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Honours for Members of the Humanities Division

Many of you will know by now that the great achievements of three members of the Division have been recognised in the Queen's Birthday awards. Emeritus Professor Jill Roe has been appointed an officer of the Order of Australia. Her citation sets out her service to "the community through the promotion of Australian history as a researcher and author, through executive roles in professional organisations, particularly as Chair of the Editorial Board of the Australian Dictionary of Biography, and to education". Professor Tony Cousins of the Department of English and Professor Naguib Kanawati of the Department of Ancient History have been appointed members of the Order of Australia: Tony for his "service to literary studies as an academic, author and international specialist in the field of early Modern British literature"; Naguib for his "service to education through archaeological research and the promotion and advancement of the study of Egyptology and to the community". These are wonderful honours for three of the most eminent members of our Division.

Peter Goodall, Acting Dean, 12 June 2007

SWF 2007 report

This year’s Department of English sponsorship of the Sydney Writers’ Festival (the 10th festival; and the 3rd year of sponsorship by the Department) has undoubtedly been the most successful. The three week program began with essayist, novelist and Unicef Ambassador for Literature, Andrew O’Hagan taking up his 10 day stay as Writer-in-Residence. A public talk titled 'The old alliance: writing and editing' attracted over 150 guests to Macquarie, and Andrew gave inspiring talks to three classes (200 level, Honours, and Masters). He also met individually with a 21 students (PhD, Masters and Hons) to discuss their creative and non-fiction work. Andrew generously shared his experience and knowledge of the politics and the art of writing literature, essays and journalism.

Attending two dinners with staff of the Department, Andrew met with Sydney academics, writers and filmmakers including Professor Stephen Muecke (UTS), Martin Harrison (UTS), Edmond Campion, Aviva Ziegler (ABC/SBS), Julianne Schultz (Griffith Review), Peter Minter (Uni Syd) and Chinese-Taiwanese poet Bei Ling. Andrew's residency ended with the start of the Sydney Writers’ Festival, for which he gave the Keynote Address — to a standing ovation from the audience.

The second guest to the Department was historian William Dalrymple, whose work focuses on India. He spoke to a very appreciative audience of about 180 on May 31 in the Price Theatre. From the Department itself, Dr Jane Messer and Dr Marcelle Freiman gave talks and chaired sessions during the Festival: Jane as the author of the novel Provenance; Marcelle, as a well-respected poet chaired sessions with the renowned Chinese dissident poet Bei Dao, David Malouf and others.

As part of our sponsorship plan, the Department provided HDR, MA and Honours students with free tickets to many of the ticketed events. Dr Jane Messer took a class to the Sydney Jewish Museum to hear writers Markus Zusak (Australia) and John Boyne (Ireland) speak about their novels set during the Holocaust.

This year’s festival has been recorded as the best attended, with 65,000 people attending over 300 events given by over 400 Australian and international writers. The Department has received plaudits not only from Andrew O’Hagan and our students, but also the many other people from outside Macquarie who enjoyed the sessions we presented and participated in. By recording Andrew O’Hagan’s and William Dalrymple's talks, we have also added to our growing archive of exciting talks by writers and staff, all available as mp3 downloads from our website.

Resignation of Raewyn Twynham

After nearly four years working in the Division of Humanities, Raewyn has decided to resign in order to pursue other career opportunities. Her contribution to the Division has been extraordinary, both as my assistant and manager of the support staff, and in her more recent role managing facilities and outreach. Her personal warmth and intelligence, professionalism and integrity have set high standards in the Division. I know that you will all regret, as I do, her decision; but those of us who have attended her yoga classes will be aware of her great talent, and will understand why she is choosing to spend less of her time in  the fretful detail of the Division. Her last day working here will be 27 June.

