Archive for December, 2008

2008 began with UNE’s first intake of medical students – an epoch-making event that set the tone for a year of achievement at the University. UNE’s School of Rural Medicine, officially opened in July 2008 by the Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Julia Gillard MP, is UNE’s part of the Joint Medical Program – an expansion of the highly successful University of Newcastle medical program in partnership with UNE, Hunter New England Health, and Northern Sydney Central Coast Health.

During Ms Gillard’s visit in July, she also officially opened the new building housing the Oorala Aboriginal Centre – the educational advisory centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at UNE – and the Dixson Library’s Learning Commons, which provides physical and electronic infrastructure for both distance-education and on-campus students.

The 61 first-year students in UNE’s Bachelor of Medicine program impressed their teachers and professional mentors with their application to their studies and to extra-curricular activities such as the Anatomy Club. In July, the 2006 Australian of the Year, Professor Ian Frazer, accepted an invitation from the UNE Medical Society to be the guest speaker at the Society’s first official function.

Several other new undergraduate courses introduced in 2008 have – like the Bachelor of Medicine program – a special focus on preparing graduates for work in rural and regional areas. These include programs leading to Bachelor of Criminology and Bachelor of Engineering Technology degrees.

In February, the NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, visited UNE to launch a new phase in the life of the Primary Industries Innovation Centre (PIIC) – a collaborative venture between his Department and the University. On that occasion Mr Macdonald announced the appointment of Professor Bob Martin as the first full-time Director of the PIIC, and the establishment of a National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research within the UNE-based PIIC. Professor Martin is leading a collaborative project, with $1.17 million funding from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), aimed at reducing poverty in north-western Cambodia by enhancing the production and marketing of maize and soybeans.

UNE’s Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law, under the directorship of Professor Paul Martin, published the results of several important studies during the year. These included a study titled Concepts for Private Sector Funded Conservation Using Tax-effective Instruments and a report explaining why the benefits expected from Australia’s National Water Initiative are not being fully realised.

Important national and international conferences hosted by UNE in 2008 have included the 28^th Annual Seminar of the International Society for Teacher Education, with delegates from Uganda, Kiribati, Bhutan, Kuwait, East Timor, Brazil, Chile, South Africa and the United States, and the 35^th annual conference of the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour, hosted by UNE’s Centre for Neuroscience and Animal Behaviour and organised by Professor Gisela Kaplan.

Senior Lecturer Dr Terrence Hays was artistic director of two national music events: the inaugural Australasian Piano Summer School for talented young in pianists in their senior years at high school was held at UNE in January, and the second biennial Australian National Seniors’ Choral Festival was held in Sydney. The Choral Festival is a joint project of UNE, the University of Sydney, and the Conservatorium High School, Sydney.

UNE continued to strengthen its international links, developing and expanding partnerships with major tertiary institutions in Vietnam and Thailand, and welcoming to UNE a group of nurses from Chandigarh in the Indian State of Punjab who are the first students to undertake UNE’s new Bachelor of Professional Nursing degree program. In April the University welcomed 18 leaders or potential leaders in the field of teacher education whose four-week visit to UNE was funded by Australian Leadership (ALA) Awards – a Commonwealth Government AusAID program. The ALA Fellows were from Bhutan, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.

In another productive year for the three national Cooperative Research Centres based at UNE (those assisting the beef, sheep and poultry industries), the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Poultry CRC, Professor Mingan Choct, became the first Australian to present the important Robert Fraser Gordon Memorial Lecture at the annual conference of the British Society of Animal Science and receive the associated Gordon Memorial Medal.

In sport, UNE won a gold medal (in lawn bowls), a silver medal (in Rugby Sevens) and two bronze medals (in lawn bowls and athletics) at the Australian University Games in October. Jacqui Lawrence, who graduated from UNE in 2005 with a First Class Honours degree in Natural Resources, won a silver medal in her kayaking event at the Beijing Olympics.

