Lecture on the August Offensive
The next Global Dunedin lecture will take place this Sunday, August 9th, in the Toitu Auditorium, beginning at 2pm. It is being delivered by Seán Brosnahan, a well-known local historian and curator, who will discuss the fighting at Gallipoli that came to a thundering crescendo in the August Offensive. Its failure, despite the heroic roles played by the Otago Infantry and the Otago Mounted Rifles, was the death knell of the Dardanelles campaign. Come along to hear an excellent public speaker mark the 100th anniversary of that ill-fated offensive.
Visiting Scholar
Associate Professor Tamara Loos (Cornell University, New York) is visiting the University of Otago this week. While here she will give a public lecture on Tuesday 4th August on the topic of Biography and Islam in Thai history. This talk will tae place at 5pm in the Quad 1 lecture theatre, and all are welcome. Click here for further information about this talk. While in Dunedin Associate Professor Loos will give a research seminar in the Department of History and Art History Seminar Room (second floor Arts Building, room N8), beginning at noon on Wednesday 5th August. Her talk will will explore the social history of nineteenth and early twentieth century Siam through the lens of a prince, reluctantly drawn into rebellion. Please come along!
Super-Fabulous News
The Centre is absolutely delighted to hear that its Director, Professor Tony Ballantyne, has been elevated to the position of Pro-Vice Chancellor Humanities at the University of Otago. We’d like to extend our congratulations to Tony and wish him all the best in his new role, which begins on 1 October 2015. Tony’s new role will bring new challenges, but we are pleased he will remain a vital part of the Centre’s leadership and continue to participate in the Centre’s activities. YAY TONY!!!
Tony welcoming participants to the recent “Kalimpong Kids” reunion, November 2014.
Colonial Attritions: State Violence and Social Forgetting
Centre member Associate Professor Annabel Cooper is presenting at the Colonial Attritions: State Violence and Social Forgetting research symposium next week. She will speak on her current research, which is concerned with how the New Zealand Wars are publicly remembered, particularly through film. The research symposium will take place on Wednesday 5th August in Seminar Room 3, Central Library. All are welcome. Registration is $5 for students/unwaged and $10 for academics/waged, payable by cash on the day. You can find out more about the symposium, the programme of speakers, and read their abstracts in the Colonial Attritions booklet (attached). A public lecture by Professor Sherene Razack (University of Toronto) complete’s the days proceedings. This is a free lecture and all are welcome to attend.
The Lives of Colonial Objects
On the evening of 21st July, Otago University Press launched The Lives of Colonial Objects co-edited by Annabel Cooper, Lachy Paterson and Angela Wanhalla. This sumptuous, beautifully designed book of 50 short essays is the outcome of the Centre’s inaugural conference, Colonial Objects, held at Toitū Otago Settlers Museum in February 2013. Kāi Tahu kaumatua Edward Ellison and Emeritus Professor Erik Olssen co-launched the volume before a large crowd, including a number of the contributors and friends. Now that the book is in the world (and reasonably priced) we encourage you all to buy it!
L to R: Rachel Scott (publisher, Otago University Press), Lachy Paterson, Angela Wanhalla, Annabel Cooper (editors), and Fiona Moffat (designer, Otago University Press).
Hocken Lecture
The Centre is delighted to hear that this year’s Hocken Lecture will be given by Professor Tony Ballantyne, the Centre’s director and the Head of the Department of History and Art History at the University of Otago. He will talk on ‘Archives, Public Memory and the Work of History’ in the Burns 1 Lecture Theatre, 95 Albany Street, on 6 August, beginning at 5.30pm. This is a free event and all are welcome.
A World History of Bluff
Michael Stevens, one of the Centre’s members, has had his research on the world history of Bluff featured on the University of Portsmouth’s Port Towns and Urban Cultures Project website recently. This site features research that fits the research group’s goals of “furthering our understanding of the social and cultural contexts ports across the globe from the early modern period. It recognizes the importance of ports as liminal places where marine and urban spaces converge, producing a unique site of socio-cultural exchange that reinforced and challenged identities, perceptions and boundaries.” It’s great to see Mike’s fantastic project on Bluff and its port getting international coverage. Well done Mike!
Finding India in Dunedin
Dr Jane McCabe will give a talk today on Dunedin’s Indian connections, specifically Kalimpong, where Dr. Graham operated an orphanage for Anglo-Indian children. Some of these children were sent to Dunedin in the early decades of the twentieth century. In the afternoon’s talk Jane will discuss the pathways and fate of these children once in New Zealand. Everyone is welcome to attend this free public event, which begins at 2pm in Toitu’s Auditorium.
New Zealand’s Sexual Histories
Over the past two days a group of scholars have been talking about sex, and New Zealand’s sexual histories in particular. Angela Wanhalla and Chris Brickell, both Centre members, co-convened this event, funded by a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship and the Centre for Research on Colonial Culture, which brought together 10 scholars for a pre-read workshop at St Margaret’s College on 1 & 2 July. Participants discussed the benefits and limitations of demographic approaches to the study of sexuality (Hera Cook), New Zealand’s anti-masturbation movement (Lindsay Watson), the Health Department’s sex education pamphlets (Claire Gooder), non-monogamy and swinging in post-war New Zealand (Lily Emerson), sexuality and morality in colonial Otago (Sarah Carr), sexuality and infertility (Jane Adams), intimacy, desire and friendship in young people’s diaries (Chris Brickell), and childbirth on migrant ships (Ali Clarke). Professor Matt Cook (Birkbeck) also participated in the workshop, in addition to giving a beautiful and elegant public lecture based on his latest book, Queer Domesticities: Homosexuality and Home Life in Twentieth-Century London (Palgrave, 2014). A special issue of the New Zealand Journal of History based on the papers presented at the workshop will appear in 2016. And we highly recommend you go listen to Professor Matt Cook talk about his new book at Victoria University of Wellington on Monday 6 July. Find out more about his talk here.
Back: Hera Cook, Claire Gooder, Lily Emerson, Jane Adams, and Lindsay Watson. Front: Angela Wanhalla, Matt Cook, Chris Brickell and Ali Clarke.
