Archive for April, 2009

The garden of “Trevenna”, the historic home that is the residence of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of New England, will be open to the public as part of Australia’s Open Garden Scheme on the weekend of the 18th and 19th of April.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, and his wife Ann, are inviting everyone to visit and enjoy the garden that weekend, listen to performances by a wide range of talented local musicians, and sample the food on offer.

There will be a $5 entry fee for adults, and children will be admitted free. Proceeds from this year’s “Trevenna” open garden will go to the Armidale Branch of the United Hospital Auxiliary. Morning and afternoon teas and lunches will be provided by the Auxiliary.

“Trevenna”, designed and built in the 1890s by the Boston-trained architect John Horbury Hunt, was bequeathed to the University in 1960 by Florence Wilson, the daughter of F.R. Wright, the original owner of “Booloomimbah” - another historic building at UNE designed by John Horbury Hunt.

Approached through a long avenue of pines, planes, cypress and horse chestnuts, the “Trevenna” gardens are constructed on several levels. The visitor is welcomed by a sunken garden at the entrance, with a stone sundial. The sundial is surrounded by lavender and petunias, as are the border gardens, with camellias and box hedging beyond. On the other side of the entrance a series of hedges encloses a private lawn. Many of the trees, including horse chestnuts, pines and planes, date back to when the house was built.

The front garden slopes away into a series of ha-ha walls, and wide perennial borders lead the eye to the city of Armidale. These wide borders are planted with a variety of shrubs including camellias, rhododendrons and a range of autumn flowering perennials. Ivy and grapevines ramble along the old stone walls around the garden.

At the rear of the house a wide sweep of lawn leads down to another sunken garden where a magnolia forms the centrepiece in a small oval bed planted with dry shade-lovers. A shaded border with hellebores, windflowers and violets provides a soft, leafy barrier between the garden and the tennis court.

An impressive range of mature trees adds to the ambience and tranquillity of the garden.

The Open Garden Scheme is a self-funding not-for-profit organisation, with proceeds being dedicated to community garden projects and other charities. Last season, garden owners raised $360,000 for charities and causes through Australia’s Open Garden Scheme. Donations since 1987 now stand at over $4,000,000.

About 70 people gained valuable insights into the research process that precedes a writing project  when they participated in a “Writing and Research Workshop” at the University of New England last week.

They heard first-hand accounts of that process from a number of well-known writers, including Professor Jane Goodall from the University of Western Sydney, author of the novels The Walker (2004), The Visitor (2005) and The Calling (2007), and the scholarly study Stage Presence: The Actor as Mesmerist (2008), and Professor Jenny Hocking from Monash University, the author of biographies of Lionel Murphy (1997,2000), Frank Hardy (2005) and Gough Whitlam (2008).

In discussing the writing of her biography of Gough Whitlam, Professor Hocking spoke about some of the issues that can arise when the subject is a living person - including the unearthing of family details unknown to the subject. For example, she said, Gough Whitlam had been unaware that his grandfather had spent four-and-a-half years in Melbourne’s Pentridge Gaol for forgery.

Professor Hocking conveyed a sense of what she called “the great creative pleasure that comes from writing biography”.

UNE’s Dr Anne Pender, a co-facilitator - together with Dr Fiona Utley - of  the one-day workshop, said that Professor Hocking and the other presenters had succeeded in passing on much practical advice, from their own experience, about planning and conducting research. In describing the research process that preceded the writing of her Stage Presence, for example, Professor Goodall had taken the participants with her on a journey through many manifestations of “presence”.

“Lorina Barker, an Associate Lecturer in UNE’s School of Humanities, gave a really inspiring presentation about how she had learnt to make a documentary film as part of her PhD research into her family’s involvement in the shearing industry,” Dr Pender said. “She was able to discuss the special problems - including ethical problems - that arise when working with members of one’s own family.”