The University maintained its unequalled record in the Good Universities Guide for 2009 in being once again awarded the Guide‘s maximum rating – “five stars” – for “overall graduate satisfaction”. UNE also received “five-star” ratings for “teaching quality”, “access by equity groups”, “Indigenous participation”, “entry flexibility”, and “staff qualifications”.

Outstanding contributions to the learning experience of students by members of staff at UNE once again received national recognition through the annual Citations of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC – formerly the Carrick Institute). This year, seven Citations went to individuals and groups at UNE, taking the total number won by UNE staff members since the awards began in 2006 to 25.

2008 – a year of anniversaries and reunions – included events celebrating the 80^th anniversary of Armidale Teachers’ College, the 50^th anniversary of Mary White College, and the 70^th anniversary of New England University College (the precursor of UNE). At a 70th anniversary dinner at Parliament House, Sydney, in November, attended by the Governor of NSW, Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO, the guest speaker was one of UNE’s most distinguished graduates, Dr Bridget Ogilvie AC DBE. Dr Ogilvie, a world-renowned medical scientist and Fellow of The Royal Society, was the first student in UNE’s Bachelor of Rural Science (Honours) degree program to graduate with University Medal.

In October, family members of foundation lecturers at the New England University College, and lecturers from the College’s early days, were among the guests at the opening of an exhibition – mounted in UNE’s Dixson Library – illustrating the home lives of those first families. This event – and the exhibition itself – documented the “community” that the College developed and that the University has fostered.

A University of New England lecturer has been recognised as one of the State’s best. Dr Ingrid Harrington, from UNE’s School of Education, has received one of the four Quality Teaching Awards for 2008 to be given to university teachers across NSW.

‘Teaching can be stressful and full of challenges,’ Dr Harrington said, ‘but to be recognised by your peers as doing a good job is the highest form of compliment. It also rebuilds your faith that hard work is rewarded.’

The NSW Minister for Education and Training and The Australian College of Educators, NSW Branch, Quality Teaching Awards recognise the State’s most outstanding teachers from government and non-government schools, TAFE colleges, early childhood organisations and universities.

In presenting the awards at a recent ceremony, the Minister for Education and Training, Verity Firth, highlighted the teachers’ exceptional level of commitment to excellence and student achievement.

‘The awards recognise the teachers’ tireless efforts, and are an opportunity to say “Thank you!” for their dedication to our students,’ Ms Firth said. ‘The award recipients share essential qualities that make them excellent teachers: they each personalise the learning of their students and set high expectations for them, inspiring their students to achieve their best while at the same time teaching their subject with deep knowledge and enthusiasm.’

Dr Harrington, who is an expert in behavioural management, believes the attributes of a quality teacher are varied. ‘You need to know your stuff, have an understanding of where students are coming from, be non-judgemental, and, as the teacher, be prepared to learn in the classroom each day,’ she said. ‘You also need to be able to create an effective learning environment where students feel safe and secure and know it’s OK to make mistakes.’

Dr Harrington (pictured here with her award certificate) has worked at UNE for six years. She teaches behavioural management to third and fourth-year students and is a member of the University’s Special Education Team, which is based in the School of Education. ‘You don’t have to go to one of the big universities in the city to be taught by the best and most recognised academics,’ she said. ‘UNE offers students a first-class education degree. It’s fantastic to see young students transformed into professional teachers after four years of studying.’

She began her teaching career in 1997 at the University of Canberra as a guest lecturer on behavioural management. In 2000 she worked on a research project at James Cook University and Education Queensland, funded by a grant from the Australian Research Council, which examined the participation and retention of boys in schools. Her findings were later used by the Queensland State Government to develop policies that underpinned the teaching of boys.

Along with the other recipients, Dr Harrington was selected by the NSW Branch of the Australian College of Educators on the basis of three references, a professional portfolio and in-class observation, and interviews with students, parents and teaching colleagues.

‘The testing was extensive and rigorous,’ she said, ‘but the awards show teachers who are working tirelessly – often in tough conditions – that you can be recognised for doing a good job.’

