School of Culture & Communication Cultural Studies

Cultural Studies postgraduate readings groups

The School of Culture and Communication features a number of reading groups designed to bring together postgraduates and staff with shared research interests and to foster an atmosphere of collegiality. Presentations range from more formally structured papers to open discussion of ideas and work in progress. Participation in reading groups, which can take differing forms, means that you can hone your presentation skills and also get feedback from fellow researchers.

Reading groups

Creative Writing Symposium

Wednesday 5 March 2008
6.00-8.00 pm
Rm 104, 1888 Building

The Symposium will be held the first Wednesday of every month.

Marion May Campbell, author of four novels and three plays, will be opening the Symposium for 2008.
Novels: Lines of Flight (1985); Not Being Miriam (1989), Winner of the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards in 1998; Prowler (1999) Shortlisted; and Shadow Thief (2006) Shortlisted. 
Plays: Dr Memory in the Dream Home (1990); Ariadne’s Understudies (1992); and The Half-Life of Creonite.

If you have any queries, or would like to present your work, please contact:
 Michelle Aungthin, m.aungthin@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au or Angelina Mirabito, a.mirabito@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

Cultural Studies Workshop

The Cultural Studies Workshop is an informal discussion group that meets fortnightly on Thursday evenings. The purpose of this workshop is to provide a conducive and supportive environment for critical discussion and friendly debate between staff and students about issues/concepts/methodologies relating to Cultural Studies as a contemporary research field. The format of the workshop is flexible but hopefully it will enable students to workshop their own ideas, present papers about their own research, obtain constructive feedback and be inspired by the research of their peers. This workshop is a fantastic opportunity to meet, interact and exchange opinions with others who are pursuing research projects in/related to Cultural Studies and also to be introduced to new ideas, approaches and material.

Contacts

Sufern Hoe, shoe@unimelb.edu.au and Audrey Yue, aisy@unimelb.edu.au

European Visual Culture Seminar

The European Visual Culture Seminar (established 1993) consists of staff and students from Melbourne, La Trobe and others universities, as well as interested members of the public, whose research and study interests cover a diverse range of European art history areas, from the Middle Ages to the 20th centuries. And Australian art topics are also discussed. The range of methodological interests is wide - from patronage to portraits, architecture to artists, landscapes to lunancy, and treatises to theory are discussed. Presentations to the group are held once a month.

The EVC prides itself on its approachable culture, that permits extended discussion of papers in a friendly and supportive environment in which scholars can have their understanding enriched by the perspective of others, as well as getting thoughtful and in-depth feedback on their research.

The EVCS meets once a month during semester, on a Monday evening at 6.45 pm, normally in Room 148 or 150 of the Elisabeth Murdoch Building, The University of Melbourne. Afterwards all are welcome to adjourn for dinner in Lygon Street. All are welcome to attend, including FAN members and members of the public.

Convenor

Mark Shepheard, shepm@unimelb.edu.au

Associate convenors

Assoc. Prof. David Marshall, david.marshall@unimelb.edu.au and Clare O'Donoghue, c.o'donoghue@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

For further information visit:

Literary Studies / Literary Theory Reading Group

Contacts

Nick Heron, heronn@unimelb.edu.au

Living Poetry Sessions

The Living Poetry Sessions (LiPS) are for those who enjoy poetry. Whether it's written by you or simply brought by you, it's all welcome. It is not the aim of LiPS to academically critique poetry, this is an anti-reading group in that sense. Hedonism not "head-in-ism" is the order of the sessions.

LiPS meets the first Tuesday of every month at 5pm at Deep Dish (behind the Graduate Centre) unless the venue is closed. In such a case, the alternative venue is Room G14 in the west wing of the Graduate Centre (in the UMPA offices).

Contacts

Tammi Jonas, t.jonas@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au and Hoa Pham, hoa@hoapham.net

Medieval Round Table

The Medieval Round Table is an interdisciplinary group that has been meeting regularly since 1996. Its members include staff, and past and present postgraduate and undergraduate students of medieval studies, from disciplines of English, History, Art History and Classics. The group meets at 6.00 pm on the first Monday of the month, over wine and snacks, and normally hears a paper from one of the members, or discusses a previously circulated research paper, or some secondary or critical reading.

Ask to be put on our email listserve to receive notices about meetings and other events.

The Medieval Round Table is organised by a committee:

Professor Stephanie Trigg
School of Culture and Communication
University of Melbourne
Email: sjtrigg@unimelb.edu.au

Dr Ann Sadedin (email Ann to be put on the Round Table listserve)
Information Services
University of Melbourne Library
Email: annsad@unimelb.edu.au

Dr Kathy Troup
Research Fellow
School of Historical Studies
University of Melbourne
Email: ktroup@unimelb.edu.au

Middle English Reading Group

This informal group meets every second Tuesday at 10:00 am, for an hour, in Stephanie Trigg's room (Room 205, West Tower, John Medley Building, near the general office) for coffee and poetry (and sometimes cake). All are welcome to come along, at whatever reading level you are. In first semester 2008 we are starting with the thirteenth-century romance, Havelok the Dane. Any edition will do, or there is an online version produced for TEAMS by Medieval Institute Publications at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/tmsmenu.htm. As always, we will go as slowly as we need, reading a few lines each and translating as we go. It will help if you get a chance to look at the text before we meet, but it doesn't matter if you can't, and it doesn’t matter if you have never studied medieval literature or languages before. If you would like to be emailed with details of further meetings of this group, please contact Stephanie Trigg

