Dear ASANA Members, Greetings from the ASANA Board which met recently to discuss the 1996 conference and other ASANA matters. This newsletter will bring you up to date on several topics involving the association. We invite member suggestions and correspondence on any of the items.
Address correspondence to secretary-treasurer:
- John M. Keller
- Australia-New Zealand Studies Center
- 427 Boucke Building
- Penn State
- University Park PA 16802
- tel: (814) 863-1603
- email [email protected]
For your information, this newsletter is being circulated both electronically and in hard copy.
Next year's conference will be held March 8-9, 1996, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. The theme will be "Australia, North America and the Pacific: Where have we been, where are we Headed?" The conference is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the present state of cultural, economic, social, and political links between Australia and North America. Details regarding conference logistics will follow shortly by separate message. Please mark the dates on your 1996 calendar.
This is a call for papers for the Vancouver meeting. Papers or abstracts should be submitted by November 15 to ASANA President:
In order to establish a more orderly procedure for ASANA memberships, we propose to put the membership roll on a calendar year basis. Obviously memberships will be accepted throughout the year, but we are hoping that the majority of members will pay their annual dues of 25 dollars on a January-January basis. We will provide details for payment of dues to the Australian Education Office, which serves as the ASANA secretariat, by January 1996.
Our charter directs ASANA to act as a clearinghouse for the exchange and dissemination of information related to Australian studies. This, and much more, will be facilitated by the new ASANA World-Wide-Web site which has recently appeared on the Internet. The WWW is the standard means to access information from all parts of the world. It is easy to use and accessible to all with a network connection. [congratulations! You are reading it NOW]
Today the ASANA web site gives readers a complete list of all members including direct email access, summary and papers from previous conferences, announcements of importance such as future conferences, direct links to other sources of Australian information, and detailed answers to questions from members (for example, "Where do I get Australian books?").
Plans for the future development of the site include creating a database of all individual and institutional resources in North America which deal with Australian subjects, information and direct email contact with related organisations throughout the world, and electronic publishing of research and articles related to Australia.
Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating, recently commented that "Information technology and the communications revolution is bound to be a decisive chapter" in the story of Australia's isolation. It may well also be a "decisive chapter" in the future of associations such as ours. We are at the "cutting-edge" of the revolution now, and with the help of the members we will remain there.
All members are requested to review the ASANA web site, located at http://www.psu.edu/research/asana/ and provide current personal information to be included. Comments, suggestions and corrections should be sent to either the ASANA Secretary/Treasurer, John Keller [email protected], or to the "keeper of the web", Frank Poyas [email protected] who will also be happy to provide any advice or assistance needed to those not familiar with the World-Wide-Web.
Visiting Fellows at Penn State's Australia-New Zealand Studies Center for the fall semester 1995 are: Neal Ashkenasy, Sr. Lecturer, Grad School of Mgt, U of Queensland; Bradon Ellem, School of Industrial Relations, University of New South Wales; and David Jones, Open Learning, Monash University.
The Clark Center at U.T. Austin announces that its annual R.J.L. Hawke lecture in Australian Studies will be delivered by Richard Broinowski, Australia's Ambassador to Mexico and Central America, on October 27th. The title of this year's lecture will be Australia and Latin America." On the same day Alison Broinowski will present a separate lecture to UT's Asian Studies Center dealing with Australia's cultural relations with Asia.
The 1995-96 Visiting Professor of Australian Studies is Rhys Maengwyn Jones, the noted anthropologist from the Australian National University. He will be based in Harvard's Department of Anthropology.
The Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies at the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, University of London, serves as a focus for Australian Studies activities in Europe. The Centre has produced a list of contacts in the UK and Europe which would be useful for ASANA members who may be travelling to Europe or who might wish to establish a link with colleagues with similar interests. ASANA President Robert Williams has a copy of the 1994 list but those interested in obtaining a copy might prefer to write to the Centre in case there has been an up-dated version.
In 1994, DEET commissioned a consultancy report on international Australian studies activities. The rationale for the report was to provide a more considered framework for determining priorities and criteria for Australian government funding of centers and projects.
An executive officer for the Australian Studies Program has been appointed and an expert working party under the aegis of DEET's international division is expected to develop definitive guidelines. The first notice soliciting submissions for funding will probably appear in the Australian press in November 1995. Given the program's emphasis on building nstitutional links, it is planned to focus promotion of the program within Australia to encourage the development of partnerships with overseas institutions.
The program has limited funds and strong competition for grants is expected. The program has an Asian emphasis and it is intended that 75 percent of funds will be allocated within the Asian region. Persons and units in all sectors of education (primary and secondary, vocational-technical, higher education) are eligible to apply. Until the definitive guidelines are released, no grant proposals will be accepted.