Celebrating the Writers Festival

25 August 2010

The University's partnership with the Melbourne Writers Festival will be further strengthened this year with strong representation from staff, presenting and participating across a range of sessions.

Arts faculty staff and colleagues will be appearing at the prestigious festival, Melbourne's premier literary festival featuring over 400 writers from around the world.

Director, National Centre for Australian Studies (NCAS) Dr Tony Moore and NCAS Research fellow, Dr Tim Soutphommasane will launch the next three volumes in the Australian Encounters series; Watch This Space: The Future of Australian Journalism by Dr Millisa Deitz; Power Crisis: The Self- Destruction of a State Labor Party by Rodney Cavalier; and The Importance of Being Innocent by Dr Joanne Faulkner. Australian Encounters is a scholarly but accessible issues-based series commissioned by Dr Moore and published by Cambridge University Press in collaboration with the NCAS.

Head of the School of Journalism and Australian Studies, Professor Jenny Hocking will speak on the 'Rise and Fall of Politics' with journalists Annabel Crabb, Heather Ewart and Peter Nicholson on Saturday 4 September, 2010.

A book published by NCAS's Nick Walker entitled The Bloody History of the Croissant by David Haliday will be launched at the session Creatively Arcadian, on Saturday 29 August, 2010.

Professor Greg Barton and Dr Natalie Doyle will be panellists for the discussion 'Islamic terrorism from a European Perspective'.

On Sunday, Monash grammarian Professor Kate Burridge, a cryptic crossword writer and a linguist will share their love of the basic currency of language and words. Dr Seamus O'Hanlon will launch Melbourne Remade, his short history of the city's transformation since the 1970s and James Walter will participate in the discussion 'Politics as Performance'.

The topic 'What kind of deity is believable today?' will be discussed by a panel, which includes Mark Manolopoulos. James Walter will participate in the discussion 'If all the world's a stage, are politicians the producers?' and Bill Birnbauer will participate in a discussion 'The Business Models: Dead, or Just Resting?'

'A Year for Australian Writing' will be the topic under discussion by Professor Adam Shoemaker, Lynette Russell and Peter Pierce on Saturday 4 September.

'Is there more to our minds than just matter?' will be discussed by philosopher Jakob Hohwy and Graeme Davison will participate in the debate: 'History should only be written by historians'.

Staff are encouraged to attend. For a complete list of Monash participants visit the Faculty of Arts website.

The festival runs from 27 August to 5 September 2010 and more information is available on the Melbourne Writers Festival website.