HPI Semester 2 Discipline Highlights 2018
Semester 2, 2018 has been another busy and successful semester for all of our disciplines - history, classics, religion and philosophy.
We include a summary of highlights below.
History
In August 2018 Associate Professor Chi-kong Lai organized a successful conference on the Sino-Japanese War, which was attended by a number of highly respected scholars from China, Taiwan and Japan.
Our DECRA Fellow, Dr. Mei-fen Kuo, left us in September at the end of her grant. She has since been awarded a one-year Taiwan Fellowship from the Taiwan government.
Dr. Jon Piccini, another postdoctoral fellow who has been with us for the last three years, has been successful in gaining a tenured position at the Australian Catholic University.
Dr. Michael Stewart has signed a contract to edit the 28-chapter Routledge handbook on Identity for Routledge, with contributions from the likes of Leonora Neville, Anthony Kaldellis, Ine Jacobs, Andy Merrills, and Jon Arnold. Dr. Michael Stewart first book the Soldier's Life (based on his 2012 UQ dissertation) was recently reviewed in Studies in Late Antiquity: http://sla.ucpress.edu/
Adjunct Professor Doug Munro has won the Wakefield Companion to South Australian History Essay Prize 2018 for the best essay on some aspect of SA history with his article on Hugh Stretton's history department: “The house that Hugh built: The Adelaide History department during the Stretton era, 1954-1966”.
Honorary Research Fellow Virginia Thorley has rewritten her chapter “Induced Lactation and Relactation” published in the Core Curriculum for Interdisciplinary Lactation Care. Burlington, Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett, 2018, pp. 303-315. The textbook title was changed and chapters have been substantially rewritten to meet the education needs to additional professions, such as paediatricians and obstetricians. Thorley also been awarded a' Certificate of Excellence in Reviewing' by Midwifery, an Elsevier journal.
Congratulations to Dr. Geoff Ginn for his work in organizing the performance of The Blood Votes, a play about the great conscription debates during WW1, which had its world premiere season from 7-11 November. The play was developed with the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble and was funded by a Centenary of Anzac grant from the Queensland State Government. The performances were a big success. They were well-attended throughout, with the first and last nights and the matinee session for high schools students all sell-outs. It is an excellent example of securing external funding, cross-disciplinary collaboration, public impact, and engagement. We also appreciate the involvement of Beck Hurst in bringing this project to fruition.
Congratulations to Associate Professor Kriston Rennie who has published not one, but TWO new books this year: Medieval Canon Law; and Freedom and Protection: Monastic Exemption in France, c.590-c.1100. Kriston has also been awarded an IASH Faculty Fellowship, which he will take up in Semester One 2019.
Dr. Karin Sellberg has won a HASS Teaching & Learning award. Also, Karin Sellberg’s edited collection, Gender: Time, has just been published. And Karin Sellberg and Elizabeth Stephens (in IASH) have just been awarded a Visiting Research Fellowship at the Powerhouse Museum (MAAS) in Sydney next year.
Dr. Jackie Ryan, a former PhD student supervised by Emeritus Professor Peter Spearitt, won the Queensland Premier's Award at the Queensland Literary Awards for her book, We'll Show the World: Expo 88.
Emeritus Professor Peter Spearritt has just published a new book, Where History Happened: The Hidden Past of Australia's Towns and Places.
Philosophy
Staffing
- Guillermo Badia will be joining HPI next year, replacing Toby Meadows in Logic.
- Andrew Crowden has just accepted the offer of a two-year contract.
Significant publications: books and collections
Books
- Marguerite La Caze’s book Ethical Restoration After Communal Violence was published by Lexington Press
2 collections
- Phenomenology and forgiveness edited by Marguerite La Caze, and published by Rowman and Littlefield.
- Philosophical Inquiry with Children: the development of an inquiring society, edited by Gilbert Burgh and PhD candidate Simone Thornton, published by Routledge.
Teaching news
- Joel Katzav and Peter Ellerton have successfully expanded SCIE1000 teaching in 2018 so that it is now delivered to more than 1300 students.
- Philosophy has also successfully implemented a new structure for Honours this year.
