Centre for 21st Century Humanities Newsletter

WEB VERSION

July 2018

Welcome to an update on the recent activities and achievements of the Centre for 21st Century Humanities (C21CH).

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Professor Hugh Craig caps a 40 year career as Professor Emeritus

Director of the Centre for 21st Century Humanities, Professor Hugh Craig is retiring after a stellar 40 year career. A pioneer of the digital humanities in Australia, a generous teacher and mentor and one of the University of Newcastle’s most respected leaders, the University Council has conferred the title of Professor Emeritus on Craig as a most fitting recognition of his outstanding academic achievements and record of service.

Professor Craig is one of the University’s most highly regarded scholars and a world leading expert in stylometry, the statistical analysis of literary stylistics. His research involves a unique mix of literary studies, statistics, linguistics and computer science, and has defined the field.

Conference delves into culture of surveillance of sexualities

What has happened over the past 70 years that has led to today’s cultures of surveillance of gay and lesbian sexualities? That’s the question that will be dissected by world-renowned historians at a conference to be held at NeW Space on 12 – 13 September 2018.

Surveilling Minds and Bodies: Sexualities, Medicine and the Law in Australasian Contexts provides a historical context (1950-present) for the current Australasian events surrounding, and responding to, the surveillance of sexualities, particularly gay and lesbian sexualities. The conference is open to both academics and community members. Registrations for the conference are open.

Blacksmith Repair Day pushes back against consumer culture

Community engagement, environmental sustainability and a push to change consumer culture were the results of the inaugural Blacksmith Repair Day. Watch a video of the day here.

Held on June 16, the repair day is a startup supported by the Centre for 21st Century Humanities. The idea was first pitched at the Humanities Startup Workshop last year by artist blacksmith Will Maguire who was awarded seed funding for his idea. Over 200 Hunter Valley locals attended the day and had their metal items repaired by volunteer blacksmiths.

Exhibition focuses on the long shadows cast by the Great War

5 September – 11 November, The University Gallery

This fascinating and confronting exhibition will highlight lesser-known experiences of the First World War in the Middle East that continue to cast long shadows. Featuring texts, music, and evocative photographs, the exhibition Long Shadows: The Great War, Australia and the Middle East will lead the visitor from Australia to Gallipoli, Asia Minor and Northern Syria, from 1915 to 2018.

The exhibition is a teamwork initiated by ARC Future Fellow, Associate Professor Hans Lukas Kieser, a historian of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire marked by the First World War. Dr Kate Ariotti, whose research focuses on Australian war history, brings to the exhibition the Australian perspective of Gallipoli. Other members of the preparatory team are Art Curator Gillean Shaw and doctoral student Caroline Schneider.

“Most Australians are familiar with Gallipoli and the Anzac story. The Armenian Genocide is less known, yet it had implications that are still being felt today in the Middle East," Associate Professor Kieser said.

Napoleon’s last days examined in new book

Director of the Centre for the History of Violence and member of the Centre for 21st Century Humanities, Professor Philip Dwyer has published a third and final book in his series looking at the life, death and legacy of French military leader, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon: Passion, Death and Resurrection, 1815-1840 delves into the fall and exile of Napoleon and the cult-like following that developed after his death.

New book on the father of modern Turkey, Talaat Pasha

Associate Professor Hans Lukas Kieser of the Centre for the History of Violence has been featured in an interview with the Princeton University Press blog. Kieser talks about his new book Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of Genocide.

The book is a biography on Talaat Pasha, the brilliant and merciless politician who stood at the twilight of empire and the dawn of the age of genocide.