Archive for September, 2009

Acclaimed Australian author, Steven Conte, will enjoy a homecoming of sorts when he delivers the 18^th annual Sir Robert Madgwick Lecture at the University of New England next Wednesday (October 7).

Dr Conte spent his formative years in Guyra and boarded for six at The Armidale School before embarking on an overseas adventure, an experience that later inspired his first novel, The Zookeeper’s War, which won the $100,000 Prime Minister’s Literary Award in 2008.

Walking into Fiction is the title of Dr Conte’s free lecture, which he will deliver at the UNE Arts Theatre at 12 noon next Wednesday.

The title is apt, as Dr Conte’s backpacking odyssey saw him hitchhike 3000km around Europe, including a three month stay in Berlin, a period which had a major influence on his writing.

It also alludes to the fact that at 43, he did not rush into a literary career.

“I’m one of these overnight successes for 25 years,” he laughed.

“I had been aspiring to be a writer since I was in my teens, so have been chipping away at it for a long time.”

On his return to Australia Dr Conte moved to Canberra, where he studied professional writing at the University of Canberra, as well as Australian literature (as a civilian) at the Defence Force Academy.

He worked at various jobs to support his writing, including as a barman, life model, taxi driver, public servant and book reviewer.

After a decade in the nation’s capital Dr Conte moved to Melbourne in 1999 and completed a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne.

It was here that he developed the manuscript that became The Zookeeper’s War, which was published in 2007.

The book is set in a Berlin zoo in 1943, where an Australian woman, Vera, and her German husband, Axel, the zoo’s director, struggle to look after the animals through the air raids and food shortages of war.

While some writers and artists keenly feel the pressure of early success, Dr Conte, on the contrary, finds it liberating.

“Success certainly creates expectations, but I’m not feeling it as pressure,” he said.

“The benefit of not having success until middle age is that the work is undoubtedly better than it would have been had I rushed it out five years earlier.

“The advantage of waiting is that you turn out something that is more measured and considered, and more likely to succeed.”

Dr Conte’s Madgwick Lecture will centre on the creative process behind The Zookeeper’s War.

“I will be telling the story of how the book came into being and hope that by describing the process and the real life experiences that inspired it, I can give an insight into part of the mechanism behind creating a novel,” he said.

“Also, as I didn’t live through that time, I will speak about the interaction between research and personal experience and how this can influence the development of history in a novel.”

Head of the School of Arts at UNE, Professor Jennie Shaw, said the Sir Robert Madgwick Lecture is held in honour of UNE’s first Vice-Chancellor, who was a strong advocate of the role of UNE in promoting education for the whole community.

“The inaugural lecture was delivered by Sir Hermann Black. Other eminent citizens who have delivered the lecture include Emeritus Professor Manning Clark, Dr Barbara Thiering, Assoc Prof John S. Ryan, Richard Butler, Ruth Cracknell, Kerry O’Brien, David Martin and Tim Fischer,” she said.

“We are delighted that Dr Conte has accepted our invitation to deliver the 2009 Madgwick Lecture, especially as he has strong local connections both in Guyra and Armidale.

“The Lecture provides a wonderful opportunity for university staff, students and members of the local community to come together to hear one of Australia’s rising stars.”

For more information on the Madgwick Lecture phone 6773 2534.

An academic from the University of New England has won a highly competitive scholarship from the European Commission that will enable him to share ideas with researchers in Scandinavia.

Dr Siri Gamage, a Senior Lecturer in UNE’s School of Education, is known internationally as an expert analyst of – and commentator on – ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. He said that the Erasmus Mundus Scheme Scholarship would enable him to broaden his investigation of the human rights instruments available to ethnic minorities in nations around the world, and the conflicting claims of “national sovereignty” and the rights of minorities to “self-determination”.

Next week, Dr Gamage’s scholarship will take him to the University of Tromso in Norway – the northernmost university in the world. There, as a Visiting Scholar, he will contribute – from the perspective of his own expertise and experience – to seminars and discussions with academics and postgraduate students in the university’s Department of Social Anthropology.

