AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES

ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

This document is a true and accurate account of the activities and abridged financial report of the Australian Academy of the Humanities for the financial year 2014–15, in accordance with the reporting requirements of the Academy’s Royal Charter and By-Laws, and for the conditions of grants made by the Australian Government under the Higher Education Support Act 2003 (Cth).

CONTENTS

From the President 2 Publications and Communications 20

From the Executive Director 4 Grants and Awards 21

Council 5 International Activities 23

Strategic Plan 6 Obituaries 26

The Fellowship 7 Treasurer’s Statement 64

Events 13 Abridged Financial Report 65

Policy and Research 16

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Funding for the production of this report and a number of the activities described herein has been provided by the Australian Government through the Department of Education and Training. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Education and Training. 2 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

FROM THE PRESIDENT

In this my first year as President, I take the opportunity The Academy has been a vocal participant in the ongoing to highlight some of the impressive outcomes and discussion around research evaluation and metrics, achievements of the Australian Academy of the encouraging the development of multidimensional Humanities in this reporting period, July 2014 – June approaches to both measure and facilitate researcher 2015, as detailed in the pages that follow. engagement and ‘impact’. We have called on government to adopt the principles outlined in the Leiden Manifesto, The humanities, alongside the arts and social sciences which contends that too often ‘evaluation is led by the (which together comprise the HASS sector), represent data rather than judgement’. half of the tertiary research and teaching system in Australia. The humanities make a deep and rich As we all know, often these contributions are not easily contribution to the nation in many ways, and must be measured. Take for example the lifetime work of historian part of the national conversation about the choices being Professor Colin Mackerras ao fAHA, who was singled out made for the nation’s future. for special mention when China’s President, Xi Jinping, addressed the Australian parliament in November 2014. A key role of the Academy is to provide independent The President thanked Mackerras for building ‘a bridge expert advice to government and policymakers, of mutual understanding and amity between our people’. promoting the social significance of humanities And he praised his ‘tireless efforts to present a real scholarship and its importance in shaping effective China to Australia and the world, based on his personal public policy. The Academy is the leading voice on issues experience of China’s development and progress’. facing the humanities disciplines, and in that capacity How would we begin to measure, let alone cost, such we are invited to participate in a variety of fora on higher a contribution to the national interest? education and research policy. The Academy is actively looking at ways to better Over the last year the Academy has been active in understand and measure academic activity through advocating for a national strategic vision for the entire projects such as Measuring the Value of International higher education, research and innovation system, Research Collaboration. Commissioned by government, including planning for the next generation of researchers. this work has examined how methodologies such Australia’s reputation for a comprehensive, quality-based as network mapping offer insights into the range of higher education and research system should remain interactions, relationships, flows and values associated the primary objective for the sector. This means a long- with international education and research collaboration. term commitment to basic research alongside efforts to encourage the translation and commercialisation Our policy work has been informed and significantly of research. strengthened by the Mapping the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in Australia report, which has provided The Academy has also called on government to adopt the evidence base on which to progress our arguments. the principle of reciprocity as a tenet of international Launched at the National Press Club in Canberra, the engagement strategies, and contribute to regional public report provides a data resource, a foundation for further good by working on shared challenges. We have also work to support and explore arguments around the value advocated for a commitment to academic freedom to of HASS. underpin all such engagements. We remain indebted to Emeritus Professor Graeme We are currently seeking to develop a strategy Turner FAHA, who led the project, and to his co-author for humanities research infrastructure. Several Dr Kylie Brass for their tireless efforts to communicate its major reviews into research infrastructure have key findings and keep the report on the radar. been undertaken during the reporting period, and the Academy has been very active in this space, Building on this work, we have begun an ARC-funded hosting two events this year focused on the needs study on The Humanities in the Asia Region, which aims of humanities researchers and the development of to facilitate knowledge exchange between humanities a strategy that will position us to present a strong case researchers in Australia and key countries in the for investment. This has involved close collaboration Asia region. with colleagues in the galleries, libraries, archives We are also developing a series of case studies of and museums sector, whose collections are of such humanities research and its contribution to addressing significance for researchers. These institutions are the societal challenges and delivering wider benefits to repositories of the ‘data’ on which so much humanities society. I am deeply grateful to Emeritus Professor Lesley scholarship depends. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 3

Johnson am FAHA, Immediate Past President, for leading and events noted throughout this annual report. I single this important work. out for special mention the work of the Academy, its Fellows and representatives in serving on thirteen major The Academy continues to facilitate engagement among research projects as part of the Australian Council of and across our sector. We have convened an impressive Learned Academies (ACOLA) Securing Australia’s Future array of events this year, with a focus on research programme. Our Academy led the Smart Engagement evaluation, research infrastructure strategy, and early- with Asia project, chaired by Professor Ien Ang FAHA and and mid-career humanities researchers. Our engagement looks set to manage two new projects in the coming year. with the next generation of leaders in the humanities This programme demonstrates the vital ways in which continues through our grants and awards programmes, the humanities comes together with the sciences and which facilitate international linkages and encourage social sciences to tackle big issues bearing on Australia’s excellence in research for early career researchers. future such as building an innovative workforce, This year’s grants will help connect researchers at the developing deeper links with the Asia region through beginning of their careers with counterparts in the research and cultural diplomacy, and capitalising on US, Canada, Sweden, Greece, Belgium, the UK and technological developments with a view to wider social Cambodia. and community need. The Academy’s own international collaborations continue My final word of thanks is to my colleagues, past and to be guided by our International Strategy and by the present, on Council and the staff in the Secretariat. principle of reciprocity which we espouse in our policy On behalf of all Fellows I should like to express our work. We have focused our limited resources on areas of appreciation to Emeritus Professor Lesley Johnson for key strategic value based on our extensive research on her distinguished service as President. Lesley’s quiet and international engagement in the humanities, including consultative manner masked a forceful and determined our survey of Fellows. The bilateral workshops with the leadership style, focusing on results, and ever ready Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) continue to move on to the next challenge. The challenges were to be a great success, due largely to the hard work of our formidable and in meeting them Lesley placed the Fellows who act as convenors and who engage closely Academy in a strong position for her successors. with their CASS colleagues to ensure a programme of great mutual interest and benefit, and to building The considerable and unique contribution of Emeritus strong relationships that we hope will provide a platform Professor Graeme Clark AO FAHA to the Academy during for long-term collaboration. My warmest thanks to his 40-year association, most recently as Secretary, was Professors John Makeham FAHA and Alan Hájek FAHA celebrated at the 2014 Fellows’ Dinner and is outlined for all their work on the second round of workshops in greater detail in the following pages. I wish to thank focused on philosophy. Professor Elizabeth Minchin faha for stepping into the role of Honorary Secretary, and each of the Council There is, of course, always more to do. One area that we members who have taken on additional roles: Professor hope to strengthen in the coming years is in the area Peter Cryle FAHA, International Secretary; Professor of communications, both with Fellows and the wider Richard Waterhouse FAHA, Treasurer; and Emeritus public. We have made a great start with the use of social Professor Elizabeth Webby AM FAHA, Editor. Special media to communicate and engage with our community. thanks are due to Dr Tina Parolin and the able team At 30 June 2015, we look forward with much anticipation in the Academy Secretariat who together have ensured to the launch of The Power of the Humanities publication. that our efforts over the past year have been focused, The development of a communications strategy will economical and effective, and, for all those privileged further connect the Academy with Fellows and our to work with the staff of the Secretariat, unfailingly colleagues and collaborators in allied organisations, and stimulating and enjoyable. will help us to fulfil our obligation under the Charter to promote an understanding of the humanities, its value PROFESSOR JOHN FITZGERALD FAHA and contribution to public life. PRESIDENT Council needs to prioritise the work of the Academy according to available resources, both financial and ‘human’. This is why we rely so heavily on the goodwill of our Fellows. It is particularly gratifying to see how many Fellows are contributing to the Academy’s projects, policy 4 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

One of my key tasks as Executive Director is to actively We have now also successfully transitioned to online promote the work and the role of the Academy, registration systems for all our events. We continue undertake advocacy on behalf of our disciplines, and to review our administrative systems and processes collaborate with colleagues in the broader humanities to seek more efficient ways of doing our work, and are and higher education and research sector. It is crucial currently investigating a new database and information that policymakers and the public understand the issues management system. unique to each sector and discipline, but it is equally In seeking more effective ways of doing business, this important that the key challenges across the sector are year we have begun promoting the work of the Academy, agreed upon and presented as a consistent message to including our publications and grants and awards government. This requires the Academy to consult widely programmes via social media. This has also provided with the sector, to test our understanding of the impact of an excellent avenue to connect and communicate with policy decisions at the local level, and to work with allied like-minded organisations and individuals around the organisations on areas of mutual interest. world. We continue to encourage Fellows to ‘follow’ us In this reporting period, I was invited to participate in on Twitter (and in turn follow them) so that together we several events hosted by allied organisations, with two can more effectively disseminate the rich and varied work common themes emerging through the year: the impact being undertaken in the humanities in Australia and and value of humanities research. The 2014 Deans of internationally. Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (DASSH) annual I wish to sincerely thank the many Fellows who have conference (presentation by former President Emeritus provided vital advice and assistance to the Secretariat Professor Lesley Johnson AM FAHA); the 2014 CHASS over the course of the year, from policy and research, National Forum (with Emeritus Professor Graeme Turner to events, grants and awards, international engage­ FAHA); 2014 Australasian Consortium of Humanities ment, communications and our fellowship activities. Centres and Institutes (ACHRC) conference (with In addition, I thank the eleven Heads of Section who play Dr Kylie Brass); and the ‘Valuing Impact in the Arts, a particularly important role in coordinating the activities Humanities and Social Sciences’ at the Humanities of the Sections, but also act as a key source of advice for Research Centre (Australian National University), both the Council and the Secretariat. provided opportunities to present some of the key findings from our latest policy and research work. Last year I recorded my deep gratitude to Lesley Johnson for her exemplary leadership and her strong support of This consultation and advocacy work also goes beyond me and the team in the Secretariat. I am delighted that the humanities community. The Academy’s involvement her involvement continues with the position on Council as a member of ACOLA continues to provide a fruitful as Immediate Past-President and her stewardship of opportunity for exchange of ideas and information with several ongoing projects. colleagues in the three other Learned Academies in Australia. In addition to sharing best practice approaches It has been a pleasure to work with our new President, to administration and governance, we also discuss Professor John Fitzgerald faha, who brings remarkably many shared concerns about higher education and the diverse skills, expertise and experience to the role, and an role of research in Australia’s future. Secretariat staff exciting energy and vision for the Academy. again worked closely with Academy Fellows to develop Finally, I wish to again thank my outstanding team in new multidisciplinary project proposals for funding the Secretariat. They work exceptionally hard throughout under ACOLA’s Securing Australia’s Future programme. the year to champion the humanities in Australia, and This programme has facilitated collaborative relationships I am deeply grateful for their dedication to the aims and for Fellows of the Academy and other humanities objectives of the Academy. researchers, with research counterparts in the other Learned Academies. Although the ACOLA work is DR CHRISTINA PAROLIN demanding of both time and intellectual energy, one EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR important outcome has been the development of mutual respect and a broader awareness of the viewpoints and expertise of Fellows from all disciplines. Last year I reported the successful transition to an electronic voting system for new Fellows, and an online grants management system for all our awards and grants. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 5

COUNCIL

The Academy is governed by a Council, elected from among its Fellows, which provides strategic direction, policy guidance and management oversight.

COUNCIL MEETINGS Council met on four occasions in the reporting period: 4 September 2014, 19 November 2014, 26 February 2015 and 28 May 2015.

COUNCIL TO 19 NOVEMBER 2014 COUNCIL FROM 19 NOVEMBER 2014 President President Emeritus Professor Lesley Johnson am FAHA Professor John Fitzgerald FAHA Honorary Secretary Honorary Secretary Emeritus Professor Graeme Clarke AO FAHA FSA Professor Elizabeth Minchin FAHA Treasurer Treasurer Emeritus Professor Richard Waterhouse FAHA FASSA Emeritus Professor Richard Waterhouse FAHA FASSA Editor Editor Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Webby am FAHA Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Webby am FAHA Immediate Past President Immediate Past President Professor Joseph Lo Bianco am FAHA Emeritus Professor Lesley Johnson am FAHA Vice-President and International Secretary Vice-President and International Secretary Professor John Fitzgerald FAHA Emeritus Professor Peter Cryle FAHA Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques Vice-President Professor Deirdre Coleman FAHA Vice-President Professor Deirdre Coleman FAHA Council Members Professor Han Baltussen FAHA Council Members Emeritus Professor Peter Cryle FAHA Chevalier dans Professor Han Baltussen FAHA l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques Professor Majella Franzmann FAHA Professor Majella Franzmann FAHA Professor John Gascoigne FAHA Emeritus Professor Susan Sheridan FAHA Emeritus Professor Susan Sheridan FAHA 6 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

STRATEGIC PLAN

HEADS OF SECTION In 2010 the Council adopted a Strategic Plan for 2011–15 to guide the activities and programmes of the Academy. The Academy has eleven disciplinary Sections Each strategy in the Strategic Plan relates to the mission representing the range of scholarly expertise of Fellows. and core objectives of the Academy, and sets out the The Council and Secretariat draw upon the expertise proposed activities through which the achievement of the vested in the Sections when preparing policy responses to objectives will be measured. government, participating in international initiatives and developing annual Symposium themes. These Sections VISION also form the Academy’s eleven Electoral Sections. A tolerant, vibrant and innovative public culture Archaeology in Australia enriched and enabled by a thriving Adjunct Professor Jennifer Webb FAHA humanities sector. Asian Studies Associate Professor Helen Creese FAHA MISSION Classical Studies The Australian Academy of the Humanities exists to Emeritus Professor Roger Scott FAHA (to 22 Nov 2014) advance knowledge of, and the pursuit of excellence in, Ms Frances Muecke FAHA (from 22 Nov 2014) the humanities in Australia for the benefit of the nation. Cultural and Communication Studies OBJECTIVES Professor Tim Rowse FAHA FASSA 1. To promote and develop excellence in the humanities English in Australia and abroad. Emeritus Professor Graham Tulloch FAHA 2. To foster collegiality within the Fellowship and European Languages and Cultures provide a focal point for the wider humanities Professor Anne Freadman FAHA community in Australia. History 3. To support the dissemination of humanities research Professor John Gascoigne FAHA (to 22 Nov 2014) to demonstrate the value of the humanities to the Professor Robert Cribb FAHA (22 Nov 2014 to 25 April 2015) social, economic and cultural wellbeing of the nation. Professor Pam Sharpe FAHA (from 25 April 2015) 4. To provide independent and expert advice to improve Linguistics public debate and public policy. Professor Diana Eades FAHA 5. To provide leadership in the humanities community Philosophy and the History of Ideas in Australia. Professor Stewart Candlish FAHA 6. To advance national cultural prosperity through Religion collaborations with allied Australian organisations Emeritus Professor William Loader FAHA and other bodies. The Arts 7. To strengthen the humanities in Australia Professor Jaynie Anderson FAHA (to 22 Nov 2014) and abroad through collaborations with allied Professor John GriffithsFAHA (from 22 Nov 2014) organisations overseas. 8. To support excellent teaching of the humanities at all levels of education in Australia. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 7

THE FELLOWSHIP

As of 30 June 2015 the total number of Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities was 576, including 86 Honorary Fellows and 42 Overseas Fellows.

Foundation Fellows Tony Bennett Peter Cochrane Ian Donaldson Alexander Cambitoglou Alison Betts Deirdre Coleman Véronique Duché-Gavet Francis West John Bigelow Conal Condren Helen Dunstan Gerald Wilkes Virginia Blain Graham Connah Mark Durie Geoffrey Blainey Ian Copland Simon During Fellows Barry Blake Alan Corkhill Edward Duyker Michael Ackland Geoffrey Bolton Nikolas Coupland Diana Eades Alexander Adelaar Penny Boumelha Anthony Cousins Rifaat Ebied Alexandra Aikhenvald James Bowler Roger Covell Louise Edwards Robert Aldrich Clare Bradford Philip Cox Paul Eggert Christine Alexander David Bradley Hugh Craig Brian Ellis Cynthia Allen Ross Brady Barbara Creed Robert Elson Pauline Allen Richard Broome Helen Creese Helen Ennis Philip Almond Susan Broomhall Robert Cribb Nicholas Evans Atholl Anderson Peter Brown Peter Cryle Michael Ewans Jaynie Anderson Trevor Bryce Garrett Cullity Dorottya Fabian Warwick Anderson Kathryn Burridge Stuart Cunningham Trevor Fennell Ien Ang John Burrows Ann Curthoys Antonia Finnane Daniel Anlezark John Butcher Frederick D’Agostino Mark Finnane Edward Aspinall Andrew Butcher Joy Damousi John Fitzgerald Alan Atkinson Brendan Byrne Iain Davidson Brian Fletcher Valerie Attenbrow Barbara Caine Peter Davis Janet Fletcher Bain Attwood Keith Campbell Richard Davis Josephine Flood Philip Ayres Stewart Candlish Graeme Davison William Foley Gregory Bailey David Carter Rafe de Crespigny Susan Foley Han Baltussen Alan Chalmers Igor de Rachewiltz Jean Fornasiero Dirk Baltzly David Chalmers Franz-Josef Deiters Peter Forrest Joan Barclay-Lloyd David Chandler Alan Dench Richard Fotheringham Ivan Barko Richard Charteris Donald Denoon David Frankel Geremie Barmé David Christian Jean-Paul Descoeudres Majella Franzmann Geraldine Barnes William Christie Anthony Diller Anne Freadman Linda Barwick John Clark RMW Dixon Richard Freadman Peter Bellwood Graeme Clarke Robert Dixon John Frodsham Andrew Benjamin Inga Clendinnen Christine Dobbin Alan Frost Roger Benjamin Margaret Clunies Ross John Docker John Frow Michael Bennett Tony Coady James Donald Edmund Fung 8 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

Raimond Gaita Rodney Huddleston Margaret Manion Brian Nelson Ann Galbally Lloyd Humberstone Gyorgy Markus Graham Nerlich Regina Ganter Ian Hunter David Marr Colin Nettelbeck Iain Gardner Duncan Ivison David Marshall J V Neustupný David Garrioch Liz Jacka Lynn Martin Nerida Newbigin Stephen Garton Heather Jackson Angus Martin Brenda Niall John Gascoigne Frank Jackson James Martin Daniel Nolan Moira Gatens Robin Jeffrey Alfredo Martínez Expósito Susan O’Connor Stephen Gaukroger Anthony Johns Jim Masselos Graham Oppy Stathis Gauntlett Vivien Johnson Freya Mathews Tom O’Regan Penelope Gay Lesley Johnson Peter Mathews Michael Osborne Anthony Gibbs Trevor Johnston Brian Matthews Peter Otto Ross Gibson Brian Jones Isabel McBryde Samantha Owens Paul Giles Philip Jones Iain McCalman John Painter Philip Goad John Jory Janet McCalman Nikos Papastergiadis Cliff Goddard Naguib Kanawati Gavan McCormack Paul Patton Jack Golson Daniel Kane Jock McCulloch Marko Pavlyshyn David Goodman Grace Karskens Brian McFarlane Andrew Pawley Nanette Gottlieb Margaret Kartomi William McGregor Michael Pearson Karen Green Jamie Kassler Mark McKenna Elizabeth Pemberton Jeremy Green Veronica Kelly Anne McLaren Hetti Perkins Bridget Griffen-Foley David Kennedy Brian McMullin Roslyn Pesman Gareth Griffiths Jeanette Kennett Andrew McNamara Pam Peters John Griffiths Dale Kent Timothy McNamara Margaret Plant Tom Griffiths John Kinder Peter McNeil Lorenzo Polizzotto Paul Griffiths Diane Kirkby Ian McNiven John Powers Patricia Grimshaw Wallace Kirsop Peter McPhee John Poynter Sasha Grishin John Kleinig Scott McQuire Wilfrid Prest Colin Groves Stephen Knight Philip Mead Graham Priest Rainer Grün Stephen Kolsky Betty Meehan Robin Prior Anna Haebich Sue Kossew Vincent Megaw Clive Probyn Ghassan Hage Leonie Kramer Timothy Mehigan Elspeth Probyn John Hajek Ann Kumar John Melville-Jones John Pryor Alan Hájek Marilyn Lake Francesca Merlan Paul Redding Sylvia Hallam Brij Lal Constant Mews Anthony Reid Michael Halliday Susan Lawrence David Miller Greg Restall Peter Hambly John Lee Margaret Miller Henry Reynolds Jane Hardie David Lemmings Elizabeth Minchin Craig Reynolds Margaret Harris Miles Lewis Timothy Minchin Eric Richards Peter Harrison Alison Lewis Vijay Mishra John Rickard John Hartley Michael Lewis Francis Moloney Merle Ricklefs Yasmin Haskell Samuel Lieu Clive Moore Ronald Ridley Gay Hawkins Ian Lilley John Moorhead Catherine Rigby Roslynn Haynes Rosemary Lloyd Peter Morgan David Roberts Lesley Head Genevieve Lloyd Howard Morphy Libby Robin Luise Hercus Joseph Lo Bianco Meaghan Morris Michael Roe Laurence Hergenhan William Loader Teresa Morris-Suzuki Malcolm Ross Stephen Hetherington Kam Louie Chris Mortensen David Rowe Roger Hillman Jane Lydon RAOul Mortley Timothy Rowse Peter Hiscock Martyn Lyons Frances Muecke William Rubinstein Robert Hodge Stuart Macintyre Stephen Muecke Alan Rumsey Peter Holbrook Catriona Mackenzie John Mulvaney David Runia Roderick Home Colin Mackerras Julian Murphet Gillian Russell Clifford Hooker Roy MacLeod Kerry Murphy Penny Russell Virginia Hooker John Makeham Tim Murray Horst Ruthrof Gregory Horsley Richard Maltby Bronwen Neil Abdullah Saeed THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 9

Antonio Sagona Gerard Vaughan Peter Garnsey Alexandra Walsham Paul Salzman Peter Veth Kate Grenville Terri-ann White Margaret Sankey Adrian Vickers Ranajit Guha Alexis Wright Deryck Schreuder David Walker Rosalind Halton Overseas Fellows Gerhard Schulz Christopher Wallace- Philip Hardie Robert Archer John Scott Crabbe John Hay Alison Bashford Roger Scott John Ward Shirley Hazzard Richard Bosworth Frank Sear James Warren Harry Heseltine Hilary Carey Krishna Sen Richard Waterhouse Robyn Holmes Giovanni Carsaniga Pamela Sharpe Lindsay Watson Janet Holmes à Court Leigh Chambers Kenneth Sheedy Jennifer Webb Jacqueline Huggins William Coaldrake Susan Sheridan Elizabeth Webby Richard Hunter Sean Cubitt Thomas Sheridan Marshall Weisler Clive James Gregory Currie Jeff Siegel Peter White Barry Jones Martin Davies Anna Silvas Robert White Edwin Judge Michael Devitt David Sim Shane White Thomas Keneally Mark Elvin John Sinclair John Whitehorne Michael Kirby Gerhard Fischer Larry Sitsky Gillian Whitlock Patrick Kirch Hilary Fraser Glenda Sluga Anna Wierzbicka David Konstan Malcolm Gillies Roger Smalley Stephen Wild Geoffrey Lancaster Kevin Hart Vivian Smith Trevor Wilson Sylvia Lawson Alan Henry Michael Smith Peter Wilson Mabel Lee Elizabeth Jeffreys Charles Sowerwine John Wong John Legge Michael Jeffreys Virginia Spate Angela Woollacott Dr Gerhard Leitner Bill Jenner Jim Specht Richard Yeo William Lycan Benedict Kerkvliet Matthew Spriggs Robert Young John Lynch Randy LaPolla Peter Stanley Charles Zika David Malouf David Lawton Ann Stephen Bruce Mansfield Honorary Fellows Li Liu Anthony Stephens David Marr Phillip Adams Jiri Marvan Janice Stockigt Patrick McCaughey James Adams Audrey Meaney Margaret Stoljar Shirley McKechnie Harry Allen Robert Merrillees Daniel Stoljar Ross McKibbin Penelope Allison Nigel Morgan Hugh Stretton Michael McRobbie Hugh Anderson Takamitsu MurAOka Martin Stuart-Fox Hugh Mellor Robyn Archer Philip Pettit Yoshio Sugimoto Sir Fergus Millar David Armitage Huw Price Sharon Sullivan Alex Miller John Bell Stephen Prickett Paul Taçon Ann Moyal Rosina Braidotti Margaret Rose Peta Tait Glenn Murcutt Paul Brunton Peter Singer Harold Tarrant Les Murray Ross Burns Michael Smith Chin Liew Ten James O’Connell Peter Carey Terence Smith Paul Thom Patrick O’Keefe Dawn Casey Michael Stocker Janna Thompson Philip Payton Dipesh Chakrabarty Neil Tennant Philip Thomson Lyndel Prott Ray Choate Nicholas Thomas Rodney Thomson Lyndal Roper Christopher Clark Michael Tooley Rodney Tiffen Lionel Sawkins Patricia Clarke Gungwu Wang Helen Tiffin Andrew Sayers John Coetzee Douglas Yen Robin Torrence Julianne Schultz Peter Conrad Martin Travers Kim Scott Terrence Cutler Stephanie Trigg James Simpson Anne Cutler Carl Trocki Colin Steele Michelle de Kretser Garry Trompf Bruce Steele Roger Dean Graham Tulloch Ninian Stephen Robert Edwards David Tunley Andrew Stewart Sheila Fitzpatrick Graeme Turner Michael Stone Jan Fullerton Ian Tyrrell Ian Templeman Carrillo Gantner Theodoor van Leeuwen Royall Tyler 10 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