The workshop participants included UNE staff members and postgraduate students, as well as many members of the wider community. Several postgraduate students from the University of Canberra travelled to Armidale for the occasion. “There’s a great thirst for this kind of hands-on workshop,” Dr Pender said. “We all need help in extending our skills.”

There was also a publishing workshop with Dr Leigh Dale, the editor of the journal Australian Literary Studies, during which Dr Dale gave advice to writers on how to edit their own work and how to pitch it to a publisher. “That kind of insider information is invaluable for anyone involved in - or contemplating - a writing project,” Dr Pender said.

The workshop, sponsored by UNE’s School of Arts and Faculty of Arts and Sciences, was an initiative resulting from activity under the former Federal Government’s Research Quality Framework.

The image displayed here expands to show Prof Jenny Hocking with her recently published biography of Gough Whitlam.

The University of New England’s four Autumn Graduation ceremonies for 2009 concluded on Saturday 4 April with a celebration of scholarship in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

A highlight of Saturday’s ceremony was the presentation of an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters to one of UNE’s most internationally renowned and prolific scholars, Associate Professor John Ryan. In introducing Dr Ryan, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, praised the “extremely wide range” of his research interests and achievements, and mentioned in particular his international eminence as a Tolkien scholar and as an authority on Australian and New Zealand English and Australian folklore, and his leading role in documenting the social history of the New England region.

“John Ryan has served the University as a teacher and researcher, and as an historian of UNE itself, for over 40 years,” Professor Pettigrew said, adding that Dr Ryan’s “interest in the community of the University, and his knowledge of its past, are unrivalled”.

The Occasional Address speaker on Saturday was Emeritus Professor Peter Sheehan AO, an eminent psychologist (Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the New York Academy of Sciences, and Honorary Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society) who retired last year from the position of Vice-Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University.

Professor Sheehan pointed out that, in a social and political environment dominated by utilitarian values, it is often felt necessary to defend the study of the humanities by invoking the “useful skills” (problem-solving, etc.) that such a study can develop, while downplaying the value of the scholarly pursuit itself. “But humanities scholarship shouldn’t have to be defended in such a way,” he said.

He asserted the “absolute worth” of the humanities - a worth based primarily on “good scholarship” rather than on “products” such as marketable skills.

At the ceremony on Friday 3 April - for people graduating in Economics, Business and Law - the guest speaker was the Federal Member for New England, Tony Windsor. Both Mr Windsor and Professor Sheehan have strong associations with UNE - Mr Windsor as a graduate (Bachelor of Economics), and Professor Sheehan as a former Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Psychology (1968-1972).

Mr Windsor spoke to the graduands about the history of their disciplines at UNE, saying that many of their predecessors had gone on to leading roles in helping people around the world to feed themselves. In noting that the world again faced a turning point in food production - namely the dilemma of whether to grow crops for food or biofuel - Mr Windsor said: “I see you graduates as having the capacity to respond to these challenges.”

The Chancellor, the Hon. Richard Torbay MP, officiated at all four ceremonies, after being formally installed in the role of Chancellor at the beginning of the first ceremony on Friday 27 March.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here, showing Associate Professor John Ryan (left) and the Chancellor, the Hon. Richard Torbay MP, expands to include the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew.

Are you intensely shy? Does the thought of speaking in public have you quaking in your boots? Are you excessively worried about what other people think of you?

If this sounds like you, it’s possible you’re suffering from social anxiety, a term used to describe an experience of emotional discomfort, fear, apprehension or worry regarding social situations and being evaluated by other people.

Psychologists at the University of New England are seeking 160 participants for the trial of a Web-based intervention for social anxiety. If you are over 18, believe you suffer from social anxiety and want to reduce it, and are prepared to devote several hours a week for eight weeks to completing assignments and various therapeutic tasks, you may be eligible to participate in the trial.

“Social anxiety is a very common problem,” said Dr John Malouff, the UNE psychologist supervising the study, “affecting as much as 5 per cent of the population. What distinguishes social anxiety from mere shyness is the intensity of the negative emotions it causes and the excessive avoidance behaviours it leads to.