Federation, the landing at Gallipoli, and 9/11 – all memorable moments, but were they actually turning points for Australia?

The answer is outlined in a controversial new history book, co-edited by Dr David Andrew Roberts, a Senior Lecturer at the University of New England.

Turning Points in Australian History (2008, UNSW Press) is a book with a difference. It aims to provoke passionate discussion on Australia’s history and provide more than just a list of important historical events.

‘We want Australians to re-examine certain moments, and re-evaluate their idea of a “turning point”, Dr Roberts said. ‘In some instances, the effects of these events have been greatly exaggerated and the iconic moment isn’t actually as important as popularly thought.’

Turning Points in Australian History is co-edited with Dr Martin Crotty from the University of Queensland. Across 17 chapters, leading historians and commentators reflect on events ranging from the closure of the land bridge between mainland Australia and Tasmania 14,000 years ago, through to the horrific events of September 2001.

‘Gallipoli was strategically insignificant in the broader picture of the Great War,’ Dr Roberts explained. ‘Federation is something of a lacklustre affair and easily forgotten. And the 1967 Referendum was a crucial moment in the inclusion of Aboriginal peoples in an Australian nation but was hardly a turning point in the achievement of Aboriginal rights.’

In contrast, the book flags the release of the contraceptive pill and the opening of the Australian Institute of Sport as events that helped to shape our nation, even though they were not met with much fanfare at the time.

Turning Points in Australian History is also intended as a response to the attack on the way History is taught in schools and universities. ‘In his final years, former Prime Minister John Howard said there was a loss of any clear, structured narrative,’ Dr Roberts recalled. ‘He said the national story had become a “fragmented stew of themes and issues”. What Mr Howard essentially wanted was for history to be taught through the memorising of facts and dates, presenting the past as a largely uncomplicated and mostly triumphant, self-justifying story of national achievement.’

‘We want to provide an important reminder to those wanting to impose a universal history curriculum for our school kids,’ he added, ‘and a lesson for all Australians wishing to understand their nation’s past: history is never simple or straightforward, and it always resists attempts to make it so.’

Contributors to the book include UNE historian Dr Erin Ihde and former UNE scholars Professor Iain Davidson (now at Harvard University) and Dr Frank Bongiorno (now at King’s College London). ‘UNE’s Australian History course has the reputation of being the best in regional Australia,’ Dr Roberts said. ‘We are very active in research, and engaging with communities outside of the normal channels of academic life.’

Turning Points in Australian History follows the same editors’ controversial and acclaimed Great Mistakes of Australian History (2006, UNSW Press).

New discoveries linking periodic changes in the Sun’s magnetic field with global weather patterns could enable scientists to gain a clearer understanding of how additional factors – such as greenhouse gases – contribute to those weather patterns.

A newly-published paper by the University of New England’s Dr Robert Baker establishes the connection between solar cycles and the weather by correlating sunspot activity and rainfall figures for south-eastern Australia over the past 130 years.

Cycles of sunspot activity are a visible indication of the periodic changes in magnetic forces within the Sun. The most well-known sunspot cycle is the 11-year “Schwab” cycle, which comprises alternating five-and-a-half-year periods of relatively high and low sunspot activity.

Dr Baker’s paper, “Exploratory analysis of similarities in solar cycle magnetic phases with Southern Oscillation Index fluctuations in Eastern Australia” (Geographical Research, December 2008), shows that periods of increased sunspot activity are consistently associated with those periods of high rainfall in south-eastern Australia predicted by the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI). Periods of drought, such as that which has afflicted Australia for the past six years, are associated with minimal sunspot activity.