DEATHS FELLOWS ELECTED IN 2014 The Academy notes with deep regret the deaths of Associate Professor Daniel Anlezark, Department of the following Fellows during this reporting period. English, the University of Sydney We extend our sincere sympathies to their families Professor Linda Barwick, Sydney Conservatorium of and friends. Year of election to the Academy is noted Music, the University of Sydney in brackets. Emeritus Professor Andrew Butcher, Flinders University Peter Sculthorpe AO obe (1991), 8 August 2014 Professor Hugh Craig, Centre for Linguistic and Literary Pierre Ryckmans (1977), 11 August 2014 Computing, University of Newcastle Ho Peng Yoke (1976), 18 October 2014 Professor Véronique Duché, School of Languages and Gough Whitlam ac qc (1993), 21 October 2014 Linguistics, the University of Melbourne David Oldroyd (1994), 7 November 2014 Professor Helen Ennis, School of Art, the Australian National University Brian Bosworth (1982), 22 December 2014 Dr Heather Jackson, School of Historical and Peter Alexander (1994), 13 January 2015 Philosophical Studies, the University of Melbourne Peter Menzies (2007), 6 February 2015 Professor Sue Kossew, School of Languages, Literatures, Anthony Low AO (1973), 12 February 2015 Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University Peter Reeves (1996), 24 February 2015 Professor Jane Lydon, Winthrop Professor, Wesfarmers Chair in Australian History, the University Francis Barrymore (Barry) Smith (1971), 3 March 2015 of Western Australia Robert Barrie Rose (1978), 14 March 2015 Professor Catriona Mackenzie, Professor of Philosophy, Elizabeth (Betty) Churcher AO (2003), 31 March 2015 Macquarie University Alan James (2006), 23 May 2015 Professor David Rowe, Institute for Culture and Society, University of Western Sydney Obituaries for these Fellows are included in this report. Associate Professor David Sim, School of Theology, Australian Catholic University Professor Peter Stanley, Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society, the University of New South Wales, Canberra Professor Adrian Vickers, Professor of Southeast Asia Studies, the University of Sydney Professor Angela Woollacott, Manning Clark Professor of History, the Australian National University

HONORARY FELLOWS ELECTED IN 2014 Ms Robyn Archer AO, Singer, writer, artistic director and public advocate for the arts Ms Michelle de Kretser, novelist Professor Philip Hardie fba, Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge, UK Ms Alexis Wright, novelist THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 11

Fellows sign the charter book and receive their certificates of Fellowship from President Lesley Johnson at the Annual General Meeting in Canberra, November 2014. 1. Professor Yasmin Haskell 2. Professor Freya Mathews 3. Associate Professor Mark McKenna 4. Associate Professor Scott McQuire 5. Emeritus Professor Horst Ruthrof 6. Ms Robyn Holmes all photos: glen braithwaite, holdfast photography 12 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

ACADEMY FELLOWS HONOURED Other Awards and Honours The Academy warmly congratulates the following Australian Research Council Fellows who received honours and significant awards Australian Laureate Fellowships 2014 during 2014–15. Professor Joy Damousi FAHA fassa is the recipient Queen’s Birthday 2015 Honours (Australia) of the prestigious Kathleen Fitzpatrick Fellowship which recognises her leadership role and provides her Professor Stuart Cunningham am FAHA was awarded with additional funding to help mentor women in a Member (AM) in the General Division of The Order the humanities. Her project aims to generate new and of Australia for significant service to higher education, powerful understandings of the impact and experiences particularly to the study of media and communications, of child refugees in Australia throughout the twentieth as an academic and researcher. century and early twenty-first century Professor Brij Lal of am FAHA was awarded a Member Professor Peter Harrison FAHA will explore the growth (AM) in the General Division of The Order of Australia of science in the West and how it relates to a decline in the for significant service to education, through the influence of religion. preservation and teaching of Pacific history, as a scholar, author and commentator. Professor Matthew Spriggs FAHA aims to establish the history of Pacific archaeology as a new sub-discipline Queen’s Birthday 2015 Honours (United Kingdom) within world archaeology, covering the period from the Dr James Adams cbe fba FAHA was made a speculations of early explorers to the present. Commander of the Order of the British Empire in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to Latin 2015 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards Scholarship. Dr Adams is Emeritus Fellow at All Souls David Malouf AO FAHA was awarded the Kenneth Slessor College, University of Oxford, and an expert in Latin Prize for Poetry for his 2014 volume Earth Hour. Philology and Linguistics. Emeritus Professor Brian Nelson FAHA was awarded the Professor William Coaldrake FAHA was made a Member 2015 Prize for Translation for his work on translating from of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) for ‘services to French, with a particular focus on Emile Zola’s works. the Royal Collection’. Established by Queen Victoria in 1896, The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of 2015 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards knighthood recognising distinguished personal service to Professor Alan Atkinson FAHA was awarded the 2015 the order’s Sovereign. Professor Coaldrake is an expert in Victorian Prize for Literature. Professor Atkinson was the History of Japanese Art and Architecture, currently awarded the Prize for the final instalment of his landmark based at the University of Tokyo. triple-volume history of the Europeans in Australia, The Europeans in Australia: Volume Three: Nation (NewSouth), which focuses on the period from the 1870s to the First World War. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 13

EVENTS GRAEME CLARKE’S SERVICE TO THE ACADEMY HONOURED

ANNUAL MEETINGS AND EVENTS The Academy’s 45th Annual Symposium,Look It Up: Dictionaries, Encyclopedias and Atlases, was held at the Australian National University in Canberra on 20–21 November. Convenors Professor Kate Burridge FAHA, Emeritus Professor Pam Peters FAHA and Associate Professor John Kinder FAHA assembled a remarkable list of speakers and an engaging programme, featuring local and international speakers, including Simon Winchester obe and Professor Dr Bernd Kortmann of Emeritus Professor Graeme Clarke AO FAHA FSA, the University of Freiburg, Germany. the Academy’s long-standing Honorary Secretary, retired from his role on Council at the 2014 Annual The Symposium explored historical and contemporary General Meeting. His extraordinary contribution to approaches to information access and knowledge the Academy was honoured at the 2014 Fellows’ Dinner construction, through dictionaries, encyclopedias and in Canberra. atlases. It demonstrated how the traditional print formats are increasingly used as online interfaces to multimodal, The Academy’s President, Emeritus Professor Lesley multifaceted information, suggesting new ways to Johnson, also honoured Graeme at the 2014 Annual General Meeting: understand the known world and supporting fresh kinds of research. The programme showcased the work of My final words of gratitude must go to Graeme Clarke. Australian and international scholars in linguistic atlases, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to cultural encyclopedias and multimodal dictionaries, him both personally and as President. It has been which not only transcend the boundaries between the an extraordinary privilege and a great pleasure to traditional formats, but provide a vehicle for many work with him during my five years on Council and interdisciplinary ventures within humanities and beyond. especially during the time I have been President. Graeme’s considerable and unique contribution The Symposium included a plenary session on the to the Academy has been made over a period of Mapping the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in approximately 40 years. Graeme was elected as a Australia report, presented by co-authors Emeritus Fellow in 1975. He has been an energetic member of Professor Graeme Turner FAHA and Dr Kylie Brass. the Academy ever since becoming a member of its It also included a public lecture by Simon Winchester obe Council for the first time in 1976. He has been Vice- entitled ‘The Pedant, the Precise and the Pacific’. President twice, Treasurer, and Honorary Secretary since the year 2000. In all those roles he has been The Academy is grateful for the support of the Australian central to the smooth running of the Academy. National University, and of its Vice-Chancellor, Professor But more pertinently he has been a constant Ian Young AO. source of wisdom, good judgement and quiet but The Fellows’ Dinner was held at The Boat House by highly effective leadership. And throughout he has the Lake, and included the presentation of the 2014 continued to be a wonderful scholar, dedicated to the Max Crawford Medal to Dr Tom Murray of Macquarie particular disciplines he has embraced, but also to the University. The Crawford Medal recognises outstanding humanities more generally. achievement in the humanities by a young Australian Graeme’s immense knowledge of the Academy scholar. Dr Tom Murray’s research utilises visual and its history has been invaluable to Presidents and anthropology-based research techniques to investigate Council members of the Academy more generally over the years, as has his astute judgement and historical and contemporary representations of prudent assessment of the best course of action in ‘otherness’, particularly with respect to indigenous often complex situations. I hope very much that the communities and individuals. His work has successfully Academy will still be able to draw on his knowledge communicated complex ideas in public broadcast, gallery, and advice in the future in various ways. Graeme has festival, DVD and web-based formats that have reached taught us all a great deal about the generosity that has over a million people, had popular and academic impact, and should always characterise the Academy. and enriched the cultural life of Australia. 14 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

The Academy Council again hosted New Fellows’ Drinks prior to the Fellows’ Dinner, to welcome the Fellows elected in 2013 in a relaxed setting prior to the formal signing of the Charter Book at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). The 2014 AGM took place at the Australian National University on Saturday 22 November, during which fifteen new Fellows and four new Honorary Fellows were elected to the Academy.

2014 ACADEMY LECTURE Emeritus Professor Lesley Johnson am FAHA delivered the 2014 Academy Lecture as part of the programme of the 2014 Symposium. Entitled Generosity and the Institutions of the Humanities, her address reflected on Professor Tyler Jo Smith, Associate Professor of Classical Art & Archaeology, some of the changes that have occurred within three University of Virginia, USA, with Gillian Shepherd, Lecturer in Ancient institutions – the research library, the university and the Mediterranean Studies and Director, A.D. Trendall Research Centre for Ancient learned academy – and how they have reshaped our ways Mediterranean Studies, La Trobe University at the 19th Trendall Lecture in Melbourne, May 2014. photo: courtesy hellenic museum of working and thinking about ourselves as humanities scholars in recent decades. A version of Professor Johnson’s lecture was published in the sixth issue of Humanities Australia. with the A. D. Trendall Research Centre for Ancient Mediterranean Studies, La Trobe University. THE 17TH TRENDALL LECTURE HISTORY OF THE ACADEMY INITIATIVE The 2014 Trendall Lecture was presented by Emeritus Professor Trevor Bryce FAHA at the University of Two large projects continue in the lead-up to the Queensland on Thursday 9 October. The lecture, titled Academy’s 50th anniversary in 2019. The Academy is The Gleam Through The Arch: Homer’s World Revisited, grateful to the Fellows who have joined the Steering discussed the social and cultural factors which helped Committee for the projects, led by Immediate Past shape the creation of the Homeric epics. The event President Lesley Johnson am FAHA: Emeritus Professor was well attended and the Academy received excellent Graeme Davison ao FAHA FASSA, Professor Anna feedback from registrants. The Academy is grateful for the Haebich FAHA FASSA, Professor Iain McCalman support of the University of Queensland. AO FAHA FASSA FRHistS and Emeritus Professor Ian Donaldson FBA FRSE fAHA. THE 18TH TRENDALL LECTURE The partnership between the Academy and the National Library of Australia to enhance its oral history collection The 18th Trendall Lecture was presented by Professor of interviews with Fellows of the Academy continues. Carole Newlands from the University of Colorado, The following interviews were completed during the USA, at the Australasian Society for Classical Studies’ reporting period: Conference in Adelaide on 28 January 2015. The title of the lecture was What makes a Roman goddess? • Emeritus Professor John Mulvaney AO CMG FAHA Ovid, the empress, & female apotheosis in Rome. was interviewed by Daniel Connell on 18 July 2014. The Academy gratefully acknowledges the support of the • Emeritus Professor Graeme Clarke AO FSA FAHA was University of Adelaide and the Australasian Society for interviewed by Daniel Connell on 27 August 2014. Classical Studies. • Emeritus Professor Malcolm Gillies AM FLCM FACE THE 19TH TRENDALL LECTURE FAHA was interviewed by Rob Linn on 14 April 2015. • Emeritus Professor Ian Donaldson FBA FRSE The 19th Trendall Lecture was presented by Professor FAHA was interviewed by Nicola Henningham on Tyler Jo Smith from the University of Virginia, USA, 16 June 2015. an expert on Greek vase painting. The lecture More‘ Celebrated than Actually Known’: Sir John Soane’s Emeritus Professor Johnson is also leading a research Greek Vases was presented on Thursday 28 May 2015 project on the history of the Academy and the humanities at the Hellenic Museum, Melbourne, in conjunction in Australia. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 15

ANNUAL EVENTS · 2014

1. Guests at the 2014 Fellows’ Dinner, The Boathouse by the Lake, Canberra, 21 November.

2. Professor Kate Burridge faha, a Symposium co-convenor, introduces Simon Winchester on Day 1 of the 2014 Symposium, Look it Up: Dictionaries, Encyclopedias and Atlases, Canberra, 20 November.

3. Author Simon Winchester delivers a public lecture on ‘The Pedant, the Precise and the Pacific’, on Day 1 of the 2014 Symposium,Look it Up: Dictionaries, Encyclopedias and Atlases, Canberra, 20 November.

4. Professor Dr Bernd Kortmann of the University of Freiburg, Germany, speaker at the 2014 Symposium, Look it Up: Dictionaries, Encyclopedias and Atlases, Canberra, 20–21 November.

5. Guests at the 2014 Fellows’ Dinner, The Boathouse by the Lake, Canberra, 21 November.

6. Dr Tom Murray, recipient of the 2014 Max Craword Medal, speaking at the 2014 Fellows’ Dinner, The Boathouse by the Lake, Canberra.

all photos: glen braithwaite, holdfast photography 16 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

POLICY AND RESEARCH

One of the key objectives of the Academy is to provide Ankeny, Professor Mark Finnane FAHA FASSA, Professor independent expert advice to improve public debate and Chris Gibson and Professor Rosemary Lyster. policy development. The Academy was also active in contributing to policy debates around the government’s industry and GOVERNMENT AND POLICY INTERACTIONS commercialisation agenda. In emphasising the diverse Key areas of focus for the Academy in its advice to range of research collaboration in the humanities, the government this year included the importance for Academy also sought to promote the importance of basic a whole-of-system approach to research, education and research to a productive research sector, and the need to innovation; the role of basic research in underwriting mobilise innovative potential across all disciplines if the the health of the system; and priorities for humanities nation is to benefit from the full range of expertise vested research infrastructure development. in Australia’s teaching and research community. The Academy continues to work hard, both publicly and On 2 June 2015, the President represented the Academy at behind the scenes, with government and policymakers the National Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Strategy to ensure the issues facing the humanities disciplines are Workshop, co-hosted by the Australian Chamber of heard in discussions surrounding higher education and Commerce and Industry, the Australian Industry research policy. Group, the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Collaborative Education Network, and Universities In October 2014 the new Commonwealth Science Council Australia – the partners to the National WIL Strategy. was announced, replacing the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. Following the Academy’s submission to the Department of Education’s Draft National Strategy on International While ostensibly focusing on science, technology, Education, the President was invited to attend a high- engineering and mathematics (STEM) issues and policy, level policy roundtable on 18 June 2015 in Canberra. it is clear that this Council will be an important forum The roundtable was also attended by several government for shaping policies about research investment and Ministers including the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, the priorities for the nation. The Academy therefore wrote to Hon Julie Bishop MP and the Hon Ian Macfarlane MP. members of the government to express the strong concern that humanities, arts and social science (HASS) expertise Throughout the reporting period Academy represent­ had now been omitted on the nation’s preeminent atives and members of the Secretariat have had regular research advisory body and risked narrowing the scope meetings with staff from the Office of the Chief Scientist, of its advice. with the Australian Research Council, with staff from the Department of Industry and Science, and with the In January 2015, following the release of new Science and Department of Education and Training. The Academy Research Priorities, the Academy was asked to provide also participates in quarterly meetings of the Research nominees to participate in Expert Working Groups Agencies Consultative Group involving research convened by Australia’s Chief Scientist. These groups were agencies, peak bodies and government departmental tasked with identifying practical challenges that underpin representatives. the nine priority areas: Food; Soil and Water; Transport; Cybersecurity; Energy; Resources; Manufacturing; The Academy provided expert advice and responded Environmental Change; and Health. to a range of consultation papers, reviews and enquiries, including: Former President of the Academy, Professor Iain McCalman AO FAHA FASSA FRHistS, chaired the • ARC consultation on the Funding Rules for Discovery Environmental Change working group. Academy Programme schemes and the Future Fellowships representatives were also selected for four of the nine Scheme (July 2014) working groups, along with many other stakeholders, • Senate Inquiry into Australia’s Innovation System including the three other Learned Academies, publicly (July 2014) funded research organisations, industry groups and state government representatives. The Academy is immensely • Status of the NCRIS eResearch Capability report grateful for the efforts of our nominees on behalf of (September 2014) the humanities research community: Professor Rachel THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 17

• Review of the Cooperative Research Centres On 28 October 2014 the report was officially launched Programme (November 2014) by Australia’s Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb AC, at the National Press Club in Canberra. Professor Chubb • ARC consultation on ARC Centres of Excellence introduced Emeritus Professor Graeme Turner FAHA, Scheme for Funding commencing in 2017 who delivered the Press Club Address. The event was (November 2014) broadcast on APAC – Australia’s Public Affairs Channel • Boosting the Commercial Returns from Research and covered in the higher education press. Consultation Paper (November 2014) In the weeks leading up to the Press Club Address project • Participation in a meeting on the 2015 Research personnel were invited to participate in a number of Infrastructure Review headed by Mr Philip Clark AM, conferences, which offered an opportunity to promote and subsequent written advice to the review the report: Australasian Deans of Arts, Social Sciences (December 2014) and Humanities (DASSH) annual conference in Melbourne 17–19 September 2014 (Emeritus Professor • Draft National Strategy for International Education Lesley Johnson AM FAHA); Council of Humanities, Arts Consultation Paper (June 2015) and Social Sciences (CHASS) annual conference in • Tax White Paper (June 2015) Melbourne on 8 October (Emeritus Professor Graeme Turner FAHA), and the annual conference of the ACADEMY RESEARCH PROJECTS Australian Consortium of Humanities Research Centres (ACHRC) on 13–14 October in Melbourne (Drs Kylie Mapping the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Brass and Christina Parolin). in Australia The report has been disseminated widely to government TheMapping the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences departments, affiliate organisations, peak bodies, and the in Australia report was published in October 2014. wider academic community. The Academy also hosted The report was co-funded by the Australian Academy a public plenary session on the report at its Annual of the Humanities, the Academy of the Social Sciences Symposium on 21 November 2014. in Australia, the Office of the Chief Scientist and the Measuring the Value of International Research (then) Department of Industry. It charts Australia’s Collaboration current capabilities in the HASS disciplines and identifies gaps and opportunities for the future by developing In late 2014, the Academy was commissioned by the a comprehensive understanding of student enrolment Department of Industry and Science to undertake trends, and teaching and research activity and potential. a project to inform a more comprehensive approach to defining, identifying and measuring the value of international collaborations across the publicly-funded research sector. The Academy established an Advisory Group consisting of Professor John Fitzgerald FAHA, Professor Margaret Sheil FSTE, Professor Joy Damousi FAHA FASSA and Professor Paul Gough, and commissioned Dr Tim Cahill to explore new and emerging approaches to research evaluation, including methods from other sectors, to develop a more multidimensional approach to capturing the range of values associated with international research collaboration. A final report was delivered to the Department in June and will be launched later in the year. Humanities Benefits During the reporting period, the Academy began work on Mapping the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in Australia report co‑authors, a new publication examining the extraordinary diversity Graeme Turner and Kylie Brass, presenting their findings at the Academy’s 45th of work in the humanities, highlighting research which Annual Symposium, Look it Up: Dictionaries, Encyclopedias and Atlases, Canberra, November 2014. photo: m. wilson is responding to complex societal challenges. The Power of the Humanities profiles leading humanities research in a series of short case studies, and will be launched in late 2015 at Parliament House in Canberra. 18 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

Participants at the early and mid-career researchers roundtable, Canberra, 28 October 2014. l to r: Academy Executive Director Dr Tina Parolin, Dr Frances Steel, Dr Thor Kerr, Dr Erich Round, Ms Leah Lui-Chivizhe, Dr Bridget Vincent, Dr Susan Potter, Associate Professor Michael Ondaatje, Dr Esther Klein, Dr Thomas Ford, Dr Teresa Swirski, Dr Neil Ramsey, Professor Joy Damousi FAHA FASSA, Assistant Professor Scott Brook, Academy President Lesley Johnson AM FAHA. not pictured: Dr Bronwyn Finnigan, Dr Sharath Sriram, Professor Julianne Schultz AM FAHA, Dr Kylie Brass and Ms Amanda Wormald. photo: a. wormald

Learned Academies Special Projects Humanities Connections The objective of the ARC’s Learned Academies Special TheHumanities Connections project supported a meeting Projects is to support the development of Australian of Australian humanities EMCRs from a variety of research. Broad themes supported by the programme institutions, held in Canberra to coincide with the launch include: national and international collaboration of the Mapping the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in research; discipline research development; in Australia report on 28 October 2014. Professor Lesley professional development for early- and mid-career Johnson chaired the roundtable and was joined by researchers (EMCRs); science, humanities, social Professors Joy Damousi FAHA FASSA and Julianne Schultz science and technical and engineering research policy; AM FAHA, and Dr Sharath Sriram of the EMCR Forum and multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or cross- (supported by the Academy of Science). Discussions disciplinary research. focused on potential mechanisms for the Academy to support and engage with early and mid-career scholars. Following a round in 2014, the Academy was awarded The Academy has welcomed the ongoing interaction funding for a three-year project entitled The Humanities with many of these researchers on a number of policy in the Asia Region: capacity for collaboration. The project submissions throughout the year. will map the humanities in the Asia region and identify opportunities for strengthening collaboration between researchers in Australia and Asia. It will collate and COLLABORATIONS AND CONNECTIONS analyse available data to inform future strategies Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) for international research and collaboration in the humanities; examine research capacity, priorities and Securing Australia’s Future (SAF) Programme trends and policy developments in the humanities in The Academy continues to collaborate on a series of select Asian countries; investigate Australia’s capability multidisciplinary research projects with the three other in Asia subject expertise as well as disciplinary areas of Learned Academies, in consultation with the Office of the research strength; and examine the level and nature of Chief Scientist. research collaboration between humanities researchers in Australia and Asia, including impediments to The SAF 03 Smart Engagement with Asia: Leveraging collaboration, to better facilitate knowledge in the region. language, research and culture report was launched on 5 June 2015 at the Footscray Community Arts Centre The project is being led by Professor Antonia in Melbourne. We acknowledge the work of the Expert Finnane FAHA and four other Chief Investigators: Working Group which included representatives from Emeritus Professor Lesley Johnson am FAHA, Professor across the Learned Academies. The project was chaired Helen Creese FAHA, Professor Robin JeffreyFAHA and by Professor Ien Ang FAHA and included two Fellows Professor Kam Louie FAHA FHKAH. The Project Manager of the Academy among its membership: Professor John is Brigid Freeman. Fitzgerald FAHA and Professor Krishna Sen FAHA. Professor Ang was unable to attend the launch, so the President of the Academy spoke on her behalf at the launch alongside the Chief Scientist. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 19

