Narratives of War Research Group 2013 Symposium Traces of War
Program
20 – 22 November 2013, Amy Wheaton Building, Magill Campus, University of South Australia Free entry - Light refreshments provided The title for the Narratives of War Symposium takes its theme from the way artefacts, diaries, media, art, music, memorabilia — letters, objects, the trappings of previous existence — indeed all manner of things, might be reflections and evidence of the traces left by war and conflict, and any aftermath and perhaps ensuing peace. The NOW Biennial Symposium is also open to the community and aims to offer interested community groups the chance to participate in current research and writing by scholars and researchers who will offer a broad range of papers and presentations.
GUEST SPEAKERS Professor Peter Stanley Professor Peter Stanley is Research Professor at the University of New South Wales, Canberra’s Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society and former head of the Research Centre at the National Museum of Australia and former Principal Historian at the Australian War Memorial. Peter is one of Australia's most active military-social historians. He has published 25 books, mainly in the field of Australian military history (such as Tarakan: an Australian Tragedy or Quinn's Post, Anzac, Gallipoli or Invading Australia), but also in medical history (For Fear of Pain: British Surgery 1790-1850), British India (White Mutiny: British Military Culture in India 1825-75), British military history (Commando to Colditz) and bushfires (Black Saturday at Steels Creek).
Professor Bruce Scates Professor Bruce Scates is a graduate of Monash University and the University of Melbourne. His many publications include Return to Gallipoli, A New Australia, the Cambridge History of the Shrine of Remembrance and the recently republished Women and the Great War (co authored with Raelene Frances). The last of these won the coveted NSW Premier’s History Award. Professor Scates has also written a novel, On Dangerous Ground, retracing CEW Bean’s steps across Gallipoli and his most recent project is a study of pilgrimages to the memory sites of World War Two. Professor Scates chaired the Military and Cultural History Panel advising the Anzac Centenary Board, he was a member of an expert panel convened to recover the bodies of men missing from Fromelles and has led several historical tours of the battlefields, including the Premier of Victoria's 'Spirit of Anzac' Tour and Monash University’s Annual Study Tour of Gallipoli. Professor Scates leads Australian Research Council funded projects on soldier settlement, World War II pilgrimage and heads an international team exploring the history of Anzac Day.
Professor Matthew Ricketson - Dart Centre Asia Pacific Dart Centre Asia Pacific (DART) is a regional hub for media and trauma professionals and students who believe that effective reporting on violence matters. With permanent offices in Melbourne, Australia and training programs and other activities throughout the Asia Pacific, DCAP works to promote discussion, develop training, and exchange specialist knowledge on the most challenging of media issues. Matthew Ricketson is a journalist and academic. In 2009 he took up a position as the inaugural professor of journalism at the University of Canberra after being Media and Communications Editor at The Age from mid-2006 to early 2009. Before that he ran the journalism program at RMIT for 11 years. He is the author of a biography of Australian author Paul Jennings, a textbook about journalism and the editor of a collection of profiles. His PhD was awarded in 2010.
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Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Room H2-08 1:00pm – 2:30pm Writing for Publication Workshop: Starting - and finishing - a thesis Professor Peter Stanley Beginning, developing, researching, sustaining and finishing a thesis presents many challenges and demands many qualities if you are to see it through. Prof Peter Stanley, who has supervised and examined many post-graduate theses, presents a workshop in which he will outline strategies that are – and are not – productive, useful or successful. The workshop will include a number of exercises to help candidates produce the best thesis they can, and will discuss ways of re-shaping academic theses for publication.
Downstairs Foyer 2:30pm – 3:00pm Afternoon Break (Tea and Coffee provided)
Room H2-08 3:00pm – 4:00pm Reporting the Unseen Wounds of War - Panel Discussion Chair: Dr Sharon Mascall-Dare Brigadier Tim Hanna, AM, Retd (Returned Services League (SA)) Matthew Ricketson, Director of Dart Asia-Pacific Gail MacDonnell, Australian Families of the Military Research Foundation Associate Professor Susan Neuhaus, University of Adelaide
As Australia approaches the Anzac Centenary, how should or shouldn't the media talk
about trauma? After the Great War, one manifestation of trauma was 'shellshock'; today
there is increasing awareness of Post-Traumatic Stress among veterans of Australia's war
and peacekeeping operations both past and present. The panel discussion will present
views from the serving and ex-service community, the media and academia. Importantly,
it will also include the latest research from the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma,
the global leader in providing practical advice to the media regarding the ethical
reporting of conflict, violence and trauma.
4:00pm – 5:30pm Psychological Trauma and War Reporting Masterclass Presented by Dart Asia-Pacific, facilitated by Professor Kerry Green and Dr Sharon
Mascall-Dare The Masterclass is open to journalists and media professionals at all stages of their careers. Mid-career journalists will be offered practical advice regarding the ethical reporting of trauma - the class will include content on how to protect yourself, your colleagues and your interviewees when dealing with traumatic content. Journalism students will be given advice on how to build support networks and integrate ethical practices into their assignments. The class will be interactive and practically-focussed, presenting the latest advice and guidance from Dart Asia-Pacific, supported by current reporting scenarios.
Downstairs Foyer 5:30pm – 6:30pm Drinks and Nibbles
Thursday, 21 November 2013
Room H1-44 8:30am – 9:00am Registrations Open/Tea and Coffee
9:00am – 9:30am Welcome by Head of School
9.30am – 11:00am Panel Session 1: The Politics of War and Violence ‘They’re not telling us’: Suppression of information about the Sandakan Richard Wallace Braithwaite (Southern Cross University)
Camouflaged politics: War stories and hegemonic masculinities Ben Wadham (Flinders University)
Mental health outcomes of partners of Australian combat veterans: A comparative study with Australian population norms Gail MacDonnell (Australian Families of the Military Research Foundation)
Blackmail, propaganda & international manipulation: LTTE strategy in 2008-09 Michael Roberts (University of Adelaide)
Downstairs Foyer 11:00pm – 11:30pm Morning Break (Tea/Coffee provided)
Room H1-44 11:30am – 1:00pm Panel Session 2: Writing in War Private letters, public spaces Caroline Adams (University of South Australia)
A journey for our lost: Remembering Gallipoli Azer Banu Kemaloğlu (Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University)
Just a line: Writing stories from the archives Dianne de Bellis (University of South Australia)
The Gallipoli wars in Turkish war literature Omer Cakir (Cankiri Karatekin University)
1:00am – 2:00pm Lunch (BYO)
Room H1-44 Panel Session 3: Media Traces of War 2:00pm – 3:30pm The war in the north: How The Cairns Post reported World War 2 Kerry Green (University of South Australia)
An Australian story: The making of Anzac Sharon Mascall-Dare (University of South Australia)
Did Pfeiffer slack? The legacy of one conscientious objector Carolyn Bilsborow (University of South Australia)
A fearful ephemera: Written traces of WWII Civil Defence Martin Wimmer (Flinders University)
Thursday, 21 November 2013
Downstairs Foyer Afternoon Break (Tea/Coffee provided) 3:30pm – 3:45pm
Room H1-44 3:45pm – 5:15pm Panel Session 4: Tourism, Pilgrims and the Commemoration of War War reporting as travel writing Peter Bishop (University of South Australia)
Travels to Gallipoli and the re-forging of Australian national identity Brad West (University of South Australia)
Swimming through history: Sport and the construction of the Gallipoli touristscape Jim McKay (University of Queensland)
Traces of Kampuchea Nigel Starck (University of South Australia)
Downstairs Foyer Book Launch with Drinks and Nibbles 5:15pm – 6:00pm ‘There and Back with a Dinkum’, WRG Colman Claire Woods and Paul Skrebels
In 1915, a young man deferred his university studies and enlisted in the AIF. He returned after the war a tough, scarred and decorated officer. His remarkable account as a civilian soldier, discovered in the Australian War Memorial archives, has been brought to publication by Woods and Skrebels. Colman shows himself to be an astute observer of what it meant to be one of the hundreds of thousands men who volunteered to serve at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. With a compassionate gaze and his eye for detail, not only on the battlefield but in the daily slog of the enlisted man, Colman helps us understand what it was like to go from classroom to war. Woods and Skrebels were given access by Colman’s family to his original diary, field notebook, manuscript and photo album, and to these they have added painstaking research in order to annotate and augment the narrative. This is an account of a South Australian soldier of the 27th Battalion; yet, it is a powerful story for all who seek to know something of the experiences of the young men who served in the Australian Imperial Force in World War 1.
The book will be launched by Brigadier Pat Beale, DSO, MC (Retd). Pat Beale saw active service in Malaya and in Borneo during Confrontation when he was awarded the Military Cross. Then, in the mid sixties, after a stint as Adjutant of 27th Battalion, the Royal South Australia Regiment, he was Intelligence Officer of the Pacific Islands Regiment in Wewak PNG. Posted to the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam he was attached to the US Special Forces with whom he commanded a battalion of Montagnard hills tribesmen and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the US Silver Star for his leadership in a major battle on the Laotian border. He was seconded to the Malaysian Army as an instructor in the early 1970s and commanded 1st Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment in 1979-80. He is a graduate of the Australian Staff College, the Joint Services Staff College and the Australian National University. He subsequently held several instructional, intelligence and security appointments until retiring from the Army as a brigadier in 1989.
