Literature, Gender and Politics in Australia: A Launch and Panel Discussion on Writing, Postcolonialism and Memory
Description
Literature, Gender and Politics in Australia: A Launch and Panel Discussion on Writing, Postcolonialism and Memory
Coinciding with the release by Netflix of Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career as well as a campaign for a statue in Canberra to honour pioneering feminist writer and reformer Catherine Helen Spence, this event will reflect on the work of some of Australia’s most important writers of the colonial and post-Federation eras. It will be a launch of John Uhr’s latest book, Promoting Postcolonial Australia: New Readings of Miles Franklin and Joseph Furphy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026) by CoPI Director Frank Bongiorno, followed by a panel discussion on the intersections of literature, politics, civics and memory in relation to Spence. Speakers are Professors John Uhr (ANU) and Kim Rubenstein (UC), and Dr Andrew Dillon (ANU), who will be in conversation with Dr Rachel Cunneen (UC).
Image below: 'I AM A NEW WOMAN' by Alison Alder
Exhibition at:
https://www.aph.gov.au/Visit_Parliament/Art/Exhibitions/I_AM_A_NEW_WOMAN
Agenda
- 5:15 pm
Joshua Black: Welcome and Acknowledgement of Country
- 5:20 pm
Frank Bongiorno to launch John Uhr, Promoting Postcolonial Australia
- 5:35 pm
John Uhr to reply
- 5:45 pm
Catherine Helen Spence: Brief presentations and panel
Kim Rubenstein, John Uhr and Andrew Dillon in conversation with Rachel Cunneen
- 6:30 pm
Q&A
- 6:45 pm
Refreshments
Lineup
John Uhr
John Uhr is Emeritus Professor of Politics, Research School of Social Sciences, ANU where he has taught since 1990. His most recent book Promoting Postcolonial Australia: new readings of Miles Franklin and Joseph Furphy was published by Bloomsbury Academic in New York in August this year.
Kim Rubenstein
Kim Rubenstein is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. Her 1995 article with Deborah Cass on women and the Australian Constitution was one of the first scholarly refereed pieces on gender and the Australian Constitution. Since 2021 she has been campaigning for a statue of Catherine Helen Spence to be placed diagonally opposite the statue of Andrew Inglis Clark on Constitution Ave.
Andrew Dillon
Andrew Dillon recently completed a PhD candidate working with Frank Bongiorno at ANU. His thesis is entitled ‘Citizenship is Rare’: Citizenship Education in Australia from 1880 to 2015. He has degrees in Psychology, Law and History and has written on legal ethics and alternative dispute resolution. During his four decades working for the Commonwealth, much of it as a barrister defending claims against the state, Andrew became fascinated with citizens’ relationship with government.
Rachel Cunneen
Rachel Cunneen graduated with a PhD from ANU in 2003. Her thesis was on the editing and censoring of Marjorie Barnard and Flora Eldershaw’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. She is currently a Senior Lecture in English and Literacy Education at UC and is responsible for teacher literacy in Initial Teacher Education (ITE). She has published research on mythopoetics in the English classroom, successful transition to tertiary education for students from a refugee background and, most recently, an Affiliated Schools project investigating media literacy for primary school students. Her great aunts and grandmother lived in the Swanbourne house built by Joseph Furphy in 1907: she still thinks of it as “her Nan’s house” but is glad the Fellowship of Australian Writers are still having yarns on the verandah.
Joshua Black
Dr Joshua Black is Lecturer in Australian Political Studies in the Vice-Chancellor's Centre of Public Ideas, University of Canberra.
Frank Bongiorno
Frank Bongiorno is Director of the Vice-Chancellor's Centre of Public Ideas and Donald Horne Professor of History and Public Ideas, University of Canberra.
Gallery
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity
