THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES

ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 CONTACT DETAILS

SECRETARIAT

Executive Director Dr Christina Parolin

Office Manager Christine Barnicoat

Policy and Projects Manager Dr Kylie Brass

Fellowship Officer Gabriela Cabral

Publications and Gillian Cosgrove – from July 2013 Communications Coordinator

International Coordinator Dr Meredith Wilson

Administration Officer Michelle Nagle

Postal Address GPO Box 93 Canberra ACT 2601 Australia

Street Address 3 Liversidge Street Acton ACT 0200

Email Address [email protected]

For staff members use [email protected]

President [email protected]

Website www.humanities.org.au

Telephone +61 [0]2 6125 9860

Fax +61 [0]2 6248 6287

© 2013 Australian Academy of the Humanities All images © Australian Academy of the Humanities unless otherwise indicated. Editor: Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Webby am Faha Designer: Noel Wendtman Layout artist: Gillian Cosgrove Printer: New Millenium Print THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

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 2012–13, 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 18

From the Executive Director 4 Grants and Awards 19

Council 5 International Activities 22

Strategic Plan 6 Obituaries 24

The Fellowship 7 Treasurer’s Statement 42

Events 12 Abridged Financial Report 43

Policy and Research 15

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Funding for the production of this report, and a number of activities described herein, has been provided by the Australian Government through the Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (referred to throughout as ‘the Department’ or DIICCSRTE).

The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department. 2 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

FROM THE PRESIDENT Connecting with the Humanities Community

The Academy’s annual Symposium encourages collegiality within the Fellowship and affords an opportunity to engage The 2012–13 year has been one of considerable activity for with the wider humanities community. Challenging (the) the Academy, guided by the key priorities identified in our Humanities, the 2012 Annual Symposium convened by 2011–15 Strategic Plan, as detailed in the following pages. Professor Tony Bennett FAHA AcSS, proved an effective I take this opportunity to share some highlights from an theme to explore the changing nature of scholarship in the extraordinarily busy year. humanities in response to many societal challenges, the specific challenges facing our disciplines, and the exciting Leadership in the Humanities Community and innovative responses from humanities researchers to these challenges. One of the most significant developments for the year 2012–13 was the Academy’s success in securing funding The Discipline Panel Meetings were again held in for an important new project to examine the health of the conjunction with the Symposium, providing members of humanities and social sciences disciplines in Australia. the disciplinary sections and colleagues from outside the TheMapping the Humanities and Social Sciences in Australia Fellowship to explore issues ranging from the application project will develop a comprehensive understanding of of linguistics in the legal process and archaeology’s student enrolment trends and teaching and research engagement with the resources industry, to the status activity, and will examine current and future capacity in of undergraduate education in Classical Studies and these disciplines. pedagogical innovation in English and literary studies.

The project is being undertaken by the Australian Academy Promoting Excellence in the Humanities of the Humanities and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and is co-funded by the two Academies, the I was delighted to present two outstanding young scholars Office of the Chief Scientist and the (then) Department of with the Academy’s early career medals in a ceremony at Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research the 2012 Annual Fellows’ Dinner: Dr Michael Ondaatje, and Tertiary Education. The Academy acknowledges the winner of the Max Crawford Medal; and Dr Michael strong support for the project from the Chief Scientist, Hooper, winner of the McCredie Musicological Award. Professor Ian Chubb Ac, and former Minister for Science Joint winner of the 2012 Max Crawford Medal, and Education, Senator the Hon Chris Evans. The project Dr Lisa Ford, will receive her medal at the 2013 Annual leader is Professor Graeme Turner FAHA. Fellows’ Dinner.

The final report, due June 2014, will be a signal The Academy is delighted to support these awards which achievement for the Academy. It will provide an empirical celebrate the achievement of the remarkable young base for decision-making by the research community, scholars who constitute the next generation of leaders and policy makers and institutions, particularly in light of thinkers in the humanities. The awards are made possible concerns that have been expressed for a number of years by the generous bequests from Fellows – in this instance, about the health of our disciplines. the late Emeritus Professor R.M. Crawford FAHA and the late Professor Andrew McCredie FAHA. Engaging with Policy Makers Supporting the Dissemination of Humanities Research An important role of the Academy is to provide independent and expert advice to improve public policy. A key priority for the Academy is demonstrating the value In February 2013, the Academy staged a large public of the humanities to the social, economic and cultural forum focused on the research impact agenda and wellbeing of the nation, and supporting the dissemination the implications for the humanities disciplines of its of humanities research is one means to help achieve this. potential introduction as a policy measure. The forum The Academy’s Publication Subsidies Scheme continues drew together more than 100 participants from across the to provide vital funds to researchers in an increasingly policy, research, and research funding sectors. Convened difficult environment for scholarly monograph publishing. by Professor Mark Finnane FAHA, the forum provided an occasion for the humanities community in Australia to This year, the Academy produced the fourth issue of our gain a better understanding of the policy drivers around very successful journal, which continues to showcase the research impact, and an important opportunity to convey work of the Fellows and the richness of research in the to policy makers some of the specificities relating to humanities in Australia. It is distributed to libraries, in the humanities disciplines in attempting to measure Qantas Club lounges and to Australian Embassies around research benefit. the world. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 3

