Archive for October, 2008

A public lecture at the University of New England next week will take the audience back to an age when dance was – in the words of the lecturer – “woven into the very fabric of public life”.

“Dance in the late medieval and Renaissance period was a symbol of civilised, educated behaviour, a demonstration of moral virtue, a display of power and authority, and a precise mark of caste and class,” says Dr Jennifer Nevile, who will present this year’s Gordon Athol Anderson Memorial Lecture on Wednesday 22 October.

Her lecture, titled “Dance, Society and the Cosmos in Late Medieval and Renaissance Europe”, will recreate a world of courtly ceremony in which, she says, “dance also had a moral and ethical component, since movements of the body were seen as the outward manifestation of movements of the soul”.

Dr Nevile, the author of The Eloquent Body: Dance and Humanist Culture in Fifteenth-Century Italy (Indiana University Press, 2004) is a performer, choreographer and teacher of early dance as well as a leading scholar. She has participated in many performances of Renaissance and Baroque dance with The Early Dance Consort, including performances in the Concert Hall of Sydney Opera House (with the Brandenburg Ensemble and The Ensemble of the Golden Age). For several performances she reconstructed choreography and composed additional musical parts.

In 1999 she was present at the first performance in 500 years of English dances from the late fifteenth century, for which she had reconstructed the choreography. That performance, by the Capriol Dancers, was in the Banqueting Hall of the late-medieval Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, England.

Dr Nevile is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of English, Media and Performing Arts (Music) at the University of NSW. Her research – on the transformation of intellectual ideas into dance movements during the early modern period – is truly interdisciplinary, bridging the scholarly traditions of music, dance, and social history.

Her lecture next Wednesday, at 7.30 pm in UNE’s Oorala Aboriginal Centre, will be followed by a light supper. The event is free, and everyone is welcome. For more information, and to register attendance, phone (02) 6773 3638 or e-mail events@une.edu.au.

Professor Gordon Anderson was the first Australian academic to make an international impact on the study of medieval music. He held a personal Chair in Music at UNE from 1979 until his death in 1981. UNE inaugurated the Gordon Athol Anderson Lecture series in 1983, and it has continued every year since then.

The University of New England recognised the outstanding achievements of one of its recent teaching graduates by presenting her with a Young Distinguished Alumni Award at the second of the University’s two Spring Graduation ceremonies.

In 2006 Nicci Burraston (pictured here) graduated as Bachelor of Science / Bachelor of Teaching and began teaching science at Cowra High School. Since then she has transformed attitudes to science not only within the school, but also in the wider local community.

The Vice-Chancellor of UNE, Professor Alan Pettigrew, presented Ms Burraston with the award at the ceremony on Saturday 11 October for people graduating in UNE’s Faculty of The Professions. “Through her efforts, the profile of science in the school has been raised and student participation in science activities and courses has increased significantly,” Professor Pettigrew said.

Ms Burraston explained how – through science camps and competitions, and activities such as the building of crayfish and turtle tanks – she had changed the perception of science throughout the school. And she has ensured that – through the local newspaper – students get public recognition for their achievements in science-related activities. “One student came up to me,” she recalled, “and said: ‘Cowra High is now a science school.’ That made me really happy.”

She has already begun to extend the school’s new-found enthusiasm for science into the general community, and would like to see this as an ever-expanding movement.

Her work was recognised as “the best national achievement by a beginning teacher” in the Australian Government Quality Schooling Awards, and she won the Minister for Education’s Medal of Distinction for 2008.

Reflecting on her own achievements, her advice to the graduands was: “Go out and find an area of need, and set about addressing that need – with passion.”

Professor Paul Clark, Vice-Chancellor of Southern Cross University, in delivering the Occasional Address at Saturday’s ceremony, recalled his own school-days experience of a teacher who, he said, “fired in me an interest in mathematics”. That interest uncovered a dormant talent for the subject that set him on the path to becoming a physicist.

“It happened because one teacher one day said one thing that worked,” Professor Clark said. “Teachers make a great difference – often in ways they don’t know.”

He, too, urged the graduands to approach employment with passion and commitment - by finding work that they enjoy, making “adventurous choices”, and being constantly aware that what they do “is not a trial run”.

