LA TROBE UNIVERSITY Bulletin JULY 2002 Swing into OPEN DAYS

EDUCATION REFORM: Call for more public debate

The most audacious, death defying ELLA ZUILA NEWS Bulletin

IN THIS ISSUE

La Trobe students go global 3 Honour for Peking University Chancellor 4 Vice-Chancellor urges public debate on education reform 5 Why some plants need cold comfort 6

Research in Action Incentives help share bounty of the seas 7 Saving the of the Manambu 8&9 Collaboration sets an example: Health Minister Thwaites at the launch with La Trobe’s Professor Nay, left, and Mrs Anne Towards your very own tailor-made Fox, General Manager of Bundoora Extended Care Centre where the new Clinical School is housed. drugs 10 GERONTIC NURSING Waste water research tackles treatment problems 11 Clinical School boosts Conferences and Public Lectures 12 Computer program records ancient aged-care education rock art 13 La Trobe University has launched a new Mr Thwaites said state health systems Teaching older drivers 13 Clinical School of Gerontic Nursing to dealt with day to day issues of care and Tall Poppy award to Anne Kavanagh 14 boost the quality of care older people the national university education system receive in Victoria. with its own educational issues – ‘and the Obituary: Allan Martin 14 A partnership between industry, govern- two haven’t come together’. Chinese government scholarship ment and the University, the new School ‘I think it’s very important that La Trobe award 15 aims to increase the retention rate of University and this School have seen the Our women lawyers behind gerontic nurses already in the profession significance of collaboration in linking Chinese walls 15 and the numbers of new nurses seeking the education system and the clinical careers in this expanding field. The State system Ð practice and education Ð with The death-defying Ella Zuila 16 Government provides part of the funding research as the third component. for the School. ‘We will have a crisis unless we have that Known as the La Trobe University same approach at a national level.’ Cover: La Trobe’s Dr Peta Tait is Gerontic Nursing Clinical School, it researching the history of Australian Director of the new School, Professor incorporates the existing Gerontic Nursing women aerialists on the world stage, Rhonda Nay, said: ‘Older people make up Professorial Unit based at Bundoora see page 16. the largest proportion of health care Extended Care Centre and the Nursing consumers so nurses of the future must be Education and Clinical Support Unit at Photo: U.S Library of Congress. skilled in gerontic nursing. Career Caulfield General Medical Centre. prospects are good and there is strong Opening the new School, State Health demand for gerontic nurse practitioners Minister and Deputy Premier, John and consultants.’ Thwaites, said Australia faced a ‘very real She said that La Trobe leads the way in crisis’ in being able to cope with the need gerontic nursing education through strong The La Trobe Bulletin is published ten times a year by the for nurses in the next decade. Severe Public Affairs Office, La Trobe University. links with industry, practice-based shortfalls have been predicted in research and flexible, relevant, research- Articles may be reproduced with acknowledgement. Some specialities such as aged care. based education and policy initiatives. photographs can be supplied. ‘A decade ago we treated about 40 to 60 Major research includes evidence-based Enquiries and submissions to the editor, Ernest Raetz, per cent fewer patients than today, yet La Trobe University, Victoria. 3086 Australia practice in dementia care, creating trained exactly the same number of nurses. Tel (03) 9479 2315, Fax (03) 9479 1387 restraint-free care environments, abuse of Email: [email protected] ‘We therefore have some real challenges older people, family carers, sexuality in Design: Campus Graphics, (44046) to overcome and I am very pleased that at long-term care and recruitment and La Trobe University. least here we have promoted the level of retention of qualified staff. Printed by Vaughan Printing Pty Ltd. collaboration that the rest of the country Website: www.latrobe.edu.au/bulletin/ needs to follow.’

2 LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002 NEWS

La Trobe students GO GLOBAL Travelling scholarships provide new international dimension

The inaugural 2002 scholarship holders have also agreed to share their experiences with organisers on their return, to help fine tune the scheme for future years. The value of each scholarship varies depending on the country in which students choose to study. Scholarships include a return economy airfare, insurance, generous assistance towards accommodation and living costs, and half of each student’s HECS liability and General Service Fee. Selection criteria for the scholarships include demonstrated academic achievements, potential to complete successfully a full-time semester of study in an unfamiliar environment and the ability to act as an ambassador for Australia and for La Trobe.

Experiencing life in other countries: Scholarship winners, from left, Marina Findlay, Morgana Brady, Sarah Butler, Kerry Loughrey, Holly Ludeman, Cathryn Prowse, Antoinette Russo, Ben van Doorn and Continued page 11 Fatih Sener being farewelled by Vice-Chancellor Osborne, centre rear, Science and Technology Dean, Professor David Finlay, and Humanities and Social Sciences Dean, Professor Roger Wales, far left.

Thirteen students have been awarded He said it was important that Australia’s best inaugural La Trobe University Vice- students have the opportunity to experience Chancellor’s scholarships to live and study life in other countries. overseas for the second semester of 2002. ‘Many other nations encourage a The new ‘Targetted Travelling Scholarships’ considerably greater number of their were awarded under the International students to learn and gain new experiences Network of Universities (INU) scheme. overseas, and we thought it was about time They enable La Trobe students to spend a to help redress that imbalance. semester studying abroad, with credit ‘Apart from the personal and academic towards their La Trobe degrees. development, study abroad often improves Nine La Trobe second and third year employment prospects and there are benefits students will go to the University of from the experience to the nation as a Leicester in the UK, three to Malmö whole.’ University in Sweden, and one to the Professor Osborne, who is also President of Helsinki University of Technology in the INU, said the scholarship scheme was Finland. extremely generous and competition for La Trobe Vice-Chancellor, Professor places was intense. Michael Osborne, said there was an ‘In pioneering the establishment of the INU, imbalance in the numbers of students La Trobe University has enhanced the coming to study in Australia from overseas opportunities for students to add a genuinely and the numbers of Australian students international dimension to their studies by going abroad. undertaking courses at one of the partner universities.’