“While it is quite normal to get nervous before giving a speech, for instance, someone suffering from social anxiety may go to extraordinary lengths to avoid public speaking. This level of social anxiety can cut you out of whole careers, such as teaching, and mean you have a hard time making friends and forming relationships.

“People suffering from social anxiety may also be less likely to seek the help of a trained psychotherapist, which is why we want to determine whether this new, Web-based treatment could be an effective alternative for them.”

The techniques learned in the trial will include ways of changing automatic thinking and relaxation techniques.

To participate in the trial, contact Tamara Ferris by e-mail at tferris4@une.edu.au.

The University of New England and Naresuan University have marked five years of collaboration with an intensive research workshop at Naresuan University in Phitsanulok, Thailand.

The workshop involved doctoral public health students from the Faculty of Public Health at Naresuan University, who investigated maternal and child health services as possible topics for their PhD research. They were assisted by visits to the Din Thong Health Care Centre, Wangthong District hospital, and the Buddhachinaraj Hospital, where the students met with senior maternal and child health staff to discuss existing services.

These visits were followed by a series of lectures by Prof Mary Cruickshank from UNE on research methodology and sessions to develop the students’ research projects. The students then presented their draft proposals to the research team and to Dr Thavatchai Kamoltham of the Ministry of Public Health and Dr Veerachai Sittipiyasakul, the Director of Regional Health Promotion, Phitsanulok Province, Ministry of Public Health. Feedback from this session will allow the students to further refine their research proposal for their PhD studies.

Dr Prawit Taytiwat, dean of the Faculty of Public Health at Naresuan University, said the week-long workshop had been “an invaluable experience for students and academics alike to work closely with international colleagues.”

Dr Taytiwat, who is also an adjunct associate professor in the schools of Health and Rural Medicine at UNE went on: “This approach demonstrates the commitment of Naresuan University to develop the capacity of both its academics and students in research methods and to access international perspectives about health care delivery.”

Speaking on behalf of the UNE research team, Dr David Briggs noted that the Thai health system had made significant progress towards achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals in Maternal and Child Health.

“This provides the public health doctoral students and the research team with the opportunity to explore the organisation and management of health services with a view to how the system might be strengthened,” Dr Briggs said.

“This approach allowed students to consider how the concepts of health management delivery knowledge might be applied to traditional public health perspectives of these students and academic staff.”

Staff from the two universities will next meet at an international conference on health management service delivery in Phitsanulok in October 2009.

Tony Windsor, the Federal Member for New England, will give the Occasional Address tomorrow at the University of New England’s third Autumn Graduation ceremony for 2009.

Mr Windsor, who holds a Bachelor of Economics degree from UNE, will - in the presence of their families and friends - address an audience of successful candidates for degrees, diplomas and certificates in the fields of Economics, Business and Law.

The first two ceremonies, held last week, were for the Sciences and Health (Friday 27 March) and Education (Saturday 28 March). The last of the four ceremonies - for those graduating in Arts - will be this Saturday, 4 April.

During last Saturday’s ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, presented Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Learning and Teaching to two outstanding lecturers in UNE’s School of Education: Dr Ingrid Harrington and Dr Pep Serow.

Introducing Dr Harrington, Professor Pettigrew commended her ability to engage her students “by providing them with a variety of learning experiences suitable to their needs”. “She has adopted a reflective approach to her teaching,” he said, “that enables her to learn what works for different students - and why it works.”

He said Dr Serow was “driven by a passion for mathematics teaching that focuses on the development of a variety of pedagogically sound methods to teach mathematics to students”. “Her sustained concern for student learning is evidenced in her teaching philosophy, her uses of educational technology, and the recognition she receives from her peers and the wider community,” he added.

The Occasional Address speaker at last Saturday’s ceremony was the Head of School at PLC Armidale, Debra Kelliher. Speaking to the graduands in Education, Ms Kelliher emphasised the important role that they could play in the lives of their future students - “so important that you are bound to be someone’s hero”. “All of us, looking back to our childhood and school years, can think of those we looked up to,” she said. “Many of you will have started this journey to be a teacher because of a hero - someone who made a difference, who recognised your talent and potential and let you understand they saw it.”