The report launch resulted in wide coverage in Australian Best Practices in Research Evaluation mainstream and community media. Media coverage on The Academy is actively engaged in developments which the President wrote and spoke included: two Chinese regarding research evaluation measures and will continue language newspapers Pacific Times and United Times; two to advance humanities-specific issues in our policy Chinese language radio stations 3CW and SBS Mandarin advocacy work. Radio; ABC National Drive-time; and The Conversation. This year the Academy was involved in an advisory The Academy is now providing project management capacity on a proposal for Impact and Engagement support for a further two projects – SAF 11 Business for Australia, led by the Australian Academy of Diasporas in Australia: Maximising People to People Links Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), which with Asia, which is co-chaired by Professor Kam Louie was supported by the Department of Education and FAHA FHKAH and Professor Fazal Rizvi FASSA; and SAF 10 Training. The Academy was invited to nominate a Capabilities for Australian Enterprise Innovation, chaired representative for the Steering Committee and is grateful by Professor Stuart Cunningham AM FAHA. Both projects to Emeritus Professor Lesley Johnson for taking on this will deliver final reports in the first half of 2016. role. During the course of the project there was a shift The Academy thanks its representatives on three other in focus from ‘impact’ to ‘engagement’ and agreement current projects: Emeritus Professor Richard Waterhouse that any exercise would need to observe differences in FAHA FASSA and Professor Rachel Ankeny (SAF 07, disciplinary practice. ATSE’s report was released in Australia’s Agricultural Future); Professor Graeme Davison March 2015. Ao FAHA (SAF 08, Sustainable Urban Mobility); and Research Infrastructure Events Professor Sue Rowley (to April 2015) and Professor Paul Gough (from June 2015) (SAF 09, Translating Research for Over the last decade, the Academy has taken an active Social and Economic Benefit). role in the research infrastructure debates in Australia. Three major reviews into research infrastructure are ACOLA is managing the Research Training System Review currently underway. The Academy has been closely commissioned by Minister for Education and Training, engaged with two of these: the Status Report on National the Hon Christopher Pyne on 20 May 2015. Professor eResearch Capability (chaired by Emeritus Professor Majella Franzmann FAHA and Professor Stephen Garton Tom Cochrane), and the 2015 Research Infrastructure FAHA FASSA are serving as the Academy’s representatives Review (chaired by Mr Philip Clark AM). We are currently on the Expert Working Group for this project. discussing ways to develop a more strategic approach to Making Interdisciplinary Research Work research infrastructure investment for the humanities, taking account of the important role that cultural The final component of the Making Interdisciplinary institutions play in building and maintaining digital Research Work project was delivered in September resources for researchers. 2014 with the release of two reports: Assistive Health Technologies for Independent Living: A Pilot Study – The Academy this year hosted two policy discussions on Lessons Learned for Interdisciplinary Research: Good humanities research infrastructure. These discussions Practice; and the Making Interdisciplinary Research Work were aimed at evaluating the current status of and – Evaluation Framework and Report. The Academy thanks future needs for humanities research infrastructure, Professor Alison Bashford FAHA for her work on the Project something which has not been done since the 2011 Steering Committee for this final phase of the project. research infrastructure road-mapping process. The first workshop, held on 30 April 2015, included researchers National Scholarly Communications Forum and representatives from cultural institutions. A second, Convened by Colin Steele FAHA, the 24th Roundtable of larger, forum was held on 30 June 2015 to coincide with the National Scholarly Communications Forum (NSCF) is the 2015 Digital Humanities Conference in Sydney. scheduled to be held on 7 September 2015 at the Australian This forum included representatives from cultural National University. The Academy has been a supporter of institutions and government, as well as researchers and the NSCF since its inception in 1994. The Forum serves as international delegates. a focal point for discussions about the creation, evaluation The active participation of a number of international and dissemination of knowledge, bringing together representatives highlighted the commonality of the researchers, research funders, policymakers, university challenges we face in developing humanities-focused administrators, publishers, librarians, data experts with research infrastructure, and was instructive in providing collecting institutions. an understanding of lessons that have been learnt from The theme for the 2015 roundtable isUnlocking the Future: international work in this area. Scholarly Communication and Publishing in a Global Research Environment. 20 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

PUBLICATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS

HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA The sixth issue ofHumanities Australia was produced and distributed in 2015 and featured contributions from Dr Peter Cochrane FAHA, Kate Grenville FAHA, Emeritus Professor Lesley Johnson am FAHA, Dr Mabel Lee FAHA, Les Murray FAHA, 2014 Crawford Medallist Dr Tom Murray, Emeritus Professor Pam Peters FAHA, Professor Tony Sagona FAHA, Emeritus Professor Graeme Turner FAHA and Simon Winchester obe. The cover featured an artwork by prominent Chinese-Australian artist Ah Xian, whose work is the focus of Dr Lee’s article. This edition opened with an edited version of the 2014 Academy Lecture, delivered at the 45th Annual Symposium by Lesley Johnson. ‘Generosity and the Institutions of the Humanities’ examined some of the changes and challenges to three of the institutions that have nurtured work in the humanities over the centuries: the library, the university and the academy. Three further lectures delivered at the Symposium were adapted for publication in this issue. Author Simon Winchester discusses the importance of structure in his writing in ‘The Atlantic, the United States and the Pacific: How to Structure Books on Big Things’. Pam Peters delivers a comprehensive survey of the histories of three essential works of reference, ‘Transcending their Format: Dictionaries, Encyclopedias and Atlases’. This issue also featured two poems from Les Murray Graeme Turner’s article ‘Mapping the Humanities, Arts and a short fiction work from Kate Grenville that was and Social Sciences: Data for the Future’, outlines the originally part of her celebrated novel The Secret River. detailed examination of the current health of teaching Humanities Australia No. 6 was distributed to the and research in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Fellowship, allied organisations and institutions in the area undertaken by Professor Turner with Dr Kylie Brass. humanities. We are grateful for the continuing support Tom Murray, recipient of the 2014 Max Crawford Medal, of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade which contributed ‘Screen Rites: Getting Close to Death and distributes the journal to Australian Embassies and Dying’, in which he discusses the filming of his third High Commissions, and to Qantas for displaying the documentary, Love in Our Own Time (2013). journal in Qantas Club Lounges throughout Australia. An electronic version of the journal is available on the Mabel Lee contributed an essay on the work of leading Academy’s website. contemporary artist Ah Xian, whose sculptural work celebrates both the human body and traditional Chinese SOCIAL MEDIA arts and crafts by bringing them together in highly original combinations. One of Ah Xian’s artworks During the reporting period the Academy established appears on the cover of this issue, ‘Concrete Forest, 17: a social media presence by opening an official Nelumbo nucifera (Lotus)’. Twitter account, managed by the Publications and Communications Coordinator. This has broadened Two articles featured different aspects of the First World our online profile, with new connections made within War, in this Anzac Centenary year. In ‘“Diamonds of the field of the humanities, both domestically and the Dustheap”: Diaries from the First World War’, Peter internationally. It has also proved to be an invaluable Cochrane discusses some which have been collected by information-sharing tool for the Academy, with links to the State Library of New South Wales. Tony Sagona’s our events and publications shared more widely. ‘An Archaeology of the Anzac Battlefield’ describes the work of a team of researchers on the archaeological finds at the site of the battlefields at Gallipoli. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 21

GRANTS AND AWARDS

The Academy is grateful to the current members of Dr Irving’s research combines multifaceted interests in its Awards Committee – Professor Joy Damousi FAHA historical musicology, ethnomusicology, and performance FASSA, Professor John Sinclair FAHA and Dr Robert practice, to examine two main areas: (1) The performance Young FAHA – for their assessment of the 2015 awards. of music between c. 1550–c. 1800; and (2) the role of music The Committee met at the University of Melbourne in in intercultural exchange, colonialism, and globalisation May 2015 to review applications across its two primary in the early modern period, with a particular focus on funding programmes: the Publication Subsidy Scheme Southeast Asia. His work has made new discoveries about and the Humanities Travelling Fellowships. The Awards the impact of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and British Committee also considered nominations for the 2015 colonialism on music cultures in the Philippines and the McCredie Musicological Award, and assisted with Malay-Indonesian archipelago, c. 1500–c. 1850. the selection of an Academy candidate for the British Dr Irving will receive the McCredie Musicological Award Academy’s 2015 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize. at the Fellows’ Dinner in Sydney in November 2015. PUBLICATION SUBSIDY SCHEME INAUGURAL MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE The Academy’s Publication Subsidy Scheme provides IN TRANSLATION support of up to $3,000 for the publication of scholarly In May 2015 the Academy announced a new award for work of high quality in the humanities. The Awards distinction in translation. The Medal for Excellence Committee granted 12 publication subsidies in 2015. in Translation will be awarded biennially to the best translation into English produced by an Australian HUMANITIES TRAVELLING FELLOWSHIP translator, as judged by a panel of experts appointed The Academy’s Humanities Travelling Fellowships by the Academy. The Academy is grateful to Professor enable early-career researchers to undertake research Brian Nelson FAHA and to Professor Stathis Gauntlett overseas, including accessing archives and other research FAHA for their support in establishing the award. materials, and connecting with international researchers The Academy also acknowledges the support of the and networks. Fellowships of up to $4,000 are available Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund and three Australian to permanent resident scholars in Australia working universities – Monash University, the University of in the humanities. The Awards Committee granted Melbourne, and the University of Western Australia – 12 Humanities Travelling Fellowships in 2015, including each with a particular interest in translation. the David Philips Travelling Fellowship. The inaugural Medal for Excellence in Translation will be awarded at the 2016 Fellows’ dinner. DAVID PHILIPS TRAVELLING FELLOWSHIP INTERNATIONAL PRIZES Dr Fiona Davis of the Australian Catholic University AND COMMITTEES was awarded the 2015 David Philips Travelling Fellowship. The David Philips Travelling Fellowship is The nomination of Academy candidates for international named after the late Dr David Philips, historian and prizes in the humanities is an important ongoing role Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, and for the Academy and a means of drawing international is made possible thanks to a generous bequest to the attention to the exceptional work of our Fellows. This Academy from his mother, Mrs Joan Philips. This named year the Academy consulted with electoral sections to Fellowship is awarded biennially to proposals that establish a shortlist of Academy nominees for the British contribute to the advancement of knowledge of racial, Academy’s Nayef Al Rodhan Prize. Professor Joseph Lo religious or ethnic prejudice. Bianco am FAHA was selected by the Awards Committee and Council as this year’s Academy candidate. McCREDIE MUSICOLOGICAL AWARD The Academy was also invited to recommend candidates Dr David Irving of The Melbourne Conservatorium of for positions on the Holberg Prize Academic Committee. Music at the University of Melbourne was awarded the We are delighted that Emeritus Professor Graeme 2015 McCredie Musicological Award, Australia’s most Turner FAHA was elected to serve on the committee as prestigious prize for a distinguished contribution to the ‘humanities’ representative for a term of three years. musicology. The award is funded through the proceeds Professor Turner is the first Australian to hold a position of a bequest to the Academy by the late Professor Andrew on the committee. McCredie FAHA. 22 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

PUBLICATION SUBSIDIES AWARDED 2015

RECIPIENT AMOUNT TITLE PUBLISHER

Dr Jeannine Baker $1,500 Australian Women War Reporters: Boer War to Vietnam NewSouth Publishing

Dr Catherine Bishop $2,500 Minding Her Own Business: Colonial Businesswomen in Sydney NewSouth Publishing

Dr Liz Conor $2,800 Skin Deep: Settler Impressions of Aboriginal Women University of Western Australia Publishing

Dr Victoria Duckett $2,000 Seeing Sarah Bernhardt: Performance and Silent Film University of Illinois Press

Dr Dorottya Fabian $1,000 A Musicology of Performance: Theory and Method Based on Open Book Publishers Bach’s Solos for Violin

Dr Nicholas Fischer $1,300 The Spider Web: The Birth of American Anti-Communism University of Illinois Press

Dr Claire Higgins $2,500 Controlled Generosity: Australian Refugee Policy in the Fraser era, Melbourne University Publishing 1975–1983

Dr Jane-Heloise Nancarrow $1,500 The Roman Past in Anglo-Norman England York Medieval Press

Dr Sheridan Palmer $1,400 Hegel's Owl: The Biography of Bernard Smith Power Publications, University of Sydney

Dr Noah Riseman $1,500 Defending Australia, Defending Indigenous Rights: University of Queensland Press Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Military Service Since 1945

Dr Lara Stevens $1,000 Anti-war Theatre After Brecht: Palgrave Macmillan (London) Dialectical Aesthetics in the Twenty-first Century

Dr Robert Wellington $2,000 The Visual Histories of Louis XIV: Artifacts for a Future Past Ashgate

HUMANITIES TRAVELLING FELLOWSHIPS AWARDED 2015

RECIPIENT AMOUNT PROJECT

Dr Leslie Barnes $3,000 Narrating sex and power: sexual exploitation and the persistence of colonialism in Vietnam and Cambodia

Dr Samuel Baron $3,000 Rethinking non-causal explanation

Dr Catherine Bishop $4,000 ‘World-minded’ women: International Federation of Business and Professional Women and World Youth Forums: Internationalist Youth Initiatives in the Cold War 1947–55

Dr Iva Glisic $2,000 The futurist files: politics, ideology and futurism in Russia between 1905 and 1930 / Aesthetic disobedience in Putin’s Russia

Dr Christopher Hale $3,500 The origins of the Palace of Nestor in Greece: the ceramic evidence

Dr Kit Morrell $3,500 Specimen esto: setting an example for Rome

Dr Astrida Neimanis $3,500 Counterarchives in the Gotland Deep

Dr Gretchen Stolte $2,000 Researching Australian Aboriginal bark paintings at the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History

Dr Natalia Szablewska $1,500 A critical discourse analysis of migration in Cambodia: 2010–2015

Dr Indigo Willing $3,000 Exploring cosmopolitanism and belonging in transnational adoption

Dr Genevieve Young-Evans $3,000 Languages of respect and reproach: 5th century church historians and church councils

DAVID PHILIPS TRAVELLING FELLOWSHIP AWARDED 2015

RECIPIENT AMOUNT PROJECT

Dr Fiona Davis $4,000 Local history and healing: Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its lessons for Australia THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 23

INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES

The Academy conveys its gratitude to outgoing agreement between our academies is currently being International Secretary Professor John Fitzgerald FAHA, established to encourage the exchange of information and welcomes Emeritus Professor Peter Cryle FAHA, of mutual interest, support collaboration in matters of who took up the role in November 2014. common concern, and promote the exchange of members. The details of the agreement are expected to be finalised INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY in late 2015. Union Académique Internationale (UAI) In light of the results of a survey of the International collaboration of Fellows undertaken in October 2013 The Academy extends its congratulations to Emeritus (see below), Council has been reviewing the Academy’s Professor Pam Peters FAHA and Professor Kate Burridge programme of international engagement. Under the FAHA whose project Varieties of English in the Indo-Pacific terms of a joint Memorandum of Understanding, the Region (VEIP) was adopted by the Bureau of the Union Academy will continue its annual workshop programme Académique Internationale at its 88th General Assembly with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences until 2017. held in Brussels in May 2014. The endorsement of VEIP The Academy is also seeking to actively collaborate brings the total number of Academy-sponsored projects with organisations in the UK, mainland Europe, and to five. All of the Australian projects received positive the United States which share similar policy interests in reports and two, Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum and higher education and research. Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum, received funding for publishing and research travel. The Academy is also looking to establish formal corresponding partnerships with Learned Academies Professor Sam Lieu FAHA attended the General Assembly from around the globe to broaden its network of as the Academy’s representative and this year held a seat information exchange, and to identify opportunities on the UAI Bureau. for Australian humanities scholars to engage in international collaboration. INTERNATIONAL SURVEY

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION The 2013 survey of the international collaboration attracted responses from 215 Fellows. The results have Chinese Academy of Social Sciences been used extensively by Council to direct the Academy’s international programmes, and to provide information Following a successful philosophy workshop in to government on the extent and breadth of international Beijing in 2014, the Academy commenced preparations engagement between our Fellows and international for a reciprocal visit to Australia by philosophy organisations. The following tables and graphs provide scholars from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences a snapshot of the overarching results of the survey, (CASS) in July 2015. We are grateful to Professor John and show the incidence of connection between Fellows Makeham FAHA and Professor Alan Hájek FAHA for and particular regions, countries, and international collaborating with the Academy to convene two joint organisations. A more comprehensive report which meetings with CASS, including a one-day workshop at summarises the results of the survey will shortly be made the Australian National University and a session of the available to the Fellowship. Australasian Association of Philosophy at Macquarie University in Sydney. Papers presented at both sessions The survey asked participants to select the countries with will address the theme ‘New Directions in Philosophy: which they have been engaged in collaborative activities Chinese and Australian Perspectives’. In addition to over the last 5–10 years. A total of 820 collaborations were Professors Makeham and Hájek, Academy Fellows reported. The highest level of collaboration is occurring and representatives include Professor Freya Mathews with partners in Europe (around 50%), followed by FAHA (La Trobe), Associate Professor Karyn Lai North America and Asia. Collaboration is highest with (UNSW), Dr Shirley Chan (Macquarie University), and the USA (135 collaborations) and the United Kingdom Dr Koji Tanaka. (130 collaborations). The top five collaborative partners (USA, UK, Germany, France and Canada) constitute over National Academy of Sciences, The Republic of Korea 50% of the collaborations noted by survey respondents. Following a productive visit in March 2014 by Academy President Lesley Johnson am FAHA to the National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Korea, a formal 24 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

REGIONS WITH WHICH FELLOWS ARE ENGAGED IN COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITIES

Asia Middle East, North Africa, and Greater Arabia Europe North America Central America and the Caribbean South America Sub-Saharan Africa Oceania Poles

COUNTRIES OF COLLABORATION

 







                       l l s y y y i l a a a a a e e o n n n d d Z K A l y i a i a i e i n r k m r e z a d e c c n a a d e r i a n n s s a g a S a i n d a r e o U t N e a n n a t r i c r a p d y e x i c u r a r k l a h p n s I o p i w s U a r w a n e m I r l a n I l g i u r e u l a S r a B r t a J C K o a A f r l r m e r e n o

w e F g a T I o G e A u M e T z e C d N S h B P h i n t M a i t n D e G t I S u w e o S N S THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 25

The survey gathered information about the collaborations 4. Membership: learned academies and other of Fellows with overseas organisations. Four categories of international academic organisations of which Fellows collaboration were identified: are members 1. Affiliation: international organisations where Fellows The following table lists the organisations with which have affiliations (e.g. visiting fellowship status) Fellows are collaborating most frequently according to these four categories of collaboration. While there is 2. Research: international organisations linked to evidence for high levels of collaboration with specific collaborative projects countries, such as the USA and the UK, the overall 3. Funding: international organisations that provide number of Fellows collaborating with individual funding for collaborative projects organisations is relatively small.

COUNTRY ORGANISATION NUMBER OF COLLABORATIONS AFFILIATION Singapore National University of Singapore 10 United Kingdom University of Cambridge 9 United Kingdom University of Oxford 5 United States of America Harvard University 5 Hong Kong Hong Kong University 4 China Beijing Foreign Studies University 4 United Kingdom University of London 4 United Kingdom Wolfson College, Cambridge University 4 Netherlands Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies 4 RESEARCH (AND OTHER FORMS OF COLLABORATION) United Kingdom University of London (incl. School of Oriental and African Studies) 18 United States of America Harvard University 18 Singapore National University of Singapore 17 United Kingdom University of Oxford 16 Netherlands Leiden University (including KITLV) 15 Japan Tokyo University for Foreign Studies 10 United Kingdom University of Cambridge 10 Canada Social Science and Humanities Research Council Canada 10 United Kingdom Oxford University Press 9 Germany Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, Bonn, Germany 9 MEMBERSHIPS United Kingdom Society of Antiquaries (London) 19 United Kingdom Royal Historical Society, UK 15 United States of America American Academy of Arts and Sciences 9 France International Academy of History of Science 7 Netherlands Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen 5 (Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities) United Kingdom British Academy 4 Germany Alexander von Humboldt Foundation 4 United Kingdom Linnean Society of London 4 FUNDING Singapore National University of Singapore (including ISAS) 11 United States of America National Science Foundation (NSF) 10 United Kingdom University of Cambridge 9 United Kingdom Leverhulme Trust, UK 7 Germany DAAD – German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher 7 Akademisher Austausch Dienst) United Kingdom Oxford University Press 7 Netherlands Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies 6 Europe European Research Council 6 United Kingdom University of Oxford 6 Canada Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada 6 Germany Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung 5 United States of America Harvard University 5 26 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

OBITUARIES

PETER ALEXANDER 1949–2015

the text and the writing subject. For this biographer, the writing subject always came first: English studies was a place where writers lived, a populated and multinational site. Peter Alexander identified himself as an Australian citizen, but his work transcended his passport. His distinction as an academic lay in his ability to engage fully with several (Commonwealth) cultures and to make definitive contributions to the literary history of each. As a graduate student at Leeds University in the early 1970s he worked on the Irishman W. B. Yeats. At Cambridge in the late 1970s he went on to produce a definitive biography of the South African Roy Campbell, along with four volumes of Campbell’s Collected Works, all published by Oxford University Press. Geoffrey Dutton wrote in 1982 that ‘this fine biography gives a remarkably honest picture of this extraordinary man … Alexander seems to have read everything and interviewed everyone available – with the great advantage of having the confidence of Roy’s widow, Mary.’ A biography of the self-described ‘Anglo-African-Asian’ William Plomer photo: courtesy of christine alexander appeared in 1989, and a study of Leonard and Virginia Woolf in 1992. Each of these major works is wondrously meritus Professor Peter Fraser Alexander died at the buttressed by conference papers, invited public lectures, age of 65 on 13 January 2015. He had been elected to E articles, encyclopaedia entries, broadcasts, interviews and the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1994, the reviews. Reactions to Peter’s work on Roy Campbell have year in which his biography of Alan Paton appeared. included a photographic exhibition, a film script, two In the same year he was appointed Head of the School of plays and a ballet. This response from creative artists in English at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). the wider community was clearly a source of gratification As this conjunction of events might indicate, Peter was to him. His biography of Australia’s unofficial poet an all-round academic, a good citizen of his profession, laureate and, according to fellow poet Peter Porter, taking on major teaching and administration duties. ‘custodian of Australia’s soul’, Les Murray: A Life in At the same time he was extending his subject, leading Progress (1999) was published, immediately withdrawn its development through active and ambitious research because of a defamation action, appeared on the web in and innovative teaching methods, and was regularly a pirated version, and was then revised, expanded and invited to participate at international conferences. re-published in November 2000. Writing for the Sunday While a tireless champion of the traditional strengths Telegraph, Clive James chose the biography as one of his of English literary studies, he was sensitive to new three ‘Books of the Year’. developments: he introduced the first creative writing subject at UNSW, on the use of computers in creative Reaction from Alexander’s peers to the Les Murray writing. He was best known and will be remembered as biography bordered on astonishment. Peter Steele a distinguished literary biographer and editor. His work concluded that ‘Someone entirely ignorant of Murray and is notable for maintaining outstanding quality over of his work could read the book and emerge instructed, a wide, international range. Reviewers often commented in significant ways, about what makes Australia run – or on the clarity of his writing, his command of jargon- hobble, or halt’ (Australian Book Review, December 1999/ free narrative, and his unwavering capacity to privilege January 2000). Peter Coleman similarly responded: ‘it not THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 27

only tells you all you wanted to know about Les but were In 2011 Peter knew that his life was coming to an end. afraid to ask, it is also the best history of Australian letters He was told to expect ‘months, not years.’ Nevertheless, since World War II’ (Adelaide Review, November 2000). he continued to travel the world and make discoveries. Stephen Harris selected as the biographer’s particular Two years after receiving this medical advice he and skill: ‘Alexander’s technique of using the poetry as a form Christine set off for New Zealand, Tasmania, and of complementary comment … In effect, he creates a Beijing (where he gave a paper on biographical theory dialogue between the seemingly impersonal facts of his to a conference of professors of English). They travelled life and the potently subjective impressions conveyed by around China by train, bus, aeroplane and bicycle, the poetry’ (The Listener, 21 April 2001). for a fortnight. This was followed by a conference in Durham, UK, organised around Christine’s work on The biographical researcher met his public again in 2009, literary juvenilia and the Brontës. There were visits when Peter’s edition of Alan Paton’s selected letters was to Scott’s Abbotsford and to Cambridge, as well as launched after he gave the Alan Paton lecture at the attendance at the Academy’s conference in Brisbane. University of Natal. Perhaps the most revealing comment Plans for 2014 included a conference in Quebec. Peter’s on this project came from a South African source: ‘It is many friends and colleagues will be pleased to know remarkable that, working from Australia (though with that he had finished his Memoir (and Christine had the help of willing assistants in this country), he has finished her edition of Jane Austen’s juvenilia). Such achieved such accuracy in such a vast number of details’ resilient, mutually-sustaining and equal partnerships are (Colin Gardner, Natalia, December 2009). Someone more remarkable in any profession. Within the academic world, familiar with Peter Alexander’s previous work would not one must evoke the phenomenon of hen’s teeth to find have found anything remarkable here at all. a suitable measure of probability. Peter’s was a busy scholarly life conducted internationally. It is obvious from all this that Peter Alexander was He was a much-travelled professional who found both a determined, principled and dedicated professional to his energy and time to consider the larger questions about the fingertips. His published works are ample and eloquent relationship between Australian writers and Australian testimony to those qualities. He also had a dignified, academics. In 1988 he organised a conference with his quiet, wry sense of humour. We last saw him driving off wife Christine at UNSW on this topic and attracted wide after a visit to our home on Mount Gibraltar a few months public attention and much comment. The subject of the ago. Christine had already warned us that we might not writer’s world dominated his interests and connected the see him again, and he was certainly looking drawn and very different times, places and cultures of Campbell, very tired. Even so, he insisted on taking the wheel; he Paton, Plomer, the Woolfs, and Les Murray. His active was a keen and expert driver who only four years earlier promotion of African Studies in Australia and the Pacific had driven across the Nullarbor and around Australia. (he was President of its Association from 1993–6) led to its We learned later that they arrived home safely but it was third conference, at the Australian National University, his last long-distance drive. Peter is survived by his wife in 1995. He held visiting appointments at the universities Christine and their son Roland: their daughter Rebecca of Cambridge, Durham, Duke, North Carolina and pre-deceased him. Princeton. In 2003 he was awarded the Centenary medal for service to Australian society and the Humanities. CLIVE PROBYN FAHA He spent all but one year of his professional life of thirty- seven years at UNSW and was at work on the unpublished papers of Alan Paton when he died. Many students benefitted from his learning and supervision. 28 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