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002 3 INTERNATIONAL LINKS

La Trobe honours Peking University Chancellor

La Trobe University has conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Science on Professor Wang De Bing, Chancellor of Peking University, The award recognises his major contributions in medicine and health and in the development of international ties between the People's Republic of China and Australia. Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Osborne, said Professor Wang was a distinguished academic, a leading researcher in gene diagnosis and gene therapy of leukaemia, and a protagonist in the area of hospital management. An influential figure in recent developments in higher education in China, Professor Wang has made a major contribution to the successful development of the joint program in Health Administration and Health Management between Peking University and La Trobe University Ð and to its dissemination to other leading universities in the People's Republic of China. ‘Professor Wang is one of those rare persons who has found time in an illustrious academic career to contribute strongly to the enhancement of higher education both nationally and inter- nationally,’ Professor Osborne said. Contribution to health care in China: Vice-Chancellor Professor Osborne applauds as Professor Wang Responding to the award, Professor Wang accepts the honorary degree during a special ceremony. said three years of co-operation between Peking and La Trobe universities has This co-operation has developed smoothly, resulted in significant achievements in he added, thanks also to the hard work of Partnerships training and research. many people from the La Trobe’s Faculty in China Many Chinese middle level and senior of Health Sciences. health administrators have already The China Health Program, in the La Trobe University is one of Australia’s received Masters degrees from La Trobe, University’s School of Public Health, leading providers of university education while in China there were joint La Trobe- contributes to the development of health in China with strong partnerships in Peking training programs for postgraduate care in China through teaching, research archaeology, health and business studies. diplomas. and project cooperation. In China the University has formed the ‘We will continue our joint Masters It helps train health service managers International Education Network (IEN) program and Peking University intends to through the Postgraduate Diploma in Pty Ltd, with other Australian providers to send more outstanding scholars to Health Services Management and the offer undergraduate and diploma La Trobe university to conduct PhD Master of Health Administration. programs. English International Pty Ltd studies.’ It also contributes to the education of health was established to teach ELICOS and Professor Wang said internationalisation of service and health policy researchers IELTS in IEN Institutes in Fujian, Nanjing higher education was a ‘necessary trend in through doctoral research in the areas of and Shanghai. this century’, and Professor Osborne has community health services, hospital La Trobe’s Research and Development ‘provided great efforts in pushing forward information systems, national health Park and the Shanghai Caohejing Hi-Tech China-Australia co-operation in higher information policy and privatisation. Park have also entered into a sister park education’. agreement.

4 LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002 NEWS

EDUCATION REFORMS Vice-Chancellor urges more public debate

The gradual subversion of the intellectual pressure for universities to cut back on ‘On the one hand, there is the pursuit of the base of Australian universities in favour of . This was particularly serious highest "quality" of knowledge, whether a utilitarian one is a very serious because losing a language nearly always understood in humanistic terms as the retrogression Ð and should be the subject meant losing a significant part of the distilled wisdom of the ages or more of much more public debate than has taken culture underlying the language. scientifically as breakthroughs in new place to date, according to Professor ‘The recent report on Asian languages knowledge. Michael Osborne, Vice-Chancellor of shows an appalling situation in Australia of ‘The faith is that this will improve human La Trobe University. the neglect of Asian languages. Surely that society, and improve it more insofar as it is Opening a seminar on the Structural is something we must consider very perfected, even if this means that only a Transformation of the University held at seriously if we are going to be partners narrow elite can master it. La Trobe, Professor Osborne predicted a with countries in Asia.’ ‘On the other hand, there is the effort to narrowing of scholarship as ‘student ‘It seems to me we have nearly turned the educate citizens in general, to share predilections and workplace full circle. For we have moved in just over knowledge, to distribute it as widely as considerations impact on what is taught a century from a narrow syllabus suited to possible. and hence what is researched at Australian a leisured elite to the brink of one which is universities.’ ‘This is especially pronounced as one of now about to be equally narrow in a the guiding principles of democracy, which ‘I have a deep foreboding about the different way because it is functionally is held to depend on an educated citizenry, general direction into which universities based and employment related. In that but also of economic development, are being pushed at the moment in process we are in danger of losing the especially insofar as this requires technical Australia,’ Professor Osborne said. ‘I also crucial ingredient of scholarship.’ expertise of participants. want to express a fear that if we don’t do something about it, this push could become ‘In America, and to some extent around the irreversible. ‘Passive in the world, the tensions between these two ideals are shaping struggles over the future Professor Osborne said the Federal face of change’ of the university. Government’s current education review demonstrated little, if any, interest in the – Craig Calhoun ‘I say “struggles”, but in fact there are ‘big picture’. fewer of these than I would expect. By and large, both academics and citizens who in ‘There is nothing in its documents about The all-day seminar, Structural the past have been important advocates for higher education going beyond the Transformation of the University: the public role of universities, have been practicalities and utilities of how it should Contradictory Ideas and Institutional remarkably passive in the face of change. be taught, who it should be taught to, and Compromises in American Higher Grumblings might be a better word than how you can produce a system of teaching Education was hosted by La Trobe struggles.’ which can easily be assessed by people University’s new ‘Thesis Eleven Centre Other seminar participants included well removed from the system.’ for Critical Theory’. Professor Simon Marginson, from Monash Professor Osborne warned there were Keynote speaker was leading US University’s Faculty of Education and grave risks to the nation in producing a sociologist, Craig Calhoun. La Trobe University’s Professor Peter league table of good universities on the Professor of Sociology and History at New Beilharz, Director of the La Trobe basis of the earning power of their University ‘Thesis Eleven Centre for graduates and insinuating that the only York University, Craig Calhoun is President of the US Social Science Critical Theory’ which hosted Professor subjects worth teaching were those that led Calhoun’s visit. to earning power. Research Council. ‘Two sets of ideals that have often seemed A copy of Professor Calhuon’s lecture is He gave as one example of the narrowing available from Tel: 03 9479 1116. of educational opportunity the constant compatible appear increasingly to be in tension’ Professor Calhoun said.

