News archive 2007
Also available: 2008 news archive
Postgraduate opportunity: Robert Alfred McPherson Scholarship
The School of Historical Studies is offering a PhD scholarship to undertake a study of Australian children of men who returned from World War 2. It will be an oral history based on interviews of children born during the war and will examine the impact of the war on family dynamics during the post-war period.
The successful applicant must have completed an honours degree in History (H2A or higher) and meet the entry requirements for PhD study in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Melbourne. Formal expressions of interest, including a letter of application, an academic transcript, a curriculum vitae, two academic referee reports and a statement of interest in this topic should be sent to:
Professor Joy Damousi
Head, School of Historical Studies
The University of Melbourne
Parkville 3010, Australia
OR email: j.damousi@unimelb.edu.au
Applications close: Friday 28 September 2007
The Goddess Grins
Women in Melbourne 1930s - 1950s: issues of work, play and sexuality
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
© Barbara Tucker
The Australian Centre's Kate Darian-Smith will speak at the Heide Museum of Modern Art's feature event, The Goddess Grins, this month.
In conjunction with The Goddess Grins: Albert Tucker and the female image (until 28 October 2007), Heide Public Programs present this special feature event.
Albert Tucker's portrayal of women in his art has resulted in some of the most poignant and radical iconographical images in Australian modernism. His investigatins of the female form are complex, referencing the maiden, matriarch, prostitute, goddess and women as the architects of moral and social values. Conceived during the WWII period, his confronting images of the female can be seen as symbolic of society under pressure.
A panel of speakers, led by Dr Sheridan Palmer, will explore the wider social context of Albert Tucker's paintings. How did social forces and a new spirit of modernism shape the role of women in Melbourne during the inter-war and post-war years? What effects did war and its aftermath have on women's self-image, their sexual identity and participation in the workforce?
Speakers:
Dr Sheridan Palmer, Guest Curator and Art Historian
Professor Kate Darian-Smith, Australian Centre, University of Melbourne
Helen Ferber, former employee of the Australian Department of Information Listening Post during WWII
Nanette Carter, Design Historian and Lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology
Date: Saturday 23rd June 2007
Time: 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: Sidney Myer Education Centre
Bookings: (+61 3) 9850 1500