Dr Prawit Taytiwat, the Dean of the Faculty of Public Health at Naresuan University in Thailand, who graduated on Saturday with a Doctor of Health Services Management degree, brought the focus on teaching back to UNE itself when he delivered the Vote of Thanks that concluded the ceremony. Speaking on behalf of all the new graduates, he said UNE’s academic staff had worked “tirelessly” in a way that “sustained us, gave us confidence, and, at times, restored our momentum to succeed.”

Dr Taytiwat (pictured here with his wife Ms Waraphorn Suphamum) is the first international graduate of UNE’s Doctor of Health Services Management Program to have studied full-time on the UNE campus.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Nicci Burraston displayed at the top of the page expands to include the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew (left) and the Deputy Chancellor, Scott Williams.

Professor Peter Flood, giving the Occasional Address at a University of New England graduation ceremony today, captured the spirit of the occasion when he said: “Universities are a people business.”

From the opening remarks of the Deputy Chancellor, Scott Williams, who paid tribute to “the many staff members and students who have made this university what it is today”, to the vote of thanks to current staff members by Honours graduate Rebecca Payne, the occasion celebrated UNE as a living-and-learning community.

Ms Payne, who graduated today as a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours, said UNE offered its students “a unique opportunity to be personally acquainted with their lecturers”. “The academic staff are willing to go the extra mile for their students,” she added.

She also highlighted the “rich social culture” centred on the University’s residential colleges – a culture she had experienced as a resident of Earle Page College – and the opportunities for leadership roles that college life offers.

Professor Flood, UNE’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research), spoke about the quality of “social intelligence”, which, he said, was an essential attribute of a good leader. “Social intelligence” – involving the ability to empathise with others – was more important in a leader than “expertise”, he said.

“Leaders are not born,” Professor Flood explained. “They develop the skills of social intelligence that inspire people to follow them.”

“May you continue to develop and make a positive contribution to society throughout your lives,” he urged the graduands.

Dr Tanya Hanstock, who was presented with a Young Distinguished Alumni Award during today’s ceremony, has already made an outstanding contribution to society in the five years since she graduated from UNE as a Doctor of Psychology. Dr Hanstock has devoted her early career to helping children with mental illness. She was one of the foundation psychologists at The Nexus Unit, a child and adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit established in 2003 at the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle. In 2005 she established the first Juvenile Bipolar Disorder clinic in Australia – called The Bipolar Program – within the Hunter New England Area Health Service.

“I really love my work,” she said today, adding that her seven years of study at UNE – as a BA, Honours, and PhD student – had made it possible. “”I was fortunate to have great lecturers and supervisors,” she said.

Dr Hanstock, who combines her professional role of youth mental health worker with a wide range of related community-involvement and academic activities, told the graduands they could look forward to “a fulfilling and diverse career”. “I hope you enjoy your career as much as I enjoy mine,” she concluded.

All the speakers at today’s ceremony emphasised that gaining a degree was just the beginning of a process of life-long learning. A vital example of life-long learning is one of today’s graduates – 70-year-old Jennifer Swain, who graduated as a Doctor of Philosophy after completing a study titled “Comparing Aboriginal and El Salvadoran Refugee Experiences of Place and Belonging in Coffs Harbour”.

“I decided to do something for myself before I got too old,” Dr Swain said. She began as an undergraduate at UNE in 1993 – studying archaeology, a lifelong passion. “I loved it,” she said. “The whole thing was exciting and invigorating.”

Today’s ceremony was for people graduating from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The ceremony tomorrow (Saturday 11 October) will be for those graduating from the Faculty of The Professions.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Dr Tanya Hanstock displayed here expands to show the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, presenting her with her Young Distinguished Alumni Award.

A University of New England lawn bowls team won a gold medal at the Australian University Games (AUG) in Melbourne last week, taking the total medal tally for UNE to one gold, one silver and two bronze.

“To score that number of medals when you consider the size of our university compared to others is a fantastic overall performance,” said Brad King, UNE’s AUG team manager.