Grants, partnerships, conferences, workshops and engagement news
- UQCTP is renewing its 6th contract with the Department of Education for Solid Pahtways. And, has also received a Teaching Innovation Grant (2018-19): Integrating Digital Argument Mapping into Contemporary Pedagogies – to work with 6 UQ disciplines to embed argument mapping in classroom practice and assessment.
- In terms of Global Reach: the UQCTP is establishing partnerships with UCLA, Pepperdine and Simon University, and possibly India.
- The Aspiring Thinkers PD program –trained over 200 teachers in 2018 (800 in 2017)
- CT extension courses for years 4-10 showing clear relative gains on NAPLAN reading, writing and numeracy tests
Other news
Gil Burgh has been involved in a Student-Staff Partnership (funded $2400 for students) (2018):
Reconstructing environmental philosophy using Indigenous philosophy: rethinking curriculum, pedagogy and assessment
Participants: Simone Thornton (PhD student/tutor in PHIL2210: Environmental Philosophy), Mercedes Burton & Olivia Jordan (former PHIL2210 students), in consultation with Aboriginal philosopher Mary Graham (honorary A/Prof in POLSIS).
Challenges
In general, managing the demands of an expanding collaborative teaching program and our own teaching program.
As part of our science engagement we have been asked to contribute to the UQ2U development of Stat1201. At the moment this appears to include Julian writing, workshopping, rehearsing and then filming around 40 five minute videos.
Upcoming Events
The ASEMP
The ASEMP (Society for early modern Philosophy) conference hosted by HPI this November 2019, which may also be of interest to other members of the school, and link up with the Women and Power network.
Gil and others are working on a School ethics program as alternative to Religious Instructions – currently under discussion with inner Brisbane school (multicultural, including significant number of Indigenous students) for trial in 2019 with view to developing a possible future ARC linkage grant.
Joel ran a workshop jointly with climate scientists and philosophers from the University of Toronto - “Issues in the theoretical foundation of climate science: scientific and philosophical perspectives” and it is supported by the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (University of Toronto), the School of Environmental Science (University of Toronto) and the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry (University of Queensland).
Religion
After more than 17 years of research, Emeritus Professor Michael Lattke has published Aristides 'Apologie'.
Aaron Ghiloni presented a paper at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Denver, Colorado (17-20 November). The title of the paper was "Teaching Democracy by Teaching Supernaturalism," and was based on his experience of teaching RELN1510 History of the Supernatural.
Ryan Williams was awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Award for public engagement and societal impact at the University of Cambridge. Details in the link below. The citation reads:
Williams’ research on Islam and society works on the borderlines of religious studies and criminology, challenging practitioners and policy-makers to think holistically about social inclusion and the role of religion in contemporary society. His research has been incorporated into: guidelines on countering prison radicalisation, adopted by the European Commission in 2017; the evidence base for the Lammy Review on equality and implementing its recommendations; a course on the Good Life Good Society, adopted in 2016 in a high security prison.
Read the awards citations.
Tom Aechtner won the UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award (FREA). In 2018 Tom Aechtner began his three-year Westpac Research Fellowship, worth $449,097, and he also received a $40,000 2018 UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award (FREA) for the project "Religion and Vaccine Hesitancies in Australia: A Survey of Social Attitudes."
Studies in Religion major student Chara Scroope was awarded the Hugh Owen prize, a prestigious national essay prize for the best essay on a South Asian theme submitted to an Australian University.
Adam Bowles had an edited collection appear: Simon Brodbeck; Adam Bowles; Alf Hiltebeitel (Eds), The Churning of the Epics and Puranas: Proceedings of the Epics and Puranas Section at the 15th World Sanskrit Conference. Delhi: Dev Publishers & Distributors.
The Michael Lattke Prize for 2017 (note the year) was awarded to Georgia O’Byrne for her thesis 'Romanising Cybele The Reception, Integration and Socio-Religious Role of Cybele and her Cult in the Augustan and Julio-Claudian Periods'. Georgia was a student in Classics.
Studies in Religion major students Aaron Nayler and Chara Scroope were jointly awarded the 2017 Perennial Philosophy Prize supported by the Theosophical Society.