Dr Baker (pictured here) is an Associate Professor in UNE’s School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences. His paper compares sunspot / weather patterns in all 23 of the documented “Schwab” cycles, noting particularly the similarity between Cycle 15 (1914-1924) and the current Cycle 23. “Such comparisons between the current cycle and past cycles have important implications for both weather prediction and the monitoring of climate change,” Dr Baker said. “They could not only allow us to forecast farther into the future, but – through analysing differences in weather patterns between the current cycle and a past cycle with similar sunspot activity – they could help us to isolate the effect of recent additions to the system such as greenhouse gases.”

“We have to benchmark the natural system (i.e., the Sun) before looking at additions to it (e.g. carbon dioxide),” he explained. “Comparing current data with those of a century ago can give us an idea of the added effect of greenhouse gases. But sticking your head in the sand and saying the Sun has no effect on climate change is a virtual denial of historical reality.”

“I’m not a ‘climate-change sceptic’,” he added. “But although carbon dioxide could be a major contributor to global warming, it’s just one part of a complex system.” That system is so complex, he said, that the short-term temperature trend in the Southern Hemisphere (since 2002) is actually down rather than up.

Dr Baker is keeping a keen eye on daily reports of solar activity. “The Sun isn’t powering up,” he said. “The period of minimum sunspots signalling the completion of Cycle 23, although due to end in October 2007, is continuing. We could, in fact, be entering a prolonged period of minimal sunspot activity such as the one that brought the ‘Federation droughts’ around the turn of the twentieth century and a dip in global temperatures for a decade.”

The role of Australian local government is expanding because that of State governments is contracting, according to a new book co-edited by a University of New England academic.

Professor Brian Dollery (pictured here), the Director of UNE’s Centre for Local Government, is a widely published authority on Australian local government finance and reform.

His new book, Local Government Reform: A Comparative Analysis of Advanced Anglo-American Countries (Edward Elgar, 2008), looks at local government change over the past 20 years in Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland, the United States and Canada.

‘Issues in Australia, such as the constant withdrawing of services from regional areas by State governments – especially NSW – and the controversial theme of local government amalgamations, are explored and then compared to the other countries,’ Professor Dollery said.

‘A good deal of light can be shed on the principles of local government reform by looking at changes in countries with much in common,’ he explained. ‘The next step will be to broaden this comparative approach by including developed countries outside of the “Anglosphere” group.’

The book, which Professor Dollery co-edited with Professor Joseph Garcea from the University of Saskatchewan and Professor Edward Lesage from the University of Alberta (both in Canada), also works through five ‘pillars’ of municipal reform: structural, functional, financial, jurisdictional and organisational/managerial.

‘Until now my books have explored two main themes,’ Professor Dollery said. ‘On the one hand they have focused on Australian local government; on the other, I’ve tried to develop theoretical principles for the analysis of local government reform. This new book represents a new direction in the research program.’

This is the UNE academic’s seventh book on local government. His previous books include The Political Economy of Local Government (Edward Elgar, 2001) and Reform and Leadership in the Public Sector (Edward Elgar, 2007), both written in collaboration with Professor Joe Wallis from the American University of Sharjah.

Other works include Reshaping Australian Local Government (UNSW Press, 2003), co-edited with the UNE’s Associate Professor Neil Marshall and Professor Andrew Worthington from Griffith University, which has recently been translated into Mandarin and published by Peking University Press.

‘Interest in this book arose in China mainly as a consequence of two papers I gave in Beijing in 2006 that focused on reform in Australian local government and lessons that could be learnt for municipal reform in China,’ Professor Dollery said.

Another of the leading international authorities who have collaborated with Professor Dollery is Fabio Fiorillo, Professor of Public Economics at the Università Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona, Italy. Professor Fiorillo, who has published widely in the area of local public finance, fiscal federalism and taxation, has contributed three co-authored chapters to one of Professor Dollery’s latest books, The Theory and Practice of Local Government Reform, co-edited with Professor Lorenzo Robotti of the Università Politecnica delle Marche and published this month by Edward Elgar Publishers.

Professor Fiorillo visited UNE last month for discussions with Professor Dollery and the Deputy Director of the Centre for Local Government, Bligh Grant – discussions that were a part of ongoing collaboration between Professor Fiorillo’s research group in Italy and the UNE Centre.