The outstanding results in all sports saw UNE gain second place in the Doug Ellis Trophy, awarded to universities scoring the highest number of points per head of student population. Organisers believe it is likely that some of the UNE competitors will be selected for the Australian University Sport “Green and Gold” team in their respective sports.

“We are very excited about the performance of our entire team,” Mr King said. “It was the biggest team we’ve ever sent, with around 170 competitors. They all participated to their best ability and always played in the spirit in the game.

“The medal tally might have been lower than in previous years, but overall our teams performed better than ever before. In all sports they improved on previous levels.”

The AUG lawn bowls games were played at Melbourne Bowling Club – the real-life location of the film Crackerjack, which was responsible for a surge in interest in lawn bowls among young people.

This year UNE fielded two lawn bowls teams. The Division One team, including State title winners Jay Porter and Daniel Williams, had a convincing win over defending champions Curtin University in the gold medal match. In Division Two, the UNE team (which had been together for only a short time) scored a bronze medal.

“This was the first competition for some of the players, but they all worked well together as a team,” said the team manager, Jon Knight. “There was some competition from the other universities, but we rose to the occasion and played really well.”

In the Rugby Sevens competition, UNE won silver after a tight match against Sydney University. The team, including current Brumbies player Francis Fainifo, lost by a converted try with a final score of 36 to 29. Other outstanding performers included Ben Thomas and Sam Bacigalupo.

An individual bronze medal was won by athlete Renee Van der Berg, who came third in the 800 metres running event and was also a finalist in the 400 metres event.

“It’s a fantastic achievement,” Mr King said, “when you consider that many of the athletes are Olympic standard.”

The Australian University Games is the largest annual multi-sport event in Australia, and is the highlight of the university sporting calendar. This year, the games had more than 6,000 participants from 42 universities. Next year the games will be held on the Gold Coast.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here expands to show UNE’s gold-medal-winning lawn bowls team: (from left) Anthony Jarvis, Daniel Williams, Dan Whale, Jay Porter, and Jon Knight.

Two distinguished scientists who have moved with great success into the field of educational and research management will be the Occasional Address speakers at the University of New England’s Spring Graduation ceremonies later this week.

Professor Peter Flood, UNE’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research), will speak at the ceremony for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on Friday 10 October, and Professor Paul Clark, Vice-Chancellor of Southern Cross University, will speak at the ceremony for the Faculty of The Professions on the following day.

Professor Flood, a geologist and UNE alumnus, has served UNE as Head of School, Dean of Science, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research). Professor Clark, a physicist, has held the positions of Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Sunshine Coast, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Victoria University of Technology in Melbourne, and Dean of Science and Head of Applied Physics at the Capricornia Institute in Rockhampton.

About 1,000 people are graduating from UNE this Spring, with many of them travelling to Armidale to attend the ceremonies. Both ceremonies will be on the lawns of “Booloominbah”, beginning at 10.30 am.

During Friday’s ceremony the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, will present a UNE Young Distinguished Alumni Award to Dr Tanya Hanstock. Dr Hanstock, who graduated from UNE with a BA (Honours) degree in 2000 and a Doctor of Psychology degree in 2003, has dedicated her early career to helping children with mental illness.

During Saturday’s ceremony, Professor Pettigrew will present another Young Distinguished Alumni Award – this one to Nicolette Burraston, who graduated from UNE in 2006 as a Bachelor of Science / Bachelor of Teaching. Ms Burraston’s outstanding success in enthusing students about science was recognised as the “best national achievement by a beginning teacher” in this year’s Australian Government Quality Schooling Awards. She also won the Minister for Education’s Medal of Distinction for 2008.

Scott Williams – a graduate of the University of New England whose career spans aid work abroad, regional development planning, consulting in information technology and tertiary education, and co-founding and managing a multi-award-winning small business – has been elected Deputy Chancellor of UNE.

Scott Williams succeeds Dr James Harris, a long-serving member of the UNE Council who retired from the role of Deputy Chancellor on the 6^th of October after holding that position for the past seven years.