Thursday, 21 November 2013
Downstairs Foyer Afternoon Break (Tea/Coffee provided) 3:30pm – 3:45pm
Room H1-44
6:00pm – 7:00pm Keynote address: Traces of War Professor Peter Stanley (University of New South Wales) The evidence of the experience of war is both all around us, but is also highly elusive. It is both so obvious we can’t help tripping over it, and so subtle that it challenges our abilities to perceive or make use of it. It takes many forms; not just the obvious and the commonplace, but sometimes manifestations so unlikely that we can easily miss it or its significance. What sorts of evidence are – and are not – productive? What do we need to bring to them to find or recognise the traces that we can best use? How can we become more alert to the traces of war in our research and writing? How can we make the most of the opportunities that come along? Prof Peter Stanley, who has arguably worked in more archives than any military historian in Australia, and has conducted fieldwork in many countries, will draw on research for his 25 books to discuss the way historians can draw on the broadest range of evidence to understand and explain the experience of war.
Friday, 22 November 2013
Downstairs Foyer Registrations Open/Tea and Coffee 8:30am – 9:00am
Room H1-44 Panel Session 1: Memory and Re-writing Traces of War 9:00am – 10:30am ‘Our treatment was fair’: Reflections on captivity in Germany during the Great War Aaron Pegram (Australian War Memorial)
Did the battle of Quinby Bridge really take place? Paul Skrebels (University of South Australia)
Remembering the Darwin Air Raid 19 February 1942 Peter Ingman (Military Historical Society of Australia)
Traces of war: An investigator’s challenge Michele Cunningham (University of Adelaide)
Downstairs Foyer Morning Break (Tea/Coffee provided) 10:30am – 10:45am
Room H1-44 Panel Session 2: Images of War 10:45am – 12:15pm Traces of Nazism Catherine Speck (University of Adelaide)
From one-stringed fiddle to the cinematic screen: Remembrance of a warrior in Western Balkan popular culture Dino Murtic (University of South Australia)
Making the invisible visible: the case of memory loss where representation becomes experience Jeanne-Marie Viljoen (University of South Australia)
100 Years of war: Romance to fear David Sweet (University of South Australia) Friday, 22 November 2013
12:15 pm – 1:15pm Lunch (BYO)
Room H1-44 Film Script Reading: “Bleeding Ears Bron” 1:15pm – 2:00pm Russell Fewster (University of South Australia) A live reading of a half hour dramatic film on the theme of pilgrimage to the WW1 battlefields in France, featuring archival songs and music Panel Session 3: Engaging Remembrance Images of service and sacrifice: Tracing narratives in stained glass Susan Neuhaus (University of Adelaide)
Stories from the wall: The Australian War Memorial’s Last Post Ceremony Meleah Hampton (Australian War Memorial)
Crumbs and comfort: The power and the spirit of the ANZAC biscuit Allison Reynolds 2:00pm – 3:00pm
3:00pm – 3:15pm Afternoon Break (Tea/Coffee provided)
Room H1-44 Panel Session 4: 'Records as Traces for Posterity' 3:15pm – 3:55pm South Australian Red Cross Information Andrew Piper (South Australian State Library) Virtual Memorial and Online Repository Brigadier Tim Hanna, AM, Retd (Returned Services League (SA))
Room H1-44 Keynote address: Don't mention the War: Unsettling the Anzac Centenary 4:00pm – 5:00pm Bruce Scates (Monash University)
In 2012, a team of researchers based at Monash University offered the 100 stories project to the Anzac Centenary Board in Canberra - 100 stories to mark the centenary of the Great War. These narratives were drawn from across the length and breadth of Australia. They highlighted the experience of women as well as men, recovered the too often forgotten contribution of Indigenous Australians, and emphasised the ongoing cost of war to the community as a whole. The 100 stories remembered not just the men and women who lost their lives but also those who returned to Australia, the gassed, the crippled, the insane, all those irreparably damaged by war. Why did the 100 stories prove so controversial in Canberra? Why did some seek to censor the project and substitute ‘confronting’ stories with ‘positive, nation building’ narratives? And one hundred years on, is our country prepared to confront the cost of war - or will the Anzac Centenary be more an act of forgetting than remembering?
5:00pm - 6:00 pm Drinks/Nibbles