A. B. (BRIAN) BOSWORTH 1942–2014

from 1967 until 2007, producing an increasing number of books and articles in first class journals, while also undertaking a full teaching programme and serving as Head of Department more than once. This was in spite of his being occasionally tempted by offers of appointments elsewhere, specifically at Oxford and Harvard. He was a visiting scholar at Nottingham University, the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton (twice), All Souls College Oxford and the University of Cincinnati. The fact that such a distinguished and internationally recognised historian remained in Western Australia did no harm to the reputation of the university that provided him with a home. A Deputy Vice-Chancellor (not a humanist), who had travelled overseas, reported on his return that he was amazed at the number of places in which, when he announced that he was from UWA, the response was that it was known because of Brian Bosworth’s work. On his retirement from UWA he moved to the University of Newcastle, and was also offered an appointment at Macquarie University in the Department of Ancient History, where he headed a group photo: courtesy of john melville-jones of researchers who were developing a programme for the study of the Mediterranean in the Hellenistic age. rian Bosworth was born at Mansfield, BNottinghamshire, England on 21 March 1942 Brian’s reputation was principally based on his work and educated locally until he obtained a scholarship on the history of Alexander the Great, which consisted to Keble College, Oxford. Keble was not one of the of a detailed commentary on Arrian’s Anabasis of more aristocratic colleges, and aimed to be ‘inclusive’, Alexander, a history of the great conqueror’s campaigns but nevertheless, as he used to say, he sometimes felt (two volumes published in 1980 and 1995, the third like Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure there. As an forthcoming), and a number of books and articles undergraduate he was fortunate in being tutored by examining various aspects of the life and legacy of the a Reader in Classics and Fellow of the college, William great conqueror. He also worked and supervised others Spencer Barrett, whose ability to analyse ancient in a less developed area of Greek studies, the history of manuscripts, establish the best readings and interpret Alexander’s successors in the eastern Mediterranean, them correctly was of the very highest order. This would an area in which some of his former students have made certainly have helped Brian to achieve the heights of a good reputation for themselves. He began this process scholarship that he reached in later years. with another book, The Legacy of Alexander: Politics, Warfare and Propaganda under the Successors (2005). He obtained first-class honours in Literae Humaniores, In addition, he demonstrated his knowledge of Roman and settled down to working for a B. Phil degree as history in a number of articles which showed that he was a preliminary to a D. Phil, though he never acquired a balanced classicist. a doctorate because Peter Cuff of Magdalen College Oxford, who visited Western Australia regularly, Brian’s work on Alexander took a different line from recommended him as a rising young scholar to Mervyn the near-eulogistic portrayal that had become standard Austin, then the Professor of Classics and Ancient among many writers after the English-language History at the University of Western Australia (UWA), biography of W. W. Tarn (1948). Being a man of peace who offered him a lectureship. He remained at UWA himself, with no experience in or love of warfare, he THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 29

joined the New Zealand scholar Ernst Badian (who had secured a post at Harvard) in portraying Alexander as a ruthless conqueror, an interpretation that was more fully developed in two of his other major publications, Conquest and Empire: the Reign of Alexander the Great (1993) and Alexander and the East: the Tragedy of Triumph (1996). Brian’s work remains as a scholarly monument because of his exceptional knowledge and control of the ancient written sources. Some of his books were so highly regarded that they were translated into other languages: Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, Greek, Turkish and Mandarin. He was also selected to make contributions to the later versions of The Oxford Classical Dictionary and The Cambridge Ancient History. At the time when Brian arrived in Western Australia, it was not normal for professorships to be held by anyone except the administrative heads of departments. But once Personal Chairs began to be created he was obviously more than worthy of this promotion, which was achieved in 1980. Not a single questioning voice was heard at the meeting of the committee that processed the application, something highly unusual. After his retirement from UWA Brian received the title of Emeritus Professor in 2008. He continued to work at the University of Newcastle and Macquarie University, until ill health made it impossible for him to continue. His partner, Elizabeth Baynham (with whom he collaborated on several projects related to the history of Alexander the Great), together with his former student Patrick Wheatley, will undertake the completion of the third volume of his commentary on Arrian.

JOHN MELVILLE-JONES FAHA

Written with the assistance of Robert Milns, Elizabeth Baynham and Norman Ashton. 30 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

BETTY CHURCHER AO 1931–2015

As a child of the Depression and a young woman (her father believed ‘education spoiled a girl’), her schooling almost came to an abrupt end after Year 10. However, Betty was fortunate to find a passionate ally in her headmistress at Somerville House in Brisbane, who fought for her to complete her senior studies. Betty then went on to further her education in London and to forge a path for women to take senior positions in the arts in Australia. She was the first woman to head a tertiary institution and the first female director of any state gallery and of the NGA. Betty was a pioneer. Between 1972 and 1975, she was an art critic for The Australian newspaper. She was Dean of the School of Art and Design and taught Art History at the progressive Phillip Institute of Technology (now part of RMIT University). Importantly, she became the first female director of a state art gallery when she was appointed Director of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, serving from 1987 to 1990. She was subsequently appointed director of the NGA photo: courtesy of the national gallery of australia in 1990 and her vision to make art accessible to all drove new strategies and new approaches. During her ainter, teacher, art critic, television host, author, seven-year tenure as director, Betty’s contributions P scriptwriter and, of course, gallery director, Betty to developing the National Gallery and to promoting Churcher played a central role in promoting the visual understanding of the arts in Australia were great. arts in Australia. Even in the last years, she showed She not only loved building the collection – most no signs of slowing down as she published five books notably in securing Arthur Streeton’s Golden Summer, and gave interviews and lectures around Australia. Eaglemont 1889, because it was the last of the truly iconic She is remembered at the National Gallery of Australia Heidelberg School paintings to remain in private hands – (NGA) for not only her role as director, but also for how but also thinking about what a young national gallery rigorously she researched the topics which were the should and could be doing beyond the realm of the subject of her later work in television and writing. nation’s already established state galleries. Betty Churcher’s faith in and support of staff and her During her time, she brought the world’s very best art openness to new ideas characterised her approach to to Australia thanks to her charm and tenacity and, for leadership. She demonstrated great trust in her colleagues it, was labelled ‘Betty Blockbuster’. It was an epithet and her commitment was returned in kind. People were that began a little ambiguously but soon became one of free to express ideas, and there were some radical ones, justified praise as she brought record crowds to the NGA. but Betty always showed bravery in encouraging and She worked successfully with Chairman Kerry Stokes, challenging her staff and the public to see art and art whose marketing and media experience provided a museums in new ways. She is remembered as intelligent, perfect complement. charming, courteous and committed and she approached What the National Gallery could not buy it would her work with an infectious vigour and determination. borrow. Her response to detractors of this idea was that This resolve carried her through life. audiences would come to see the blockbuster and stay for THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 31

the permanent collection. Her consistent aim was to give at a fast clip and with purpose, and watching people the confidence to enjoy art, to see its relevance Betty engage with visitors about a work of art and to broaden its audience. But it was not just about they were looking at and in her utterly charming popularising art; she wanted to speak to visitors, not and inclusive way revealing a small detail that speak down to them. As Edmund Capon once put it, she would bring sheer joy to their faces. Betty made ‘embraced both the scholar and the public at large’. the Gallery welcoming for visitors and was an inspirational communicator and leader and These blockbusters were events that attracted people from a fabulous person to work closely with. around Australia and did wonders for Canberra tourism. They included The Age of Angkor(1992), Rubens and the Australia has produced many great arts administrators. Italian Renaissance (1992), Rembrandt to Renoir (1992–3) Betty, however, was different and special. She studied and Matisse (1993). These were important shows lent by art above all and developed those life-long skills which major institutions from around the world, including enabled her to articulate how a work of art was made. our own region, but the first one that could truly be She was an associate and graduate of the Royal College called ‘ours’ (that is, it was not a packaged show but was of Art, London and gained an MA from the Courtauld curated by professionals here) was Surrealism: Revolution Institute of Art at the University of London, but she used by Night (1993). Also under Betty’s reign, Turner’s two her artist’s eye in everything she did. A recipient of four great oil paintings of the burning of the Houses of Lords honorary doctorates, she was a Fellow of the Australian and Commons came together for the first time outside Academy of the Humanities and Adjunct Professor of America in the seminal 1996 exhibition Turner. Of Rubens the Centre for Cross Cultural Research at the Australian and the Italian Renaissance, Betty recently said ‘It was National University. almost too difficult to do, but not too difficult to do. And After leaving the NGA, Betty maintained strong ties and we did it’. This persistence, this obsession, her drive to do could often be found in the aisles of the Research Library, what was right despite resistance, was what spurred her to hunting down and capturing words once remembered accomplish the impossible. or making new discoveries to tell a story. She was an But it was not all about the blockbusters. Shows such as engrossing and informative storyteller and, while she was the insightful and poignant 1994 exhibition Don’t leave me interested above all in making people curious about art, this way showed real courage in tackling the challenging she never ignored the detail, the depth, the rigour and topic of HIV and was the first to do so at a national gallery the authority one must bring to the tale. She went to great anywhere in the world. Betty also initiated the building lengths even for the most simply told stories, such as her of a dedicated space for major temporary exhibitions, television shorts Take 5. Take 5, Eye to Eye and Hidden opened the year after her departure from the Gallery. Treasures communicated her warmth and sheer delight in And, perhaps most importantly, the world’s estimation of looking at art. These were the programs that secured her Australian visual arts went up during her time. As Neil ‘household name’ status. Macgregor, Director of the British Museum and former Always the educator, Betty wrote several books, including Director of the National Gallery in London, said of Betty Understanding Art, Molvig: The Lost Antipodean, The Art in a tribute recently published in the NGA’s Artonview: of War, and her beguiling personal art journals Notebooks In her time as Director of the National Gallery of and Australian Notebooks. Australia, Betty Churcher became for people in Betty most admired art that was created from ‘an the arts world wide, the representative of the new absolute, sheer necessity’. The unwavering passion Australia, and has brought the Canberra gallery that artists bring to their work is precisely what Betty into the mainstream of international exhibitions. brought to her lifetime of achievement in the sector and She has come close to ousting the koala bear as particularly as an enthusiastic art educator. For her many the nation’s symbol abroad; if (perhaps) a little accomplishments, she was awarded membership of the less cuddly, she is just as much loved, and much Order of Australia in 1990 and became an AO in 1996. more highly respected. Until the end, Betty continued to research and write and, Betty’s executive assistant at the time remembers Betty with the help of family, finalised her third ‘Notebook’, fondly as ‘a great storyteller’: to be published posthumously. Her lifetime of educating Whether it was at the end of a busy day in the visitors to the NGA, and those with whom she connected late afternoon in her office overlooking Lake via television, constitutes a powerful legacy. Burley Griffin when the early evening light would GERARD VAUGHAN am FAHA transform Mount Ainslie into an Arthur Boyd painting or walking through the galleries, always 32 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

HO PENG YOKE 1926–2014

has produced much scholarship on the history of Chinese science, and he enjoyed and benefited from contacts with Japanese scholars. After the War he studied science at Raffles College in Singapore and the new University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. Professor Ho took up a job in physics at the University of Malaya, but soon changed his field to the history of Chinese science, completing a PhD in that area in 1957. This led to contact with the great British sinologist and scientist Professor Joseph Needham (1900–95) of the University of Cambridge. Needham was an external examiner of his PhD thesis and in 1958 Ho Peng Yoke went to Cambridge to meet and work with the great British scholar. Although he returned to Southeast Asia the next year to take up a readership in Singapore, the contact with Needham proved essential for his work and career. In 1963, Professor Ho became the first head of the Department of Chinese Studies at the University of Malaya, offering a rare combination of a specialist both photo: courtesy of colin mackerras in science and the humanities. While at the University, he not only appointed some very senior world sinologists but o Peng Yoke, the noted historian of Chinese science, also occupied very senior positions within the University. Hpassed away on 18 October 2014. A Chinese of He travelled extensively, including revisiting Cambridge Malaysian background, he contributed immensely to and Joseph Needham. Australian academia, especially in the field of China During this time, Ho Peng Yoke also became involved studies. He was the first Foundation Professor in the in Malaysian politics, showing the considerable trust School of Modern Asian Studies at Griffith University and he enjoyed in various sectors of the community. was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the When serious race riots erupted in Kuala Lumpur and Humanities in 1976. elsewhere in 1969, he was appointed to a Goodwill Professor Ho was born in the Kinta Valley, a tin-mining Committee within the government’s National area in Malaysia. In the 1920s his father Ho Tih Ann Consultative Council, which replaced the Houses of had, in one of the numerous wars that afflicted China Parliament during the state of emergency declared at the time, fought on the side of the Guangdong warlord because of the riots. His job was nothing less than to help Chen Jiongming against the main founding father of the ameliorate the tense race relations. He used his academic Chinese Republic Sun Yat-sen. Sick of the interminable expertise to push the interdependence of Chinese, conflict in China, Ho Tih Ann left the army for Malaysia Hindu and Islamic cultures and philosophies: Malaysia in 1925. That was how this highly traditional Chinese is, after all, one of the world’s most important meeting family, which had been in Guangdong Province in south places of Chinese, Indians and Muslims. When the state China for several generations, came to settle in Malaysia. of emergency was lifted in 1971, Professor Ho was even offered a cabinet position. As he himself notes in his Professor Ho attended an English, Christian school. His autobiography, Reminiscence of a Roving Scholar: Science, contacts with the Japanese during their occupation of Humanities and Joseph Needham (2005), ‘I declined Malaysia during the Second World War were mainly with politely, saying that I had neither interest nor expertise intellectuals, as a result of which he learned Japanese. in politics, preferring to remain an academic’. This was to help his work greatly later in life since Japan THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 33

In 1972, Professor Ho was an Asian Fellow for six months Professor Ho was extremely widely published. at the Australian National University. However, his His monographs included several on Chinese astronomy, main Australian involvement was at Griffith University astrology and medicine, such as Chinese Mathematical in Queensland. Although this new university did not Astrology: Reaching Out for the Stars (RoutledgeCurzon, begin teaching until 1975, it had already decided on four 2003) and, together with Peter Lisowski, A Brief History foundation schools, including the School of Modern of Chinese Medicine and Its Influence (World Scientific, Asian Studies. Professor Ho was the first Chairman and 1999). He also wrote innumerable articles and scholarly Foundation Professor in the School, remaining Chairman items on an astonishing range of topics connected with from 1973 until 1978. He contributed greatly to setting up Chinese science. His autobiography, Reminiscence of a the first courses offered by the School, at that time still Roving Scholar: Science, Humanities and Joseph Needham unusual in Australia as a unit dedicated only to Asian was published by World Scientific in Singapore in 2005. studies, and was thus one of the pioneers of the University The inclusion of Needham’s name in the title of his and of Australian Asian studies. autobiography testifies to the importance for Ho of his participation in this scholar’s great project. For most of the 1980s, Professor Ho was seconded by Griffith University to the University of Hong Kong, where I believe that Professor Ho’s main scholarly idea and he was professor in the Department of Chinese as well as contribution were two types of integration. One was that Master of Robert Black College. He returned to Griffith between science and humanities. This was demonstrated University in 1987. Both his autobiography and my own amply in his career, since he was so able both as a scientist recollection suggest that he was somewhat disappointed and as a historian. There is no coincidence in the fact that by life at Griffith then, finding it too parochial and both areas are mentioned in the title of his autobiography. not connected enough with the academic life of Asia. The second type of integration is perhaps even more He retired from the University in 1989, and was shortly important. It is that which links the scientific endeavours after appointed an Emeritus Professor. of various civilisations. Of his home continent he wrote Soon after leaving Griffith he became honorary director in Personal Encounters of Islamic Links with Chinese of the Needham Research Institute, remaining in the Studies (2005): position until 2001. Needham was already 90 when Ho Asia has produced three great cultures that got to Cambridge to take over the project. According to influenced the development of science in Europe Ho’s autobiography, Needham ‘could barely stand without in the past, namely Chinese, Hindu and Islamic, the help of a walking stick, and was generally confined in alphabetical order. The consciousness of its to his wheelchair’, in addition to which he was suffering own heritage has greatly stimulated the Chinese from a variety of diseases. Ho’s autobiography suggests to participate as a full member of the global that he found conditions in Cambridge quite difficult, community of scientists and technologists and Needham died during Ho’s tenure of office. However, of today, and we all witness the remarkable despite the difficulties, Ho Peng Yoke was able, through economic growth of China in the past decade. his post as director, to contribute even more significantly Similarly, we can now see the same to be to this great project than he had already done earlier. happening in India … Malaysia is a country Needham was the inaugurator and guiding hand where all three great cultures meet … Perhaps behind Science and Civilisation in China, published by some attention given to the study of science Cambridge University Press. Since the Second World and technology aspects of its heritage would War this has been the largest-scale English-language stimulate more interest among its people in work of Sinology to come basically from one guiding science and technology leading to a greater mind. Originally planned in seven volumes, it has grown economic growth – at the very least the sharing enormously; as of early 2015 there are 24 volumes, and of common heritage would go a long way to three are still incomplete. In 1999 it was on the Modern promote harmony and goodwill among people Library Board’s 100 Best Nonfiction books of the twentieth of the three different cultures that would be century. This gigantic work revealed to the West how fundamentally even more important than extensive Chinese scientific discoveries have been over economic growth itself. the centuries, but also raised the crucial question why Here he mentions Europe in passing as having once been it was the West and not China that developed ‘modern’, influenced by Asia. Of course, his involvement in the universally recognised and applied science. Professor Ho Needham project indicates his deep awareness of more Peng Yoke’s involvement in this highly significant and on- modern trends, which show European science as being going project testifies to his contributions to scholarship immensely more influential than Asian. After all, the and to the regard in which the international scholarly ‘Needham question’ asks why it was that, despite earlier community holds him. 34 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

Chinese preeminence, it was in Europe that the scientific When I wrote asking for a brief comment about Professor revolution took place, not in China. But it is arguable Ho, he responded: ‘Peng Yoke was always willing to go out that the theme of interconnection is still both visible of his way to help his history colleagues or students with and significant. particular classical Chinese texts by offering a scientific perspective that is always fresh and illuminating.’ Professor Ho knew standard Chinese, Cantonese, Japanese and basic Malay. He gained numerous awards, The comment adds to my own general observation that both in Australia and overseas. As well as being elected Ho Peng Yoke was an excellent teacher and researcher. a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, He was also a very kind and humane man, a real he was elected to Academia Sinica in Taipei in 1988. gentleman (junzi) in the Confucian tradition. As an observer of his work style over several years at Griffith, Ho Peng Yoke continued to have a home in Brisbane, even I suggest he was very conscious of the many benefits of after he left Australia for Cambridge to become director international interrelationships and exchanges. He was of the Needham Research Institute. He is survived by also skilled in winning financial benefits from overseas his widow Lucy and five children, four daughters (two of not for himself but for the University. I can testify also them twins) and one son, all of whom have done very well that he was an excellent mentor, never hesitating to foster in medical professional life in Queensland and elsewhere. younger scholars and help them in their work. His son became a professor at the James Cook University of Northern Queensland. His contribution was immense and he will be deeply missed. Professor Wang Gungwu, distinguished scholar and former President of the Academy, still works at the East COLIN MACKERRAS ao faha Asia Institute of the National University of Singapore and was a long-time colleague and friend of Ho Peng Yoke’s. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 35