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002 5 NEWS COLD COMFORT Why some plants need it

A possible boost to crop production: Dr Gendall at work in his laboratory.

A La Trobe University plant biologist has This new research has advanced the In Australia, the CSIRO published a paper in played a major role in recent British research knowledge of the processes known as 1999, and another was published in the USA that discovered a previously unsuspected ‘vernalization’ Ð the acceleration of flowering around the same time, describing the isolation process by which many plants time their time by a long period of low temperature. of an important component in vernalization reproduction. From biological and evolutionary called Flowering Lotus C (FLC). Described in the latest issue of the prestigious perspectives, vernalization is essential to The John Innes Centre research had in turn world scientific research journal, Science, the enable many plants to co-ordinate their showed that vernalization reduced the activity discovery provides new knowledge on the reproduction with the changing seasons, of FLC. effect of cold temperature on the flowering particularly to flower after winter in the more ‘Our contribution is to show that VRN1 is time Ð and consequently the healthy life cycle favourable conditions of spring. like an intermediary between the low Ð of many plants. Many species of plants, including some temperature and a target of vernalization, a The research has implications down the line varieties of wheat, canola and barley respond gene called FLC regulation,’ Dr Gendall said. for improving the knowledge of how plants to vernalization. For many years botanists ‘Two years ago, all we knew was that FLC sense and respond to the external have examined this process at the was a target of vernalization but we were environment. physiological level, but only in recent times largely unaware of the factors that regulate It may eventually enable scientists to breed or have they probed the process at the molecular FLC in response to low temperatures. level. ‘design’ plants to flower at different ‘The significance of our study is that it temperatures and so increase the yield of a To examine the factors controlling demonstrates that VRN1 is a component of a single annual crop or to produce more than vernalization, the team used the small annual signaling network that tells a plant that it has one crop each year. weed, Arabidopsis, a distant relative of the been exposed to a long period of low Dr Tony Gendall, a lecturer in La Trobe cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprout. temperature.’ University's Department of Botany, was one Arabidopsis is small, requires vernalization to However, VRN1 also appears to have another of a team of five plant geneticists working at regulate its flowering, has a relatively short role in regulating flowering time. the mainly UK-Government funded John life cycle, produces many seeds and, because Innes Centre in Norwich. it is so widespread, has undergone many ‘We knew VRN1 was a regulator of FLC mutations. Its genome is being closely studied expression but we were surprised to find that Perth-born Dr Gendall, who started out as a if you increase the levels of VRN1, you get cancer researcher, spent five years in Norwich by hundreds of plant biologists throughout the world. dramatic effects on flowering times that are working with a research team led by not dependent on FLC,’ he said. Professor Caroline Dean before joining Dr Gendall said the team had discovered that La Trobe in May this year. a gene or protein called Vernalization 1 This might indicate that VRN1 is a component of two different pathways, one At La Trobe he will continue aspects of the (VRN1) played a role in the normal process of flowering triggered by exposure to low that is dependent on low temperatures, and work that achieved the accolade of another that is not. publication in Science, Journal of the temperatures. American Association for the Advancement of Science.

6 LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002 LA TROBE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH IN ACTION

GAME THEORY Incentives help share bounty of the seas

ALa Trobe University economist has used famous in his novels including Cannery migrate between zones of different ‘Game Theory’, the concept developed by Row. The congress attracted more than 750 countries, or between one country’s zone Nobel Prize winning mathematician, John participants, with four keynote speakers, and international waters. Nash Ð played by Russell Crowe in the two of whom were Nobel Prize winners in A case in point is the disastrous slump in recent film A Beautiful Mind Ð to seek a economics. stocks of cod in sub-Artic waters, so that solution to the world-wide problem of ‘Without government-imposed ceilings on cod is no longer on the menu in the UK. overfishing. catches or harvesting effort, fish stocks In recent years the United Nations has Dr John Kennedy took the ‘Game Theory’ world-wide are over-exploited, resulting in drawn up guidelines to deal with the approach to determine incentives for the major losses in long-run economic problems of international harvesting of major harvesters of North-East Atlantic returns,’ Dr Kennedy says. ‘No fisher gains migratory stocks, but obtaining mackerel Ð Russia, Norway, Scotland and by foregoing a tonne of current catch so as agreements between nations is still a the Irish Republic Ð to co-operate and to catch two tonnes later for the same effort problem. Last year Dr Kennedy worked at maximise their long-run economic returns. if they cannot be assured that other fishers the Centre for Fisheries Economics of the The theory can be used to seek solutions to will also reduce their catch.’ Norwegian School of Economics and other overfishing problems. The International Law of the Sea now Business Administration in Bergen, Associate Professor in La Trobe’s enables countries to declare exclusive researching the mackerel fishery. Department of Economics and Finance, Dr fishing zones (EFZs), encompassing areas Mackerel migrate annually from Norway Kennedy presented the results of this study 200 nautical miles out from their through international waters to EU waters to the Second World Congress of coastlines. to the west and south of the UK and the Environmental and Resource Economists Governments can then regulate harvesting Irish Republic, and back again. in Monterey, California in June. He was in of fish stocks within their zone. However, top company at Monterey, a city whose it is widely recognised that this does not fishing industry John Steinbeck made deal satisfactorily with fish stocks that Continued page 10

