both ways: students' experiences at the Festival breathed life into what must always be second-hand accounts of the reality of Pacific lives as provided in Canberra. As a result of the resounding success of the trip to Pago Pago, in 2012 the Pacific Studies Program will offer a field-work course based on the 11th Festival of Pacific Arts, to be held in the Solomon Islands.
A seminar will be held this Thursday 28 August, 1-2pm, to present what students learnt from the Festival and to discuss the following four issues, which stood out as central to the students’ experience:
How does one study the Pacific?
Who is the Pacific? How should we define this region – and is Australia in or out?
* The hierarchy of interactions between Melanesia and Polynesia, and the influences of Christianity and colonialism on these complex relationships.
*How could, and why should, people fight to preserve indigenous epistemologies and tradition in the context of globalisation and modernity?
All members of the ANU community are invited to attend what promises to be an entertaining and intellectually stimulating seminar. For further details please contact Ruth Barraclough (x53438) or Scott Pacey (scott.pacey@anu.edu.au).
Japan Centre Students Sweep ACT Japanese Speech Contest
Students from Mark Gibeau's Surasura Japanese class swept away the competition in the ACT speech contest.
The annual competition was held at the University of Canberra on August 23rd and saw over fifty speeches presented in high school, open beginner, open and background speaker divisions. Bethany Clark, Madeleine Firth and Chris Higgins from the Japan Centre beat out a field of nearly thirty contestants in the open division to take First, Second and Third prizes respectively while Karlis Tebescis took First prize in the background speaker division.
A panel of Japanese language teachers and representatives from the Japan Foundation and the Japanese Embassy rated speakers on the basis of the content of their speeches, presentation and language ability.
As a part of the Japan Foundation’s 39th National Japanese Language Speech Contest the two first place winners will go on to the national competition to be held in Sydney in October. We wish them the best of luck and our congratulations go out to all of the ANU students who participated in the contest.
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