Esteemed academic, author and researcher, Associate Professor Anita Harris, will be the keynote speaker at Griffith University’s Fifth Annual Cultural Research Postgraduate Symposium.
The Monash University-based Australian Research Council Future Fellow will return to Queensland to address the symposium at Griffith’s Gold Coast campus on November 1.
Hosted by the Griffith Centre for Cultural Research and the School of Humanities, this year’s symposium is entitled Identities, Ideas, Ideologies.Capstone speaker will be Dr Inger Mewburn, Director of Research Training at the Australian National University and editor of the popular blog The Thesis Whisperer.
Two of the symposium’s organisers, PhD candidates Belinda Hilton and Bob Buttigieg, said the annual event was run by postgraduates for postgraduates.
“It’s proved to be an ideal forum for networking, for bringing down the walls between research disciplines and encouraging the sharing of ideas across platforms,” said Belinda, who earned her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Contemporary Arts and is now doing a PhD in Creative Writing.
Bob, who graduated with a BA in Sociology, Cultural Studies, Media and Communications and is now doing his PhD in Sociology and Cultural Studies, said the notion of identity was common to most PhD fields.
“Ideas and ideologies play roles across many areas, but identity is particularly significant,” he said.“For example, there’s sporting identity, national identity, ethnic identity, youth identity, sexual identity, music and identity, historical identity, online identity, academic identity and even one’s identity as a researcher.”
Associate Professor Anita Harris returned to Melbourne’s Monash University in 2011 after completing a Research Fellowship at the University of Queensland, where she served as Deputy Director at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies.
Her research interests include youth identities and cultures, citizenship, participation and new politics, and globalisation and multiculturalism. She is a leader in the interdisciplinary field of girls’ studies.
Her latest book is Young People and Everyday Multiculturalism and she is currently undertaking two ARC-linked projects, Young People and Social Inclusion in the Multicultural City and The Civic Life of Young Australian Muslims: Active Citizenship, Community Belonging and Social Inclusion.
While the November 1 symposium is mainly for Higher Degree by Research students, interested staff and undergraduate students may attend.
To register for the free event, go to http://gccrpostgraduatesymposium.tumblr.com/
WHAT: Fifth Annual Cultural Research Postgraduate Symposium — Identities, Ideas, Ideologies
WHEN: November 1, 2013, from 9.30am
WHERE: Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Ground floor G16 (Clinical Sciences 2).