Collaborations with Allied Organisations Closing Words

The Academy works with a variety of allied organisations The last word ought be saved for the important gesture of throughout the year as detailed throughout this report. thanking all of those who contributed to the Academy’s Three particular collaborations of note demonstrate the important achievements outlined in this report. My thanks breadth of these connections. firstly to my colleagues on Council, including those who have taken on roles additional to the general stewardship of The Academy is delighted to announce a new partnership the Academy – to Emeritus Professor Graeme Clarke AO with the National Library of Australia to undertake a series FAHA FSA, Honorary Secretary; Professor Gillian of interviews with Fellows of the Academy to enhance Whitlock FAHA, International Secretary; Professor Pam the library’s oral history collection. The interviews will Sharpe FAHA, Treasurer; and Emeritus Professor Elizabeth be undertaken over the next two years, and will enrich Webby AM FAHA, Editor. our understanding of the development of the humanities disciplines and the life the Academy since 1969. I particularly wish to thank Emeritus Professor Ian Donaldson FAHA FBA FRSE, who finished his term A collaboration of a different size and scope is the work on Council at the November 2012 meeting. Professor being undertaken with our colleagues in the other three Donaldson has made an outstanding contribution to the Learned Academies under the $10 million Securing Academy over many years, and in many roles, particularly Australia’s Future research programme. The Academy his time as President. My thanks also to outgoing Council is represented by Fellows on the Programme Steering member, Professor Stephanie Trigg FAHA, for her valuable Committee, and on the Expert Working Groups of each contribution both to Council and to the Academy’s Awards of the six initial projects. Our Academy is supporting Committee for the last three years. Professor Joseph Lo one project, Asia Literacy: Language and Beyond, led by Bianco AM FAHA was warmly welcomed back to Council as Professor Ien Ang FAHA. Immediate Past President following his sabbatical in Rome in 2012, as was our newest Council member, Professor In January 2013, the annual rotation of the Presidency of Deirdre Coleman FAHA, who fills the position vacated by the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) Professor Trigg. fell to our Academy. In addition to my role as President for 2013, our Executive Director, Dr Christina Parolin, became I am deeply grateful to the Fellows named above Chair of the ACOLA Secretariat Board. ACOLA provides an who convened our various activities, and have joined opportunity for the four Learned Academies to engage on Committees and working groups, including those working matters of mutual interest, and to undertake collaborative on the Securing Australia’s Future programme – too many research projects which require multidisciplinary in number to thank individually here. I also sincerely perspectives, including, but not limited to, those under thank the many other Fellows who have given their time the Securing Australia’s Future programme. to support Academy activities during the 2012–13 year; the Heads of Section, members of the Academy’s various International Committees, and to those who provide the expert input in our many policy submissions. The Academy cannot The appointment of a part-time International Coordinator operate without the immense good will and dedication to to help implement the Academy’s International Strategy the organisation – and the humanities more generally – of has seen a significant increase in activity around the Fellows. international engagement and collaboration. The 2012–13 year included a number of very successful bilateral My warmest thanks also to the Secretariat whose staunch workshops outlined in more detail in the following commitment to the organisation and the values it pages; on ‘Valuing the Humanities’ undertaken with represents ensures that the Academy is a very effective, our colleagues from the British Academy; on cultural well-run and outwardly-focused organisation. heritage management with researchers from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; and with European research EMERITUS PROFESSOR community representatives to discuss ways to further LESLEY JOHNSON AM FAHA increase research collaborations between Australian PRESIDENT and European researchers. The Academy fosters these international relationships to fulfil its mandate of engaging with the international humanities community and to facilitate greater collaborative opportunities for Australian humanities researchers across institutions and disciplines, and at all stages of their careers. 4 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

For the Secretariat of the Academy, the year 2012–13 has As we work to implement the Academy’s Strategic Plan, a been one of renewal and rebuilding. With the uncertainty significant degree of the Secretariat’s work is also outwardly of proposed funding cuts now largely alleviated following focused, ensuring that the Academy is well connected with the outcomes of the 2012 Commonwealth Review of the the broader humanities community, with stakeholders and Learned Academies, the Academy looked to reinvigorate allied organisations. This ranges from the various officials the Secretariat to enable the key priorities identified by of various government departments and agencies, science Council in the 2011–15 Strategic Plan to be implemented. and education attaché and staff at international embassies located in Canberra, staff of the national and state-based We welcomed three new part-time Secretariat members cultural institutions and other organisations who represent to our small team during 2012–13, taking the total the interests of the humanities. These connections are staff numbers to 5.9 FTE. Mrs Michelle Nagle provides important ways of fulfilling the Academy’s mandate much needed administrative support, assisting across of advancing interest in, and understanding of, the a wide range of administrative tasks undertaken by the humanities, and acting as an advisory body in matters Secretariat. Dr Meredith Wilson joined the office as relating to the humanities. International Coordinator in July 2012, greatly assisting the Secretariat to better service its international As Chair of the Australian Council of Learned Academies obligations, respond to opportunities for engagement and (ACOLA) Secretariat Board for 2013, I have worked closely collaboration, and to implement the International Strategy throughout the year with my counterparts in the three adopted by Council in 2012. In July 2013, we made another other Learned Academies. The ACOLA structure allows the much anticipated appointment in Ms Gillian Cosgrove, as Academies not only to undertake joint research projects Publications and Communications Coordinator. Working and other activities which benefit from multidisciplinary within budget has meant all our new positions have been perspectives, such as the Securing Australia’s Future part-time appointments, but despite their reduced hours, programme, but to exchange ideas about administrative these new staff members have already made a significant processes, protocols and structures that are common to the contribution to the operations of the Academy. four organisations.

In our efforts to handle increasing workloads, we regularly The activities outlined in the 2012–13 Annual Report review our administrative procedures to ensure we are reflect what has been a very busy year for the Secretariat working as efficiently as possible. Administering a rigorous right across the core functions of our organisation; from and thorough electoral process is one of the most international, policy and advocacy, and fellowship; to important tasks undertaken in the Secretariat, though to grants and awards, communications and publications and date it has been one of the more labour intensive. In late operations management. The Secretariat staff continue to 2012, the Council and the Heads of Section approved a plan work ‘above and beyond’ to ensure that all our activities to move to an electronic voting system, to be implemented are managed and delivered in a professional manner, for the 2013 elections. Work on establishing the structure, and always with good cheer. I am deeply grateful to, and liaising with our new service provider, and undergoing unreservedly proud of, the Secretariat team who I have the rigorous testing of the new system has occurred over the pleasure and honour to lead. first six months of 2013. At the end of the 2012–13 year, we are confident that the new process will prove a boon DR CHRISTINA PAROLIN for the Fellows, in providing a seamless and accessible EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR format for voting. The time-consuming establishment work undertaken this year will also stand us in good stead for a much-improved administrative process for the years ahead. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 5

COUNCIL

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

COUNCIL TO 17 NOVEMBER 2012 COUNCIL FROM 17 NOVEMBER 2012

President President Emeritus Professor Lesley Johnson am Faha Emeritus Professor Lesley Johnson am Faha

Honorary Secretary Honorary Secretary Emeritus Professor Graeme Clarke Ao Faha FSA Emeritus Professor Graeme Clarke Ao Faha FSA

Treasurer Treasurer Professor Pamela Sharpe Faha Professor Pamela Sharpe Faha

Editor Editor Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Webby am Faha Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Webby am Faha

Past President Immediate Past President Emeritus Professor Ian Donaldson Faha FBA Frse Professor Joseph Lo Bianco am Faha

Vice-President and International Secretary Vice-President and International Secretary Professor Gillian Whitlock Faha Professor Gillian Whitlock Faha

Vice-President Vice-President Professor Anna Haebich Faha Fassa Professor Anna Haebich Faha Fassa

Council Members Council Members Professor Matthew Spriggs Faha FSA GSM (Vanuatu) Professor Deirdre Coleman Faha Professor Stephanie Trigg Faha Professor Matthew Spriggs Faha FSA GSM (Vanuatu) Emeritus Professor Richard Waterhouse Faha Fassa Emeritus Professor Richard Waterhouse Faha Fassa Dr Robert Young Faha Dr Robert Young Faha

Members of the Academy Council at the University of Sydney, 2013. l to r: Graeme Clarke, Richard Waterhouse, Anna Haebich, Elizabeth Webby, Robert Young, Deirdre Coleman, Matthew Spriggs, Gillian Whitlock, Lesley Johnson, Joseph Lo Bianco, Pamela Sharpe. photo: aah 6 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

STRATEGIC PLAN

COUNCIL MEETINGS In 2010 the Council adopted a Strategic Plan for 2011–15 to guide the activities and programmes of the Academy. Council met on four occasions in the reporting period: Each strategy in the Strategic Plan relates to the mission 6 September 2012, 14 November 2012, 18 February 2013 and and core objectives of the Academy, and sets out the 30 May 2013. proposed activities through which the achievement of the objectives will be measured. An implementation plan is HEADS OF SECTION considered annually by the Council.

The Academy has ten disciplinary Sections representing VISION the range of scholarly expertise of Fellows. The Council and Secretariat draw upon the expertise vested in the A tolerant, vibrant and innovative public culture Sections when preparing policy responses to government, in Australia enriched and enabled by a thriving participating in international initiatives and developing humanities sector. annual Symposium themes. These Sections also form the Academy’s ten Electoral Sections. MISSION

Archaeology The Australian Academy of the Humanities exists to Professor Tim Murray Faha advance knowledge of, and the pursuit of excellence in, the humanities in Australia for the benefit of the nation. The Arts Professor Jaynie Anderson Faha OBJECTIVES

Asian Studies 1. To promote and develop excellence in the humanities in Professor Robert Cribb Faha (to 17 Nov 2012) Australia and abroad. Associate Professor Helen Creese Faha (from 17 Nov 2012) 2. To foster collegiality within the Fellowship and provide Classical Studies a focal point for the wider humanities community in Emeritus Professor Roger Scott Faha the Australia.