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002 7 RESEARCH IN ACTION Saving the language of the Manambu

Manambu, one of the most unusual and She says PNG is the world's most Since 1995 Professor Aikhenvald has been complex of Papua New Guinea's 900 linguistically diverse area. But this studying Manambu, a Sepik area language, languages, may be preserved-thanks to the linguistic diversity is threatened with with Pauline Laki, a native speaker and efforts of La Trobe University's Professor extinction under pressure from Ð Port Moresby-based journalist. Alexandra Aikhenvald. a creole language based on English and Last summer the two women went to the A world authority on language formerly called Melanesian Pidgin Ð and middle Sepik region, between the Hunstein conservation, Professor Aikhenvald is from English itself. mountain range and the Washkuk hills. The working with PNG authorities to produce Children are learning few of the 900 trip was not easy. From Port Moresby, they two grammars and a dictionary of languages, most of which will probably flew to Wewak and then to the government Manambu. disappear by the end of this century. post of Ambunti, in a single engine plane. Associate Director of the University's The Sepik river basin is among the most There they waited for six hours under the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, fascinating, linguistically diverse and scorching sun for a boat take them down Professor Aikhenvald has studied poorly investigated regions Ð and one of the Sepik River to the Manambu-speaking languages in many countries, particularly the least healthy areas, being full of area. After six weeks in this almost in South America. swamps, mosquitoes, and malaria. monolingual environment, Professor

8 LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002 RESEARCH IN ACTION

Aikhenvald returned as a fluent Manambu from another of stealing a name. Then a The Manambu people who have succeeded speaker. debate that may go for days is held to in the ‘white man's’ world Ð from About 3,000 people in five villages Ð determine the correct ownership. diplomatic and army officials to public Avatip (where Professor Aikhenvald spent The Manambu people pride themselves on servants and journalists Ð are now most of the time) Yuabak, Malu, Apan and not ‘selling off’ their culture to tourists, expressing concern about the impending Yuanab Ð speak Manambu with a number trying to survive on their own subsistence extinction of their language and culture. of expatriates living in other areas. farming, and not depending on white- One is Colonel David Takendu, President ‘It is a highly complex language with an people's goods. of the Manambu Association and Chief of intricate sound system and elaborate This is probably why the language is still Staff in the Papua New Guinea Army. grammar. One of its most interesting spoken by most people in the village. Professor Aikhenvald says he is among properties is the gender system,’ says However, among themselves children tend those encouraging her to document and Professor Aikhenvald. to use Tok Pisin, not Manambu. They have save Manambu language and heritage. ‘Manambu divides the world into very little, if any, knowledge of what Her aim is to produce a scholarly, technical "masculine" and "feminine". Men are names belong to which clan. None are grammar. A 400 page draft is already in usually masculine, and women are eloquent in the traditional genres of name circulation and a pedagogical grammar feminine, but not always. Everything big debating, or can sing a song, or lament that can be used like a text book if the and long is considered masculine, so an after somebody has died. language is to be taught formally in unusually big and fat woman, or a woman schools is in progress. behaving in a bossy way, is looked upon as She is also working with Pauline Laki on a masculine. dictionary. Given the complexity of the ‘Everything short, small and round is Manambu people have language, this may take at least five years. treated as feminine - so a squat fattish succeeded in the ‘white ‘Each of the dozen or so clans has its own round man could very well be referred to clan-specific words for all the important "like a woman". A big house is typically man's’ world but are objects, like grass-skirt, slit-drum, ritual masculine, and a small house feminine. men’s house, Haus Tambaran, and not ‘When I showed them a picture of now concerned about many people remember all the terms for all Buckingham Palace, they all agreed that it the impending extinction the clans.’ is masculine because it is so long.’ Professor Aikhenvald plans to return to the Professor Aikhenvald describes the culture of of their language and Sepik area next year during the ‘dry’ Manambu speakers as highly sophisticated. season, between May and September, They divide into three groups of clans. The culture. when malaria-bearing mosquitoes are less Wulwi-ñawi are associated with light and active. the power of sun and moon, the Glagw with darkness and the power of the earth, and the Nabul-Sablap are 'in-between' the two. All the white people are placed in the Wulwi- ñawi. The whole universe, the flora and the fauna, are divided between clans as their property. For instance, the sun and the moon, and also all white people's goods and achievements, including writing, belong to the Wulwi-ñawi. The products of the ground are of the Glagw. ‘To correctly greet a Manambu speaker one needs to know the intricacies of the names associated with each clan because the art of correct greeting is highly appreciated,’ she says. The importance attached to names is a striking property of Manambu culture. Every person has a multitude of names bestowed upon them by relatives from different clans as special gifts. Pauline Laki has seven. Names are not only precious gifts, they are property. Very often people from one clan accuse someone Professor Aikhenvald with a group of Manambu speakers. A 400-page grammar is underway to help revive their language.