ALAN WILLIAM JAMES 1938–2015

Giangrande (later of London), as one might have supposed, but by D. L. Page, Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge at the time. From then on Late Epic was to be James’ special field. Quintus of Smyrna, the third-century AD Epic poet, was the subject of his final two books. In between were numerous articles on Epic of all periods. It is likely that contact with the renowned Homer scholar G. P. Shipp, who was retired but still in frequent contact with members of the Greek Department at Sydney, fostered and encouraged his interests. He does thank Shipp for reading the proofs of his Oppian book and for saving him ‘from a number of errors.’ The Homeric epics were the grounding of the late Epic poets and of James himself. Though he never said so, one gained the impression that Homer was his real love. His mastery of the Iliad and the Odyssey was legendary. In all Epic he had an enormous and exact, almost frightening expertise. There was no word he did not instantly recognise, no scholiast whose abstruse remarks he could not interpret. This expertise extended to most of the Greek literature of the Classical period, but did photo: courtesy john lee not end there. In the 1980s he joined a project to produce a translation, with commentary, on The Chronicle lan James was a core member of the old Greek of John Malalas, a sixth-century prose work. His ADepartment at the University of Sydney in its heyday, contribution was significant and much valued by his and continued through its later transformations, until Byzantinist colleagues. his retirement from classics (and ancient history) in The field of late Epic was not a fashionable one. In the 1998 at the end of a 30-year career. He had been trained preface to his translation of the Posthomerica of Quintus in classics to a rare level of excellence and within his (2004), James puts up a calm but strong defence against own chosen field was a formidable scholar. Though his the dismissive attitude that had tended to prevail. wider influence was somewhat limited, he nevertheless His own translation of the whole epic (2004) and his enjoyed a high reputation among his fellow-classicists meticulous commentary on book V of the same (2000) both in Australia and overseas. His students found that did much to change the scene and revive interest in this his austere manner could reveal surprising patience and poet. In 2006 an international conference on Quintus, kindness. Many came to feel affection for this strangely the first of its kind, was held in Zurich. James by this time reserved and hesitant man, as well as respect for his had become the natural choice as keynote speaker. enormous learning. The commentary on book V of thePosthomerica was James was born in Stanmore, London, in 1938, and after a collaborative work with the late K. H. Lee, Professor of schooling at Harrow County Grammar School and Classics at Sydney (1993–2001). Lee revived James’ interest Priory Grammar School, Shrewsbury, went up to King’s in Quintus and motivated the project, as James himself College, Cambridge. A starred First and the Chancellor’s acknowledges. But once started, James threw himself into Medal showed what talent he had as a classicist. His PhD it fully, and the resulting work carries his characteristic was awarded in 1965 for a dissertation on the language stamp. The collaboration must have meant much to of Oppian of Cilicia, which was published in 1970. The both of them. Lee, who left a chair in New Zealand to field was suggested, not by his supervisor Giuseppe take up the Sydney post, said to me more than once, 36 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

perhaps in moments of despondency, that if the move to fairness. He never gossiped or criticised and was reluctant Sydney had been worthwhile for nothing else, it had been to pass judgement. He accepted the duty of Head of worthwhile for the chance to meet Alan and get to know Department a number of times; he served the Australian him as a trusted colleague and friend. The feelings were Society for Classical Studies as business manager, and reciprocated. then, for more than 20 years, as treasurer, and was made an honorary life member; he was chair of the Board of James was not just a translator: he was a poet-translator. Studies Classical Greek Syllabus Committee for years; and His version of Quintus’ Posthomerica combines accuracy there were more such roles, all demanding their share of with a flexible verse form of considerable appeal and his time and skill. beauty. Before tackling this, he had worked for some years on a translation of the Iliad, at first using a strict form of It is hard to give a proper impression of the full depth of blank verse. It was not completed (at least by 2004), but knowledge of such a man from a catalogue of positions James saw it later as ‘a necessary training’ for the Quintus held and duties performed. Those of us who took part in translation. The composition of Greek (iambic) verse, one the process of setting unseen translation papers in the of the most demanding of skills, was within his capacity Greek Department had a fuller sense of his command of too, but undertaken with typical modesty. Trevor Evans, Greek. This process was a communal effort for the higher who joined what was probably the last (informal) class, years up to Greek IV Honours. The participants knew recalls James saying that when approached to teach such what it was to be put on the spot, to have to reveal one’s a class ‘he wondered whether he would still be able to do knowledge – or lack of it. Picture the table in Professor it. And of course he was fantastic at it.’ In the same vein, Ritchie’s room, with Bill Ritchie, Alan James, Harold Terry Roberts recalls James taking over a Lyric class at Tarrant, and John Lee, sitting around it, reading passages short notice, giving apologies for being rusty at Sapphic of Greek brought along by each of us as possible choices. dialect, ‘and then giving a flawless performance.’ They would not be easy passages, and would be ‘unseen’ to us too, unless they were our own offerings. This was But it would be wrong to give the impression that James when one really knew how good Alan was and learnt to could only interest himself in the rarer aspects of the respect the depth of his knowledge of Greek, as he took in classics or his own special field. He taught courses without effort some obscure philosophical argument or across the subject, as was usual in the department, from high-flown passage of rhetoric. His own passages, which beginners to honours. He embraced the teaching of he understood with ease, were mostly extraordinary Classical Literature in Translation when such courses similes from somewhere in Epic, and needless to say very were introduced, and gave of his best, to the pleasure challenging to the rest of us. of his students. James set high standards for his students. In Homer classes he was inclined to expect them to match James’ English reserve never left him. He came across him by reading the Iliad or the Odyssey, or sometimes as hesitant and stiff, even lacking in empathy, but this both, in a year, as he had done many times over. But his of course was deceptive. One felt that his manner hid a high standards were in tune with the high standards warm and flexible personality trying to get out. His sense of diligence that he set himself. His standards paid of humour was real but mostly dry. His rejoinder when off. Richard Hunter (now Regius Professor of Greek at Trevor Evans wondered if Alan’s car would cope with Cambridge) recalls courses with James in Pindar and the hills between Armidale and Sydney was: ‘This car Hellenistic poetry which gave him a taste for ‘hard’ knows no hills.’ And Michael Curran remembers that he poetry; ‘he certainly did not let you cut corners.’ Peter would announce, when exam invigilating, that ‘liquid Lennox (Principal of Redlands) remembers the ‘training refreshment of the most basic variety’ was available if in clarity of thought and ability to research and reason.’ wanted. But he was not impervious to Aussie larrikin John Vallance (Headmaster of Sydney Grammar School) humour. He once recounted, with obvious relish, how has said simply, ‘He taught me how to concentrate.’ during a public lecture at the university someone who seemed to have wandered in off a park bench suddenly James was appointed to the Department of Greek in cried out from somewhere in the audience, ‘Bullshit!’ 1968, having held fellowships and a College lectureship at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He retired at no higher level James was a lean and fit man. He had been a rower as than Senior Lecturer, but after retirement was recognised an undergraduate and all his life enjoyed walks and by his election in 2006 as a Fellow of the Australian bushwalking. He loved travelling, had seen most of Academy of the Humanities. In all his time at Sydney, he Europe, and made many trips with his family through never shirked a duty, and drove himself hard in all his outback Australia. Even so, his health was not always teaching and other tasks, at times surely to the detriment good. He was prone to sinus infections and repeated bouts of his health. In the university context, a walk of life that of cellulitis, not diagnosed until later in life. He pushed has its fair share of the opposite characteristics, James himself to keep working no matter how he felt. Alan was stood out as a man of integrity, kindness, honesty, and a devoted family man. It was in Cambridge that he met his wife Theresa Ng, from Singapore, and they had two THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 37

sons, Conrad and William. They, with two grandchildren and his sister Stella, survive him. James never talked to his colleagues about his religious feelings or affiliation. It came as something of a surprise to learn of his journey, from the (Plymouth) Brethren, to which his parents belonged, to the Anglican church, of which he was a devout and active member for many years, and finally to the Roman Catholic church about three years before his death. He compiled an autobiography of his early life, but it was intended for a family readership and has not been published. He amassed a splendid library, starting in his undergraduate days, when, as he remarked, one could buy in Cambridge even sixteenth- century works for a few shillings. Alan James will be sadly missed by all who knew him; he will also be remembered by all who knew him, for the excellence of his character and his qualities as a scholar and a human being.

JOHN A. L. LEE FAHA

With thanks to Theresa James and other contributors. 38 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

DONALD ANTHONY LOW AO 1927–2015

Member (1984–94), and later as Life Governor. With his commanding style and presence, upright bearing and voice of authority, he reflected an educational culture that championed strong leadership qualities involving the ‘useful’ life of service and academic achievement. After Haileybury, Anthony Low went up to Oxford in 1945 as an undergraduate (Exeter College), interrupted by 18 months of national service in the 17th Lancers. He later undertook a doctorate (D. Phil). Having become fascinated with African history at Oxford, he resolved to work in colonial Africa – not as member of the imperial administrative corps, but as a lecturer at the new Makerere University College in Kampala, Uganda. The young D. A. Low was soon to become one of its academic stars, as well as developing a public profile as the East African Correspondent of The Times of London (1952–8). Through local explorations in Bugandan history, he was indeed to become one of the pioneers of African history as a subject in its own right. His major studies of Buganda and British Overrule 1900–1955 (1960), Buganda in Modern History (1971), plus a rich documentary photo: courtesy of the australian national university collection under the title of The Mind of Buganda (1971), are still in use today, alongside chapters in The Oxford ad Anthony Low lived in an earlier era of the British History of East Africa (1976), and a standard entry Empire he may well have risen to be a great imperial H on ‘The History of Uganda’ in the 15th Edition of the proconsul, perhaps even Viceroy of India (or at least an Encyclopædia Britannica. African Governor). Born to a British mission family in the beautiful Indian Hill Station of Nainital (his father ran Here was a rich corpus of pioneering research and the Bible Society, while his mother was a British-trained imaginative analysis of the famous and complex medical doctor), he was sent to that most prestigious of Bugandan Kingdoms. Low gave attention to both the English public schools supplying officers for the British dynamics of power among the many chiefdoms as British armed service colonial corps. This was Haileybury, ‘over-rule’, along with an analysis of the intricate roles which had grown out of the historic British India College of religion and culture in an African society where of 1806 (and later incorporated the Imperial Services local values included the presence of both Islam and and United Services Colleges), with its fierce motto of Christianity. The young academic’s early research papers ‘Fear God, Honour the King’. Haileybury could claim had followed traditional themes – ‘British public opinion Rudyard Kipling among its luminous alumni, as well as and the Ugandan Question’ (1954), ‘The British and an extraordinary number of military leaders, with an the Buganda’ (1956) – but that quite soon changed, to a astonishing seventeen alumni having been awarded the greater internal focus on Africa and Africans: ‘Religion Victoria Cross for bravery (and three even rarer George and Society in Buganda’ (1957), ‘The composition of the Cross winners). Many other graduates became leaders Buganda Lukiko’ (1959), ‘Political Parties in Uganda, in the imperial and colonial services, personifying the 1949–62’ (1962), and ‘The Advent of Populism in Buganda’ ‘Thin Red Line’ that ruled an Empire. Anthony Low may (1964). His intellectual horizons also expanded boldly have taken a civil road less travelled for Haileyburians – to recognise the era of change across the great continent as an academic leader (Eminent Professor and Vice- with his notable paper on ‘Studying the Transformation Chancellor), having excelled in history – but he proudly of Africa’ in the mid-1960s. recognised his personal debt to his school as Council THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 39

Having first approached African history from a He was of course to do more than that. He was never to metropolitan perspective of empire, Low now began to engage in facile comparative essays, but rather to embed give voice and agency to Africans and their own society. an awareness of patterns and practices within works of And as he came to see Africa from the inside, so too detailed research and analysis. His arrival in South Asian he reconceptualised his sense of Empire, which he now history was accordingly through issues and archives. perceived as being significantly shaped by indigenous Two edited volumes caught the academic explorer in forces. In later reviewing the multi-volume Oxford action: Soundings in Modern South Asian History (1968), History of the British Empire, he was to praise its range, soon to be followed by Government Archives in South but also to ask aloud why a much greater agency had Asia: A Guide to National and State Archives in Ceylon, not been given to the colonial peoples swept up within India and Pakistan (1969). Scholarly works followed the Pax Britannica. In his own writings he evolved around Anthony Low’s fascination with imperial power a general model of British colonial expansion, first and local social formations, traditional elites and the new through a key article – ‘Lion Rampant’, in the Journal nationalist forces. A collected volume of 1977 reflected of Commonwealth Political Studies – which then grew his interest in a contested modernity – Congress and the into a major comparative imperial study of the same Raj: Facets of the Indian Struggle, 1917–47 (1977) – as did name (1973), along with a plethora of research papers on a significant paper the following year on the traditional African imperialism. My own favourite is ‘Warbands and elites of the sub-continent in an innovative volume on Ground-Level Imperialism in Uganda, 1870–1900’, which People, Princes and Paramount Power: Society and Politics he published from the Australian National University in the Indian Princely States, edited by Robin Jeffrey (ANU) in 1975. He drew together his theory about tropical faha (1978). Works of enduring significance were to be empire in his final monograph for Cambridge University developed over the next few decades. The ‘Centenary’ of Press half a century later in 2009: Fabrication of Empire: the Indian Congress movement was marked with a major The British and the Uganda Kingdoms, 1890–1902. collected volume of essays (1988), with his finest South Uganda had become for him a remarkable laboratory for Asian monograph coming in the next decade: Britain dissecting empire and history. The ideologies of conquest and Indian Nationalism: The Imprint of Ambiguity, and rule were contextualised in relation to indigenous 1929–42 (1997). cultures – which included traditional authorities and new If historians can reasonably be divided into ‘splitters’ social classes, ancient traditions and beliefs experiencing and ‘clumpers’, then Anthony Low was essentially transformation. Within the local he had found the global. a subtle ‘splitter’. He wished to defy the inevitabilities The road from Africa to Asia in his scholarship was sometimes given to writing about the past; and he also to be winding but relatively short. While in Uganda, forensically dissected given forces – such as ‘nationalists’ and through his work as a stringer for The Times, Low and ‘nationalism’ – to reveal their complex underlying fortuitously came to know the famous Australian construction. ‘Ambiguity’ was a favourite word in historian W. K. Hancock kbe faha, who was then leading pointing to the contingent and accidental (even ironic) a commission of enquiry over the deposition of the in the turn of historical events. Above all, that ‘the Kabaka of the Buganda. Hancock was impressed with unwary have allowed themselves to be trapped into the young scholar and facilitated a research fellowship supposing that the processes of decolonisation turned at the ANU (1959–64). From that base, Anthony Low principally upon imperialists’ decisions’. For while that then secured a major appointment at the innovative ‘was often the surface appearance’, it is ‘an egregious error University of Sussex as founding Dean of the School of to suggest that this unfolded within some imperialist African and Asian Studies. He then became Director of vacuum; worse that imperial rulers were always the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences at Sussex; Olympian masters of their empire’s fate’ (‘Britain and which in turn allowed him to return to Australia in 1973 India in the early 1930s’, in Imperialisms, ed. by Deryck as Director of the ANU’s new Research School of Pacific M. Schreuder faha, University of Sydney, 1991, p. 134). Studies. The significance of these professional movements From that perspective the mature scholar was also of amounted to more than a study in the remarkable course ready to paint on the broad canvas of ‘European empire-network of Commonwealth universities. In the expansion’ when appropriate, using his deep knowledge Foreword to Lion Rampant (1974), he modestly traced of Asia and Africa in synoptic volumes on The Eclipse his intellectual journey with an acknowledgement of Empire (1991), and The Egalitarian Moment: Asia and ‘to Makerere College, Uganda, which gave me the Africa, 1950–1980 (1996). opportunity to develop an interest in Africa; to the If the name of Anthony Low was alone associated with his Australian National University which enabled me to take formal CV of publications, this would just point to part of an interest in India; and to the University of Sussex which a much larger ‘informal empire’ of personal influence and allowed me to attempt to combine the two’. presence. Professor Robin Jeffrey – one of his luminous students – has said that Anthony Low perhaps had two 40 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

‘families’. One was in the loving home of ‘Belle’ (Isabel of ANU have commented: increasingly Anthony Low’s Smails, a nurse already working in Zanzibar when he ‘international perspective and networks were less valuable did his east African researches, and whom he married in than they might have been in earlier decades, when the September 1952) and their three children (two daughters University was seeking to make its mark in the academic and a son). The other was the huge cohort of graduate world. Now it was more important to know how the research students (possibly over 50) that he supervised system worked in nearby government departments and mentored, before they in turn made exceptional and in Parliament House on the other side of the lake’ contributions to modern history – notably that of South (S. G. Foster and Margaret M. Varghese, The Making of Asia. He dedicated his 1997 study (on Britain and Indian the Australian National University, ANU E-Press, 1990, Nationalism) in a cryptic way to ‘The Four Regiments’ – pp. 305–6). his affectionate recognition of his far-flung groupings At the end of the traditional seven-year Vice-Chancellor of post-graduate students, the ‘Regiments of Sepoys’ term of office at ANU, Anthony Low was elected to the – ‘In very deep gratitude… for all they have given me’. Smuts Chair in Commonwealth History at Cambridge Others again had the benefit of his exceptional generosity University (1983–94) – a vacancy created by the in reading draft papers, in commenting on whole book unexpected death of the famous imperial and Indian manuscripts, and in examiner’s reports on doctoral scholar, Professor Eric Stokes. Anthony Low accordingly dissertations. He had a shrewd eye for talent and gave missed the Dawkins Revolution in higher education momentum to careers of distinction: for example, in 1980 that brought ‘massification’ to the Australian ‘system’. he brought Ranajit Guha to a research fellowship at ANU, Instead, he could again entirely devote his creative talents so providing a secure base for the flowering of the famed to research leadership in overseas history at Cambridge, radical push of ‘Subaltern Studies’ in the literature of while also becoming the President of a famous graduate India and of imperial theory more generally. institution, Clare Hall (1987–94). That was to be his last I first met Anthony Low in 1976 when I was a young formal appointment. With Belle and family he then Visiting Fellow in the Research School of Social Sciences retired to Canberra and continued research and writing. and writing my study of The Scramble for Southern Africa He became an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2005. (1980). It was suggested that I make an appointment In 2009 many of us gathered in University House to to meet the Vice-Chancellor, something which gave celebrate the publication of Fabrication of Empire by me some apprehension – until I heard that it was none Cambridge University Press. other than a ‘Professor D. A. Low’. I duly presented Anthony Low was legendary for acts of surprising myself on the top floor of the executive building where kindness. Mine came in 1997. I was deeply involved I was genially welcomed by an elegant and imposing, as a Vice-Chancellor in university challenges when I grey-suited figure, with deeply resonant voice and aura suddenly received a copy of his latest book, with this of authority. We certainly ‘talked empire’, but also the typical inscription: challenges being faced by universities in the turbulent decade on campuses throughout the Western world of the Deryck – With warm regards and a symbol that 1970s. He was then engaged in both healing such staff and there is life after death for Vice-Chancellors! – student divisions while also calling for the University to Anthony ‘get its house in order’ in an era of increasing government While we have said farewell to Anthony Low, the oversight. scholarly works of D. A. Low will long exist to inform and As a Haileybury graduate he boldly led from the front, engage all those of us who wish to know more intimately being personally highly visible on campus, and directly about Africa, India and Empire in modern history. engaged with the university community through DERYCK SCHREUDER FAHA open meetings, faculty lunches and public speeches. He promoted external reviews towards ‘a new order’ at ANU, and coupled this with the initiation of new research centres. (The Innovations Building at ANU was rightly to carry his name.) Morale lifted and institutional confidence revived. He extended that service to the region when he became a member of the Council of the new University of Papua New Guinea. Many staff proudly saw him as very much a ‘university man’, with strong academic values, who challenged government. But the public tide was also eventually to turn towards a new utilitarianism in national policy. As the historians THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 41

PETER CHARLES MENZIES 1953–2015

supervision of Stephen Read. He then moved to Stanford for his PhD, working with Nancy Cartwright on the then newly-emerging issues of Newcomb Problems and Causal Decision Theory. His Stanford experience was evidently formative, not merely in setting the course of much of his future work, but in establishing a fund of anecdotes that would long enrich the Coombs tearoom at the ANU and other Australian philosophy venues. There is a generation of Australian-trained metaphysicians who know little about Michel Foucault, except that he had the good fortune to be taken out for pizza in Palo Alto by a young Peter Menzies, following a talk at Stanford. (Peter would add how delighted he was to discover that Foucault preferred pizza to something expensive and French.) The generous collegiality that Peter had evidently displayed on that occasion – stepping up to the plate, when other arrangements to entertain a distinguished visitor had broken down – would have looked completely characteristic, to all those who heard this story in later years. photo: courtesy of catriona mackenzie Returning to Australia in 1983, Peter held a tutorship at the Department of Traditional and Modern Philosophy, eter Charles Menzies died at home in Sydney on University of Sydney, from 1984 to 1986. He was then 6 February 2015, the day after his sixty-second P awarded an Australian Research Council Research birthday, at the sad conclusion of a seven-year Fellowship, held initially at the University of Sydney and disagreement with cancer. No one who knew him will then at the ANU, where he won a Research Fellowship be surprised to learn that he conducted this long last in the Philosophy Programme at the Research School of engagement with the same strength of mind, clarity, and Social Sciences. He remained at the ANU until 1995, when good-natured equanimity for which he was known and he took up a Lectureship at Macquarie University. He loved by friends, students and colleagues, over the three was promoted to a Personal Chair at Macquarie in 2005, decades of his professional life. He continued working becoming an Emeritus Professor following his retirement throughout his illness, teaching and supervising at in 2013. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Macquarie University until his retirement in 2013, and Academy of the Humanities in 2007, and was President of writing and collaborating until his final weeks. He will the Australasian Association of Philosophy from 2008–9. be remembered by the Australasian philosophical community as one of its most lucid and generous voices, The central focus of Peter’s philosophical work, and by philosophers worldwide as one of the most astute throughout much of his career, was the study of metaphysicians of his generation. causation – both causation in itself, and causation in its relevance to other philosophical topics, such as Menzies was born in Brisbane, and spent his childhood physicalism, levels of explanation, and free will. From the there and in Adelaide. His family moved to Canberra beginning, he had a particular knack for putting his in 1966, where he attended Canberra Grammar School. finger on difficulties in other philosophers’ positions, He studied Philosophy at the Australian National and for explaining with great clarity what the problem University (ANU), graduating with the University Medal was. With this combination of talents, he was soon in 1975. He went on to an M. Phil at St Andrews, writing making a difference. At the beginning of David Lewis’ on Michael Dummett’s views on Realism, under the 42 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

famous paper ‘Humean Supervenience Debugged’ The origins of this piece lay in conversations that had (Mind, 1994), Lewis singles out ‘especially the problem commenced several years earlier. Peter and I met as presented in Menzies (1989)’ as the source of, as he puts it, undergraduates at the ANU in the mid-1970s, and ‘the unfinished business with causation’. The reference is then found ourselves back there in the early 1980s, to Peter’s ‘Probabilistic Causation and Causal Processes: when we had returned from Stanford in his case, and A Critique of Lewis’ (Philosophy of Science, 1989); other Cambridge, in mine. After that, we were both in Sydney early papers had a similar impact. for several years, and it was from Peter that I learnt about the topics on which he’d been working with Nancy Most philosophers who work in this field would agree Cartwright, Newcomb problems and causal decision that the ‘business with causation’ remains unfinished theory. In particular, Peter pointed out to me a now- twenty years later, but that the field is greatly indebted famous argument of Cartwright’s, published a couple of to Peter for much of the progress that has been made in years previously. Cartwright’s target was the venerable the past three decades. As a philosopher who argued that ‘associationist’ view of David Hume and Bertrand Russell. we should understand causation in terms of the notion Associationists claim either (with Hume) that causation of making a difference, he certainly practised what he is nothing more than mere regularities – A causes B preached, within his own arena. just in case A is reliably followed by B, as it were – or Making a Difference is also the title of a forthcoming (with Russell) that there are really no causes at all, only volume of essays from Oxford University Press, in regularities and patterns of association. But Cartwright which a distinguished group of authors, including Peter argued that if we are to make sense of rational decision himself, engage with this strand in his work from various making, we need more than that – we need causal laws, in directions. The volume has been edited by Helen Beebee addition to Humean ‘laws of association’. (Manchester), Chris Hitchcock (Caltech), and myself. For my part, I was new to thinking about causation, but It will now be dedicated to Peter’s memory. Several other inclined to approach it in the same blythe Humean spirit Fellows of the Academy – Daniel Nolan faha and Philip I found attractive elsewhere. Peter patiently pointed out Pettit faha – are also among the contributors. that if I wanted to go that way, I needed to have something As I have already noted, Peter was one of the most astute to say to Cartwright. I don’t think I can date any specific philosophical critics in contemporary metaphysics. But, conversations from that period, but I know they started fair-minded to a fault, he was just as adept at putting pretty early, because their influence starts showing up his finger on what he saw as failings in his own work, in the pieces I was writing – including responses to that as with those of other writers. In his own case, he often challenge – at least from as early as 1985. This became, and returned with new insights to previously worked ground. remains, a central interest for me, and it was Peter who His much-cited piece ‘Probabilistic Causation and the not only steered me in that direction, but taught me much Pre-emption Problem’ (Mind, 1996) is such an example. of what I needed to know, in order to get started. Our Later classics include his ‘Difference-Making in Context’ philosophical instincts often led us in different directions, (in Collins, et al., eds, Counterfactuals and Causation, to some extent, but in ‘Causation as a Secondary Quality’ MIT Press, 2004), and ‘Non-Reductive Physicalism they converged, apparently to good effect. and the Limits of the Exclusion Problem’ (Journal of In the case of my second collaboration with Peter, Philosophy, 2009), a piece co-authored with Christian I can actually place and date the conversation from List, of the London School of Economics. which it traced its origins. At the beginning of the 1993 Christian List is Peter’s most recent collaborator and co- Australasian Association of Philosophy conference author, but several other philosophers, including myself, in Adelaide, Peter and I took the opportunity to had earlier had this good fortune. In my case it happened indulge another common interest – cake and coffee – twice, the first and better-known result being our paper somewhere in North Adelaide, while he told me the latest ‘Causation as a Secondary Quality’ (British Journal for philosophical news from the ANU. (He had been working the Philosophy of Science, 1993), a piece actually written there for several years at that point, while I had been in the late 1980s, and first delivered in the Philosophy in Sydney.) Room at the University of Sydney at the 1990 Australasian Peter’s main news that day concerned what later came Association of Philosophy conference. (I can’t recall to be called the Canberra Plan – an ambitious unified how we divided up the delivery, but we certainly fielded approach to metaphysics being developed by Frank questions jointly, and I remember complaining to Peter Jackson FAHA, and others at the ANU, along lines afterwards that he’d missed an obvious Dorothy-Dixer inspired by the great Princeton metaphysician (and from a young David Braddon-Mitchell.) Whatever its Honorary Fellow of the Academy), David Lewis faha. qualities, or lack of them, the paper proved a stayer, I was somewhat sceptical, and among the things we and is for each of us our most-cited article by a very wide margin. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 43

discussed were the apparent semantic presuppositions Joe Mintoff, Nick Agar, Kai Yee Wong, and Lise Marie of the approach – the way it seemed to take for granted Andersen, have now gone on to distinguished careers notions such as truth and reference – and the thought that in Australasia and elsewhere. All remember him with it might run into difficulties if it sought to apply its own fondness and gratitude. As Lise Marie Andersen (Aarhus), methods to the notions on which these presuppositions one of his last PhD students, puts it: ‘As a supervisor Peter relied. More than a decade later, that discussion matured was patient, warm and extremely generous with his time into the topic of our second joint paper, a somewhat and knowledge. As a philosopher he was an inspiration.’ neglected piece called ‘Is Semantics in the Plan?’, which Peter Menzies is survived by his daughter Alice and son appeared in a volume on the Canberra Plan edited by Edward (Woody) from his former marriage to Edwina David Braddon-Mitchell and Robert Nola from Auckland. Menzies, and by Alice’s three sons, Joseph, Nicolas and As one of Peter’s collaborators, it is easy to understand Eli; by his partner Professor Catriona Mackenzie FAHA, why he was such a successful teacher and supervisor, held step-sons Matt and Stefan, and a step-granddaughter, in such grateful regard by generations of students. He Olivia, born a few weeks before his death; and by combined patience, equanimity, generosity, and unfailing his brother Andrew and sister Susan. By his friends, good-humour, with insight, exceptional clarity, and an students, and colleagues, as by his family, he will be very almost encyclopeadic acquaintance with relevant parts sadly missed. of the literature. In effect, he made it impossible for his HUW PRICE FAHA grateful students – and collaborators! – not to learn, and not to enjoy the process. Many of his PhD students This is an expanded version of an obituary that appeared in the Australasian from the ANU and Macquarie, such as Mark Colyvan, Journal of Philosophy, June 2015. Daniel Nolan, Stuart Brock, Cathy Legg, Mark Walker, 44 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