After six weeks in Tromso, he will go on to the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, where he will be hosted for six weeks as a Visiting Scholar by that university’s School of Global Studies.

Dr Gamage’s  paper “Economic liberalisation, changes in governance structure and ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka”, was published this year in the Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol. 39 (2). His most recent paper, “Can Sri Lanka achieve durable peace after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers?” has been accepted for publication by the Journal for the Study of Peace and Conflict (Wisconsin Institute).

He said that – among other things – the  scholarship experience would be invaluable for him in his supervision of PhD students who are investigating issues surrounding the human rights of refugees and migrant workers, and in his coordination of a UNE course unit on social justice in education.

“Talking about human rights is not a revolutionary, radical activity,”  Dr Gamage said. “It’s part of being human.”

The Erasmus Mundus Scheme aims to enhance the quality of higher education within the European Union by encouraging dialogue between European academics and researchers and those from beyond Union.

Clicking on the image of refugee children displayed here reveals a photograph of Dr Siri Gamage.

The University of New England will be showcasing its sustainability credentials at the Sustainable Living Expo (SLEX) on UNE September 25-27.

UNE is the Major Sponsor of SLEX 2009.

Along with having a large pavilion at SLEX, UNE will be providing a range of experts to speak on a wide variety of topics during the event. Soil, consumerism, and religion are just three of the subject areas that will be considered by UNE experts in relation to sustainability.

The university’s facilities Management Services Directorate will also give a presentation on how the UNE is building a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable campus through sustainable building practices, energy management and recycling.

“UNE is a committed institution in the university sector in the area of sustainability,” Professor Pettigrew said.

“As an institution, we are striving to integrate the principles of sustainability into our research, business practices, infrastructure and teaching curriculum.

“Supporting this event is a welcome opportunity to demonstrate our leadership and commitment to creating a more sustainable world,” Professor Pettigrew said.

Chancellor Dr Richard Torbay commended the University on its involvement with SLEX.  Dr Torbay said UNE should be proud of setting a benchmark with respect to sustainability for the larger Australian universities to adhere to.

“This is exemplified through our endorsement of the Talloires declaration, sustainable facilities management and building practices, research centres such as the National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research, and through our teaching and research profile more generally,” Dr Torbay said.

The University of  New England is the Major Sponsor for this year’s Sustainable Living Expo (SLEX), September 25-27 at the Armidale Showground and will be showcasing the University’s role as a leader in environmental  sustainability in many areas including research, education, new and existing courses in climate change  and sustainability, as well as the built environment.  A number of UNE speakers will be giving presentations throughout the weekend on a wide variety of topics including organic farming and sustainable use of energy in the home environment.

Other sponsors include Armidale Dumaresq Council, Country Energy, the New England Credit Union, Industry & Investment NSW, Jobs Australia, TAFE New England Institute, QantasLink, Forsyths, The Armidale School, Telstra Country Wide, The Armidale Express, AusIndustry, Moore Park Inn and FM 100.3 and 2AD.

Cherry Stewart, an Educational Developer at the University of New England, has won an international award for her innovative use of the open-source educational software platform Sakai.

Mrs Stewart was presented with one of four “Teaching with Sakai Innovation Awards” at the 10^th annual international Sakai conference in Boston, USA, in July. This week, the Chief Executive Officer of the Sakai Foundation, Michael Korcuska, visited UNE to talk to Mrs Stewart and her colleagues in the UNE-based collaborative project “DEHub: Innovation in Distance Learning”.

Mr Korcuska said that the Innovation Awards, now in their second year, recognise “the effective and appropriate use of online learning tools to support innovative pedagogical strategies”. The judges – from outside the Sakai community – are recruited from around the world.