Cultural and Communication Studies 3. To support the dissemination of humanities research to Professor John Sinclair Faha (to 17 Nov 2012) demonstrate the value of the humanities to the social, Professor Tim Rowse Faha Fassa (from 17 Nov 2012) economic and cultural wellbeing of the nation.

English 4. To provide independent and expert advice to improve Emeritus Professor Graham Tulloch Faha public debate and public policy.

European Languages and Cultures 5. To provide leadership in the humanities community Professor Stathis Gauntlett Faha in Australia.

History 6. To advance national cultural prosperity through Professor John Gascoigne Faha collaborations with allied Australian organisations and other bodies. Linguistics Professor Jim Martin Faha (to 17 Nov 2012) 7. To strengthen the humanities in Australia Dr Diana Eades Faha (from 17 Nov 2012) and abroad through collaborations with allied organisations overseas. Philosophy, Religion and the History of Ideas Professor Majella Franzmann Faha 8. To support excellent teaching of the humanities at all levels of education in Australia. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 7

THE FELLOWSHIP

FELLOWS

As of 30 June 2013 the total number of Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities was 553, including 78 Honorary Fellows and 42 Overseas Fellows.

Foundation Fellows Andrew Benjamin Graeme Clarke John Docker David Armstrong Roger Benjamin Inga Clendinnen James Donald Alexander Cambitoglou Michael Bennett Margaret Clunies Ross Ian Donaldson James R. Lawler Tony Bennett Tony Coady Helen Dunstan Francis West Alison Betts William Coaldrake Mark Durie Gerald Wilkes John Bigelow Deirdre Coleman Simon During Virginia Blain Conal Condren Edward Duyker Fellows Geoffrey Blainey Graham Connah Diana Eades Michael Ackland Barry Blake Ian Copland Rifaat Ebied Alexander Adelaar Geoffrey Bolton Alan Corkhill Paul Eggert Alexandra Aikhenvald Tim Bonyhady Anthony Cousins Brian Ellis Robert Aldrich Brian Bosworth Roger Covell Robert Elson Christine Alexander Penny Boumelha Philip Cox Nicholas Evans Peter Alexander James Bowler Barbara Creed Michael Ewans Keith Allan Clare Bradford Helen Creese Dorottya Fabian Cynthia Allen David Bradley Robert Cribb Trevor Fennell Pauline Allen Ross Brady Peter Cryle Antonia Finnane Philip Almond Richard Broome Garrett Cullity Mark Finnane Atholl Anderson Susan Broomhall Stuart Cunningham Gerhard Fischer Jaynie Anderson Trevor Bryce Ann Curthoys John Fitzgerald Warwick Anderson Kathryn Burridge Frederick D’Agostino Brian Fletcher Ien Ang John Burrows Joy Damousi Josephine Flood Edward Aspinall John Butcher Iain Davidson Susan Foley Alan Atkinson Brendan Byrne Peter Davis William Foley Valerie Attenbrow Barbara Caine Richard Davis Jean Fornasiero Bain Attwood Keith Campbell Graeme Davison Peter Forrest Philip Ayres Stewart Candlish Rafe de Crespigny Richard Fotheringham Gregory Bailey Hilary Carey Igor de Rachewiltz David Frankel Han Baltussen David Carter Franz-Josef Deiters Majella Franzmann Dirk Baltzly Alan Chalmers Alan Dench Anne Freadman Joan Barclay-Lloyd David Chalmers Donald Denoon Richard Freadman Ivan Barko David Chandler Jean-Paul Descoeudres John Frodsham Geremie Barmé Richard Charteris Anthony Diller Alan Frost Geraldine Barnes David Christian Robert Dixon John Frow Alison Bashford William Christie R. M. W. Dixon Edmund Fung Peter Bellwood John Clark Christine Dobbin Raimond Gaita 8 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

