Newsletter 8 October 2009

State of the Industry Update
Annual Meeting Update
Report on Remembering Eve Sedgwick
Call for expressions of interest
Call for Papers

State of the Industry Update

We are finalising some last-minute changes to the programme, which you can find online:

The conference is looking even bigger than we planned, and have already had to move to a larger venue. We are still in the ScientiaBuilding at UNSW, but now in a larger theatre. I should acknowledge the help of James Donald and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at UNSW in securing us this venue, and paying for its hire.

We have also designed a poster, a copy of which will be sent to you soon: we hope you’ll put it somewhere prominent and tell all your colleagues about the conference. Shortly we will be contacting a number of people with personalised invitations, including people who have some connection with the CRN through collaborative projects. If you haven’t already, please send me the names of people who you have worked with on CRN projects, or who have attended a workshop you have organised. We don’t want anyone to feel they’ve been overlooked.

Annual Meeting Update

Like the conference, the Annual Meeting is exceeding our attendance expectations. There are very people who are unable to make it, so it should be a great send-off for the old CRN, and a terrific baptism for the new one.

One problem your enthusiasm for the meeting has created is that we have unexpectedly overflowed the hotel! We have taken out a small block-booking at the Coogee Sands Hotel, which is only a few 100 metres from the CrownePlaza. The main difference between the hotels is that Coogee Sands has some smoking rooms, unlike the Crowne, and we have a couple of people staying there already, for that reason. If you would prefer the Coogee Sands for this, or any other reason, please let Fergus know. Otherwise, we’ll put people into the Crowne on a first come-first served basis. So if you haven’t told Fergus of your accommodation requirements, please do so as soon as possible.

The draft program for the meeting currentlylooks like this:

Wednesday 25 November 2009

9:30am – 10:00am: Morning Tea

10:00am – 12:00noon: Graeme’s welcome; Business meeting; and node reports

12:00noon – 1:00pm: Lunch

1:00pm – 3:00pm: Networking sessions

3:00pm – 3:30pm: Afternoon Tea

3:30pm – 4:30pm: Networking sessions

4:30pm – 5:30pm: Convenor’s address: thanks and acknowledgements

5:30pm: Drinks

7:30pm: Dinner

Danny Miller Tour

Thank you to everyone who expressed an interest in hosting Danny in November next year: its good to see such enthusiasm for a visiting scholar. Unfortunately, Danny’s time commitments mean that he will be unable to travel to everywhere we would like, but at this stage it looks like he will be presenting lectures and seminars in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne, as well as having “open door” sessions with postgrads and staff, and we are hoping to have a masterclass, probably in Brisbane.

When things have settled a little, I will get in touch with everyone who contacted me, and outline the broad shape of the tour.

Report on Remembering Eve Sedgwick: The beginnings, present and future of queer theory, University of Sydney, August 28, 2009

The CRN ECR and Identities Nodes recently sponsored interstate postgraduate students to attend a special seminar dedicated to the life and work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. The event was organised by Melissa Gregg at the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney. The day consisted of a morning “teach-in” style workshop for local and interstate postgrads who came together to learn more about the significance of Sedgwick’s writing in an historical and political context. The conversation also extended to an account of the disciplinary formations influenced by queer theory. The group of 25 students and gender studies staff pooled knowledge about the conceptual territory Sedgwick’s career covered and also shared ideas being explored in current research projects. This vibrant and informative start to the day gave students an important critical overview leading in to the afternoon session.

The second half of the day was a formal public seminar featuring four invited guests. The papers were:

  • Melissa Hardie (USyd) ‘Extinction of the Closet: Inside Lindsay Lohan’
  • Elizabeth Stephens (UQ) ‘The Masturbating Girl: Public Confession and/as Sexual Practice’
  • Anna Gibbs (UWS) ‘At the Time of Writing’
  • Elizabeth McMahon (UNSW) ‘The Proximate Pleasure of EveSedgwick’

The quality line-up drew an impressive crowd of over 100 attendees from across the Sydney region, as well as visitors from Wollongong, Canberra and regional NSW universities. The large number of young scholars at the event and the successive generations of feminist and queer scholars and activists present were strong evidence that the legacy of queer theory and scholarship is alive and well. Following an entertaining and often moving tribute provided by the speakers the event concluded with drinks and Professor Meaghan Morris launching the Gender and Modernity Research Group in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies.

