Public Lecture: 14th Oct - Prof Graeme Turner, 'Humanities and the University in Australia', University of Queensland [17.09.2010]
Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies Public Lecture: Prof Graeme Turner – Humanities and the University in Australia
Thursday 14th October @ 5.30pm-6.30pm
Social Sciences and Humanities Library Conference Room, Level 1 Duhig Building
The Humanities and the University in Australia
Professor Graeme Turner
Over the last two decades we have seen successive governments downgrade the value and importance of higher education in Australia. The Rudd government may have temporarily arrested the steady decline in the funding environment, but there remains much to be done to keep our higher education system operating at an international standard. A most worrying long term trend has been the steady instrumentalisation of higher education – a focus on vocational and professional outcomes as the primary purpose of its teaching programs, and a privileging of industry partnerships in research funding. The controversy over the restructuring of the Gillard government ministry is among the more recent indicators of this trend, as the initial removal of portfolio titles which explicitly mentioned education and research was seen as signalling an alarming narrowing of the presumed function of higher education. In this kind of context, the humanities disciplines have been especially disadvantaged. Many research funding programs and many of the national research strategies exclude the participation of the humanities, and the case for a humanities education is looking increasingly vulnerable as the broader function of education seems no longer to be recognised, let alone advanced, by government. In this lecture, drawing on many years of working between the university sector, government and other peak organizations dealing with the humanities, Professor Turner will discuss what he describes as a crisis for the humanities disciplines as they struggle to maintain their distinctive presence in Australian universities today.
About the Presenter:
Professor Graeme Turner is ARC Federation Fellow and Director of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland. His research has produced 21 books, and his work has been translated into 9 languages, but this lecture will draw upon his experience in dealing with government and the university sector as a representative of the humanities over many years. In recent years, Professor Turner was the chair of the trial ERA for Humanities and Creative Arts (2009), the chair of the National Collaborative Research Information Strategy Working Group for Humanities and Creative Arts (2008), a member of the ARC ERA Indicators Committee for Humanities and Creative Arts (2008), and the ARC College of Experts for the Humanities and Creative Arts (2002-2004). As President and, before that, Vice-President, of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (2002-2007), he has represented the humanities on the National Academies Forum, the Australian Research Information Infrastructure Committee, the National Curriculum and Achievement Standards Committee, and many other fora, such as the National Summit on National Research Priorities. He is one of only two humanities academics to have been appointed as a personal member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council since the Council was established during the Hawke government.
This lecture will be chaired by Professor Gay Hawkins, Deputy Director, CCCS, UQ. Members of the public are invited to attend this free lecture, after which light refreshments will be served.
Further information: Rebecca Ralph – ph. 3346 7407 or email on admin.cccs@uq.edu.au