Christie Slade, Dean of the Division of Humanities [08/06]

Workshop on Assessment and Feedback

The first learning and teaching professional development workshop of the year, on assessment and feedback, was held yesterday and was a great success. Nearly fifty people attended the ninety-minute session, and there was a particularly high turn out of new staff and sessional staff. There were many interesting ideas and suggestions from across the Division: Marcelle Freiman from English talked about ways of building reflective practice into creative writing assignments; Helen Muir from Japanese addressed the vexed question of assessing group work; Mary Spongberg from Modern History discussed a new Honours unit run jointly with the Media Studies Department that aims to train historians for work in journalism and the media, and in curatorial work, in addition to mainstream historical research. Sharon Fraser from CPD put current assessment methods into a framework of best practice and developing research. I played the role of resident skeptic. The program as a whole was conceived and organised by Marnie Hughes-Warrington. Some of the materials presented have been posted on the Teaching and Learning webpage, which can be accessed from the Staff Intranet. (Peter Goodall, Acting Dean of Humanities)

New Information on Returning Your Unit Grades

An updated version of the document "Returning Your Unit grades" and the Exam results cover sheet have been placed on the intranet (click forms and documents). Please take the time to have a look at both, as important changes have been introduced to the processes of recommending results that fall outside of both the primary and secondary guidelines. Marnie Hughes-Warrington [29/05]

RQF Trial Quality Portfolio Discussion - Friday 11am

This Wednesday the DVC Research Office plans to release the individual pre-populated portfolio templates to researchers who qualify for inclusion in the RQF trial with the University of Newcastle.

To assist staff preparing their statements and details, Associate Dean (Research), Professor Murray Goot will be holding a discussion this Friday 1st June from 11am in W6A127. All welcome. [29/05]

Divisional Workshop on Assessment and Feedback
Wednesday 30 May, 2–3.30pm, W6A 107

This year’s first special seminar on learning and teaching will focus on the topics of assessment and feedback. Using examples of assessment and feedback practices from Departments across the Division, we will explore the roles that assessment plays in student learning, the connections between assessment, unit objectives and outcomes and using assessment to foster student engagement and independent and creative thought. Updated information on submitting unit grades will also be distributed.

It is strongly recommended that ALL teaching staff participate in the workshop.
Attendance will be recorded for professional development purposes.

To register, please email Carlene Kirvan: carlene.kirvan@mq.edu.au by no later than Monday 3.00 pm.

Afternoon tea will be provided, and sessional staff who attend will be paid one tutorial hour (non-PhD, first tutorial rate).

If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact Marnie Hughes-Warrington (mhughesw@humn.mq.edu.au or Xtn. 8806).

ARC Linkage Grant for Harvey Broadbent and Duncan Waterson

Congratulations to Harvey Broadbent and Duncan Waterson of the Department of Modern History who have been awarded an ARC Linkage Grant of $422,000 over five years. Their linkage partners in the project are the Australian War Memorial and the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. The project is entitled "Completing the Gallipoli story: Researching Turkish Archives for a More Comprehensive History", and will investigate the vast collection of material about the Gallipoli campaign held in Turkish archives. These documents include battlefield reports and signals, War Ministry communications, records of prisoner interrogations, aircraft logs and diaries. The result will be a comprehensive history that will contribute to the deepening relationship between Australia and Turkey as we approach the centenary of the Campaign.
Click to view picture of Harvey in Gallipoli [23/05]

Visit of Vice-Chancellor and Provost to the Division

Thanks to all of you for making the visit of the Vice-Chancellor and the Provost to the Division on 17 May such a success. I have received a personal email of thanks from the Vice-Chancellor in which he notes that "the mood, the presentations and the food were all first rate". Many members of the Division played a part in this, but thanks are due especially to Marnie, who conceived the structure of the program and organised the display of teaching materials, to Martina and Stephanie who led presentations, to Raewyn who organised the catering, to Carlene who set out and cleared up the lunch, and to Tracy for providing the Australian History Museum as a venue. We were particularly well served by excellent work from the students involved.

Peter Goodall

Report from the Dean

20 May 2007

Last week was a very busy week for Humanities; I was on tenterhooks here in the Netherlands. Last Monday, Terry and Peter in person and I on the phone (at 7am local time) defended our budget predictions for the next three years. Very few faculties which teach languages are in good financial shape. We in Humanities are, at least for the next year. For this I have to thank you all – heads of department and Terry in particular. The bottom line is just that, a bottom line; we have improved research and teaching while staying in respectable financial shape.

Peter reports that the visit of the Vice Chancellor and Provost went extremely well. I gather that the showcasing of students was a success and the VC noted how good the atmosphere in the Division was. I must congratulate you all and Peter, Carlene, Stephanie and Martina in particular on the event.