Call for expressions of interest

The Listening ProjectSymposium: Listening Futures

MacquarieUniversity

7 December 2009

This is an invitation to participate in the capstone symposium of The Listening Project, a twoyear

program of collaboration funded by ARC Cultural Research Network, that has

generated discussion of and publication about the practices, politics and ethics of the cultural

literacy of 'listening'.

We will hold a series of panels over the course of the day that will pick up on three key

themes that have been identified by researchers over the last two years. Separate panels will

focus on 'Labour and Listening', 'Recognition' and 'Media Practices’.

For this particular event, we have invited Dr. Kate Lacey, from the Department of Media and

FilmSchool of Humanities at the University of Sussex to act as a discussant for the day.

The meeting will bring together researchers working in this area in a major concluding event.

The symposium will enhance the focus of previous workshops by linking current research on

media, sound and cultural practices across Australian institutions within common

frameworks of inquiry.

By grounding analysis of listening through open panel discussion towards a set of key

questions, the symposium will focus on three critical themes of analysis: labour, recognition,

and media practice. (See below). An emphasis on discussion rather than prepared papers will

provide an opportunity for individual research agendas of participants to be articulated with

wider disciplinary and theoretical problematics. Ongoing debates and future agendas for

research will be explored.

Who can participate?

The symposium is free, but we only have a limited amount of places available due to

constraints on the venue and catering. Please register before the closing date to ensure your

place.

What do I need to do to attend?

If you are interested in attending the Symposium, please send a brief bio and note (max 1

page) outlining your research interests and how they relate to the topic of the symposium.

Is there any support available for travel to Sydney?

There is a small amount of funding available for interstate travel, particularly for

postgraduates and early career researchers. The funds will be allocated on a competitive

basis. Please indicate in your EOI if you are interested in applying for funding.

Deadlines

EOI with ECR/PG funding application to: by October 16, 2009.

EOI to attend without funding application to: by November 7, 2009

Call for Papers

The First Annual Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand(PopCAANZ) will be held June 30, July 1, 2 in Sydney.
This interdisciplinary and transnational conference is accepting proposals on ALL aspects of popular culture including but not limited to:

  • Graphic Novels, Comics and Visual Cultures (Dr Paul Mountfort )
  • Popular Design (Dr Derham Groves, )
  • Popular Romance Studies (Dr Glen Thomas, )
  • Popular Fiction (Dr Toni Johnson-Woods, )
  • Film and TV (Dr Rebecca Beirne, )
  • Fashion (Dr Vicky Karminas, )
  • Popular Science (Dr William Lott, )
  • Linguistics (Alan Libert, )
  • Queer Studies (Dr Samar Habib, )
  • Journalism and Popular Culture (Dr John Cokely, )
  • Popular History (Dr Hsu-Ming Teo, MacquarieUniversity)
  • Food Studies (Toni Risson, )
  • Philosophy and Popular Culture
  • International Popular Cultures
  • IT, Gaming, New Media, Internet and Popular Culture
  • Popular Performance/Entertainment;
  • Popular Music
  • Indigenous Cultures
  • Green Issues and Popular Culture
  • Writing (Creative/Non Fiction)
  • Libraries, Archives, Museums and Popular Research
  • Sports and Popular Culture

Proposals for panels are encouraged.
Planned events include a poster session (especially aimed at postgrads and undergrads but open to all) and a Wine and Sign cocktail hour. Please mark abstracts Poster Session and send to . The Wine and Sign cocktail hour will include editors from academic and non-academic publishers.
The deadline for submissions is 30th November, 2009. Abstracts (max 200 word) should be sent as e-mail attachments to the area chairs, if no area chair is designated please forward to Dr Toni Johnson-Woods, . Include your name, affiliation, mailing and e-mail address, and the title of your presentation. E-mails should be entitled: PopCanz Conference. If you do not receive an acknowledgment within one week, please resend your submission. Accepted presenters will be notified via e-mail by January 2010.
A selection of papers from the conference will be solicited for publication in the association’s (new) journal. Additional information will be available on the PopCanz blogsite: A website is forthcoming.

ARC Cultural Research Network