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002 9 RESEARCH IN ACTION

This meant determining economic returns To ensure that each country gained from GAME THEORY that nations could make by forming sub- belonging to the joint coalition rather than coalitions, or going it alone, to the from defecting, a system of transfer Incentives help share bounty of detriment of overall returns. payments between the countries would be -from page 7 the seas The approach relies on finding ‘coalitional required. It was found that this could be harvesting strategies’ that are Nash achieved with ‘Shapley values’, named after Lloyd Shapley, who was developing The International Council for the equilibria. This is the game-theoretic the concept at Princeton University at Exploration of the Sea each year sets a concept that John Nash developed in his about the same time as John Nash was total allowable catch (TAC), low enough to PhD work at Princeton University in the working there. ensure viability of the stock. Harvesting early 1950’s, for which he was awarded a nations then have to reach some agreement Nobel Prize in economics in 1994, and Also at the Monterey Congress from on their share. depicted in the film A Beautiful Mind. La Trobe’s Department of Economics and Finance was Dr Michael Harris who Issues Dr Kennedy addressed included Using ‘Game Theory’, Dr Kennedy shows presented a paper co-authored with comparison of current TACs and the TACs that the four major harvesting countries La Trobe colleague, Dr Iain Fraser. over the next 20 years that would would maximise their combined long-run maximise long-run economic returns to the economic returns by halving their current This was entitled Natural Resource harvesting nations, and the incentives for annual combined catch, and allowing for a Accounting In Theory and Practice: A the nations to agree to a system of sharing gradual increase in combined harvest over Critical Assessment, based on his recent the returns. the next 20 years of 30 per cent. PhD work.

processes affecting human organisms are Towards your very own also active in Drosophila. Heat-shock and stress genes are very similar in Drosophila and humans. And there are complex TAILOR-MADE DRUG interactions between genes and the How close are we to a new era of health resistance to environmental stress. ‘This environment. One of them is the process of care in which your doctor prescribes a means how each individual’s body, which aging.’ totally personal drug – designed represents a particularly combination of With Professor Hoffmann, and a Danish specifically for your individual body’s genes, reacts to a disease or an external PhD student, Mr Jesper Sorensen who was reaction to an ailment? stress. This in turn points the way to a recently at La Trobe University for six Such a drug would result from an analysis number of practical implications, including months, Professor Loeschcke completed a of your DNA and an assessment of which personally designed drugs. major review paper on ‘Adaptation to genes were being affected, and to what ‘The possibility of your doctor entering temperature extremes’ covering extent, by the disease. your personal DNA make-up into his information from evolutionary genetics, molecular biology and eco-physiology. Surprisingly, for some more common computer and calculating how much of ailments like diabetes, such diagnosis and which drugs would be required to combat Professor Loeschcke will return to treatment may not be more than a few the precise extent to which the disease had La Trobe University to spend two more years away, says leading European penetrated your body is no longer a remote months at CESAR next July. evolutionary geneticist, Professor Volker theoretical possibility. Loeschcke, who recently spent year in ‘For such common diseases as diabetes, I Professor Loeschcke: visiting La Trobe because of its residence at La Trobe University’s Institute can see such strategies being possible in two international reputation in environmental stress research. for Advanced Study. or three years,’ Professor Loeschcke said. Professor Loeschcke worked as a His conclusions result from his own Distinguished Visiting Fellow in La Trobe research at Aarhus and his collaboration ‘s Centre for Environment Stress and with a La Trobe’s research team headed by Adaptation Research (CESAR), headed by Professor Hoffmann. Professor Ary Hoffmann. He came to Researchers at La Trobe and Aarhus La Trobe, he said, because of Professor universities, and several other centres, use Hoffmann’s internationally recognised Drosophila – the common vinegar fly – for work in the field of environmental stress – research to determine how animals adapt a field in which CESAR ‘is the clear world to stress. Three years ago several academic leader’. institutions in the USA and a commercial Chair of Evolutionary Genetics at the company decoded 97 per cent of the 120 University of Aarhus, Denmark, Professor million bases constituting the protein- Loeschcke said CESAR played a major coding segment of Drosophila’s genome. world role in understanding how genetic ‘Drosophila and humans share a lot of variation contributed to an individual’s genes,’ he said. ‘We believe that many

10 LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002 NEWS REALLY EFFLUENT Waste water research tackles treatment problems

La Trobe University researchers have secured a $400,000 Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage grant to help solve a global problem affecting waste water treatment plants. Dr Bob Seviour, an Associate Professor from the Faculty for Regional Development in Bendigo where most of the work is being carried out, said the project Ð in conjunction with ARC and South East Water Ð involves researching the problem of foaming in waste water treatment plants. ‘Foaming significantly reduces the effectiveness of treatment processes and causes poor quality effluent. The research aims to identify the micro-organisms responsible for producing foam, the microbiological and surface chemical causes of foaming, and develop scientifically sound control strategies to overcome this problem.’ Dr Seviour said the project would be carried out over three years by members of the Biotechnology Research Centre and the Colloid & Environmental Chemistry Group at the Bendigo campus and the Materials and Surface Science Group in the Department of Physics at the Bundoora campus. ‘A group of nine microbiologists, chemists and physicists, including two PhD students, Kathryn Eales and Jacqui Heard, and one Post Doctoral Fellow, Emma Carr, will be working on the project.’ Dr Seviour said a grant of this size was a significant achievement for the two groups. ‘It underlines the importance of this research and its application to industry and the community. La Trobe University has an international reputation for leading research in the microbiology of waste water treatment processes.

‘The support from ARC and South East Water recognises the A significant achievement: Four members of the waste water research group at the expertise of staff at Bendigo and their role in research at the global Bendigo campus, from left Emma Carr, David Hayes (an Honourss student), level.’ Kathryn Eales and Jacqui Heard.

Malmö University: Rebecca Clark, Learn art history on La Trobe students Nursing; Marina Findlay, Social Work; and location in Paris go global – from page 3 Julie McKay, International Relations; University of Leicester: Morgana Brady, From Gustave Moreau’s studio, Monet’s INU exchange student partner institutions Law/Arts; Sarah Butler, Conservation Waterlilies to Fin de Siècle decadence and are chosen primarily on the basis of their Biology & Ecology; Kirsti Graham, early modernism, La Trobe University capacity to offer courses in English which Archaeology & History; Kerry Loughrey, students can now study art history ‘on complement and supplement those available English & Sociology at Albury-Wodonga; location’ in Europe. at La Trobe, and their proven commitment to Holly Ludeman, Agricultural Sciences; Senior Lecturer in the Art History, Lucy welcoming international students and Cathryn Prowse, Law/Economics (Human Ellem, said the subject Paris Around catering for their requirements. Rights); Antoinette Russo, Sociology; Fatih 1900: From Symbolism to Abstraction Sener, Economics; and Ben van Doorn, The scholarship winners are - will be taught next January as an intensive Medical Science. series of lectures, tutorials and site visits in Helsinki University of Technology: Corey La Trobe University also offers ten Vice- and around Paris, as well as in Normandy Putkunz, a Bachelor of Science/Computer Chancellor’s International Exchange and Brittany. Science student; Scheme Scholarships annually for Details: Tel 03 0479 1417 language students.