Classics
Classics and Ancient History has had a busy 2018 with Professor Alastair Blanshard on SSP and Long Service Leave all year, Ass. Prof Tom Stevenson on SSP in Semester Two, and in Semester one, Dr David Pritchard took up another Research Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Strasbourg, France. Thank you to our Casual Staff and Postgrads who have helped us to teach this year, Mr Denis Brosnan, Mr Murray Kane, and Ms Nile de Jonge, and our team of dedicated tutors. Dr Tim Hamlyn resigned his .5 position to take up a position teaching in a Secondary School in Melbourne half-way through Semester One: his place was taken by Mr Ryan Strickler at very short notice. We were then able to appoint Mr Strickler on a .5 position for Semester 2. Thank you Ryan, we really appreciated all your help this year.
In August, we were very happy to welcome Dr Duncan Keenan-Jones. Duncan has been appointed on a 4 year fixed term position in Roman history. Duncan’s research interests focus on the intersection between Roman society, environment and technology. Dr Anna Corrias also joined us in August on a UQ Research Development Postdoctoral Award. Anna is an Intellectual Historian who works on the reception of Plato, especially as his work was imagined in the Renaissance.
In February, Associate Professor Tom Stevenson was elected to the position of President of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies. David Pritchard was promoted to Associate Professor in November. While on his Strasbourg Fellowship, he convened the conference ‘The Athenian Funeral Oration: 40 Years after Nicole Loraux’, co-sponsored by, among others, ASCS, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the AAIA and the Aroney Trust. Ryan Strickler was awarded his PhD from Macquarie University in September for his thesis ‘Coping with Crisis: Invasion, Defeat, and Apocalyptic Discourse in Seventh-Century Byzantium’. He has recently been awarded an Ancient Cultures Research Centre Early Career Research Fellowship by Macquarie University. Congratulations to all.
In February, we hosted the 39th Annual Australasian Society for Classical Studies Annual conference (Jan 30th-Feb 2), convened by Prof. Tom Stevenson and Dr Amelia Brown. It was a very successful event enjoyed by all. Presenters not only came from Universities in Australia and New Zealand, but the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, China, Singapore and South Africa. The conference opened with the annual A.D. Trendall Lecture given by Ass. Prof. Anne Mackay (Auckland) on ‘The Force of Tradition in Early Greek Poetry and Painting’ and the keynote lecture was given by Professor Christopher Faraone (Chicago) who spoke on ‘Women and Children First: The Earliest Evidence for Ancient Greek Body Amulets.’ We would like to offer our thanks once again to The Friends of Antiquity, the Queensland Friends of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, and the Mare Nostrvm Ancient Historical Society Re-enactment Group for Sponsoring the Keynote Reception. Another highlight of the conference was the workshop on dealing with sexual harassment organized by the executive committee of AWAWS (Australasian Women in Ancient World Studies).
On Saturday March 24th, another successful Ancient History Day took place celebrating ‘Lesser Known Women of the Ancient World.’
We have had a number of interstate and international visitors enriching our seminar program and research culture. The 2018 R.D. Milns Visiting Professor was Josephine Quinn, Associate Professor, Faculty of Classics, Oxford and the Martin Frederiksen Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History. The 2018 Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens Visiting Professor was Prof. Antonis Kotsonas (University of Cincinnati). Other visitors included Professor Stephen Harrison (Oxford University), Professor Ray Laurence (Macquarie), Dr Janice Crowley (University of Tasmania, Dr Claudia Sagona (University of Melbourne), Dr Kosta Simic (Australian Catholic University)
The R.D. Milns Antiquities Museum has also had another successful year. As of November 30th, we have had 9261 visitors, including 1548 secondary school students and 1580 UQ students. In Semester One, we opened our exhibition ‘Minting History: How Change in Coinage helps us to understand the Ancient Past’ (running until Feb 2019), and closed our very successful major exhibition ‘Why Citizenship? Stories from Athens and Rome’ in May with a very thought-provoking public lecture by Dr Gil Burgh on ‘Thinking About Democracy: Athenian Democracy and its Relevance to Contemporary Debates on Democracy.’ In June, we opened our major exhibition for 2018-2019 ‘Dionysos: Portrait of a God’. Dr Gillian Shepherd (La Trobe and Director of the Trendall Centre) delivered our second public program in October ‘Exploring the Influence of Dionysos: The Tomb of the Diver, The Symposion, and the Afterlife in Southern Italy.’