I have been preoccupied with EU matters here, preparing a bid for the so called Framework 7 round  with 5 EU partner universities (an even longer shot than ARC); teaching a master level course and preparing the ‘summer’ school in Global Citizenship to be held here in February. The importance of internationalization has hit the continental European universities. Utrecht, like the other EU partner universities I am working with, are focusing on quality and international courses, just as we have tried to in Humanities. I will be in Brussels at the end of the month discussing some of these issues. Before that I will be giving 3 papers in San Francisco, where it is my last year as Chair of the Philosophy of Communication division of the International Communication Association. Something of a relief.

Christie

Humanity

Following from the Humanities HDR conference in February 2007 called “The Power of Perception,” organized by students from Macquarie and University of Newcastle, there is now an online journal Humanity. Colleagues are invited to visit http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/humanity/. Steve Townsend (Politics) has done a terrific job in getting all the papers revised, resubmitted and on the site, with technical support and wisdom from Xinni Du, and administrative help from Hannah Choi. With input from Maxine Brody in the Library, this represents an exciting new step in HDR training and support, which we hope we can develop further in the coming years. - Marea Mitchell, Director HDR [18/05]

Australian History Museum Exhibition - 6 pm 14th June

The Australian History Museum is hosting an Exhibition curated by Honours student Bridget Harris titled Chequered Knights. This exhibition is an examination of how the anti-police myth came to be created in Australia. It emerged as a founding legend of the colonial nation and has prevailed into the 21st century.

This exhibition will seek to examine why it has prevailed, and the possible historical precedents that have helped to shape the perception of police in contemporary Australian society.

The exhibition will be launched in the Australian History Museum, Building W6A, Level 1, Macquarie University, Thursday June 14th at 6pm. Please RSVP Tracy Sullivan on 9850 8870 or email tracy.sullivan@humn.mq.edu.au.

Centre for Cultural History Launch

Members of the Division of Humanities are invited to a launch event for the Centre for Cultural History,
Friday 25th May, 2.00 pm, W6A 127. For further details see the news and events / seminar page on the Humanities website: http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/newsandevents/20070516.htm. [16/05]

Outside Studies Program (OSP) Applications for 2008 due on June 1

Information about the OSP for Academic Staff is available at http://www.pers.mq.edu.au/PMH/19/1904.rtf
The interactive pdf form (which you can type on) is here: http://www.pers.mq.edu.au/forms/19/1904b.pdf
The full set of OSP forms are here: http://www.hr.mq.edu.au/forms/19/index.html

Staff are reminded that now the travel costs of OSP have been passed to Departments, it is Division policy that we will be unable to contribute toward travel for dependents.

Applications to Carlene Kirvan(carlene.kirvan@mq.edu.au)/ John Stephens (x 8748/ John.Stephens@humn.mq.edu.au) by June 1. [16/05]

Spanish Film Festival

The Spanish Film Festival will be starting Wednesday 9th May and will run until Sunday 20th May.

The organisers are showing an excellent collection of Spanish and Latin American films.

Please check the website for an entire program:http://www.spanishfilmfestival.com/ [14/05]

Official Display Areas on Corridors of W6B Levels 2 & 3

The corridors of W6B levels 2 & 3 have been designated as official display areas to be coordinated through the Australian History Museum.

If there are any Departments that have items they wish to display or exhibitions they would like to coordinate and display, please contact Tracy Sullivan at Tracy.Sullivan@humn.mq.edu.au.

Considering the high usage levels of these corridors they would make a wonderful vehicle to display the work of the varying Departments within the Division. A series of rotating exhibitions and displays in this area would be fantastic. [14/05]

2007 Gale Lecture In Numismatics

Associate Professor John Melville Jones (University of Western Australia), 2007 ACANS Senior Visiting Fellow, will present a lecture entitled:

'Making Money out of Making Money: How the Ancient Greeks did it'. A candid view of money and its role in and early Greek society. Were the Greeks simply in it for the money?

7pm Monday 7th May 2007

Seminar Room, Museum of Ancient Cultures, MQ building X5B (3rd floor).
To find us: http://www.bgo.mq.edu.au/

Reminder: Lunchtime Discussion for New Staff on Convening a Unit

IT Support and IT inventory

ALL requests for IT service must be logged with the IT Help Desk who will coordinate the workflow. This will assist us to work more efficiently and monitor the IT workload.