The University of New England is encouraging the study of statistics in schools through its involvement in organising and judging the Australian Statistics Poster Competition.

This national competition, coordinated by the Australian Mathematics Trust (AMT), aims to increase secondary students’ awareness of the importance of statistics in society, and to improve their statistical skills. Working in teams of two or three, students tackle a statistical problem – presenting their methods of data collection, and the results of analysing the data, in a clearly understandable and attractively designed poster.

The national winner this year was a poster titled “Eye Spy”, analysing age differences in the way people see the “ambiguous image” kind of optical illusion.

“Statistics is critical to a number of school subjects,” said one of the NSW coordinators of the competition, Dr Chris Reading from UNE’s School of Education. “Although the basics of statistics are taught in NSW high schools, this is insufficient to enable the students to really think statistically. Giving them the opportunity to develop a poster helps them to do this.”

Dr Reading (pictured here) and the other NSW coordinator, Jackie Reid from UNE’s School of Science and Technology, were among the judges of the NSW entries in this year’s competition (as they were in the two previous years). They are also involved in judging on the national level. In commenting on this year’s entries Dr Reading said the overall presentation of the posters was good (while leaving scope for even more creativity), and the graphical representations of the data analysis were accurate. “One area for improvement next year would be in the descriptions of methods used for collecting the data,” she added.

The winning poster nationally – “Eye Spy” – was from NSW. Its compilers – Andrew Loizou, Marcus Jones and Hayden Dimitrouski – are in Year 9 at Sylvania High School. The winning poster within NSW was also compiled by Year 9 students from Sylvania High: Alana Gazy and Kayla Madonis. Their poster, titled “Do different conditions affect the browning of cut fruits?”, analyses rates of browning under a range of conditions including refrigeration and covering with lemon juice.

Four other NSW posters were highly commended, including one from New England Girls’ School in Armidale.

One of the aims of the AMT in coordinating the competition is to increase students’ awareness of career options offered by statistics. More information on the competition can be found at:
http://www.amt.edu.au/aspcnews01.html.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Dr Chris Reading displayed here expands to show her and Jackie Reid with the winning poster.

New England families who are struggling to make ends meet this Christmas will receive some relief from a donation made by staff at the University of New England.

UNE’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, presented a cheque for $1,100 – and 45 teddy bears – to Major Robert Duncan from the Armidale branch of the Salvation Army during an end-of-year celebration for staff at the University on Wednesday.

‘The thought of children waking up on Christmas morning without anything to open inspired UNE staff to help make a difference,’ Professor Pettigrew said.

As part of UNE’s annual Celebration of Sharing campaign, $1,100 was raised through the raffling of a 42-inch plasma-screen television set. The teddy bears were donated by staff of the Vice-Chancellor’s office. ‘One of my colleagues urged everyone to get involved, and before I knew it, a mound of stuffed toys was taking over my office,’ Professor Pettigrew said.

The donations are especially important this year, as the Salvation Army’s toy stack is low. The bears will help make up toy bags that will be given to the region’s struggling parents. ‘We will use the money donated by UNE to prepare Christmas hampers and toys for the kids,’ Major Duncan explained. ‘The hampers will include items like hams, puddings and bon-bons, so families can have a special meal on Christmas day.

‘A lot of families in need don’t put their hands up, so we are digging deeper in the cracks to find out who needs some help. There are always people struggling to cover the basics – like paying the rent. Just because it’s Christmas, it doesn’t mean these financial demands stop.’

‘We appreciate the help and support shown by UNE and the Armidale community in general,’ Major Duncan added. ‘The Salvation Army could not do what it does without this support. It’s a sign of a strong and caring community when people want to help those who are less fortunate. I’m proud to be part of such a great community.’

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here expands to show Professor Alan Pettigrew and Major Robert Duncan with the donated teddy bears.