I am also very pleased to report that Ms Samantha Levick, who recently completed her Honours Year in Ancient History with an extremely impressive First Class Honours, will be our 2018 Valedictorian at Graduations in September. Congratulations Samantha!
Research Higher Degree Completions
Rachel Dowe, MPhil ‘Gods on the Comic Stage’ (Principal Advisor: Dr David Pritchard, Associate: Dr Amelia Brown)
Dustin McKenzie, MPhil ‘Sicilian Landscape as Contested Space in the First Century BC: Three Case Studies. (Principal Advisor: Ass. Prof. Tom Stevenson, Associate: Dr Caillan Davenport)
John McTavish MPhil ‘From Babylon to Ipsus: the early life and career of Seleucus Nicator, 315–301 B.C.E’ (Principal Advisor: Dr Amelia Brown, Associate: Dr Andrew Collins)
Grants
Dr Janette McWilliam Project Team Member, UQ Teaching Innovation Grant: 2019-2022
‘Microcredentialing, Digital Badges and the Development of Effective Transdisciplinary Professional Skills Across Large Degree Programs’ with Prof. Andrew Fairbairn (Project Leader), Dr Glenys McGowan, Ass. Prof. Patrick Moss, Prof. Linda Cheshire, Dr Deanne Gannaway, Mr Chris Frost.
Publications
Blanshard, A. 2018. ‘Hercules: The Mythopoetics of New Heroism,’ in A. Augoustakis and S. Raucci (eds.) Epic Heroes on Screen, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 28-42.
Brown, A. 2018. Corinth in Late Antiquity. A Greek, Roman and Christian City (Library of Classical Studies 17), London: L.B. Tauris.
Corrias, A. 2018. ‘Plotinus’s Language of Seeing: Marsilio Ficino on Enneads V.3, V.8, and III.,’ International Journal of the Classical Tradition: 1-19.
Corrias, A. 2018. ‘When the Eyes are Shut: The Strange Case of Girolamo Cardano's "idolum" in Somniorum Synesiorum Libri III', Journal of the History of Ideas, 89.2:179-197.
Corrias, A. 2018 ‘ “Dii Medioxumi” and the Place of Ancient Theurgy in the Philosophy of Henry More”, in D. Hedley and D. Leech (eds.) Revisioning Cambridge Platonism, Cambridge, 24-39.
Keenan-Jones, Duncan, 2018, co –author with Atsawawaranunt, K., Comas-Bru, L., Amirnezhad Mozhdehi, S., Deininger, M., Harrison, S.P., Baker, A., Boyd, M., Kaushal, N., Ahmad, S.M., Ait Brahim, Y., Arienzo, M., Bajo, P., Braun, K., Burstyn, Y., Chawchai, S., Duan, W., Hatvani, I.G., Hu, J., Kern, Z., Labuhn, I., Lachniet, M., Lechleiter, F.A., Lorrey, A., Pérez-Mejías, C., Pickering, R., Scroxton, N., SISAL Working Group Members, The SISAL Database: A Global Resource to Document Oxygen and Carbon Isotope Records from Speleothems. Earth System Science Data Discussions 1–64. doi: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2018-17
McWilliam, J. 2018. ‘Vitalis or Vitalinis? A Roman Grave-Marker for an Eight-Year-Old Girl,’ Antichthon 52: 117-31.
Pritchard, D.M. 2018. Athenian Democracy at War, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Strickler, R.W. 2018. ‘Dreaming of Treason: Portentous Dreams and Imperial Coups in Seventh-century Byzantine Apocalyptic Discourse”, in B. Neil and E. Anagnostou-Laoutides (eds.), Dreams, Memory and Imagination in Byzantium, Byzantina Australiensia 22. Leiden: Brill, 118-135.