Mr Williams (pictured here) was appointed as a member of the UNE Council in 1997 in recognition of his business and regional development expertise. His other roles in public service have included eight years as a Uralla Shire Councillor (including three years as Shire President), two terms as an elected regional representative of the NSW Shires Association, and membership of Armidale Dumaresq Council’s Economic Development Committee. He was a foundation member – and, later, Chair – of Armidale Public Radio Station 2ARM-FM.

The Chancellor of UNE, Mr John Cassidy, in announcing the election of Mr Williams as Deputy Chancellor, said that his outstanding combination of business skills and public service experience had already been of great benefit to the University, and that his new role would allow him to make an even greater contribution.

“Scott is currently Chair of Council’s Finance, Investment, and Tender Committees,” Mr Cassidy said, “and, as a past Director of the UNE Foundation, has guided the University’s fund-raising and community-relationship activities. His personal commitment to education in general – and UNE in particular – has resulted in his provision of about 40 annual scholarships for UNE students, and about 120 for local school children.

“His regional and global perspectives are informed by his ongoing advisory work, which gives him a deep understanding of the pressures that rural areas are experiencing in employment and economic development, and by his former aid work overseas, which has helped him to understand lifestyles in developing countries and Asia.”

When asked about his priorities for the UNE Council, Mr Williams said: “I think any governing body needs to be seen to be engaged with the community it represents. I am keen for the UNE Council to have more time than at present to listen to the views of the UNE community face-to-face. In that way, Council can be most effective in helping to unleash the tremendous latent energy at UNE for the greater good of the University.”

Mr Williams is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Armidale-based international florists’ relay service Petals Network. Petals, which runs in Australia, England and New Zealand and trades in 70 other countries, has won numerous awards, including being named “National Telstra and Australian Government Small Business of the Year” in 1996 and “NSW Premier’s Regional Exporter of the Year” in 2000, and winning the “National GIO Innovative Service Award” in 2000, the “Innovative Supply Chain Management Award” in 2001, and the Australian Business Limited “President’s Prize for Best Business” in 2005.

He has been based in Armidale since 1969, and holds a Bachelor of Economics degree and Graduate Diplomas in Rural Accounting, Financial Management, and Computing Science from UNE.

Mr Cassidy also announced that the Council would be seeking two new members following the recent resignations of the Armidale Chartered Accountant Ann Maurer and the Sydney-based solicitor and financial consultant Fiona Giuseppi. He said that Ms Maurer and Ms Giuseppi had served the Council with distinction, and that their expert professional perspectives had been of great benefit to the University.

A Thai researcher into healthy ageing has just completed four months of collaborative academic work at the University of New England, complemented by experience of everyday life in regional Australia.

Prapaporn Manorath (pictured here), a lecturer at Boromarajonani College of Nursing in Thailand’s Uttaradit Province, is completing a four-year investigation of measures that people in their early 50s can take to prepare themselves – both mentally and physically – for retirement.

Working in Thailand with primary school teachers between the ages of 50 and 55, she found, through an initial sampling of 328 teachers, that knowledge – and practice – of health-promoting behaviours was not a high priority for professional people such as these. She then developed a health-promotion program for a group of the teachers to follow, and found that it had a positive effect on indicators such as blood pressure and stress levels.

“This ‘health promotion model’ focused on the teachers’ physical, mental and social wellbeing,” Ms Manorath said, “and involved them in taking responsibility for their own health by managing stress, maintaining healthy levels of nutrition and exercise, developing positive mental attitudes, and strengthening their social relationships.”

“And they actually did change their behaviour in these respects,” she added.

The study is the basis of Ms Manorath’s PhD thesis, which she will submit at Thailand’s Naresuan University next January. UNE has a collaborative arrangement with Naresuan University that facilitates exchange visits by scholars such as Ms Manorath, as well as large international projects. Naresuan University, like UNE, is a regional university with strong programs promoting the delivery of health services to people living in rural areas. Ms Manorath’s work in UNE’s School of Health over the past four months has been guided by David Briggs, a Senior Lecturer in the School who has wide experience of collaborative projects in Thailand.

One of Ms Manorath’s missions during the visit was to develop her English language skills through interaction in a variety of academic and social settings. Her achievements in this respect – and in her scholarly work – were displayed when she presented a research seminar in the School of Health last week. After her presentation, the Head of the School, Associate Professor Jeanne Madison, said: “I’m most admiring of your elegant study and your presentation today.”