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002 11 CONFERENCES AND PUBLIC LECTURES

MY TRIP TO THE MOON Astronaut delivers La Trobe Science Lecture

York scholars and writers Sara Ruddick, and Jane Lazarre.

Social theory: The Holocaust and September 11 Ð two events that, respectively, help define the 20th and the 21st centuries Ð were the subjects of two public lectures held by La Trobe’s new Thesis Eleven Centre for Critical Theory, headed by sociologist, Professor Peter Beilharz. The lectures were given by leading social theorists, Jeffrey Alexander from Yale University, who spoke on ‘How The Holocaust Transformed Modernity’and Craig Calhoun, from New York University, who gave a public lecture on the subject of his new book, Understanding September 11. Dr Schmitt delivers the 2002 La Trobe University Science Lecture. Top of page: Dr Schmitt alongside the While at La Trobe Professor Calhoun also lunar roving vehicle 30 years ago, the last time humans walked on the Moon. Photo: Apollo 17, NASA. gave a seminar analysing structural change in higher education, see page 5 for further My trip to the Moon and how it happened Professor Sidonie Smith, from the details. to me was the title of this year’s La Trobe University of Michigan, spoke on the first University Science Lecture delivered to a topic and Aboriginal leader, Dr Mick capacity audience by Apollo 17 astronaut Dodson on the second. Crisis in capitalism: Leading US corporations and securities regulation and former Republican Party Senator, They were among more than 80 delegates scholar and Wall Street Journal Dr Harrison Schmitt. from many countries who gave papers or commentator, James Cox, gave a public Dr Schmitt’s visit to La Trobe coincided conducted seminars. The conference also seminar on the ‘Crisis in American with the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 17 included public readings by four Capitalism Ð from Enron to WorldCom’ mission, the last time humans walked on prominent Australian writers, Doris Brett, while at La Trobe as a visiting lecturer in the Moon. Brian Matthews, Arnold Zable and Peter the University’s Postgraduate Program in Rose. While in he also visited Global Business Law. Strathmore Secondary College, where a Space Education Centre is being Motherhood: A conference on established with the help of La Trobe Motherhood featured Federal Sex University physicists. Discrimination Commissioner, Pru Goward, and writer on marriage and Life Writing: ‘Grandmothers telling motherhood, Susan Maushart. It was stories of sexual servitude during World organised by the La Trobe University War’ and ‘The Stolen Generation: Women’s Study Program. Australian Indigenous Perspectives’ were Program Director, Kerreen Reiger, author keynote speeches at a four-day conference of the recent book, Our Bodies, Our organised by La Trobe University’s Unit Babies: the forgotten Women’s Movement for Studies in Biography and who spoke at the conference on this topic From Enron to WorldCom: Professor Cox, left, with La Trobe Autobiography also interviewed by video leading New Professor of Commercial Law, Gordon Walker.

12 LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002 NEWS

Computers and rock art Linking the ancient & new

State-of-the-art computer software La Trobe Head of Computer Science and technology and Aboriginal rock art from Computer Engineering, Professor Tharam thousands of years ago would seem to have Dillon, says the University’s Software little in common. Engineering Project has already led to the But they have come together in a research commercialisation of a number of other project in La Trobe University’s computer engineering initiatives since it Department of Computer Science and was launched in 2000. Computer Engineering. The project will Material for the project will be catalogued record and catalogue rock paintings near in consultation with Elders of the Laura on Cape York Peninsula and community responsible for the rock art of enhance the tourist potential of the area. the Quinkan Reserves on Cape York. This Six teams of La Trobe University final will form the content of the Matchbox year software engineering students computer resource description system. developed the prototype software last year ‘Time is short,’ says Professor Eric in collaboration with James Cook Wainwright, project leader from James University and Motile Pty Ltd, a firm of IT Cook, ‘because the Aboriginal guardians consultants and developers. of the sites are aging and they are anxious that the oral traditions linked to each An example of rock art from the Quinkan Reserves on Known as the Quinkan Culture Matchbox, Cape York. the software will assist sound cultural painting be recorded and passed down to coming generations.’ heritage management of rock art sites and and Sophie Lissonnet from James Cook other Aboriginal cultural places on Cape Ms Liddy Nevile, researcher and project University, are now employed as York using a cutting-edge cultural heritage manager from Motile and James Cook postgraduate researchers on the second content management system. says: ‘The stories, rock paintings and phase of the project. images of them, and information about Matchbox is a state-of-the-art Web-based Other people involved are Professor Dillon them, need to be carefully catalogued so resource cataloguing system that can be and Dr Wenny Rahayu from La Trobe and they can be "repatriated" to those used for archiving digital and physical Mr Andrew Donald and Mr Robert Donald responsible for the rock art’. resources of all kinds, including video, from Motile. The project has received a audio and print materials. La Trobe lecturer, Mr Torab Torabi Strategic Partnerships with Industry - La Trobe and Motile will develop software supervised teams of students from several Research and Training Scheme (SPIRT) for the computer cataloguing, while James disciplines, including computer science grant of $270,000. Cook University will conduct the and engineering and business, that archaeological aspects, determining ways developed the prototype software. to capture and manage descriptions of the Two students, Sarah Pulis and Behzad rock art and other sites. Kateli, who helped develop the prototype, Teaching older drivers Risk-taking young male drivers cause the Rehabilitation Course, Ms Di Stefano and most road accidents. Ms Lovell have produced a handbook That’s the common perception. However, entitled Teaching Older Drivers: A per kilometre travelled, drivers over 75 Handbook for Driving Instructors. years of age also have a high accident rate The handbook has been sponsored by the Ð a fact attracting the attention of licensing NRMA-ACT Road Safety Trust. authorities and researchers worldwide. Ms Di Stefano says the proportion of Re-educating older drivers and teaching Australians over 60 years of age will them new driving skills can improve road double over the next 30 years. safety for all road users, say Marilyn Di Older people may have reduced vision or Stefano and Robin Lovell. hearing, long established driving habits Lecturers in the University’s School of and may not be up to date with changes in The handbook is available from ACT Occupational Therapy and joint co- road rules. Urban Services, Tel.: 6207 6931 or from ordinators of the Driver Education and their website www.act.gov.au/roadsafety/