“We can all hold values that stem from our deepest self, and be a hero for a child or a student,” she said, urging the graduands to “hold close to your values and courage, and remember your heroes who inspired you”.

The installation of the Hon. Richard Torbay MP as the University’s new Chancellor was a highlight of the first of this year’s Autumn Graduation ceremonies. Dr Torbay is personally presenting testamurs to about 1,000 graduands over the four ceremonies, while the total number of people graduating from UNE this autumn (including those unable to attend the ceremonies) is about 2,500.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Dr Ingrid Harrington (left) and Dr Pep Serow with the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew.

Archaeologists from the University of New England will contribute to a new understanding of global migration patterns in prehistoric times when they present their research findings at a Harvard University symposium in the United States later this month.

UNE research - including the University’s leading role in the recent epoch-making discovery and interpretation of the remains of a previously unknown human species on the Indonesian island of Flores - will, when compared and contrasted with the findings of researchers in the Americas, help to form new, global perspectives on those earliest human migrations.

Titled “People Colonising New Worlds”, the symposium on the 17^th and 18^th of April will bring together Australian and American researchers to compare and contrast their insights into the original colonisation of their respective continents. “In revealing some of the differing theoretical and methodological perspectives characteristic of Australian and American scholarship, the symposium should generate lively discussion and provide an environment in which we can learn from each other,” said Associate Professor Wendy Beck, one of the UNE participants.

Dr Mark Moore, the UNE archaeologist who has carried out a detailed analysis of the stone tools found on Flores alongside the remains of Homo floresiensis (”the Hobbit”), will discuss differences between the stone tool manufacture of the first modern humans to colonise Europe and America, and their much more ancient counterparts in South-east Asia and Australia.

Dr Moore will argue that an “Antipodean perspective” on stone tool manufacture could lead to a comprehensive reinterpretation of the history of Stone Age technology. He will also suggest that social and cultural factors played a much greater role in the development of that technology than the environmental factors more commonly invoked by European and American archaeologists.

Dr Moore’s UNE colleague Dr June Ross will focus on some of those social and cultural features of Aboriginal life when she reports on her studies of rock art in central Australia and north-west Queensland. Dr Ross will use those studies to show how the production of art facilitated social change across Australia in the recent past. UNE postgraduate Ken Mulvaney will present evidence that regional differences in Aboriginal culture began to appear relatively soon after the arrival of the first people in Australia, and Dr Beck, in her presentation, will ask to what extent this richness of cultural diversity could have influenced the Aborigines’ continued pursuit of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

UNE’s Professor Mike Morwood, the co-leader of the archaeological team that discovered the remains of Homo floresiensis, will discuss the South-east Asian origins of the colonisation of Australia.

The symposium has been organised by Emeritus Professor Iain Davidson, who was Professor of Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology at UNE from 1997 to 2008, and who is Harvard’s current Visiting Professor of Australian Studies. It will comprise 26 presentations - 13 by Australian speakers, nine of whom are associated with UNE.

After the symposium, Dr Moore and Professor Morwood will travel to the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where, on the 21^st of April, they and UNE’s Professor Peter Brown will join seven other international speakers in the Turkana Basin Institute’s Seventh Stony Brook Human Evolution Symposium, presented by the famous palaeoanthropologist Dr Richard Leakey. During the Stony Brook Symposium, titled “Hobbits in the Haystack”, Dr Moore will present evidence for his unexpected finding that the modern humans who replaced Homo floresiensis on the island of Flores used the same method of stone tool manufacture as their “Hobbit” predecessors.

Dr Beck, Dr Moore and Dr Ross will present their Harvard lectures tomorrow, Friday 3 April, from 1.30 to 3.30 pm in Lecture Room A3 (UNE Arts Building).