Referring to the importance of Ms Manorath’s research, Dr Madison said: “You came to UNE to learn from us, and we’ve learnt so much from you.”

For part of her time in Australia, Ms Manorath stayed with a retired couple – Jo and Gavin Moore – on a farm near Manilla. She said this experience had contributed greatly to the development of her English language skills and her understanding of Australian lifestyles – particularly post-retirement. She also stayed in an Armidale home, experiencing family and social life in this regional city.

Coming from Thailand to a New England winter was, she said, something of a shock. But the friendliness of everyone she encountered, and the benefits she derived from her academic program at UNE, made her “warm at heart” even when “cold in the body”.

James Harris is retiring from the position of Deputy Chancellor of the University of New England after serving in that role for the past seven years. His current term finishes on the 6^th of October.

The Chancellor of UNE, Mr John Cassidy, yesterday announced Dr Harris’s retirement as Deputy Chancellor, and the election of Armidale businessman Mr Scott Williams as his successor. Dr Harris will remain a member of the UNE Council.

“James has made an outstanding contribution to UNE, both as Deputy Chancellor and as a long-serving member of Council and Chair of several of its committees,” Mr Cassidy said. “That contribution, while grounded in his links with the University’s past, has been shaped by his vision for its future.”

James Harris’s association with UNE is one of both inheritance and personal commitment. In 1938 his maternal great-grandfather, Thomas Richmond Forster, gave a home to the New England College of the University of Sydney by donating the fine country residence “Booloominbah” for that purpose. His father’s family, too, has been associated with UNE since the time of its founding.

He grew up in Sydney, where his father worked as a doctor. He gained farming experience by working on several properties – and travelled abroad – before moving to the New England region in 1979 to take over the management of “Abington”, a grazing property 20 km south of Bundarra that had been in his mother’s family since the 1880s. He became the owner of “Abington” in 1990.

His work on the land has been combined with an active commitment to social issues in New England. In 1983-84 he was treasurer of the Save New England Action Group, which fought successfully to stop the acquisition of land by the Department of Defence for use as an artillery range. He was chairman of Armidale Wool Expo from 1983 to 1993 and, as a trustee of the New England Regional Art Museum, was chairman (1993-1999) of the fund-raising committee for the building of Stage 2 of the museum.

This community involvement found an educational focus when the Minister for Education appointed him to the Council of UNE in 1994 – a time when the University was rediscovering its individual identity after the “Network University” experiment. He has remained a member of the UNE Council ever since, serving on several of its committees as well as chairing the Buildings and Grounds Committee (1994-2001) and the Audit and Compliance Committee (2001-2007). He was elected to the position of Deputy Chancellor in 2001.

His commitment to the University and the wider community was recognised by UNE last year when he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the University.

Dr Harris will continue, as a member of the UNE Council, to work for the good of the University. His strong family connection to the University – and particularly to “Booloominbah” – gives him a unique perspective on – and concern for – UNE’s past, present and future.

The restoration of “Booloominbah” in the late 1990s was a particularly satisfying process for him. (”It’s good that the University now has a ‘heart’,” he said at the time.) And, in 2002, he was instrumental in securing substantial funding for the restoration of the magnificent Gordon Window in “Booloominbah”.

“It has been an honour and a privilege serving on the UNE Council over the past 14 years, and as Deputy Chancellor for seven of those years,” Dr Harris said. “I’ve found it challenging, exasperating, and fun – all together . . . and (at times) separately.

“UNE is a vital part of the Armidale community and economy, and it must continue to thrive, grow, and maintain its strengths in its many fields of endeavour.”

The incoming Deputy Chancellor, Mr Scott Williams, said yesterday: “James was a great help to me when I first joined the UNE Council. He is, in many ways, the collective memory of Council, being its longest-serving member. There can be no doubt that UNE has been well and loyally served by Dr Harris in all his Council roles – and, in particular, that of Deputy Chancellor.”

“It’s good news that Dr Harris’s knowledge and skills will remain available to Council and UNE through his continuing membership of the UNE Council,” Mr Williams added.