Ann Galbally Liz Jacka Alfredo Martínez Expósito Michael Osborne Regina Ganter Frank Jackson Jim Masselos Peter Otto Iain Gardner Alan James Peter Mathews Samantha Owens David Garrioch Robin Jeffrey Brian Matthews John Painter Stephen Garton Anthony Johns Isabel McBryde Nikos Papastergiadis John Gascoigne Lesley Johnson Iain McCalman Paul Patton Moira Gatens Vivien Johnson Janet McCalman Marko Pavlyshyn Stephen Gaukroger Trevor Johnston Gavan McCormack Andrew Pawley Stathis Gauntlett Brian Jones Jock McCulloch Michael Pearson Penelope Gay Philip Jones Brian McFarlane Elizabeth Pemberton Anthony Gibbs John Jory William McGregor Hetti Perkins Ross Gibson Naguib Kanawati Anne McLaren Roslyn Pesman Paul Giles Daniel Kane Brian McMullin Pam Peters Philip Goad Grace Karskens Andrew McNamara Margaret Plant Cliff Goddard Margaret Kartomi Timothy McNamara Lorenzo Polizzotto Jack Golson Jamie Kassler Peter McPhee Daniel Potts Nanette Gottlieb Veronica Kelly Philip Mead John Poynter Jeremy Green David Kennedy Betty Meehan Wilfrid Prest Karen Green Jeanette Kennett Vincent Megaw Graham Priest Bridget Griffen-Foley Dale Kent Timothy Mehigan Robin Prior Gareth Griffiths John Kinder John Melville-Jones Clive Probyn John Griffiths Diane Kirkby Peter Menzies Elspeth Probyn Paul Griffiths Wallace Kirsop Francesca Merlan John Pryor Tom Griffiths John Kleinig Constant Mews Paul Redding Patricia Grimshaw Stephen Knight David Miller Peter Reeves Sasha Grishin Stephen Kolsky Margaret Miller Anthony Reid Colin Groves Leonie Kramer Elizabeth Minchin Greg Restall Rainer Grün Ann Kumar Timothy Minchin Craig Reynolds Anna Haebich Marilyn Lake Vijay Mishra Henry Reynolds Ghassan Hage Brij Lal Francis Moloney Eric Richards Alan Hajek Michael Lattke Clive Moore John Rickard John Hajek Susan Lawrence John Moorhead Merle Ricklefs Sylvia Hallam John Lee Albert Moran Ronald Ridley Michael Halliday David Lemmings Peter Morgan Catherine Rigby Peter Hambly Alison Lewis Howard Morphy David Roberts Jane Hardie Miles Lewis Meaghan Morris Michael Roe Margaret Harris Samuel Lieu Teresa Morris-Suzuki Robert Rose John Hartley Ian Lilley Chris Mortensen Malcolm Ross Gay Hawkins Genevieve Lloyd Raoul Mortley Timothy Rowse Roslynn Haynes Rosemary Lloyd Michael Morwood Alan Rumsey Lesley Head Joseph Lo Bianco Frances Muecke David Runia Luise Hercus William Loader Stephen Muecke Gillian Russell Laurence Hergenhan Anthony Low John Mulvaney Penny Russell Stephen Hetherington Martyn Lyons Kerry Murphy Pierre Ryckmans Roger Hillman Stuart Macintyre Tim Murray Abdullah Saeed Peter Hiscock Colin Mackerras Bronwen Neil Antonio Sagona Peng Ho Roy MacLeod Brian Nelson Paul Salzman Robert Hodge John Makeham Graham Nerlich Margaret Sankey Roderick Home Richard Maltby Colin Nettelbeck Deryck Schreuder Clifford Hooker Margaret Manion J. V. Neustupný Gerhard Schulz Virginia Hooker Gyorgy Markus Nerida Newbigin John Scott Gregory Horsley David Marr Brenda Niall Roger Scott Rodney Huddleston David Marshall Susan O’Connor Peter Sculthorpe Lloyd Humberstone Angus Martin David Oldroyd Frank Sear Ian Hunter James Martin Graham Oppy Krishna Sen Duncan Ivison Lynn Martin Tom O’Regan Pamela Sharpe THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 9

