POSITION - Academic Expert on Multicultural Media & Recycling Appointed Visiting Professor of Australian Studies, University Of Tokyo [03.04.2009]
The Centre for Pacific and American Studies (CPAS) at the University of Tokyo hosts an annual Visiting Professor in Australian Studies at their Komaba Campus, Tokyo. Professor Gay Hawkins has been appointed to the position for 2009-10, and will take up the Visiting Professorship in October.
Professor Kate Darian-Smith (University of Melbourne), Chair of the selection panel, says the position plays a ‘vital role’ in strengthening academic relations between Australia and Japan, ‘but also,’ she argues, ‘it contributes more broadly to the exchange of ideas and understanding between our two cultures.’
Professor Hawkins is a leading cultural studies academic based at UNSW in the School of English, Media and Performing Arts. Her most recent books are The Ethics of Waste: How we Relate to Rubbish (2006) which was on the Gleebooks non-fiction bestseller list for two months in 2007, and, co-authored with Ien Ang and Lamia Dabboussy, The SBS Story: The Challenge of Cultural Diversity (2008).
Professor Hawkins says that the position offers a wonderful opportunity to include Japan in her current study of bottled water, by analysing changing dynamics of water use and their impacts on domestic practices. In Japan Professor Hawkins also plans to extend her research into the media and cultural diversity, and the relationship between environment and everyday life.
InASA, the peak global Australian Studies organisation, manages the selection process for the Visiting Professor on behalf of the Australia-Japan Foundation. The Australia-Japan Foundation has been crucial in offering financial and administrative support for the position. Applications for the 2010-11 Professorship will open later this year.
Further details about the position can be found at:
http://www.ajf.australia.or.jp/english/
Contact for interviews:
Professor Kate Darian-Smith The Australian Centre School of Historical Studies The University of Melbourne T: +61 3 8344 7232 E: k.darian-smith@unimelb.edu.au
Professor Gay Hawkins School of English, Media and Performing Arts UNSW T: +61 2 9385 6800 E: g.hawkins@unsw.edu.au