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002 13 PEOPLE

Obituary: Allan Martin TALL POPPY AWARD Foundation Professor of History IN HEALTH Died in Canberra, 31 May 2002.

The following is an extract from the RESEARCH eulogy given by Dr John Hirst, Reader in History. La Trobe University’s Dr Anne Kavanagh was one of ten Victorian Some professors have made their mark by researchers to receive a Young Tall knowing very clearly what approach to Poppy Award from the Australian their discipline is the correct one. They Institute of Political Science recently. have appointed staff who shared their views. They have taught the correct view A Senior Research Fellow at the to their students. Great things have often University’s Australian Research resulted. But this approach has its dangers. Centre in Sex, Health and Society, Dr Those who don’t share the correct view are Kavanagh was honoured for her work in the area of cancer epidemiology and excluded. Some clever people learn how to the social determinants of health and defend the correct view, but do not have health inequalities. the eye, the mind or the heart to be good Professor Martin: ‘The last of the relaible practitioners themselves. historians.’ Dr Kavanagh received widespread publicity when she and colleagues at the Allan’s approach was very different. He were not going to be very good. Allan Cancer Council of Victoria and appointed people who had very different brought these and other talents together BreastScreen Victoria Registry views and encouraged them to learn from and liberated them. demonstrated that mammographic each other. It was not impossible to doubt With Allan’s passing we are losing one of screening was less accurate for women the wisdom of one or two of his the last of the generation who believed that who are taking hormone replacement appointments, but we knew that Allan who therapy. history could have the qualities of a social had chosen us had also chosen them. And science Ð it could be comprehensive, The study of more than 100,000 Allan made it work Ð by his respect and accurate, fair-minded; its findings Victorian women, published in the warmth for all and by making it very clear grounded in the evidence. He was the last medical journal, The Lancet in 2000, that he was still learning too. He was at of the reliable historians, by which I mean found that 80 per cent of cancers were La Trobe for less than 10 years, but his those who wrote books in which you could detected at mammographic screening spirit still hovers about. People who never confidently look things up. when women were not on hormone knew him are living out the ethic he replacement therapy, whereas only 65 established. He was determined not to be a Once I met a man at a party who, when he per cent of cancers were detected if ‘God professor’, but the making of this knew I was a historian, said he had tried to women were taking the therapy. department was a true act of creation. look something up in Manning Clark’s The Tall Poppy Campaign was History and been disappointed. Though it He did not want to be a 'God professor' in established in 1998 to promote was a party, I did not laugh at this folly, but administration either. He knew the benefits awareness among the Australian public carefully explained what sort of history of a mixed polity. He ruled through the of Australia's intellectual achievements Manning Clark wrote. It’s not simply that senior people, what he mockingly called by recognising the achievements of Clark was often careless over details. If his upper house. There was a role for outstanding young researchers in the you look up Manning Clark you find on democracy but it did not make the sciences and biomedical sciences. every page Ð Manning Clark. Of course important decisions Ð like appointments. Dr Kavanagh has qualifications in you will find Allan on every page of his medicine, a PhD in Epidemiology and One of the notable features of his books, but not as prophet or seer but as cross-disciplinary expertise in social appointments was the number of women, curious enquirer, careful recorder and quiet theory and social enquiry making her all formidable scholars and intellects. interpreter. When in the 1970s feminists complained well-placed to be a national and Perhaps I have talked too much of the international leader in the newly that if there were women in university professor and not enough of the man. What developing field of social epidemiology. departments they were junior and helped Allan to be a success as a professor, marginalised, they were not talking about She has been a Visiting Fellow at the of the sort he wanted to be, were the my world. School of Public Health at Harvard human qualities we all know Ð his University and has worked regularly The most devastating critic at our seminars gentleness, his warmth, his wry humour, with the Victorian and National breast was June Philipp and every time Inga his love. cancer screening program, Clendinnen spoke you knew that though BreastScreen. you might become a good historian you

14 LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002 PEOPLE

Melissa wins Chinese Government scholarship Melissa Kramer, a Bachelor of Arts Honours student in Chinese Studies in La Trobe University’s Asian Studies Program, has been awarded a Chinese Government scholarship to study at the prestigious East China Normal University (ECNU) in Shanghai. The announcement was made by the Education Consulate for the People's Republic of China in Melbourne recently. Melissa’s other major is Art History. She has already visited China twice and is writing her Honours thesis on modern Chinese art, focusing on the Shanghai Biennale. ‘I would like to thank the Education Consulate of the People's Republic of China for their generosity and for the wonderful opportunity to study at the ECNU.’ She also thanked Dr Xu Yuzeng, Director of La Trobe’s Chinese Language Program, and Professor John Fitzgerald, Head of Asian Studies, for their encouragement and support during her studies. Dr Xu Yuzeng said Melissa was a very good student and that the award also acknowledged the quality of La Trobe’s Chinese language China bound: Ms Kramer with Dr Xu Yuzeng, right, and Professor Fitzgerald. program.