Kenneth Sheedy Robert White Geoffrey Lancaster Benedict Kerkvliet Susan Sheridan Shane White Sylvia Lawson Randy LaPolla Thomas Sheridan John Whitehorne Mabel Lee David Lawton Anna Silvas Gillian Whitlock John Legge Li Liu John Sinclair Anna Wierzbicka Gerhard Leitner Kam Louie Larry Sitsky Stephen Wild William Lycan Jiri Marvan Glenda Sluga Peter Wilson John Lynch Audrey Meaney Roger Smalley Trevor Wilson David Malouf Robert Merrillees Barry Smith John Wong Bruce Mansfield Nigel Morgan Michael Smith Richard Yeo Patrick McCaughey Takamitsu Muraoka Terence Smith Robert Young Shirley McKechnie Philip Pettit Vivian Smith Charles Zika Ross McKibbin Huw Price Charles Sowerwine Michael McRobbie Stephen Prickett Virginia Spate Honorary Fellows Hugh Mellor Margaret Rose Jim Specht James Adams Fergus Millar William Rubinstein Matthew Spriggs Phillip Adams Alex Miller Peter Singer Ann Stephen Harry Allen Ann Moyal Michael Smith Anthony Stephens Penelope Allison Glenn Murcutt Michael Stocker Janice Stockigt Hugh Anderson Les Murray Neil Tennant Daniel Stoljar David Armitage James O’Connell Nicholas Thomas Margaret Stoljar John Bell Patrick O’Keefe Michael Tooley Martin Stuart-Fox Rosina Braidotti Lyndel Prott Gungwu Wang Yoshio Sugimoto Peter Carey Lyndal Roper Alan Watchman Sharon Sullivan Dawn Casey Lionel Sawkins Douglas Yen Paul Taçon Dipesh Chakrabarty Julianne Schultz Harold Tarrant Maxwell Charlesworth Kim Scott Chin Liew Ten Ray Choate James Simpson Paul Thom Betty Churcher Bruce Steele Janna Thompson Christopher Clark Colin Steele Philip Thomson Patricia Clarke Ninian Stephen Rodney Thomson John Coetzee Michael Stone Rodney Tiffen Peter Conrad Ian Templeman Helen Tiffin Anne Cutler John Tranter Robin Torrence Terrence Cutler Royall Tyler Martin Travers Roger Dean Terri-ann White Stephanie Trigg Robert Edwards Gough Whitlam Carl Trocki Sheila Fitzpatrick Garry Trompf Jan Fullerton Overseas Fellows Graham Tulloch Carrillo Gantner Robert Archer David Tunley Peter Garnsey Richard Bosworth Graeme Turner Kate Grenville Giovanni Carsaniga Ian Tyrrell Ranajit Guha Leigh Chambers Jonathan Unger John Hay Sean Cubitt Theodoor van Leeuwen Shirley Hazzard Gregory Currie Gerard Vaughan Harry Heseltine Martin Davies Peter Veth Robyn Holmes Michael Devitt David Walker Janet Holmes à Court Louise Edwards Christopher Wallace-Crabbe Jacqueline Huggins Mark Elvin John Ward Richard Hunter Hilary Fraser James Warren Clive James Malcolm Gillies Richard Waterhouse Barry Jones Peter Harrison Lindsay Watson Edwin Judge Kevin Hart Jennifer Webb Thomas Keneally Alan Henry Elizabeth Webby Michael Kirby Elizabeth Jeffreys Marshall Weisler Patrick Kirch Michael Jeffreys Peter White David Konstan Bill Jenner 10 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

DEATHS

The Academy notes with deep regret the deaths of the following Fellows during this reporting period. We extend our sincere sympathies to their families and friends.

John (Jack) Smart ac (Foundation), 6 October 2012

Elisabeth Murdoch ac dbe (2009), 5 December 2012

Elliott Forsyth (1973), 20 December 2012

Jeffrey Smartao (2008), 20 June 2013

John Alexander Salmond (1993), 30 June 2013 Professor David Armitage signs the Charter Book at the Secretariat offices in Canberra, July 2012. photo: aah Obituaries for these Fellows are included in this report, as well as those for Ralph Elliott am, Peter Steele and Robert K. Webb, all of which did not appear in the 2011–12 Annual Report.

FELLOWS ELECTED IN 2012

Professor Warwick Anderson, Department of History, University of Sydney.

Professor Susan Broomhall, History, University of Western Australia.

Professor Hilary Carey, School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Newcastle.

Professor Jean Fornasiero, School of Humanities, University of Adelaide. President Lesley Johnson presents Professor David Miller with his Fellowship Certificate at the 2012 Annual General Meeting in Sydney. photo: olga nebot/ designed photography Professor Paul Giles, Department of English, University of Sydney.

Professor Gay Hawkins, Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, University of Queensland.

Professor Daniel Kane, Chinese Studies, Macquarie University.

Emeritus Professor Veronica Kelly, School of English, Media Studies and Art History, University of Queensland.

Associate Professor Andrew McNamara, School of Media, Entertainment and Creative Arts, Queensland University of Technology.

Professor Philip Mead, English and Cultural Studies, University of Western Australia. Professor Gillian Russell signs the Charter Book at the 2012 Annual General Professor Peter Morgan, School of Languages and Meeting in Sydney. photo: olga nebot/designed photography Cultures, University of Sydney. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 11

Dr Bronwen Neil, Centre for Early Christian Studies, Dr Michael Smith am Faha FSA, for significant service to Australian Catholic University. archaeological scholarship, particularly of the Australian desert regions. Dr Samantha Owens, School of Music, University of Queensland. Queen’s Birthday 2013 Honours

Emeritus Professor Pam Peters, Department of Professor Shirley McKechnie ao Faha, for distinguished Linguistics, Macquarie University. service to the performing arts, particularly dance, to the education and development of dancers and Professor Penny Russell, Department of History, choreographers, and to research. University of Sydney. Professor Antonio Sagona am Faha FSA, for significant Professor John Wong Fassa FRhistS, Department of service to tertiary education in the field of archaeology. History, University of Sydney. Australian Research Council Australian Laureate HONORARY FELLOWS ELECTED IN 2012 Fellowships 2012