DAVID ROGER OLDROYD 1936–2014

Huddersfield in Yorkshire, an organic chemist trained at Leeds University, who specialised in dyestuffs. During the Great Depression he moved south to a job as a dye chemist in a hat factory. Kenneth was also an amateur musician and it was through music that he met David’s mother, Gladys Buckley, a piano teacher in Luton. The importance to the family of music, and of camping and walking, left-of-centre politics and ‘internationalism’ were to be reflected later in David’s life. David’s early life was disrupted by the war. Luton was a target for German bombers and a bomb fell on the Oldroyd house one night, but failed to explode. David and his mother evacuated to the Lake District, and when she returned, homesick, to Luton, he remained in the Lakes at boarding school. David’s unhappiness there saw him installed instead at a minor public school in Harpenden where he gained a good grounding in languages and mathematics, but disliked the school’s religious tenor, and the inevitable wartime nationalism. Compulsory chapel provided some compensation – the choir, in which David’s musical exploits began. Subsequently he attended Luton Grammar School, a precocious boy out of sympathy with the rowdy, industrial apprentices-in- the-making who formed the bulk of the student body. photo: courtesy of the oldroyd family Kenneth was ambitious for his son to study medicine at Cambridge but David inclined more towards physics. avid Oldroyd, who died in Sydney on 7 November He gained a place at Emmanuel College, Cambridge to 2014, was a distinguished historian of geology. D study the natural sciences. His works on the history of geological controversies, of geological mapping and of theories of the Earth gained At Cambridge, geology and chemistry became strengths, him a truly international reputation and recognition but music was a serious distraction. David had taken up including election to the Fellowship of the Geological the cello in his early teens and in his later school years Society of London (1993), that Society’s Sue Tyler had the distinction of gaining admission to the National Friedman Medal (1994), and the history of geology award Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, where he met his wife- from the Geological Society of America (1999). He also to-be, Elizabeth Jane Dawes, a doctor’s daughter from had considerable impact during his long career in the Gloucestershire and an oboist. At Cambridge he plunged School of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) at the deeper than ever into chamber and orchestral playing. University of New South Wales (UNSW). There he trained Tragedy haunted his final term at Cambridge in early numerous postgraduate students and taught the history 1958. David’s mother was dying of lung cancer, and he sat of the life sciences, and the philosophy of science, with his finals during the week after her death, not surprisingly lasting effect on generations of undergraduates. Beyond with less than optimal results. this he was a man of wide interests and culture, once School teaching was David’s next destination. His degree describing himself as ‘a chemist by training, a historian was insufficient qualification for a research career. of science by profession, and a musician by inclination’. National Service loomed, a deeply unattractive prospect David Roger Oldroyd was born on 20 January 1936 in to him, with exemption available by becoming a coal Luton, north of London. His father, Kenneth, was from miner or a science teacher. He plumped for the latter! THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 45

Soon, having married Jane in September 1958, he became Kuhnian history and philosophy of science. In a stream a chemistry teacher at John Lyon School in Harrow, and of papers he examined critically the debates concerning the father of two sons in rapid succession. He had his first the sociology of scientific knowledge and ranged over brush with HPS at a teachers’ conference in Oxford where a variety of topics in exploring these theoretical issues. the subject was presented as ‘bridging the gap’ between A long paper published in 1987 on the contemporary the ‘two cultures’ of the sciences and the humanities. controversy concerning the dating of early human David sought out the MSc degree in HPS taught at remains was, I think, particularly noteworthy in working University College London in the evenings. He found through his views: he came to accept many of the ideas the course rather disappointing, though a highlight was that the sociologists of science drew out of their studies a supernumerary set of lectures by Karl Popper, material of controversies, but argued for a coherence theory of that later informed Popper’s famous book Conjectures truth or at least of reliable knowledge. David returned and Refutations (1963). With characteristic directness, to the history of geology, seeing an opportunity to make David asked the great man one day whether his lecture his own contribution to controversy studies. The result material was itself conjectural and falsifiable. Popper was was The Highlands Controversy: Constructing Geological not amused. Knowledge through Fieldwork in Nineteenth-Century Britain (1990), David’s most sustained and thorough piece In the midst of his HPS studies David spied an of archive-based, but theoretically engaged, research. advertisement at New Zealand House in the Strand In this case study he managed to combine in telling offering jobs with all fares and housing costs paid. fashion his deep technical knowledge of the history of The winter of 1961 was cold and hard, finances were not the geology of Britain, his flair for empathic research in good, and an adventure was attractive. So David, Jane and which he literally followed in the footsteps of nineteenth- their young sons sailed for New Zealand in 1962 and he century geologists to reconstruct the dynamics of their began his job at Hastings Boys’ High School in Hawkes fieldwork, and his well worked out position on the nature Bay. It proved highly unsatisfactory, despite the splendid of scientific knowledge. The book garnered considerable walking and climbing available in the beautiful local praise, sealed his research reputation among the global countryside, and in 1965 David obtained a far superior job HPS community, and contributed substantially to the as chemistry master at Christ’s College in Christchurch. award of a higher doctorate (DLitt) by UNSW. By now he had taken the examination for his London MSc and, in Christchurch, found the library resources As his reputation solidified, bringing with it promotion needed to research the thesis topic that he had settled on: at UNSW to Associate Professor, (1986), then to Professor ‘Geology in New Zealand Prior to 1900’ (1967). During the (1995), and Fellowship of the Geological Society of London course of this work David first combined inquiries into (1993) and of the Australian Academy of Humanities the history of geology with his own geological exploration (1994), David moved deeper into the history of geology. on foot. Though he was happy at Christ’s College, its He retired from UNSW in 1996 but remained a very muscular Christian ethos and a promotion bottleneck productive honorary professor. Increasingly his target caused David to look elsewhere. He stumbled on an audience was other historians of geology, and geological advertisement for a lectureship in HPS at UNSW. To his practitioners who took an interest in their subject’s great surprise his application succeeded and so in 1969 the past. He paid less attention to the endlessly contested Oldroyds moved to Sydney. historiography and sociology of science. David would have been quietly pleased, if also slightly bemused, had David’s serious research began with commencement he been able to see a geologists’ ‘History of Geology of his PhD thesis at UNSW, From Paracelsus to Haüy: Group’ obituary, which recently described him as ‘an The Development of Mineralogy in its Relation to Australian geologist’! He had almost gone native! His Chemistry (1974). With typical aplomb, and unusually research did become highly specialised, but fortunately for the time, he ensured that he met the requirement for he was still easily tempted by publishers’ requests to work of publishable standard by publishing his chapters survey broad aspects of the field, which led to important first and then submitting the thesis. His job secure, in books like Thinking About the Earth (1996), and Earth the late 1970s and through the 1980s David engaged more Cycles: A Historical Perspective (2006). The latter began, fully with some of the key problems and trends of the to great effect, with a long Oldroydian disquisition on field of history, philosophy and sociology of science more the cyclic idea embodied in the Yorkshire song ‘On broadly conceived. He read very widely, not least for the Ilkley Moor bah’t ‘at’! David’s eye for a good story never course that he taught on the Darwinian Revolution and deserted him. Thus inEarth, Water, Ice and Fire (2002), for his philosophy of science subject, known as the ‘isms’ his history of English Lake District geology, he not only course. The very successful textsDarwinian Impacts charted in formidable detail the mastering of the rocks (1980) and The Arch of Knowledge (1986, with Spanish of that region by generations of geologists whose paths and Italian editions) were outcomes, and used around the he shadowed, but he also investigated the issue of the world. David grappled with issues in Kuhnian and post- controversial underground nuclear waste storage facility 46 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

planned for the area to deal with waste from the nuclear of institutions: as Head of the School of HPS at UNSW; complex at Sellafield. With dogged insistence, charm as President, and earlier a very active Secretary, of the and investigative flair, David gleefully extracted sensitive Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy information from obscure documents, reluctant officials, and Social Studies of Science; most prominently as and involved geologists. Secretary-General (1996–2004) and later Vice-President (2004–11) of the International Commission on the David was never happier than when poring over History of Geological Sciences. Within the Academy of geological maps. These were always important to him Humanities David served a term as Chair of the History both as tools and as historical objects of study, intriguing Section. He edited the journal Earth Sciences History not only because of their form and function but also almost single-handedly from 2008 until very recently, and for their cultural significance. They became a favourite served on many other editorial boards, including that of topic in themselves during his last years. Among Annals of Science to which he was particularly devoted. his final publications was a historical comparison of He was further recognised by election as Corresponding maps and artistic representation in the Western and Member (2002) and then full Member (2008) of the Chinese traditions. Académie Internationale d’Histoire des Sciences. David In all, David produced, or co-produced, eight books and was awarded the 2014 Tom Vallance Medal by the Earth three edited volumes, and published over 60 substantial Sciences History Group of the Geological Society of articles and book chapters, as well as numerous other Australia. Though he was too ill to receive it personally, shorter pieces. He generated a flood of commentary on the award was particularly fitting since Tom Vallance, the history of geology, and much else, as a truly prolific then at the University of Sydney, was one of the key essay reviewer and book reviewer. In fact, reviewing was people to whom David turned when he arrived in Sydney, a crucial part of David’s modus operandi. Where others wet behind the ears as a historian of geology, in 1969. merely read to bring themselves up to speed in a new True to his self-description, amidst all David’s area, David tended to read and review. Sometimes he professional work, music was a constant preoccupation used reviews as a way of writing himself into command and release. He and Jane ran an orchestra for some of unfamiliar territory. Particularly memorable in this years from their home in St Ives. David played with regard was his 1987 essay review of Bruno Latour’s Science the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra and the Amateur in Action in the journal Social Epistemology, which Chamber Music Society of Sydney. Colleagues from the elicited two published responses (and a visit to Australia) Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra played at David’s by Latour – and a reply from David! funeral. On that occasion, tributes were paid to him as David was devoted to the intellectual and material a musician, an author, a teacher, an intrepid bushwalker, welfare of his many research students, especially those a devoted husband, a loving father to his sons Ben from overseas, China in particular. With his Chinese (a prominent research scientist, to David’s great pride) students he published some important contributions to and Nick (who, sadly, predeceased him), and a caring the history of geology in China. He travelled extensively grandfather to Monty. He will be remembered not only in the Peoples’ Republic and was an honoured guest as a distinguished historian but also as a gregarious and of its history of science community. Conferences and generous man. Learning of his death, a mutual friend of invitations took him overseas frequently: to Europe, ours from Canada, part of David’s extensive international Turkey, Russia and North America, where he gathered circle of academic friends and admirers, summed him up friends and contacts, and, always, geological information. accurately in one phrase: ‘a real Mensch’. Travel fed his deep interest in and knowledge of DAVID PHILIP MILLER FAHA international affairs. He gave sterling service to a number THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 47

PETER REEVES 1935–2015

period 1921–58.’ Scholarly research about modern India was just beginning in the USA and the UK, and Reeves was probably the first Australian to do archival work of this kind in India. Reeves arrived at the Australian National University (ANU) in 1960 as a PhD scholar. Anthony Low (1927– 2015) had been recruited from Africa as an imperial historian by Keith Hancock and brought to the Research School of Pacific Studies in Canberra to pursue the study of India. The story, fondly told, was that on his arrival in Canberra, Reeves was greeted by Low who announced that they must go to the railway station to collect another new graduate student, John Broomfield, arriving from New Zealand. This trio was joined later by Ravinder Kumar (1933–2001), and ANU’s remarkable commitment to the study of India and South Asia was established. From the 1960s to the twenty-first century, the foursome made remarkable contributions to the scholarship of the region – Low at the ANU, Sussex and Cambridge, Broomfield at the University of Michigan, Kumar at the ANU, the University of New South Wales and then as legendary director of the Nehru Memorial photo: courtesy of robin jeffrey Museum and Library in New Delhi, and Reeves at Sussex, the University of Western Australia (UWA), ike the Little Elephant in the Rudyard Kipling story, Curtin University and the National University of LPeter Reeves had an insatiable curiosity. It led him Singapore (NUS). as a teenager into history courses about Asia, unusual Reeves and his young family (he and Noelene were offerings at the University of Tasmania in the 1950s. married in December 1956) lived in India for six-month By the time of his death, Reeves’ curiosity had led him periods in 1960–61 and 1961–62. The result was a ground- to become an outstanding scholar of modern Asia, breaking PhD thesis, ‘The landlords’ response to political a superb teacher, a gifted administrator, an indefatigable change in the United Provinces of Agra & Oudh, India, aspirant-linguist, an accomplished event organiser, 1921–1937,’ awarded in 1964. This was a time when archival an inspired cook and caterer, an avid book collector, research into modern Indian social and political history a student of fish and fisheries, a grower of grapes, a maker was being pioneered in the West by scholars like the of wine, and an incomparable reader and constructive legendary Bernard S. Cohn (1928–2003) at the University critic of his students’ and friends’ works-in-progress. of Chicago. Had Reeves’ thesis been published in the mid- Born in Sydney and brought up in Devonport in 1960s, it would have been widely celebrated. This was the Tasmania, Reeves graduated from the University of experience of Kumar’s Western India in the Nineteenth Tasmania with first-class honours and the university prize Century: A Study in the Social History of Maharashtra, in English in 1955. He took a diploma of education the Broomfield’sElite Conflict in a Plural Society: Twentieth- following year. In 1956, the Master of Arts was a research Century Bengal, and Low’s edited volume, Soundings in degree, and Reeves went to India for ten months of Modern South Asian History, all published in 1968. Reeves research in the archives of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh published three seminal essays (one of them in Soundings) in 1958. The result was a 330-page MA thesis (1961), during this time, but Landlords and Governments in ‘Agrarian legislation and rural society in Uttar Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh: A Study of Their Relations until Zamindari India. A historical study with especial reference to the Abolition appeared only in 1991. By that time, the archival 48 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

paths that scholars like Reeves had opened had been He continued: trodden by many scholars. The book did not get the Peter had an eye for structure and coherence. attention it deserved. If he thought something was no good, he told Reeves’ insatiable curiosity was one reason why the book you – and always suggested ways to make was delayed. There were always a few more sources that it better. ‘I don’t think it’s very good,’ Peter needed to be found and digested. And was it really proper, would sometimes say, and, as the recipient’s he would muse, to publish on such topics until one face fell, ‘but if you made the final paragraph had a decent knowledge of Urdu and Hindi languages? the introduction, dropped Section 3 altogether To study the languages, he enrolled at the School of and expanded your research on X and Y and Oriental and African Studies in London in 1970–71 introduced that as a new Section 3, then I think during his study leave. In the 1980s, he did formal courses you would have something quite good indeed.’ in Arabic. Another admirer wrote: The second reason for delay in publication ofLandlords He gently steered me away from a truly nutty idea and Governments was captured by one of Reeves’ old for the central theme of my thesis ... He replaced students who wrote in June 2015: ‘He was really selfless it with what became the core organising idea. in so many ways: and I am thinking of [his] putting the I wish that I had made such a basic contribution writing of the “Landlords” aside while he looked after to doctoral students of my own. his students’ interests.’ Reeves took on projects that others would not. A classic example occurred after Hugh Reeves’ generosity as a supervisor shone through. Owen, a fine scholar of South Asia, died prematurely in He took timid beginners to the India Office Library to 1987. Owen had not published the book that his copious introduce them, made emergency house-calls to give research was building towards. Reeves, assisted by Joan urgent career advice and in at least one case offered to Wardrop, collected Owen’s essays, prepared them for take a salary cut to keep an able post-doctoral fellow publication, and The Indian Nationalist Movement, on the payroll. His love of cooking made it seem as c. 1912–22: Leadership, Organisation, and Philosophy: if his greatest happiness was to prepare a multi-dish The Writings of Hugh Owen was published in 1990. Indian meal for a room full of friends and associates. This was classic Reeves. (He became a vegetarian, but made delicious meat dishes for carnivorous friends.) By the 1980s, Reeves had accumulated a formidable list of experiences and responsibilities. His first job was as From 1974 to 1999, Reeves was a tireless worker in public a lecturer in History at UWA in 1963. Thereafter, he went life in Perth. He was a key organiser of the Indian Ocean as a visitor to the University of Michigan and to Sussex Arts Festival in 1979 and 1984, chairman of the Library University in 1966, where Anthony Low had become Board of Western Australia from 1986–90 and president the foundation dean of the School of African and Asian of the UWA Academic Staff Association for five years. Studies (AFRAS). AFRAS looked like a South Asian Internationally, he was a corresponding member of the First XI: F. G. Bailey and D. F. Pocock in Anthropology, Indian Historical Records Commission from 1981–91 and B. D. Graham in Politics, P. K. Chaudhuri in Economics a member of the Australian National Commission for and Ranajit Guha in History, along with Low and Reeves. UNESCO from 1981–6. During his time at Sussex, Reeves meticulously edited In 1985, he moved to the Western Australian Institute and introduced Sleeman in Oudh: an abridgement of of Technology (WAIT) as an associate director, and W. H. Sleeman’s ‘Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, when WAIT became Curtin University, he became a 1849–50’ (1971). He also organised a mammoth European Deputy Vice-Chancellor. With the late John McGuire, conference on South Asia, just before returning to he founded the South Asia Research Unit, which won Australia in 1974 to take up a chair in History at UWA. grants, ran conferences and published books. Fish, fisher Through these years, Reeves established a reputation as an people and fisheries became a key interest, growing out outstanding teacher. His undergraduate courses sparkled of Perth’s location and research on the Indian Ocean. with originality as he looked for ways to entice fledgling Reeves, McGuire and Bob Pokrant published a number of students into the excitement of inquiry and analysis. papers on fisheries in the Indian Ocean, the last of which appeared in 2014 as ‘Changing Practice in the Madras As a PhD supervisor, Reeves was unsurpassed. ‘No one Marine Fisheries: Legacies of the Fish Curing Yards’, in read work like Peter,’ one of his former students said. Historical Perspectives of Fisheries Exploitation in the Indo-Pacific, ed. Joseph Christensen and Malcolm Tull. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 49

After retirement from Curtin University, Reeves was invited to the NUS in 1999 to set up a South Asian Studies Programme. His talents as a teacher, administrator and exemplar were never more evident. He was asked to take on an additional task and became foundation director of the Centre for Language Studies where he created a remarkable sense of pride and purpose. While at NUS, he was executive editor and driving force of The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora (2006), a project which also produced an edited volume, The South Asian Diaspora: Transnational Networks and Changing Identities in 2009. After he and Noelene returned to Australia and a winery and cafe on the outskirts of Perth, Reeves cooked, made wine, helped to run the cafe and added to his fine library. Even when Parkinson’s disease began to wear him down, he was able with Noelene’s help to be a constructive consulting editor for The Encyclopedia of the Sri Lankan Diaspora, published in 2013. It was a mark of the affection and respect in which he was held that his name alone appears as the editor of that volume, though generous and talented hands in Singapore had done much of the work. The generosity was fitting. Reeves was insatiably curious, unfailingly constructive – and always generous.

