Indigenous Knowledges

We are pleased to announce that following scrupulous adherence to advice from People and Culture as to the approved selection process, we have a candidate who has accepted the role of Professor of Indigenous Knowledges in HASS, and they will commence in the new year. More details to come.

The return, the places been, and seen

I was recently at The University of Queensland for the annual research seminar day at the School of Music. As Honorary Professor at UQ I am asked to do relatively little but a presentation was requested. My paper was on the work of my long-time mentor Professor Colwyn Trevarthen who died this year aged 93. I am grateful to Colwyn for bringing his curiosity to my work and ideas, and his consistency in openness to thoughts and prospective notions beyond his own. That is surely how great ideas grow and flourish. As for being back at UQ where I spent 7 years as a lecturer in the 1990s in my first full-time academic role, I am reminded that it was not an easy place to work and thrive. However, the recent return is lovely. No-one has too high expectations, the greetings are warm and sincere, and the keynote speaker mentioned my status as a “world leader” several times which made me laugh at each iteration. Laughter because while it is probably true, one does not live as an expert, one lives as a person in interaction with other persons and the only way to flourish in these interactions is through love, which does not require expertise. Thank you Colwyn.

The Future is Stupid

I visited a friend in Vienna in the early 2000s and she took me to the Flaktürme (flak tower) on the outskirts of the city. There are six of these World War II relics, each made of metres-thick solid reinforced concrete, topped with circular bases for anti-aircraft attacks. Various stories accompanied the transformation of these Flaktürme into art spaces. One account being they could not be destroyed so were repurposed for art, but another stating their ownership was uncertain and in spite of the horrifying context of their creation and use they were kept in order to preserve opportunity for reflection on the past. During the time I visited, the artist Jenny Holzer, before the time of what is now X, projected a statement onto the side of one of the towers from her Truism series, The Future Is Stupid. I reflect on this statement from time to time as Holzer might expect. How do we engage the future, especially when it is ripe with uncertainty? Universities are, like the Flaktürme, potentially becoming remnants of former times with undecided ownership and purpose into the future. We need to work together, making peace with the disliked but inevitable uncertainty, and to commit to caring for each other while leading new ideas about future possibilities for transformation of higher education.