Our women lawyers behind Chinese walls La Trobe Law Professor, Margaret Initiative to publish the Chinese edition Thornton, has scored an unusual came from a prominent legal scholar in publishing achievement. China, Professor Xin Chunying, Director A Chinese language translation of her book of the Law Institute of the Chinese Dissonance and Distrust: Women in the Academy of Social Sciences. Professor Legal Profession has recently been Xin wrote the preface and translated more published in China Ð and the first edition than half of the text. of 5000 copies has already sold out. ‘In general, law has little international It is unusual for the leading Chinese currency, being largely confined to publisher, Law Press Beijing, to publish specific jurisdictions, but Professor Xin western law books, and even rarer to felt the analysis and experiences I publish a work examining the experiences recounted in Australia were meaningful of women lawyers in another country. and related to the experiences of women in China,’ Professor Thornton said. Originally published by Oxford University Resonance among Chinese women: Professor Thornton with a Press in 1996, the book is based on ‘The study transcends women in the law copy of her book. interviews with more than 100 Australian and is relevant to women in professional women academics, law students, solicitors, and public life. barristers and judges and examines why ‘It was felt that the experiences recounted women are perceived to lack authority in in my book related to those experienced by the public sphere. women in today’s China despite the policy of equality,’ Professor Thornton added.

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002 15 THE ARTS

THE MOST AUDACIOUS, DEATH-DEFYING… ELLA ZUILA? Nobody knows her Ð but she was the most famous Australian public entertainer in the world in the last two decades of the 19th century. Like her near contemporary and compatriot Nellie Melba, she assumed a continental-sounding stage name, but unlike the great diva we don’t know her real name. A striking-looking athlete of astounding physical prowess, Ella was in her day the The history of Australian women aerialists on the world stage: Dr Tait with images of some of her subjects. world’s most famous female circus wire walker or aerialist Ð the toast of enraptured audiences across Europe and north vase to another held over her head, She probably worked in London during America. walking the wire sometimes on stilts, 1877 and 1878 and performed in the USA The extent of Ella’s fame and prowess are sometimes with baskets on her feet. And in 1880 and 1881 at Adam Forepaugh's, the slowly emerging through a research project she could do some of this blindfolded! largest circus at that time. Ella was to of La Trobe University senior lecturer in There is also a drawing of her, hanging by remain a major aerial star in London and Theatre and Drama, Dr Peta Tait. her knees catching Loyal who had been Europe from 1885 until 1904, with Loyal A theorist in performance studies, Dr Tait fired at her from a cannon. astutely managing the act. set out to examine bodies and gender Reconstructing Ella Zuila’s act and touring When Ella’s fame was at its zenith she was identity Ð how society views the human schedule, Dr Tait has spent many hours in performing to thousands of people at the body in a cultural sense. Her research led the British Museum’s Collingdale Crystal Palace, Royal Aquarium, her to examples in comparatively recent Newspaper Library, Westminster Public Canterbury and Paragon theatres in history where females began to match the Library and the circus archives of the London and touring Continental Europe physical prowess and bravado of males. Theatre Museum. Despite this, she found from 1886. These examples occurred frequently in only minimal biographical details about Her career came to an abrupt halt on 26 circuses, hugely popular public Ella whose background in Australia August 1904. While riding a bicycle across entertainments that came into their own in remains unknown. a wire at the Rotunda, Dublin, she fell. She the second half of the 19th century. The When she died on 30 January 1926 at was so badly injured she could not perform crème de la crème of circus performers were Walton-on-the-Naze, England, Ella’s age on the wire again. the aerialists Ð and Ella Zuila was the best! was given as 72, indicating she was born in Dr Tait’s extended research covers the ‘Men were supposed to have the muscular 1854 somewhere in Australia. history of aerial performance and bodies. They performed public feats of English aerialist and human cannonball, Australia’s contribution internationally. strength and daring. Imagine the effect on George Loyal arrived in Australia in 1868 The project involves interviews with staid Victorian-era public perceptions of the and performed in Melbourne and Sydney. He Australia’s 13 major female aerialists, female body when women aerialists like Ella probably established a personal and including the mother and daughter broke down, for the first time, the perceptions professional relationship with Ella in Sydney. combination of Nicki and Bekki Ashton of of the ‘natural’ difference between male and the famous circus family. Bekki is still female bodies,’ Dr Tait said. The Sydney Morning Herald of 22 March performing the triple somersault, the first 1872 carried an advertisement for Ella’s ‘Ella was a sensation. She matched and Australian-born flier to achieve this performance as a gymnast next day at the often excelled the daring feats of male difficult trick. Royal National Circus in Sydney. And aerialists’. according to the American circus industry Dr Tait also interviewed Dimpie St Leon At the height of her fame in America in publication, the New York Clipper, Ella, in who performed on trapeze throughout 1881, drawings of her act show her 1876, rode a velocipede across a 500-foot Australasia from the 1920s to 1950, and wheeling a child over the wire in a barrow, long wire, 368 feet above the Magani Mary Gill who began her trapeze career carrying on her back a man Ð probably her Falls, near Pietermaritzburg, capital of with Ashton’s Circus in Australia and aerial partner, husband and manager, Natal, in South Africa. starred with Ringling Bros, Barnum and George Loyal Ð pouring water from one Baily in the USA for 12 years until 1973.

16 LA TROBE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JULY 2002