ROBIN JEFFREY FAHA 50 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

ROBERT BARRIE ROSE 1929–2015

the school a dominant tone of empirical scepticism. While recognising the virtues of these values, and assimilating them, the young undergraduate ventured otherwise. Bertrand Russell, H. G. Wells, Bernard Shaw, Upton Sinclair, and Sinclair Lewis were among radical influences. Barrie moved towards Marxism, and even membership of the Communist Party. Events ranging from the impending victory of Communism in China to the triumph of Labour in Britain seemed to promise a brave new world. In tune with this Barrie’s intellectual interests came to centre on the French Revolution, harbinger of this advance. The enthusiasm thus fired was to sustain a grand intellectual life. One key inspiration came from Albert Mathiez, historian and admirer of popular action within the French Revolution; within the Manchester Department the pertinent expert was André Bourde, pupil of Georges Lefebvre and supervisor of Barrie’s undergraduate thesis, which studied the Hébertists, ginger-group among the Paris proletariat. The thesis doubtless helped Barrie win first-class honours and top ranking in his year, achievements the more notable in that his mindset differed from that fostered by Namier – although, as the recipient acknowledged, the photo: courtesy of the rose family award showed a prevailing openness among those who conferred it. obert Barrie Rose, eminent scholar of the French That result opened the way for postgraduate Master’s RRevolution, was born in Bebington, England, on research, through mid-1952. In natural progression 10 July 1929, only child of a railway clerk and his wife. from the Hébertists Barrie now studied the Enragés, The mother encouraged her boy in thought and reading, an overlapping cluster of radicals. Mature and scholarly, historical and science fiction dominant; the family lived his thesis concentrated on five individuals. With two of in Chester, its ambience further stirring young Barrie’s these, Pauline Léon and Claire Lacombe, Barrie showed feeling for the past. At Chester’s City Grammar School an interest in women’s agency that began before latter- arose interest in social forces, the Depression and war day feminist scholarship gained momentum and ever having their part. English and geography were among persisted in his work. All five biographical studies are Barrie’s academic interests, but his achievement in history illuminating, but generalisation about the group at was strongest; one teacher was expert in fact-marshalling, large presented difficulties; coming closest to distinctive while another went beyond rote to concentrate traits were leftist opposition to the Jacobin dictatorship on problematic issues. Extra-curricula activities (with consequent defeat thereby) and anticipation of included membership of a coterie that deepened this socialist ideals. Barrie was later to remark that his subjects consciousness, in a radical way. Soviet Russia’s role in the had proved less interesting than he had expected. defeat of Nazism aroused sympathy for the further Left. Next came two years’ national service, a defining In post-war England it became the norm for sixth-form experience for British youths of that day. Barrie served achievers to continue their education, and so Barrie in the educational world – a relatively sheltered area, but entered the University of Manchester’s honours school still delivering culture shock as university graduate met of history. The great History man at Manchester was commonalty. That our man won sergeant’s rank indicates Lewis Namier, and as Barrie remembered he gave to he met the challenge. His lofty stature might have helped. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 51

Early on return to civilian life, in October 1954, Barrie back into medieval times. Coming to teach in this area married Madeline Mary Hebden, an honours graduate were two brilliant young scholars, Rodney Thomson and in English from Manchester, a union which proved close Michael Bennett. As well, Barrie encouraged a Sydney and supportive. His first employment was as assistant colleague (and Tasmanian graduate c. 1940) Maida to the Archivist in charge of local material at Liverpool Coaldrake to teach Japanese history, which she did with public libraries. He made time for research on popular/ rare enthusiasm and so increased the Department’s long- radical history thereabout. In early 1956 came a shift standing commitment to Asian studies. The Professor’s to employment in London with the Victoria County own teaching, grounded in scholarship and comporting Histories. Here through the next four years Barrie with an impressive mien, evoked appropriate response, specialised in urban studies, especially of Birmingham. especially from better students – although none ever Now too he published two major articles on British late surmounted the (formidable) language barrier to pursue eighteenth-century riots in the International Review relevant postgraduate study. of Social History, with another following in Past and In 1978 Barrie was elected to the Australian Academy of Present. Earlier interests were kept alive by attending the Humanities, an honour he much appreciated: four Alfred Cobban’s seminar on French Revolution at the other (all long-serving) staff were eventually to share this University of London. There he befriended George Rudé, accolade, comprising a remarkable cadre, near half of the older in years but just beginning his phenomenal record Department’s then number. Around this time Barrie took of publication; the pair united in opposition to Cobban’s on some broader university tasks, having a term as Dean anti-Marxist critique of the Revolution. Their research of Arts and chairing library and grounds committees. The interests were close, but Barrie was more interested latter chimed with his enjoyment of gardening, deployed in those who led crowds in radical protest, George in at the family’s fine Sandy Bay home. Other pleasures were collective behaviour. listening to music, and sailing. As of 1980 Barrie cited Barrie’s concern to pursue European studies prompted three memberships: the Academy, the Royal Historical him to seek a university post. The British market being Society, and the Royal Yacht Club, Sandy Bay; this last scanty, he duly sought and received appointment at the interest was probably his major tie with the broader University of Sydney. His arrival there in 1960 nearly Tasmanian community. Meanwhile the political man had coincided with that of Professor John McManners, so changed that in the storm of late 1975 his sympathies distinguished for French Revolutionary studies. were with Fraser as against Whitlam. He was to joke with Perhaps this was a somewhat mixed blessing in that Neville Meaney that his Marxism (never rigid) became at first Barrie had to teach earlier European history. so diluted with scepticism as to make him almost an McManners left Sydney in mid-decade, and Barrie English Whig. largely succeeded to his teaching role, including an Transcending all such matters was publication in 1978 honours course on revolutions (duly prompting a of Rose’s great life-work, Gracchus Babeuf: The First lengthy published essay on the Russian revolution). Revolutionary Communist. A prefatory note advised He assisted in a course on modern political thought that the research had begun in 1966; this was a project directed by Ernest Bramsted, whom Barrie praised as he in ‘history from below’, seeking to explore the roots did few others. In 1965 appeared The Enragés: Socialists of latter-day democracy and equality, especially in of the French Revolution?, a polished but – it seems – relation to the French and Russian Revolutions. Whereas essentially unchanged presentation of the Master’s thesis the Enragés had proved less inspiring a study than (Melbourne University Press on behalf of the Australian anticipated, Babeuf was, as noted in the introduction, ‘a Humanities Research Council). Generally the Sydney democrat and revolutionary of considerable stature and years offered much, in both professional and personal some personal nobility’. With exemplary scholarship terms. A daughter (Alison) had been born in Britain and skill the work traced every chapter of its subject’s and was now followed by Michael James. Among several remarkable life. French and Russian scholars had written friendships, the closest was that with Neville Meaney. much about Babeuf, Anglophones much less – but now Promotion to Readership complemented this story, and that gap was filled, and more. Barrie strove to rescue the qualified Barrie to seek professorial rank – then narrowly man on the one hand from Rightist condemnation as confined. Thus he joined the History Department at prefiguring totalitarian democracy and on the other (in the University of Tasmania in mid-1971. Since 1956 the odd but logical complement) from Marxist adulation as Department had had three successive professorial heads prefiguring Soviet communism. Rather, ‘Babeuf asserted and then a long interregnum. Yet student numbers had the human right to equality in the important things in greatly increased and continued to do so over the next few life, and the right to control and (when necessary) to resist years, giving opportunity for creative action. As Head of the exercise of political power’. One scholar acknowledged Department almost continuously through to 1976, Barrie’s as having pointed toward such a view was the Albert particular concern was to extend European courses 52 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

Mathiez whom Barrie had admired since undergraduate 1998 saw Tribunes and Amazons: Men and Women of days. Revolutionary France 1789–1871, an anthology of twenty of Barrie’s papers published over the decades, with an By 1978 research was already proceeding for what became additional one on Louis Blanqui. No particular rationale The Making of theSans-Culottes : Democratic Ideas and was offered for the book. Director of Macleay Press, Keith Institutions in Paris, 1789–92 (1983). The dedication was to Windschuttle – first-class honours man from Sydney’s Albert Soboul, recently deceased and a major historian History Department in the ’sixties – might well have seen of Revolution, in the spirit of Mathiez. That Soboul had his author as exemplifying true scholarship as against suggested the topic to Rose marked the latter’s standing. those radicals and postmodernists whom Windschuttle The project complemented his earlier studies. It traced had belaboured in The Killing of History (1994). the development of revolutionary spirit among the common people, first in the Paris districts and then in In 2000 Emeritus Professor Rose graduated as Doctor various societies, an activity crucial in achieving the of Letters from the University of Tasmania, a degree Constitution of 1793. But, as with Barrie’s subjects at large, recognising scholarly excellence and rarely conferred. outcomes were mixed: ‘the triumph of the sans-culottes A subsequent paper (‘A Republican Utopia? A Town was at best a partial and paradoxical vindication of Called Napoleon’) gained resonance from being presented democratic hopes, and at worst a caricature’. at the 2002 Rudé seminar, meeting in Hobart. Subsequent activity diminished, although in occasional seminar His service as Head of Department after 1979 was briefer discussions there blew sparks of yesteryear’s dissident and came with diminished student numbers, limiting spirit. Barrie experienced a long period of ill-health scope for innovation. Barrie’s own mainstream teaching before dying on 14 March 2015, survived by his wife always remained within later modern Europe and its and children. At the celebratory service a panegyrist revolutions. One novelty that received his necessary (Peter Chapman) suggested that such tribute as Rose paid endorsement was the establishment of a Centre for Babeuf fitted the man himself. Proceedings ended with Tasmanian Historical Studies, proposed by Kay Daniels, the music of La Marseillaise. feminist and radical. (Daniels soon left, while the Centre continued.) During study leave in 1985 Barrie suffered MICHAEL ROE FAHA a severe breakdown of health. A rally followed, but still The author acknowledges his debt to the National Library of Australia’s interview early retirement came five years later. Scholarly endeavour with Barrie Rose: Rose, R. B. & Meaney, N. K. (1987). Barrie Rose interviewed remained before and after thiscaesura , notable subjects of by Neville Meaney for the Neville Meaney collection, http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat- published papers being the radical Bishop Claude Fouchet vn2278779. and the radical aristocrat René-Louis de Girardin. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 53

PIERRE RYCKMANS 1935–2014

general readers. On the other hand, Chinese scholars and general readers were impressed by his scholarship and by the fact that this foreigner scholar was actually writing in erudite Chinese about his findings in publications. (It must be appreciated that very few ‘foreign scholars’ ever attain a level of written Chinese language competence to discuss and publish their findings, especially in the humanities.) His novelLa mort de Napoléon (1986) won wide acclaim in Francophone circles throughout the world. When it finally appeared in English as The Death of Napoleon (1992) it won the NSW Premier’s Christina Stead Prize for Fiction and became a bestseller. Readers who admired his writing were intrigued to learn that Simon Leys was celebrated internationally yet had been living in virtual obscurity in Australia. They eagerly sought out his earlier books, and watched for new ones. A powerful writer in both French and English, Ryckmans’ preference for writing in French meant that there was always a time lag before the publication of an English edition, and also that not all of his books appeared in English. His celebrity status in Australia was consolidated by his presentation of the photo: courtesy of the ryckmans family 1996 Boyer Lectures, broadcast nationwide on ABC Radio National, and afterwards published as ‘The View from ierre Ryckmans was an extraordinary voice in the Bridge’ at the ANU on its electronic China in the Australian writing. His death in Sydney on 11 August P World Newsletter. 2014 in the company of his wife Han Fang and their four children was the departure of the man, but his exquisite Pierre Ryckmans majored in law and art history at writings, mostly published under his pseudonym Simon Université Catholique de Louvain: law was a family Leys, will continue to be read for generations to come. tradition, and painting was what he loved. A one-month A Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, visit to China as part of a Belgian Youth delegation he held academic appointments as Reader at the in 1955 inspired him to learn the Chinese language. Australian National University (ANU) (1970–87) and as He wished to have direct access to its literature in order Chair of Chinese at the University of Sydney (1987–93). to know Chinese culture with the same intimacy that he Born in Brussels, he retained Belgian citizenship by knew European culture. Before long, he was in Taiwan taking dual nationality as an Australian citizen late in living amongst Chinese people, immersed in learning life. As a member of the Académie royale de langue et the language, and studying the literature and art that de littérature françaises de Belgique, he was recipient had established the aesthetic foundations of Chinese of numerous European literary and academic awards, culture over the centuries. In pursuing this new field of including the Stanislas Julien Award from the Institut knowledge he used the forensic analysis developed during de France for his book on the Chinese artist Su Renshan his years of studying European literature and art. His first in 1970 at the beginning of his writing career, and more books were translations from Chinese with introductions: recently the Premio Mundial Cino Del Duca (2005). Shen Fu’s Six récits au fil inconstant des jours (1966), la Vie et l’œuvre de Su Renshan: rebelle, peintre, et fou, 1814–1849 Immediately after settling in Australia Ryckmans became (1970), and his doctoral thesis, Les “Propos sur la peinture” a celebrity writer in Francophone literary and art circles. de Shitao, presented at l’Institut belge des hautes étudies His work was internationally known to academics in the chinoises (1970). Retitled for commercial publication as field of Chinese literature and contemporary Chinese politics and society, but little known to Anglophone 54 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

Les Propos sur la peinture du Moine Citrouille-amer (1984), Revolution, 1978). The first of many books published this still remains in print. under the pseudonym of Simon Leys, this turned him into an international celebrity for its truthful exposure Those who knew Pierre Ryckmans would generally of the extreme sufferings perpetrated on the Chinese describe him as reclusive. His family was of primary population under Mao’s dictatorship. The factual evidence importance and he loved sailing, but also enjoyed he provided ensured Ryckmans remained superior to the solitude of reading, writing, practising Chinese his detractors. He had harsh critics overseas, as well calligraphy, translating and watching cutting-edge art as in Australia, because the flood of China’s Cultural films. I was his colleague at the University of Sydney, Revolution propaganda had successfully hoodwinked where he was virtually invisible. He would present his even many so-called China experts. lectures on Chinese literature and philosophy, and then promptly disappear. His students all referred to him as In 1972 he spent six months in China working in the an inspiring teacher. But he had an intense dislike for the newly established Belgian Embassy, during which increasing administrative chores and endless meetings: he made seven trips to various places in the Chinese colleagues believed he consigned university notices to hinterland. His observations were recorded in Ombres the dustbin without ever glancing at them. He did not Chinoises (1974; Chinese Shadows, 1977). In the Foreword, socialise on campus, and I may have been the only person it is with patently false and ironic humility that he names to have had prolonged conversations with him during high profile apologists for the Mao regime such as Han his six years there. I had known him since the late 1970s, Suyin, Edgar Snow and John King Fairbank: when we established an instant friendship because of our My little book, far from having the impudent shared research interest in the writer Lu Xun (1881–1936). ambition to rival them, even less to dispute Lu Xun was a supreme literary stylist whose brand of them, aims at being their modest complement, irony, satire and wit can often be detected in the writings adding only some shadows without which even of Simon Leys. the most luminous portraits lack depth, offering Ryckmans was never one for grandstanding or self- a few notes – in counterpoint, as it were – about promotion, and his writings always resonated with truth some details that have been omitted for one and humility. He was notoriously adamant in his refusal reason or another by those prestigious witnesses. to be interviewed by journalists, so it is not surprising that As the Chinese maxim says, “In a thousand little information about his early life exists in English. observations, the wise may make one that is I suspect that he wanted people to know him from his foolish and the fool one that is wise.” Let us writings: he the author was of little significance, except to simply say that I am offering here the modest those he loved and who loved him. However, two research contribution of the fool to the pertinent remarks articles provide a rich source of material on the man and of the wise. his works: Laurent Six, ‘Aux origines d’Ombres chinoises: His subsequent essays on Chinese literature, art and une mission de six mois au service de l’ambassade de politics were collected in Images brisées (1976; Broken Belgique en République populaire de Chine’ and Nicolas Images, 1979) and La forêt en feu: essais sur la culture et Idier, ‘Présence chinoise et reflexion sur l’art dans l’oeuvre la politique chinoises (1983; The Burning Forest: Essays on de Simon Leys,’ both published in Textyles: Revue des the Culture and Politics of Contemporary China, 1988). lettres belges de langue française, 34 (2008), pp. 65–77 His foray into Chinese politics had been a temporary and 78–93 respectively. The first was reprinted online diversion from his scholarly life as a man of letters. on 13 August 2014, two days after Ryckmans’ death, and Thereafter, he committed himself to his own literary and translated into English by ‘Not Bored!’ on 23 August 2014, art creations and translations, as well as to appreciating with the title ‘China: How Pierre Ryckmans Became the works of creative writers and artists of the present Simon Leys’. and the past, and across cultures. The last works by Prior to his relocation to Australia in 1970, Ryckmans Simon Leys aptly sum up the life of Pierre Ryckmans, had lived for twelve years in Taiwan, Singapore and and include The Analects of Confucius (1997; translation Hong Kong. While teaching at the New Asia College of with notes), The Wreck of the Batavia and Prosper (2005), the Chinese University of Hong Kong, he also worked The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays (2012), and at searching through Peoples’ Republic of China Simone Weil’s On the Abolition of All Political Parties publications for the Belgian diplomatic corps in Hong (2013; translation). Kong. The notes he made during 1967–70 form the MABEL LEE FAHA backbone of his Les habits neufs du président Mao (1971; The Chairman’s New Clothes: Mao and the Cultural THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 55

PETER JOSHUA SCULTHORPE ao obe 1929–2014

a significant degree by his strong personal identification with his native country, did not give him time to establish a consistent and representative adult presence here; and his adoption of American citizenship at the time of the First World War acted for many people as a limitation on the degree to which they felt able to claim national ownership of him. Sculthorpe’s generally favourable scrutiny from Australian musical publics and music professionals occurred as a result of a rare combination of individual and professional qualities. His personal charm, exercised without any taint of self-conscious cleverness and calculation, allowed him to communicate with patrons, politicians, musical administrators and performers in a way that eliminated distrust or mystification from their encounters and made him an ideal partner in their shared enterprises. His habit of giving an impression of friendly, non-threatening uncertainty in his public talks or his appearances on concert platforms to acknowledge applause removed any suggestion that he was revelling in public notice. The first major pieces of ensemble music photo: aah archives with which he secured sympathetic attention from diverse Australian audiences were his Irkanda IV and his String eter Sculthorpe, who died in Sydney in 2014 at the age Quartet No. 6, commissioned by Musica Viva Australia. Pof eighty-five, did more than compose a substantial The predominant tone of these pieces was passionately body of works in many of the major categories of concert elegiac but essential contrasts in them were secured by music, with additionally representative scores in theatrical faster music of a stiffly accented kind or by other easily genres. His much rarer achievement was to be widely grasped devices. It is true that his earliest pieces for full recognised as a composer by the Australian musical orchestra (or at least those first heard by regular concert public and by Australians in general. It is not too much to audiences) might have been thought likely to encourage claim that he was the Australian composer most readily negative reactions from conservative listeners. The first and warmly identified for his contribution to orchestral piece in his Sun Music series, for example, established its and chamber music in recent times. Additionally, a sonorities for strings through columns of adjacent pitches strong case can be made for the proposition that no other at approximate quarter-tone intervals and constructed Australian composer working in his preferred genres has a passage for brass from an example originally prepared ever enjoyed such general and unhesitating acceptance by Sculthorpe for educational purposes of the multiple in this country. The main challenge to this statement is serialisation of musical elements, an idea much discussed likely to be based on the high international reputation and promoted in the post-Second World War period. and the persistent, if limited, fame maintained by the These effects were enthusiastically encouraged by achievement and personality of the Melbourne-born the conductor Sir Bernard Heinze in the period of Percy Grainger since that composer’s death more than preparation in 1965 for a Commonwealth arts festival in half a century ago. Grainger’s originality of outlook, London and an extended European tour for the Sydney coupled with his impeccable craftsmanship, have secured Symphony Orchestra; and it may have served Sculthorpe deeper allegiances for him in the two English-speaking well if he seemed at the time to bring with him a touch of countries, Britain and the US, where he did most of his avant-garde venturesomeness. work. His tours of Australia, while certainly prompted to 56 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

In the long run, however, one of the reasons for additions and made self-borrowing or adaptation Sculthorpe’s special place in contemporary Australian in other works or variations in scoring stylistically music has been his ability to establish a recognisable trouble-free and persuasive. A short opera, Quiros, creative identity even when he has made use of unfamiliar originally produced for television, demonstrated an styles and traditions. By the time he reached Sun ease of manner in musical theatre which the composer Music III in 1967 he was able to mimic Balinese gamelan never chose to explore again. He preferred to deal with music while inserting within its strophes a fastidiously fundamental entities and symbols of human experience measured piece of lyricism which was, particularly in in his major theatrical score, Rites of Passage, and to its presentation, both at ease with its quasi-Balinese express the plaints of individual loss in works of smaller surroundings and utterly typical of the composer. scale. His commemoration of the reality of death Later ventures into other styles of music retained this expressed itself in numerous works involving varied consistency of personality. Sculthorpe rarely ventured musical forces, from solo cello to major assemblies of beyond accompanimental patterns combined with serene musicians. This preoccupation reached its summation or anguished melodic entries or beyond interludes of in his choral-orchestral Requiem, composed when he spectral dance patterns. He refrained for the most part was seventy-five and representing a major distillation of from complicated textures and rarely, if ever, sought to his gifts. At the same time he was always ready to write overwhelm his listeners with intricacies of structure or comparatively light-hearted occasional pieces and to meet part-writing. At the time he was introducing his musical the responsibilities of the eminent position he attained personality to a wider circle of listeners his music was in Australian music and life by making arrangements often compared with the more radical works of his of the national anthem and writing songs and other contemporary Richard Meale. Indeed there were attempts pieces for national occasions. He wrote a piano concerto by misguided enthusiasts to construct hostilities of but published no score labelled symphony. His most contrast between the two composers. Meale’s adventurous frequently used title and format from concert traditions discoveries eventually retreated, in a later stage of his was that of string quartet, which he applied to eighteen composing life, into a surprising impersonation of late scores containing much of his most personal and subtly nineteenth-century traditions while Sculthorpe, without varied invention. Sculthorpe’s lasting association with abandoning his consistency of musical personality, the University of Sydney, where he occupied a personal actually became bolder and more animated in the major chair in composition and was later an Emeritus Professor, scores of his middle years. brought him into fruitful association with many young musicians of a creative bent. His method of teaching Sculthorpe’s instinctive understanding of how to make involved a minimum of prescription and a maximum of his music relevant to people living in Australia (and also participation, from lesser to greater tasks, in a kind of co- to people visiting this country) caused him to endow operative process of composition. many of his orchestral works and some of his chamber works with the names of places or types of terrain. So One of Sculthorpe’s most striking and surprising Kakadu and Mangrove, two of his best instrumental achievements was the incorporation of elements of works, are orchestral impressions of a particular place Australian Aboriginal music into many of his later works. or a particular terrain to which many Australians can It had been assumed by many musicians that any such relate from actual or imagined experience; Port Essington attempt at an interaction of musical cultures would be and At Quamby Bluff(a movement from his String an inappropriate, even grotesque travesty of the richness Quartet No. 12, its spirit also informing a score for string of reference of music in Aboriginal ceremony and of orchestra) re-inhabit, in chamber music terms, places its rhythmic subtlety. Attempts by Western-trained with colonial histories embodying doomed futility and composers, such as Clive Douglas and Mirrie Hill, to racial brutality. The tug of the southern Pacific Ocean come to some sort of terms with Aboriginal ceremony and the cloud-fringed seascapes of tropical latitudes are seemed to confirm this. Even John Antill’s far more part of this composer’s imagined geography of his native accomplished ballet score, Corroboree, was an intelligent country and its surroundings. and sensitive observer’s impression of Aboriginal ceremony as a theatrical event rather than any kind of Sculthorpe’s progress through private music education participation in its essential spirit. Consideration of in his native Tasmania, training at the Melbourne well-meant approaches to Aboriginal musical culture University Conservatorium and studies at Oxford (which was also a major part of Aboriginal culture in (interrupted and ended by the death of his father) left general) inevitably recalled the ideals of the self-titled only the most basic influence on his musical style, Jindyworobak movement, centred in South Australia, once brief experiments in postwar modernism were which sought to find a key to the thousands of years of experienced and abandoned. His musical vocabulary Aboriginal experience of Australian land, water, sky, was relatively small but its consistency proved resistant to birds and animal life through the use of Aboriginal any but marginal adjustments or simple, self-explanatory words. The obvious weakness in Jindyworobak reasoning THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 57

was that any words chosen on the basis of their time- this and also produced new scores in which the activity tested use and significance had no currency among of Barton is a pre-planned element. The practical logic the peoples more recently declaring themselves as of this development is a response to the recent history of Australian inhabitants. Traditional music, on the other the didjeridu. It has become a popular instrument, played hand, if absorbed in a reasonably plausible way into a with many degrees of skill by Aboriginal musicians Western type of concert music, can become a revived who understand its history and by other players who form of itself and can be recognised as such. Sculthorpe’s have no real knowledge of its function and significance. typically diplomatic and respectfully developing use Although the didjeridu is known to have been restricted of Aboriginal themes, whether these themes had been in its use to tribal peoples inhabiting substantial areas remembered within the limited capacities of musical of northern Australia its modern transformation into amateurs in colonial times or transcribed carefully an instrument that can be used to represent Aboriginal and sensitively from recordings made by ethnologists culture in general and to escape, through its range of uses, and ethnomusicologists, became a part of his musical from the glass display case of tradition, is an important thinking. Favourite themes reappeared in more than modern instance of instrumental change and survival. one work and could serve expressive purposes ranging Sculthorpe’s involvement in this process represents one from wounded grief to jubilation. The clinching element of his foremost achievements as a harmoniser, not only of in the composer’s homage to Aboriginal music was his sounds but also of the society of which he has been such a recognition of the part that could be played in such pieces prominent and well-liked member. by the incorporation of sympathetic improvisation on ROGER COVELL am FAHA a didjeridu by a master player such as William Barton. Sculthorpe revised some of his scores to take account of 58 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