“Sakai is a free, open-source software platform,” Mr Korcuska explained, “built by higher education institutions themselves, for scholarly collaboration in teaching and research. In using Sakai, you’re not just acquiring a product – you’re joining a community.”

Mrs Stewart’s award-winning project, titled Reflective eLearning, is a professional development program for lecturers, designed to familiarise them with the Sakai system and allow them to experience it as “students”. More than 60 staff members from UNE’s School of Education and School of Health participated in the program during the three iterations delivered in 2008 and 2009.

“I was very proud, in receiving the award, to be part of the team that has been piloting Sakai at UNE for the past two years,” Mrs Stewart said. “The award demonstrates that UNE can be innovative in the provision of online learning for distance students. I believe it’s really urgent for us to invest in the future by collaborating with others who are driving the agenda for open-source education – opening courses to the world.”

The use of Sakai is enabling distance-education students in several UNE disciplines to learn through collaborative projects, and through interactive functions such as blogs, wikis, and quiz tools. About 40 UNE course units currently employ Sakai, involving more than 3,000 users (students and staff members).

THE IMAGE displayed here expands to show Mrs Stewart and Mr Korcuska with the Sakai award (and an appreciative “Sakaiger”).

John Ryan is the last of J.R.R. Tolkien’s students still writing about his work. Dr Ryan’s latest book, Tolkien’s View: Windows into his World, offers its readers – in the words of his University of New England colleague, Professor Peter Forrest – “a way in to something more wonderful even than Middle Earth: the world of philology”.

“Tolkien’s philology was based on the thesis that the past we identify with is the world of our linguistic forbears,” Professor Forrest said when launching Tolkien’s View at the Armidale Library earlier this month.

The book – a newly revised and edited selection of John Ryan’s essays relating to Tolkien – reveals in fascinating detail the way in which Tolkien’s deep understanding of his culture’s linguistic and mythic past informed his work as both Oxford Professor of English and author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

“Tolkien had always seen philology as the way back to mythology, history, and even the proto-religion of the European peoples,” Dr Ryan explained to the guests at the book launch. “For him, all transmitted language was a way to the past – back through surviving documents to the ancient trade routes from the East, the history of the human race, and the earliest thoughts of early men, and so a way to reach to the origin of mind, to the First Word, and to the Deity Himself.”

Tolkien’s View reveals the richness of Oxford philological scholarship in the first half of the twentieth century – an intellectual and cultural milieu in which Tolkien played a leading role, and which made a strong and lasting impression on the young John Ryan. Dr Ryan recalls, in the Introduction to Tolkien’s View, his immersion in “holistic studies comprising language, literature, archaeology, landscape and culture, and the ‘folk memory’”. His new book – a product of what another of Dr Ryan’s UNE colleagues, Associate Professor Michael Sharkey, called “independent, passionate scholarship over many years” – is ample evidence of that formative experience.

“My last Oxford year was spent in 20 Merton Street, the home of Professor David Nichol Smith, in a sparrow-visited attic looking out over the Botanic Gardens towards Magdalen College – and so onto some of Tolkien’s favourite trees,” Dr Ryan says. And it is a similar view of this timeless landscape from Tolkien’s own window, with all its mythical, archaeological, linguistic, historical, religious and academic associations, that is referred to in the book’s title and illustrated on its cover.

Dr Ryan recalls in the Introduction his “many unplanned and more social meetings with Professor Tolkien, many walks and pacings together with him around the College Garden, [and] discussions about possible areas for my researches”. He also notes that Tolkien acted as a referee for his academic posting to UNE.

John Ryan is recognised as one of the world’s leading Tolkien scholars. Tolkien’s View (Walking Tree Publishers, Zurich and Jena, 2009) is his third book about Tolkien.

Clicking on the image (a section of the book’s cover) displayed here reveals a photograph of Dr Ryan (left) with his colleague Dr Robert Haworth, who assisted in the preparation of  Tolkien’s View.