IT service requests are to be made by either telephoning Ext. 4357 (HELP) or on-line via http://www.its.mq.edu.au/operations/itsreq.html. For your convenience, the web link has been placed on the Humanities intranet page.

Do not directly approach PK or John Li, our new casual IT Support Officer, to do any jobs – no matter how small the task may be. Requests must go through the IT Help Desk who will co-ordinate the workflow.

Additionally, John Li will be undertaking the important task of updating our IT inventory list over the next few weeks. Consequently, John will visit each office to take note of equipment held and to run a program through each machine to record configuration and memory. This will enable us to monitor our current IT capabilities and identify future IT needs.

Email archiving training sessions

Archiving of all emails on Groupwise will take effect from Thursday 26th April.

Four sessions have been organised on email archiving.

These will be held in Room 107 on Friday 20th April at 10.00 am and 2.00 pm and Monday 23rd April at 10.00 am and 3.00 pm.

Please attend one of these sessions which will explain how the archive process works.

Humanities Groupwise Email

As the Humanities Email server is 99% full it is critical that the following action be taken:

1. Delete unnecessary emails; i.e. from your "mailbox", "sent items" folder and created folders.

2. Empty the trash folder. (Deleted emails go into "Trash" before they are permanently deleted.) To empty trash, go to "Edit" in the toolbar then select "Empty Trash" from the drop-down menu.

3. Attend a training session on archiving emails.

Listen to Minstrels of War with Harvey Broadbent on ABC Radio National, Saturday 21 April 5 p.m. and 3 p.m. 26 April.

Macquarie Research Development Grant Scheme Open - Deadline May 18

The University's MQRDG (Macquarie Research Development Grant Scheme) is open for applications. This is a once a year scheme, which provides the ideal springboard for those of you with research projects which you wish to develop into projects for which you will seek future external funding (such as ARC grants).

Funding rules and application forms are now available at http://www.research.mq.edu.au/researchers/funding/internal/mqrdgs

As you will see there, if you meet eligibility requirements, items such as teaching relief (which requires the endorsement of your HoD), research assistance, equipment, fieldwork-type travel, and in some instances funds for bringing in visiting researchers, is available up to a total of $50,000 over 2 years.

Julian Zipparo is available to help those of you preparing applications for submission prior to the May 18th deadline. Please feel free to email (julian.zipparo@humn.mq.edu.au), call (Ext 9663) or visit him (W6A135).
While he will endeavor to help everybody, chances are that he will be most able to assist those of you who get in prior to the final week before deadline.

In addition Prof. Murray Goot, Associate Dean (Research) is available for consultations at the following times (by appointment - email to Murray.Goot@humn.mq.edu.au)
Monday 30 April 10-12.00
Thursday 10th May, 2.00-5.00
Monday 14th May, 2.00-5.00

"Brecht & Co.: German-speaking playwrights on the Australian stage"

Ulrike Garde will talk about her monograph "Brecht & Co.: German-speaking playwrights on the Australian stage" at the State Library on 12 April, at 5.30 pm. She will be joined by Anna Funder and Andreas Jaeger in a discussion about "Literary Germany".

For further information send an email to ugarde@hmn.mq.edu.au.

Lecture by Dr Ted Higginbotham, Australian History Museum

In support of Archaeology Week May 21-27 the Australian History Museum will be hosting a lecture by Dr Ted Higginbotham, professional Historian and Archaeologist:

Satanic Mills - Aspects of the Industrial Revolution, Past, Present and Future

• Since we live in an age where the fruits of the Industrial Revolution are now changing our planet, can we learn from the past how to safeguard our future?
  
  
• Most people associate the Industrial Revolution with steam power and technological wonders, but this talk looks at one of the unintended consequences, slum development in Manchester by the 1840s.
  
  
• This paper will explore the developments in the cotton industry, the progress in enclosure and agriculture to explain why this happened. Along the way we will seek to alter the way historians and archaeologists explain change, and brush shoulders with people like Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, Friedrich Engels, William Blake, David Dale and Robert Owen.
  
  
• And if we can explain change in a way that is relevant today, how will that help us in the future?
  