Twenty-five leaders of Vietnamese universities and colleges visited the University of New England for two days last week as part of a leadership program involving a week-long study tour of Australia.

The leadership program, sponsored by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training, is part of a major Vietnamese Government initiative, called the Higher Education Reform Agenda, which aims to modernise and strengthen the Vietnamese system of higher education and to facilitate a 45 per cent rise in the nation’s tertiary enrolment rate by 2020.

As part of the program, lectures and workshops were held in Hanoi the week before the visitors arrived in Australia. Professor Victor Minichiello, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of UNE’s Faculty of The Professions, travelled to Hanoi to give a number of presentations during that week – presentations outlining staff development strategies used by UNE. Professor Minichiello is one of several professors from Australia, the United States, Japan, Singapore and Europe who have been invited by the Vietnamese Government to contribute to the leadership program.

‘UNE has been invited to participate in delivering training programs in staff development to rectors and senior managers of universities and colleges In Vietnam,’ Professor Minichiello explained. ‘The Government of Vietnam has recognised the importance of higher education and is introducing reforms to shape the future direction of the nation’s universities.’

Participants in the program examine developments in higher education at a global level, with particular emphasis on the skills required of leaders to introduce and promote higher education reforms.

‘The visitors to UNE wanted to examine alternative ways universities cope with management issues,’ said Professor Grant Harman from the Centre for Higher Education Management and Policy in UNE’s School of Business, Economics and Public Policy. ‘They spent two jam-packed days exploring all UNE has to offer.’

‘They said they were very impressed with the Learning Commons and electronic information resources in the Dixson Library,’ Professor Harman added. ‘They also regarded the facilities in the School of Rural Medicine and the School of Science and Technology as top-notch.’

‘Vietnam has made substantial progress in its tertiary education scheme in the last decade,’ he said. ‘Their government is keen to adopt a Western style of university management. The Vietnamese Government also wants to see a significant increase in the number of qualified higher education staff, and to restructure governance and management mechanisms to create a system where legal autonomy is conferred on individual higher education institutions.’

UNE has a strong link with Vietnam, particularly through the Faculty of The Professions. A large number of Vietnamese students have come to UNE to undertake Master’s and PhD degrees. UNE has offered the Master of Educational Administration degree, which is based in Vietnam, in partnership with the National University in Hanoi.

‘Recent discussions with senior government officials in the Ministry have been held in Hanoi to discuss how UNE, via its innovations in the delivery of PhD courses, can further assist Vietnam,’ Professor Minichiello said. ‘They aim to increase the number of academic staff with doctoral qualifications and increase the research capacity of Vietnam.’

As well as visiting UNE, the delegation also toured the University of Western Sydney, the University of New South Wales and the University of Wollongong.

The highest possible distinction in scholarship in the humanities has been bestowed on an internationally respected University of New England author and scholar.

Dr Anna Silvas (pictured here), an Australian Research Fellow in the School of Humanities at UNE, is one of 19 scholars to be newly elected as Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

‘I’m taken aback by it,’ Dr Silvas said. ‘It’s such an honour. I didn’t seek this at all – in fact, I still don’t quite know who put my name forward or made the citation.’

Dr Silvas’s research focuses on late antiquity, especially monastic communities and the spirituality of ascetic women in early and medieval Christianity. In only ten years of publishing she has established an international reputation for the depth and breadth of her work, which ranges across Greek, Latin and Syriac sources from the fourth to the twelfth century.

The Australian Academy of the Humanities is a not-for-profit organisation incorporated by Royal Charter in 1969. The aim of the Academy is to promote the interests of the humanities in Australia. It also works to advance the knowledge of – and the pursuit of excellence in –subjects within disciplines including Prehistory and Archaeology, Classical Studies, Linguistics and Philology, Philosophy and Religion, and the History of Ideas.

‘How I’ve emerged to this is quite surprising,’ Dr Silvas said. ‘I’m not competitive at all, but I am most certainly grateful for the honour. Professionally, being a fellow of the Academy is a real feather in one’s cap. It may help in my survival as a researcher down the track.’