Scientists at the University of New England were impressed with the quality and variety of the individual “science investigation” projects that 27 secondary school students from Armidale and Walcha presented to them earlier this week for judging.

The projects were the students’ entries in the 2009 Science Investigation Awards at UNE, a competition organised through the national Primary Industry Centre for Science Education (PICSE). UNE houses the NSW Activity Centre for PICSE.

The students, from every high school in Armidale and Walcha, were competing for awards and cash prizes of up to $120 each. Their projects – presented on display boards on Monday 14 September – investigated questions such as “Why do we not starve our kids?”, “How does stress in livestock affect weight gain?”, “Which food decomposes fastest?”, and “Which glue works best?”, and addressed issues such as “Computer screens and eyesight”, “The effect of colour on temperature”, and “The effect of salt on the growth of freshwater plants”.

One of the projects, “The dropped letter test”, investigated people’s responses to finding a letter on the footpath that had apparently been dropped accidentally on its way to the post box. Sorcha Harrop from Armidale High School dropped letters on Gold Coast footpaths, some of them addressed (in an adult’s hand) to a “business”, and others addressed (in a child’s hand) to an individual – the “father” of the “child”. The address on all the letters was, in fact, that of Sorcha herself.

“I wondered what people would do when they were confronted in the street with an aspect of their own life in the form of a letter, and which of these two ‘aspects’ would appeal more to them,” Sorcha said.

She found – to her surprise, she said – that the children’s letters were returned to her in greater numbers than the business letters, and that those she had left unstamped had even been stamped by the people who had sent them on.

Sorcha won the Student Choice Award for the “most interesting project”, and first place in the Encouragement Award. (Second place in the Encouragement Award went to Nicola Traise from Duval High School, and third place to Brendan Howe from Armidale High School.)

Sorcha said she would like to continue to follow her interests in life, including her interest in psychology – “particularly if it’s approached scientifically”.

Tim Williamson from The Armidale School was placed first in the Junior Scientist category, Laura Tillman from PLC Armidale second, and Karina Siems from Duval High School third. Sarah Baker from New England Girls’ School was first in the Primary Industry Award, and Georgia Diebold from PLC and Zoe Matthews from Walcha Central School were equal second. Georgia Diebold also won the Student Choice Award for the “best display”.

“The Science Investigation Awards is a new initiative of the UNE PICSE program,” explained Susanna Greig, one of the two Science Education Officers for the PICSE program at UNE (the other being Jane Shepheard). “Following the very positive response from the teachers, judges and students involved, we look forward to making this an annual event.

“Events like this, along with other activities run by the PICSE program, work to develop links between schools and scientists, and also to encourage and extend these students’ interest in sciences and develop greater awareness of the broad range of exciting and worthwhile science-based careers.

“Both Jane Shepheard and I would like to thank the judges (Brian Sindel, Robin Jessop, Peter Lye, John Stanley, Phoebe Barnes and Stephanie Cameron), and the sponsors who made the prizes possible: Armidale Dumaresq Council, Walcha Council, and East West EnviroAg.”

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here expands to show Sorcha Harrop with her project display.

University of New England Chancellor Richard Torbay has welcomed Sir Laurence Street’s endorsement of the University’s new governance discussion paper.

He said the former NSW Chief Justice spoke at the UNE Council meeting in Sydney yesterday regarding the progress made on the issue.

“Sir Laurence has been a great supporter of UNE over a very long period and was asked for his advice on setting new governance arrangements at the University,” Dr Torbay said.

“University staff have worked hard to complete this task and the discussion paper was tabled at the meeting. It was encouraging for us to have Sir Laurence’s hearty endorsement for this improved structure.”

Sir Laurence (pictured) gave his endorsement to the University’s new direction, contained in a discussion paper “Pursuing Best Practice in University Governance”.

He addressed the Council at length on the issues highlighted by Council’s review process, and gave his views on measures to keep UNE at the forefront of fair, principled and effective governance.