Associate Professor Harry Allen ONZM FSA, Department Professor Alexandra Aikhenvald Faha, to expand her of Anthropology, University of Auckland. work in the area of and correlations between languages and cultures, and analysing endangered languages in tropical Professor David Konstan, Department of Classics, New areas (especially Papua New Guinea). York University. Professor Tessa Morris-Suzuki Faha, to develop a new Professor William Lycan, Department of Philosophy, framework for observing emerging and significant, but University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. little understood, forms of political activity in rapidly changing areas of Asia. Professor Patrick McCaughey, Fairhaven, Connecticut. Professor Susan O’Connor Faha, to focus on the earliest Professor Kim Scott, School of Media, Culture and colonisation of Island Southeast Asia and investigate Creative Arts, Curtin University. modern human dispersal, adaptations and behaviour along the maritime route to Australia. Professor Terri-ann White, UWA Publishing, University of Western Australia. Professor O’Connor was the recipient of the prestigious Kathleen Fitzpatrick Fellowship which recognises her ACADEMY FELLOWS HONOURED leadership role and provides her with additional funding to help mentor women in the humanities. Fittingly, the award The Academy warmly congratulates the following Fellows is named after historian Kathleen Fitzpatrick, who was a who received honours during 2013. Foundation Fellow of the Academy of the Humanities.

Australia Day 2013 Honours

Mr Clive James ao CBE Faha, for distinguished service to literature through contributions to cultural and intellectual heritage, particularly as a writer and poet.

Professor Malcolm Gillies am Faha FACE FLCM, for significant service to tertiary education through leadership roles and to the humanities, particularly as a scholar of musicology.

Professor Abdullah Saeed am Faha, for significant service to tertiary education in the field of Islamic Studies and to the community, particularly through the promotion of interfaith dialogue. 12 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

EVENTS

ANNUAL MEETINGS AND EVENTS

The 2012 Annual Symposium, Challenging (the) Humanities, was convened by Professor Tony Bennett FAHA AcSS. Held at the University of Western Sydney’s Parramatta campus on 15–16 November 2012, the Symposium was attended by approximately 120 Fellows, humanities scholars and teachers, and featured 17 local and international speakers, among them Professor Chris Otter from The Ohio State University and Professor Laikwan Pang from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The Symposium debated the contemporary challenges that face the humanities, including changing policy Ian Donaldson, Deryck Schreuder, Tony Bennett and President Lesley Johnson at environments and priorities, and the issues posed the 2012 Symposium, Challenging (the) Humanities. photo: olga nebot/designed photography by debates concerning climate change, sustainable development and the financial crisis. More general changes in the prevailing intellectual environment were examined, with an increasing emphasis on the role played by material forces – technologies and infrastructures, as well as the continuing importance of the relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives.

Symposium speakers considered how these challenges have proved a stimulus to intellectual innovation in many humanities disciplines, together with new conceptions of their relations to other disciplines, presenting alternatives to purely scientific, technocratic or economistic framings of policy problems and solutions. The increasingly prominent role of Indigenous perspectives in Australian intellectual life has also prompted widespread recognition of the Professor Christopher Otter of the Ohio State University, keynote speaker at the relevance of Indigenous knowledges to contemporary 2012 Symposium. photo: olga nebot/designed photography social, cultural and political questions. Humanities scholarship has brought new light to bear on the ways in which the human is always shaped by its relations to the non-human whether in environmental, technical or animal forms.

The Academy deeply appreciates the support of the University of Western Sydney, and of its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Janice Reid AM FASSA, who hosted the event and the symposium reception. The Academy is also grateful for the support of our other sponsors, Macquarie University, the University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney, the University of Technology, Sydney and SAGE Publications.

For a second year the Academy staged a series of discipline panel meetings on the second day of the Symposium, Keynote speaker at the 2012 Symposium, attracting approximately 150 Fellows and guest panellists. Professor Laikwan Pang of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, with Deryck Schreuder. photo: olga nebot/ These roundtables, convened by Heads of Section, are designed photography designed to involve a range of other participants in the THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 13