Date & Time: Monday May 21 (1pm - 2pm)
Venue: Australian History Museum (Rm 127), Building W6A
RSVP: whilst the event is free places are limited so please contact Tracy Sullivan (Education Officer / Manager) to express interest in attending phone: 9850 8870 email: tracy.sullivan@humn.mq.edu.au

Notice for booking laptop and data projector for seminars

If you would like to book the laptop and data projector for seminars and meetings, please contact John Li (r323, x7003), the new IT support staff for Humanities, who will look after IT equipment lease and maintenance.

Please email John (John.Li@humn.mq.edu.au) the time and location for your seminar. Once your booking is confirmed, you will receive an email from John. At least one-day's notice in advance is needed. The same day return will be much appreciated.

Due to the new procedure of IT equipment lease, signature is required when leasing and returning the equipment.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to speak to John.

Bookmark the new Staff Intranet Page as your homepage

Please bookmark the new staff intranet page as your homepage, since the old one will no longer be updated from today (02/04/2007).

To set homepage, ---

For Mozella Firefox 1.5
Click on ‘Tools’ on the menu bar,
- choose ‘options’
- click on ‘General’
- paste ‘http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/mquonly’ into the homepage setup, or click on 'Use current page'
- click ‘OK’

For Mozella Firefox 2.0
Click on ‘Tools’ on the menu bar,
- choose ‘options’
- click on ‘Main’
- paste ‘http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/mquonly’ into the homepage setup, or click on 'Use current page'
- click ‘OK’

For Internet Explore
Click on ‘Tools’ on the menu bar,
- choose ‘Internet options’
- click on ‘General
- paste ‘http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/mquonly’ into the address of Home Page settings, or click on 'Use current page'
- click ‘OK’

For Safari
Click on ‘Safari’ on the menu bar,
- choose ‘Preferences’
- click on ‘General'
- paste ‘http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/mquonly’ into the address of Home Page settings, or click on 'set the current page'
- Close

If you experience any difficulties when setting up the homepage, please feel free to contact Xinni (xinni.du@humn.mq.edu.au or 7915).

Teaching and Learning

Teaching and Learning Lunchtime Discussion for New Staff: Convening a Unit
Are you a recent appointment? Do you have questions about managing undergraduate units at Macquarie? Bring your questions and lunch to the Modern History seminar room (end of 4th floor, Modern History end) on Monday 30 April at 1pm. We will discuss topics such as working with tutors and guest lecturers, keeping tabs on assessment and managing student concerns. A second session, on returning grades, will be held at the end of May. Enquiries: Marnie Hughes-Warrington (mhughesw@humn.mq.edu.au).


Teaching and Learning Seminar on Assessment and Feedback
The Teaching and Learning Committee is planning to hold a seminar later this semester on the topics of assessment and feedback. If you have good ideas in these areas, or know of someone who does, would you like to contribute? If so, please email Marnie Hughes-Warrington at mhughesw@humn.mq.edu.au

Congratulations to Peter Goodall

It is with a great sense of loss that I congratulate Peter Goodall on his appointment as professor and Dean of Arts at the University of Southern Queensland. As you all know, he is superbly qualified to take on such a role and is a very good Dean. He has very kindly agreed to act as Dean here for his last two months, in May and June, while I will be in Utrecht, pursuing the EU agenda, before he moves to Toowoomba.

Peter has been at Macquarie for many years and is uniquely broadly skilled. Indeed I do not believe that anywhere in the world could an academic beat his record of heading departments - English, Politics and International Relations and now Asian Languages. He has a deep understanding of Macquarie policy, from secondary guidelines through APC process and study patterns to disciplinary issues. He has been a crucial element in the success of the Division of Humanities, as I am sure you are all aware. And - most remarkably - he has remained a gentleman. He wears his expertise graciously.

Michael Roberts has agreed to take on the role of Deputy Dean for a year, while Marnie Hughes-Warrington will be Associate Dean Teaching and Learning.

I have already announced that Murray Goot is taking over the role of Associate Dean Research from Stephanie Lawson. Tom Hillard will continue to direct the CORE research area in Ancient History. We have a really active executive, for which I am most grateful. The year ahead is shaping up as even more demanding than last year, especially as Peter is abandoning us. We wish him well.

Christie