Dr Torbay said the governance discussion paper would ensure the University had the necessary protocols in place to govern more effectively in the future.

“We are confident that UNE has a bright future and that we are all moving in the right direction to take advantage of the many opportunities presenting themselves,” he said.

“It is always valuable to have the guidance and goodwill of people with such wide experience as Sir Laurence and we owe him a debt of gratitude for his contribution.”

The former NSW Chief Justice has had a long association with UNE and was involved in establishing the Law School in 1993.

He has made many visits to the campus over the years since and has made himself readily available to give advice and assistance when requested.

“Sir Laurence was made an honorary doctor of economics at the University of New England in 1996 in recognition of his outstanding judicial career and for his contribution to UNE over a long period,” Dr Torbay said. “His continuing engagement means a lot to the University.”

The discussion paper will be released shortly. 

For media enquiries, please contact Michael Kauter, Media Adviser, 02 6773 3872 or 0429360498.

Duval College at the University of New England will celebrate its 50th anniversary this weekend with a “Back to Duval” extravaganza.

An indoor sports competition, walking tours of the University, and even an archaeological dig are some of the activities planned for the weekend, which will run from Friday, September 18 to Sunday, September 20.

Edwina Ridgeway, principal of Duval College, said she was looking forward to a “trip down memory lane”, and that it had been a “great privilege to have had the wonderful longevity to work with so many people at such a defining time in their lives”.

Mrs Ridgeway has led the college for more than 30 years.

Former students are not the only ones looking forward to the festivities, as a number of former catering and cleaning staff are also expected to attend.

Construction of what was to become Duval College began in 1949 with the erection of two weatherboard huts, built as the first student accommodation on campus. Miss B. Bagnall in charge of women residents at that time.

By 1957, a further five huts had been built, and were now controlled by Mr Meredith following the departure of Miss Bagnall in 1952.

1959 saw the completion of the last two huts, enabling the housing of 117 women residents. In December of that year, the University Council resolved that the ‘Hill Residences’ would form the second women’s college (Mary White College was completed in 1958) and was to be called Duval College.

Since that time, Duval College has built a reputation for excellence in scholarship, sports and community service, most recently raising money for the Armidale Rural Referral Hospital with a 10 km “Duval to Duval” fun run.

More information about Duval College’s 50th anniversary celebrations is available at: http://www.une.edu.au/duval/reunion.php.

Seventy people, aged between 18 and 73 and coming from as far away as Victoria, were presented with membership of an international society of outstanding students during a ceremony at the University of New England last Friday.

The Golden Key International Honour Society provides recognition, career assistance, scholarships and networking for undergraduate and honours students in the top 15 per cent of their field of study. The UNE Chapter of Golden Key, established in 2002, is one of more than 370 Chapters of the Society at universities and colleges around the world. Golden Key not only recognises academic achievement but also encourages service to the community.

Friday’s ceremony included the presentation of honorary membership of the Society to the Hon. Richard Torbay MP, an award for five years of service to the Chapter to UNE Careers Counsellor Airlie Bell, and a new member scholarship to Psychology Honours student Sarah Eagle. In introducing Ms Eagle, the 2009 President of the UNE Chapter, Alicia Zikan (pictured here), mentioned her volunteer work as a teacher of Tibetan refugees in northern India and her fund-raising activities, which have included walking a total of 2,500 km in Australia and Europe.

Winnie Liu, University Relations Officer for Golden Key’s Asia-Pacific Region, took part in the ceremony on the lawns of “Booloominbah”, at which friends and relatives of the new members saw the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, present them with their certificates of membership.

Professor Pettigrew thanked Ms Zikan, Ms Bell, and all University staff members and students who had worked at maintaining the “very high values” of UNE – values recognised and rewarded by the Golden Key Society.

In presenting Mr Torbay with his honorary membership, Ms Bell outlined his outstanding service to the New England community as a former Mayor of Armidale and current Member for Northern Tablelands and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, and to UNE as a former employee and Chief Executive Officer of the UNE Union, and as the University’s current Chancellor. “His enormous energy and good humour as he travels across the electorate are legendary,” she said.