Contact

Prof Stephanie Trigg, sjtrigg@unimelb.edu.au

Modern and Contemporary Art Reading Group

The Modern and Contemporary Art Reading Group is open to staff and postgraduate students at The University of Melbourne. The emphasis is on critical reading and discussion of the best new scholarly writing on modern and contemporary art. Rather than deliver formal papers, participants will be asked to prepare a short paper articulating a position on the chosen reading for each session. A photocopy is lodged in the Elisabeth Murdoch Resource Library and a limited number of free copies are available folders outside the offices of the chairpersons. The group meets monthly. Venue and time are advised by chairpersons upon sign-up to the group's email list. Participants volunteer to take turns to present a brief summary and criticism of the chosen essays or book chapters.

Contacts

We ask interested students or staff to RSVP if attending so interest can be gauged.

Anthony White, a.white@unimelb.edu.au and Charles Green, c.green@unimelb.edu.au

Nineteenth-century Group

The nineteenth-century Group offers staff and students with an interest in nineteenth-century literature and culture the chance to meet in an informal setting The group meets once a month and while some sessions are devoted to discussions of nineteenth-century texts and/or criticism, other meetings involve a group member discussing and soliciting feedback on work-in-progress.

Contacts

Aaron Mannion, azinexile@gmail.com and Grace Moore, gmoo@unimelb.edu.au

Postgraduate Methodologies Seminar

This is an informal seminar that meets on a monthly basis. It is open to all postgraduate students students from the School of Culture and Communication. The aim is to provide a conducive space for the critical discussion of the specific methodologies that are implemented in postgraduate research. The format of the discussion is less formal than a conventional seminar and more open to feedback. In the second semester of 2007 the aim is to have four seminars, one on each of the following methods: archival research, textual analysis, qualitative interviews/fieldwork and visual analysis. In each seminar there will be two presenters from different programs in the School. By inviting presentations from different parts of the School it is hoped that this seminar will sharpen awareness of the similarities and differences of specific approaches and that it will lead to a closer engagement with interdisciplinarity.

Contacts

Nikos Papastergiadis, n.papastergiadis@unimelb.edu.au and Sufern Hoe, shoe@unimelb.edu.au

Technology and Culture Reading Group

The Technology and Culture reading group is an ongoing forum, offering the opportunity to discuss a wide range of theorists and texts that engage in cultural perspectives on technology, some of which have recently included Bruno Latour, Gilles Deleuze, Manuel DeLanda, Michel Serres, Matthew Fuller, Brian Massumi and N. Katherine Hayles.

The group meets at 4.00 pm each Friday, and welcomes regular or occasional attendance.

Contact

Michael Dieter, m.dieter@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

Theatre Studies Reading Group and Seminar Series

Theatre Studies fosters an active research culture among staff and postgraduate researchers. Our emphasis on the interface between theory and practice is reflected in research that encourages critical thinking and analysis about and by means of creative practice, including its forms, histories, locations, contexts and applications.

All School of Culture and Communication postgraduates are encouraged to participate in the seminars and reading groups. They are an integral part of the research experience and a primary means of communication among researchers. Seminar programs are arranged on a semester basis and there will be calls for papers at the beginning of each semester.

Contact

Denise Varney, dvarney@unimelb.edu.au

The Life of Mind Reading Group

This informal group meets monthly every second Tuesday from 3:30-6.:00 pm in the Foundation Life Members Room, (1888 Building), School of Graduate Research and is open to all postgraduate students and staff at The University of Melbourne.

In the first semester 2008 we are starting with Hannah Arendt’s The Life of the Mind, Volume one: Thinking. In March we will read Chapter III, 'What Makes Us Think?' and J Kristeva's reading of Arendt, 'The Dialogue of the Thinking Ego'. In April we read Chapter IV, 'Where Are We When We Think' and the corresponding commentaries by J Butler, S Benhabib and Iris Marion Young.

All texts will be available as .pdf documents to be emailed on request and as hard copies from the English library (Rm 216, West Tower, John Medley Building). The discussions and short paper presentations are followed by the screening of Tarkovsky’s films, Mirror (March) and The Sacrifice (April).

For more information on the coming sessions and suggestions, please contact the convenor, Simone Matthews at gsm@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au  or  visit http://www.student.unimelb.edu.au/gsm

The 2008 Man Booker Prize Reading Group

Sick of reading tortuous French theory? Remember what it's like to read a novel? For fun? Why not kick up your heels for a few months and read your way through the Man Booker Prize longlist. The reading group basically functions as an email list where people can swap mini reviews and (more importantly) lend each other books so the whole shebang becomes affordable. The group also plans to organise a social get together this year, where people can discuss the role of prizes/token exoticism/judges' class bias/the pitfalls of corporate sponsorship/the literary middlebrow etc.

The reading group operates from late July to early October. If you're interested in joining in, email Beth Driscoll, e.driscoll@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au.

All postgraduates in the School of Culture and Communication are also encouraged to participate in the School's Postgraduate Research Seminars

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