FRANCIS BARRYMORE (BARRY) SMITH 1932–2015

disabilities, was active in the Australian Labor Party (ALP), and wrote letters on behalf of political prisoners. Barry’s primary schooling was patchy, spread between six or seven primary schools, Catholic and government, in both city and country. The tiny one-teacher school at Wattle Creek tended by Edmund Foxcroft, ‘a gentle man’ and author of an early study of Aboriginal policy, was the only one he recalled ‘with delight’. His memory of Catholic schools was bleaker. After his first day at Oakleigh’s Sacred Heart Convent, his mother asked what he had learned: ‘I said they stripped the nuns naked and put them in shop windows in Barcelona’. The ‘war- ravaged world of my childhood’, with its mindless violence and sectarian enmities, was the dark backdrop of his lifelong aspiration towards a safer, saner world. At Dandenong High School, where he completed his secondary education, he found a kindred spirit in his history teacher, the ‘wonderful’ Wilfred Ford. Ford’s teaching – sceptical, empirical, morally engaged – was simply ‘life-changing’. Barry later nominated Richard Tawney’s Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926), a gift from Ford, as one of the books that had most influenced him. Its ‘sweep, Miltonic prose and passion entranced me’, photo: courtesy graeme davison he recalled. His school friends included John and Peter Heath, sons of local dentist John Heath. Reared among rofessor Francis Barrymore (Barry) Smith died the Plymouth Brethren, Heath senior had enlisted as in Canberra on 3 March 2015 after a long illness. P a medical orderly in the Great War, became a freethinker, He was a distinguished historian of modern Britain and trained as a dentist (he owned the first x-ray machine Australia, making original contributions to the history in Australia), dabbled in Aboriginal anthropology, and, of politics and culture, and especially to the social under the influence of his friend Max Meldrum, became history of health and medicine, a field he pioneered. a moderately well-known artist. His home, a converted As a supervisor of over forty doctoral students, a founder Presbyterian Church, was an oasis in the cultural desert of the journal Australian Cultural History, and Honorary of Oakleigh. Many of Barry Smith’s lifelong interests – Secretary of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, in freethought, unorthodox science, literature and art – he was a formative influence on humanities scholarship were kindled there. Heath himself exemplified a type who in Australia. would often appear in his writings: the talented, versatile, Barry Smith was born in Hughesdale, an outer high-minded, unorthodox outsider. Melbourne suburb, on 16 May 1932. His father Frank, Barry matriculated in 1949 and, after working for a while, of Irish Catholic stock, tried his luck, on and off, as enrolled for a Pass degree at the University of Melbourne a small farmer before settling in Oakleigh where he on a secondary teaching scholarship. Only later, after ran Jackson’s Service Station on the Princes Highway. winning the Henry Gyles Turner Prize for Australian A family photograph depicts Frank, holding baby Barry, History, and inspired by the teaching of Kathleen standing beside a row of petrol bowsers. His mother Fitzpatrick faha and Margaret Kiddle, did he convert to Bertha, a state schoolteacher and avid reader, encouraged honours. He became active in the Labour Club, ran foul her son’s educational aspirations. Impelled by a strong of its Communist leaders and ‘defected’ to the ALP Club social conscience, she helped children with intellectual where, he recalled, ‘I received a rich alternate education’. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 59

He graduated with first-class honours in 1956, with in a war they did not make?’ The happiest and most a thesis on the Sunday Closing question, and embarked enduring legacy of his return to Melbourne, however, was on a Dip. Ed. but abandoned it part way through to his marriage to his former student Ann, with whom he begin a Master’s thesis on ‘Religion and Freethought was to have four children, and share more than fifty years in Melbourne’, while tutoring part-time. Barry’s thesis, of love and mutual support. later published as a book, was deeply researched, original In 1966 Barry joined his old Melbourne colleague John and penetrating, and would easily win the writer a PhD La Nauze in the Research School of Social Sciences at today. If secularist sympathies drew him to the subject, the Australian National University (ANU). Like his it hardly shows. He recounts the foibles and failures predecessor Keith Hancock KBE FBA faha, La Nauze of the movement’s leaders as unsparingly as those of believed that Australian history should be studied as its opponents. Militant unbelief, he concludes, was as part of the British world. With the arrival of Oliver unsuccessful as evangelical Christianity in perturbing Macdonagh faha, Ken Inglis ao faha, and later Allan the profound indifference of colonial Australians. Martin faha, Barry’s collegial circle widened. Although In 1959 Barry travelled to Trinity College Cambridge he gave occasional lectures in other departments on a British Council scholarship. His PhD supervisor, around Australia, and made regular expeditions to George Kitson Clark, a bachelor don who lived in College Britain and America, the Coombs Building was Barry’s and prayed in chapel, came from a world far from Barry’s intellectual home for the rest of his career. He thrived but the two men – each curious, outspoken, imaginative – in its interdisciplinary atmosphere and remained a clicked. Barry became devoted to ‘Kitson’, later bringing convivial presence in the Coombs tearoom long after him on a lecture visit to Australia. The Making of the formal retirement, when many of his younger colleagues Second Reform Bill (1966), the book of his Cambridge had become electronic hermits. In the short-lived age of thesis, tackles one of the famous puzzles of English full academic employment, the ANU turned out many political history: How did Disraeli’s Conservatives come of those who would occupy senior posts in Australian to support the most radical measure of parliamentary history departments. Graduate supervision, like reform in the nineteenth century? As Barry wrote: parenting, is largely learned by emulation, and what Barry ‘They did not want it, they did not like it, they feared learned from Kitson Clark (‘Write early and write often’ what it might do, but they passed it.’ Solving the puzzle was one injunction) he imparted to successive generations elicited some of his most characteristic qualities: a love of doctoral students at the ANU. of paradox, a respect for the contingent and unforeseen, Over four and a half decades, Barry Smith published nine a resistance to neat theories of Left and Right. ‘Historians books – eight sole-authored, and one co-authored – seven should disturb their readers’ presuppositions, not edited collections and over fifty pamphlets, chapters and reinforce them’, he believed – and practised. refereed articles. I recall him vowing sometime in the late In 1962 Barry returned to a lectureship in modern 1960s to write three books: one on politics, one on art, British history at the University of Melbourne where he and one on science. He had recently begun to work on became an inspiring undergraduate teacher, bringing to the papers of the Chartist and engraver William Linton, his lectures the excitement of recent revisionist work in acquired by the National Library of Australia as part British history as well as his own blend of moral passion, of the collection of the London radical bookseller Leon rationalist conviction and sardonic humour. Alternately Kashnor. His biography of Linton, Radical Artisan (1973), cheerful and grumpy, his bark was always worse than is the book that best captures his vision of nineteenth- his bite. In 1963 I sought his support for an embryonic century society, opening a window into a ‘rich, shadowy postgraduate history society. The life of the history Dickensian understory of artisan toil, high aspiration, researcher, he sternly observed, was a solitary one, and self-education, impecuniosity, eccentricity, and sub- if you didn’t enjoy your own company it was not for you. parliamentary political activity which has passed, for Yet then and later he was one of the great encouragers. want of recording, mostly into oblivion’. In a department in need of rejuvenation he injected new The scientific dimension of Barry’s plan was revealed vigour, co-editing the journal Historical Studies, lecturing in 1979 with the publication of his best-known book, in schools, supporting the Society for the Study of Labour The People’s Health 1830–1910 (1979). ‘Patients loom small History, and supervising honours and postgraduate in medical history’, it began. ‘They are the off-stage army students. He published a new edition of Vere Gordon in the drama of medical advance’. By inverting that Childe’s brilliantly acerbic account of How Labour paradigm, and writing about health and illness from the Governs (1964). His pamphlet The Conscription Plebiscites patient’s viewpoint, Barry challenged the Whig view of in Australia 1916–17 (1965), written for secondary history medical history as a procession of heroic discoveries. students, asked the kind of moral questions Wilfred Ford Reviewing the phases of the human life-course from had posed to him. ‘By what dispensation does government birth to death, he turned a clear compassionate eye on compel men to serve a cause in which they do not believe, 60 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

the sufferings of patients and a sceptical one on those colonial Australia. Yet his intellectual interests and who tended them. ‘Doctors’, he dismally concluded, commitments ranged much wider. Within the Research ‘were sorcerers who supplied an interpretation to School, he contributed to the History of Ideas Unit, otherwise meaningless afflictions’. When mortality fell co-editing a volume on the intellectual responses to it was often for reasons that doctors did not understand. the 1848 revolution, wrote entries for the Australian The ‘retreat of tuberculosis’ – the subject of his later book Dictionary of Biography, and contributed a memorable of that name – was one such puzzle. His portrait of the chapter, ‘Sunday Matters’, to Volume. 4, ‘Australians 1938’ medical profession – ‘rapacious’ and ‘callous’ are among of the Bicentennial History of Australia, Australians, his epithets – elicited howls of protest. Yet for all their A Historical Library (1987). misguided actions, he concludes, the doctors ‘did, in the He was a regular contributor to conferences of the long run, save millions of lives’. Modern British History Association, which established The People’s Health became a foundational text, reprinted an annual lecture in his honour. Elected to the several times and widely cited even by historians who Australian Academy of Humanities in 1971, he became resisted its critical thrust. His next book, Florence its Secretary in 1974, convened committees on libraries Nightingale: Reputation and Power (1982), generated even and journal subsidies, and in 1977 joined a Committee more controversy. ‘The Lady with the Lamp’, the founder on the History of Culture in Australia. Over the next of modern nursing, was a secular saint. Anyone with the decade, in partnership with Sam Goldberg, he organised temerity to attack her reputation incurred the hostility of a series of annual conferences on this topic. In selecting nurses, medical historians, feminists and British patriots. themes, recruiting speakers and publishing their papers Smith did not question the importance of Nightingale’s in a new journal, Australian Cultural History, they were reforms – they were ‘a beneficial revolution’ – but by astutely mapping a new field of inquiry. In 1988 they revealing the vanity, manipulation and deceit by which published a collection of the best papers as the Academy’s she achieved them he dispelled another cherished fallacy: contribution to the Australian Bicentenary (Australian ‘that doers of good deeds must necessarily be good in Cultural History, 1988). ‘These essays constitute a modest themselves.’ Even reviewers who conceded his case introduction to Australian states of mind’, they began. baulked at his blunt conclusion: ‘Miss Nightingale served Modesty, along with honesty and loyalty, was among the cause of nursing less than it served her.’ Once again, Barry’s conspicuous virtues. Only reluctantly did he agree however, Barry was simply being himself: following the to the presentation of a festschrift by his former students evidence, disturbing his readers’ presuppositions. and colleagues. Mind and Body: Essays in Honour of An even more daunting test of courage and integrity came F. B. Smith, edited by Pat Jalland, Wilfred Prest faha with the invitation to contribute a long chapter to the and myself, appeared in 2009. Spanning English and official history of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam Australian, medical, cultural and political history, War, on the health effects of the chemical Agent Orange. and with contributions from British and Australian Barry’s own convictions about the destructive effects of colleagues, the collection reflects the wide and pervasive war were life-long and deep, and his sympathies for its influence of Barry Smith on Australian intellectual and victims heartfelt. But after reviewing the thousands of academic life. ‘An assured cultural inheritance has yet pages of evidence, he came, once again, to an unwelcome to come’, wrote Smith and Goldberg in concluding their but inescapable conclusion: Agent Orange was not the bicentenary volume. Perhaps; but by precept and example cause of the veterans’ suffering. In following the example Barry Smith had done much to hasten its arrival. of their American comrades, by seeking compensation GRAEME DAVISON AO FAHA FASSA through the courts, they had been tragically misled. The story, he concluded, was ‘a tangle of decency and I have drawn on biographical essays by Wilfred Prest and Ken Inglis in the folly, courage and chicanery, but above all, waste’. festschrift for Barry Smith, Mind and Body, and on an unpublished obituary by Pat Jalland. The social history of medicine had become Barry’s métier, generating a steady flow of penetrating essays on typhoid, alcoholism, diphtheria, venereal disease, Russian influenza and – in his last book – illness in THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 61

EDWARD GOUGH WHITLAM ac qc 1916–2014

was promoted two years later to a post in Sydney, then assistant crown solicitor in Canberra in 1927. As crown solicitor from 1937 he was closely involved in the drafting of wartime legislation and post-war reconstruction. Fred and Martha were devout Baptists and teetotallers, lovers of the arts (though Martha was deaf) and imbued with an ethos of civic service. Their son Gough abandoned formal worship, imbibed moderately, delighted in most cultural forms and devoted his talents to the public betterment. Like Thomas Macaulay, the child spoke from the outset in perfectly formed sentences. His schooling began in Sydney and was completed in Canberra, where he excelled in languages, history and literature. He completed an honours degree in Arts at the University of Sydney in English, Latin and Greek, with the intention of becoming a classicist; extra-curricular interests affected his results, so in 1938 he began an LL.B. Through his membership of the university dramatic society he met Margaret Dovey and it was through her father William Dovey KC that he became a judge’s associate in 1941. Shortly after marrying Margaret in 1942, Gough began training in the RAAF and photo: aah archives served subsequently as a navigator in northern Australia and the Pacific. He completed his law degree after the war hen Gough Whitlam was elected an Honorary as a beneficiary of the Commonwealth Reconstruction WFellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities Training Scheme, acquired a block of land in Cronulla in 1993, he had served terms as Australian Ambassador to with a war service home loan and supplemented his UNESCO and as a member of its executive board; he had income by winning a national quiz competition for two chaired the Council of the National Gallery of Australia successive years. and the China-Australia Council; he had served on the From boyhood Whitlam had extensive literary interests Senate of the University of Sydney and held visiting posts and a capacious memory. Like Barry Jones, who was at several Australian universities as well as Harvard (after elected an Honorary Fellow of the Academy in the same initiating the chair of Australian studies there). During year (1993), his celebrity as a quiz champion assisted his a visiting fellowship at the Australian National University entry into politics. He joined the Labor Party in 1945 after (ANU) in 1978 he confessed himself ‘unutterably bored’ campaigning vigorously in favour of the referendum and with H. C. (Nugget) Coombs, his friend and fellow- to extend the Labor government’s reconstruction resident at University House, implored academics to powers, for which his father prepared the legislation. raise their voices. But no other politician did more for After unsuccessful attempts to enter local government universities, education and the arts. and the state parliament, he obtained pre-selection for Gough Whitlam was born in Melbourne in 1916, the the federal seat of Werriwa and won a by-election in 1952. son of a Commonwealth public servant in the crown Many in the Caucus regarded him as an interloper. solicitor’s office. From his father Fred he acquired a love His background, manner, cutting remarks and of books and learning, and from his mother Martha he remorseless didacticism – and perhaps most of all, inherited height, strong opinions and a sharp tongue. his impatience with shibboleths of the Labor Party – Fred had trained as an accountant and acquired legal aroused resentment. He avoided the members’ bar and qualifications by evening study; he quickly came to the billiard room, had little interest in reviving the party’s attention of Robert Garran, the Solicitor-General, and 62 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

socialist objective, though he did believe in the politics After winning the 1972 election, Whitlam was thus of equality. The lesson he drew from the leadership of able to give immediate effect to many of his campaign Curtin and Chifley in the 1940s was that a purposeful commitments during his first ministry, one consisting Labor government could use the powers of the of just two members, himself and his deputy, that Commonwealth to expand public provision and eliminate lasted fourteen days until the Caucus elected the other inequality. Without equality, he held, there could be no ministers. This, as he styled it, was the duumvirate and proper freedom. the only federal ministry to be composed entirely of war veterans. In contrast, Caucus insisted that all 27 ministers In his early years in parliament Whitlam supported who were sworn into office at the end of the year should Bert Evatt, especially as Evatt resisted the threat to civil be members of the Cabinet. The effect was to impair it as liberties in the Cold War, but the young backbencher a policy body, and while Whitlam was unrelenting in his came to think that the senior members of the Party were determination to give effect to the Program, the accident- mired in the past. With the sustained economic growth prone government was soon beset by crisis and conflict. of the 1950s, the task was not to ration scarcity but to Especially in the case of his choice and dealings with the plan for abundance; hence his dictum that welfare in Governor-General, Whitlam’s overweening confidence conditions of affluence was determined less and less on proved fatal. things which individuals obtain for themselves, and more and more on the things which the community provides In a eulogy at Whitlam’s funeral Noel Pearson hailed the all its members. A corollary was the need to reach transformation that the Whitlam government effected in out beyond wage-earners to professionals, and extend its three short years: ‘The country would change forever’. from traditional working-class politics to embrace the Reminding the congregation of how Jewish insurgents increasing cultural diversity. ranted against Roman tyranny in The Life of Brian, Pearson asked what did Whitlam do for us? Whitlam practised politics with a new professionalism. An accomplished parliamentary debater, he was Apart from Medibank and the Trade Practices Act, assiduous in drawing on expert advice to develop policies cutting tariff protections and no-fault divorce in the and in expounding them to the public with reasoned Family Law Act, the Australia Council, the Federal argument. As successive electoral defeats threatened to Court, the Order of Australia, federal legal aid and consign Labor to the wilderness, his intelligence and the Racial Discrimination Act, needs-based school persistence persuaded Caucus colleagues they needed funding, the recognition of China, the abolition of him. He prevailed over the old guard to win the deputy conscription, student financial assistance, the Heritage leadership in 1960, but found Arthur Calwell and the Commission, non-discriminatory immigration ‘faceless men’ of the federal conference more persistent rules, community health clinics, Aboriginal land obstacles to his ambitions. His response was to embark on rights, paid maternity leave for public servants, a confrontational campaign for party reform, prefiguring lowering the minimum voting to 18 years and fair the tactic of ‘crash through or crash’ that would mark his electoral boundaries and Senate representation for the years as prime minister. Similarly, the delay in wresting territories. the leadership of the party from Calwell lent impatience Apart from all this, what did this Roman ever do to his subsequent actions. The post-war long boom, on for us? which his programme of reform was based, was drawing to a close by 1972; from the outset his period in office was The answer is that he did much more, for women, marked by the urgency of awareness that the government immigrants, the disadvantaged and the homeless, for was on borrowed time. human rights, the independence of Papua New Guinea – and education. He believed that everyone in a modern, There has probably never been a government that came to progressive society should be able to develop their talent office in Australia with such fully formulated intentions and their interests to the full. If the light on the hill so extensively declared. Whitlam had developed the was a hallmark of Chifley’s prime ministership, a light policies that would guide his ministry over more than on every student’s desk was a guiding principle of his a decade. He attached particular importance to research, successor. Apart from the creation of the Australian constantly gathering information and using it to devise Schools Commission, which trebled Commonwealth and refine his detailed proposals. This was the Program, funding to schools, his government assumed full the capital letter signifying its scriptural status, and he responsibility for higher education, abolished university expounded it at every available opportunity. He was fees, raised up the teachers’ colleges and increased outlays the first Labor leader to assign portfolios to his caucus fourfold. By 1975 public expenditure on education reached executive, and the shadow ministers were expected to 5.6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, a level higher master their component of the Program. than today. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 63

The mounting problems of the Whitlam government, My second memory is an evening a decade later after the Dismissal and then the dismantling of a good an enterprising history postgraduate at the University part of what he had brought into being cast him into of Melbourne invited the former prime minister to give despondency. In the new parliament Whitlam was a keynote address to a conference he and his friends had a shadow of the politician he had been, swinging between organised. Gough agreed, subject to the condition that petulance, anger and depression, more reliant than ever I should chair his address, and he arrived brandishing on the companionship and robust advice of Margaret, a script that would have occupied a full day. I reminded who was increasingly active in her own public roles. him of the short attention span of the young, but his It was characteristic that when offered the ambassador’s lecture on constitutional history, this time on the post to UNESCO in 1983, he said he would first have external affairs power, stretched past an hour with no end to consult Josephine. He recovered his spirits to live a in sight until he caught my eye with a look of triumph and rich and diverse life after politics, publishing a study abruptly declared himself finished. We then adjourned of The Italian Inspiration in English Literature (1980) as to a dinner at which he and Margaret drew out each of well as several works designed to vindicate his time in the postgraduate students on their research project and his office. When John Faulkner interviewed him in 2002 plans. Gough had something to say about every subject, and insisted he consider his failings since a documentary while Margaret’s warm interest was qualified only by could not be a hagiography, he responded ‘Why not, her determination to get him into a car by midnight. comrade?’ The magnetic effect on these young scholars testified to the loss to the academy when Gough Whitlam decided Many Fellows will have their memories of Gough on a career in politics. We are all the beneficiaries of Whitlam in his autumnal years. I recall two occasions. his choice. The first was when he spoke at a memorial gathering for the writer Frank Hardy at the Collingwood town hall in STUART MACINTYRE AO FAHA fassa 1994. His relationship with Frank Hardy formed around the fight for the Gurindji people following the Wave Hill walk-off and he began by reminding the audience of the provisions of the Commonwealth constitution that govern its role in Indigenous affairs. It was an exhaustive treatment of the subject and threatened to overtax his audience until he happened to glance down at the coffin, covered in a red flag with hammer and sickle, and broke down in tears. 64 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15

TREASURER’S STATEMENT

The Abridged Annual Financial Statements for 2015 ACADEMY INVESTMENTS appear on the following pages. The Statement of The Academy’s investments were carefully monitored Comprehensive Income and Expenditure shows an during the period with investment income remaining overall surplus of $56,305 for the year which includes an steady during another turbulent period on the Australian unrealised gain of $15,708 on the Academy’s investments stock market as a result of earlier efforts to diversify and an operating surplus of $40,596. the Academy’s portfolio. In December 2014, Council determined that the Academy’s managed fund be INCOME transferred to the JBWere Australian Socially Responsible Income under Government Grants reflects the annual Equity Income Portfolio. Grant-in-Aid payment under the Higher Education The Council continues to take a conservative approach to Support Act (2003), a grant from the Department of its investment strategy and aims to achieve both a steady Industry to undertake the study Measuring the Value of income stream and preserve the value of the investments International Research Collaboration, and support from in a volatile market. The income received continues to the Office of the Chief Scientist for the final stages of support a number of Academy projects and activities, the Mapping the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in such as the Oral History Project with the National Library Australia project. of Australia and the named prizes and awards. Income was also received from the Australian Research Council for the Linkage Learned Academies Special EXPENDITURE Project (2014), The Humanities in the Asia Region: capacity The increase in expenditure in the year reflects the for research collaboration, and the Australian Council increase in activities undertaken by the Academy. for Learned Academies under the Securing Australia’s Additional staff were engaged as research support and Future programme including for project management of project management for the Learned Academies Special SAF03, Smart engagement with Asia: Leveraging language, Project 2014: The Humanities in the Asia Region: capacity research and culture. for research collaboration. and a short-term position was Fellows’ subscriptions continue to be an important source created to assist with policy research. of income, providing funds to support the Academy’s The Council approved an increase in expenditure to policy and advocacy activities, the production and support policy activities, allowing the Academy to dissemination of Humanities Australia to a broad public convene two highly successful national workshops audience, and to assist in funding grants programmes focused on Research Infrastructure and the Humanities. such as the Humanities Travelling Fellowships and the Publications Subsidy Scheme which provide vital support Prudent management of resources has again provided to early and mid-career Australian humanities scholars. a sound basis for future operations. The balance sheet shows improvement on the 2014 figure to $1,160,205 which Contributions were received from external sources to will enable the Academy to continue its activities in fund the Academy’s latest prize, the Medal for Excellence line with its obligations both under the Charter and the in Translation. These funds have been added to the conditions of the Grant-in-Aid. Academy Investment Portfolio to provide future funding for the award. EMERITUS PROFESSOR RICHARD WATERHOUSE FAHA fassa TREASURER THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 65

ABRIDGED FINANCIAL REPORT 66 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15 67 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES advances knowledge of, and the pursuit of excellence in, the humanities in Australia for the benefit of the nation. Established by Royal Charter in 1969, its elected Fellows are leaders and experts in the broad disciplinary groups which share a common and central concern with human behaviour and culture. As one of Australia’s four Learned Academies, a key role of the Academy is to provide independent expert advice to government and policy makers, promoting the social significance of humanities scholarship and its importance in shaping effective public policy. The Academy acts as a national focal point to promote the value of the humanities disciplines; encourages international research collaboration for humanities researchers; supports the next generation of scholars; and encourages and disseminates excellent research in the humanities disciplines, including through its annual journal, Humanities Australia. The Academy also promotes the crucial role of the humanities in interdisciplinary collaboration, recognising that the key challenges and opportunities facing Australia in the twenty-first century are not merely technical or economic in nature, but are deeply embedded in our society and culture.

CONTACT DETAILS

SECRETARIAT executive director postal address Dr Christina Parolin GPO Box 93, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia office manager street address Christine Barnicoat 3 Liversidge Street, Acton, ACT, 0200 policy and projects manager email address Dr Kylie Brass [email protected] policy and projects officer for staff members use: Amanda Wormald (from Oct 2014) [email protected] fellowship coordinator president Gabriela Cabral [email protected] international coordinator website www.humanities.org.au Dr Meredith Wilson twitter @HumanitiesAU publications & communications coordinator telephone +61 [0]2 6125 9860 Gillian Cosgrove fax +61 [0]2 6248 6287 administration officer Lucy Keech (from March 2015)

© 2015 Australian Academy of the Humanities All images © Australian Academy of the Humanities unless otherwise indicated. Editor: Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Webby am FAHA Designer: Gillian Cosgrove Printer: Canprint Communications Cover images, left to right: Rock carving, Former Quarantine Station, North Head, Sydney [Courtesy M. Wilson]; Rock Art, MacDonnell Ranges, Central Australia [Courtesy P. Hiscock FAHA]; Page from Robert Hooke’s Micrographia, 1665: cropped, rotated & included in collage [OU History of Science Collection on Flickr; CC BY-SA 2.0]; Oscar Wilde’s tomb, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France [Courtesy P. Hiscock FAHA].

AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES

ANNUAL REPORT 2014–15