Mr Torbay congratulated the new student members, saying: “It’s important as an institution that we recognise those around us who go that extra mile.”

One of the new members, Deirdre Benson, began studying in 2007 towards a Bachelor of Arts degree by distance education – at the age of 71.

Mrs Benson, who lives in a retirement village in Goulburn, said that all her children had gained university degrees, and that it was now her turn. She said her experience as a UNE student had been even more rewarding than she had expected. “I’m meeting people through study who I wouldn’t have met otherwise,” she said – some of those people even having stayed with her in Goulburn.

Another new member – Karen Osborne from Emmaville, NSW – began her UNE studies as a distance-education student in 2003, has gained a Bachelor of Arts degree, and is now studying for a Graduate Diploma in Humanities. “It’s been wonderful,” she said. “It’s become a huge part of my life, and has changed me as a person.”

“It’s good to be recognised – particularly as an external student,” Ms Osborne added.

Clicking on the image of Alicia Zikan displayed here reveals a photograph of Ms Zikan with the Hon. Richard Torbay MP and Mrs Deirdre Benson.

The University of New England was the venue for an international symposium last week that reviewed current and future technologies that will help agriculture meet the world’s ever-increasing demands for food and fibre while maintaining the health of rural landscapes.

More than 130 delegates from Australia, New Zealand, the United States and China discussed the use of global positioning systems (GPS) for tracking livestock and guiding farm machinery such as tractors, new aerial and on-ground sensors for mapping soils and crops, and other advanced technologies in the field of “precision agriculture”.

The 13th Annual Symposium on Precision Agriculture in Australasia, hosted by UNE’s Precision Agriculture Research Group, was held at UNE last Thursday and Friday (10-11 September). “The symposium included two half-day workshops that allowed delegates to see -first-hand – some of the new technologies in action, and to discuss applications with both researchers and farmers,” said the Chair of the organising committee, Associate Professor David Lamb. “The response to the symposium was fantastic – we captured most people in Australia working in the field and there was a real spirit of inter-organisational cooperation in sharing ideas and aspirations.”

Two international speakers – Emeritus Professor Jim Schepers from the University of Nebraska in the United States and Professor Ke Wang from Zhejiang University in China – delivered  keynote addresses on the use of new technologies in managing the application of fertiliser.

Professor Schepers demonstrated a newly-developed sensor that records the level of organic matter in soil and thus indicates the amount of fertiliser required for a crop. He explained that this new sensor was “an attempt to fine-tune” a precision agriculture system that already used an aerial sensor to assess the need for fertiliser by monitoring the chlorophyll content and biomass of a crop. “The UNE workshop demonstration of the device was in fact the first time this sensor has been operated anywhere in the world, and it generated a lot of interest,” he said.

He spoke about the importance of these technologies in managing the application of fertiliser so as to minimise nitrate levels in groundwater.

Professor Wang outlined developments in the use of remote sensing and communication technologies to facilitate the interaction of farmers and scientists in crop management in China.

Central to this interaction, he explained, is the mobile phone, with farmers sending photographs of their fields to scientists, and the scientists using these and other data in advising the farmers on procedures such as fertiliser application.

“Information technology can play a big role in agricultural management,” Professor Wang said, adding that the use of the new system had already begun in Zhejiang Province.

UNE’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, officially opened the symposium, and the Chancellor, Dr Richard Torbay, officially closed it. “UNE is particularly proud to have hosted this symposium,” Dr Torbay said, emphasising UNE’s leading role – exemplified by its Precision Agriculture Research Group – in rural research.

Clicking on the image displayed here, taken at a field workshop during the symposium, reveals a photograph of (from left) Emeritus Professor Jim Schepers, Dr Richard Torbay, Professor Ke Wang, and Associate Professor David Lamb.