Dr Silvas’s fellowship of the Australian Academy of the Humanities is the result of a unique and productive career. After finishing school she began the study of architecture at Sydney University, but decided on a change of direction and entered a monastic community in 1974. It was her experience of the liturgy that led to her interest in learning Greek in order to read the Church Fathers. When the opportunity came later in life, she pursued the study of ancient languages – Classical and Semitic.

Her published works include translations of ancient literature as well as monographs, such as: Macrina the Younger, Philosopher of God (2008), ‘In Quest of Basil’s Retreat: An Expedition to Ancient Pontus’ (2007), Gregory of Nyssa: the Letters (2007), The Asketikon of Basil the Great (2005), and Jutta and Hildegard: the Biographical Sources (1998).

Her first book, Jutta and Hildegard: the Biographical Sources, in which Dr Silvas collected and translated disparate medieval Latin texts, has been acclaimed as one of the most significant on the topic to ever appear in English.

Her monograph on Basil of Caesarea, a key figure in late antiquity recognised for his reconciliation of classical learning and Christian culture and his program for health care and aid for the poor, has been hailed as a landmark study. In 2006 Dr Silvas earned archaeologists’ respect when she discovered Basil’s actual hideaway in Turkey – a location that had eluded scholars and enthusiasts for more than 16 centuries.

While her knowledge has continued to develop and grow over the years, she believes her essential disposition remains the same. She has spent 12 years at UNE and is grateful for the strength and conviction shown by its leaders. ‘UNE has been fantastic in its support for me,’ Dr Silvas said. ‘It has given me so many opportunities to explore and flourish. I am very thankful.’

A University of New England researcher has enriched the world of musical scholarship with the first detailed study of music in the Indian Himalayas.

“In Garhwal, the gods (devtas) enjoy dancing,” said Dr Andrew Alter, a Senior Lecturer in Music at UNE and a specialist in Indic musicology. “Through the sounds of their drumming, musicians cause the gods to dance in the bodies of their mediums.”

Dr Alter has just published a book titled Dancing with Devtas: Drums, Power and Possession in the Music of Garhwal, North India. Launching the book at UNE last week, the distinguished Australian ethnomusicologist Professor Stephen Wild said it was “a worthy contribution to ethnomusicology, Indian studies, and the world of scholarship”.

Professor Wild, from the School of Music at the Australian National University, is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and Secretary General of the International Council for Traditional Music. He said the book combined “insightful cultural analyses” with “detailed musical accounts”.

It is divided into two parts, the first part placing the music in its historical, political, social and cultural context, and the second part analysing the music at three events – a wedding, a religious festival, and an epic narration. Professor Wild referred to the book’s “vivid descriptions” of the wedding as the procession – including its musicians – winds its way through steep valleys and across swift rivers, arriving at the bride’s village to the added sounds of a brass band, a cassette player, and “the sobs of the young bride”.

The chapter on the epic narration he called “a tour de force of musico-dramatic analysis”.

The music of Garhwal, although richly diverse, is dominated by drumming. “Drumming summons the presence of the gods,” Professor Wild said. “There are specific drumming patterns for all the gods, as well as for each stage of an event such as the wedding.” The book provides a detailed analysis of those patterns, transcriptions of all the music discussed, and recordings of that music on an accompanying CD.

“I’m full of admiration for Andrew’s book,” Professor Wild said. “It’s a book that has to be read carefully – by musicians as well as non-musicians. I’ll certainly be setting it for my students to read.”

In explaining some aspects of the book’s production, Dr Alter acknowledged the contributions of his wife Dr Frances Alter in drawing the illustrations, Lindsay Rowlands in producing diagrams and a map of Garhwal, and Stephen Tafra for his expert work on the music transcriptions.

Clicking on the image of Dancing with Devtas displayed here reveals a photograph of Dr Andrew Alter (left) and Professor Stephen Wild preparing for the launch of the book.