Academy President Lesley Johnson presents Dr Michael Hooper receives the McCredie Musicological The 2012 Fellows’ Dinner, Old Dr Michael Ondaatje with the Crawford Medal at the Award from Ms Caroline Bushby, daughter of Professor Government House, Parramatta. 2012 Fellows’ Dinner, Old Government House, Parramatta. Andrew McCredie, at the 2012 Fellows’ Dinner, photo: olga nebot/designed photo: olga nebot/designed photography Old Government House, Parramatta. photo: olga nebot/ photography designed photography work of the Academy. A number of panels focused on The History panel discussed the future of the history methodological training issues, while others took up honours programme and also featured Sam Grunhard, questions of disciplinary priority. Director of Excellence in Research for Australia, Evaluation and Outreach, Australian Research Council. The Archaeology roundtable featured a discussion on The Philosophy, Religion and the History of Ideas panel the role of the profession in the resources development took up the subject of research impact and how to account industry, focusing particularly on relationships with for it in assessment processes. Indigenous communities. Asian Studies led a discussion on the recently released Australia in the Asian Century The Academy again hosted drinks prior to the Fellows’ White Paper. Dinner for new Fellows elected in 2011, providing an opportunity for Council members to meet with new The Arts roundtable focused on challenges facing Fellows and to welcome them to the Academy in a relaxed musicology, art history and museums in Australia. Classical setting prior to the formal signing of the Charter Book at Studies discussed the place of reception studies within the the Annual General Meeting. field, and reviewed the status of undergraduate studies. The Fellows’ Dinner was held at Lachlan’s Restaurant at Cultural and Communications Studies discussed historic Old Government House in Parramatta. It provided approaches to multiculturalism, space and place, and an excellent venue for a most enjoyable evening for Fellows environmental sustainability. The English panel focused and their guests. The night was also memorable for the on questions of pedagogical innovation, featuring a presentation of two of the Academy’s most prestigious presentation on an Australian Learning and Teaching awards. Dr Michael Ondaatje was presented with the Council-funded study ‘Building Reading Resilience: Crawford Medal, recognising outstanding achievement Developing a Skill-Based Approach to Literary Studies’, in the humanities by a young Australian scholar, and and examined teaching and research relationships between Dr Michael Hooper with the McCredie Musicological Creative Writing and English. Award, presented to an Australia-based, early-career musicology scholar who has contributed to the enrichment The European Languages and Cultures panel focused on of the cultural life of Australia. the content of postgraduate coursework and the role of translation studies. The Linguistics panel brought together The 2012 Annual General Meeting took place at the eminent legal practitioners and researchers to examine the University of Western Sydney on Saturday 17 November, application of linguistics in the legal process. during which sixteen new Fellows and six new Honorary Fellows were elected to the Academy. 14 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

Professor Aidan Byrne, CEO of the Professor Mark Finnane welcoming Australian Research Council, delegates to the ‘Valuing the giving a presentation at the Humanities’ Forum, Canberra, ‘Valuing the Humanities’ Forum, February 2013. Canberra, February 2013. photo: daniela vÁvrovÁ photo: daniela vÁvrovÁ

Professor Andrew Stewart, Nicholas C. Petris Professor in Greek Studies and VALUING THE HUMANITIES Professor of Art History and Classics at the University of California, Berkeley, presents the 2013 Trendall Lecture in Sydney in January. photo: courtesy of ken sheedy faha In February 2013 the Academy hosted a large public forum on the research impact agenda and what is means for the humanities, convened by Professor Mark This year Professor Andrew Stewart, Nicholas C. Petris Finnane FAHA. The forum took place at the National Professor in Greek Studies and Professor of Art History Library of Australia in Canberra, and was attended by more and Classics at the University of California, Berkeley, than 100 participants from across the policy, research, presented the 2013 Trendall Lecture entitled Individuality and research funding sectors. Speakers included Professor and Innovation in Greek Sculpture. The event was hosted Aidan Byrne, CEO of the Australian Research Council; by Macquarie University and held on 18 January Lisa Schofield, General Manager, Research Outcomes 2013 at Sydney Grammar School. The lecture was and Policy Branch, Department of Industry, Innovation, held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education; Australasian Society for Classical Studies and a special Professor Stephen Knight FAHA, University of Melbourne; one-day conference entitled ‘Alexander the Great and his Professor Tony Bennett FAHA AcSS, University of Western Successors: The Art of King and Court’, associated with an Sydney; Professor Stuart Cunningham FAHA, Queensland exhibition of items from the Hermitage at the Australian University of Technology; Associate Professor Anna Museum in Sydney. These events and the lecture were Johnston, University of Tasmania; and Professor Andrew organised by Dr Ken Sheedy FAHA. The lecture was very Mowbray, University of Technology, Sydney. At the close well attended, with an estimated 180 people present of the forum an Academy working group developed a short on the night, and will be published in the 2014 issue of position paper on assessing the benefits of research in the Humanities Australia. humanities. The forum was funded through the Academy’s Australian Research Council – Learned Academies Special HISTORY OF THE ACADEMY INITIATIVE Project (ARC–LASP), Humanities Connections. The Academy celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2019. In the TRENDALL LECTURE lead up to this event, Council is considering ways to honour the achievements of the Academy and its Fellows. As a The Trendall Lecture was inaugurated in 1997 and is funded first step, the Academy has formed a partnership with the through a bequest made by Professor A. D. Trendall, National Library of Australia to enhance its oral history a Foundation Fellow of the Academy. Professor Trendall collection of interviews with Fellows of the Academy, envisaged the lecture series as ‘an annual lecture or lectures with new interviews to be undertaken over the next two by a distinguished scholar on some theme associated years. The Academy is grateful to the Fellows who have with Classical Studies’. The speaker alternates between an agreed to join the President on the Steering Committee Australian and an international scholar. for the project: Emeritus Professor Graeme Davison FAHA FASSA, Professor Anna Haebich FAHA FASSA, Professor Iain McCalman AO FAHA FASSA FRhistS and Emeritus Professor Ian Donaldson FAHA FBA FRSE. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 15

POLICY AND RESEARCH

A key role of the Academy is to provide independent expert The development of the new Strategic Research Priorities advice to government and policy makers, promoting the took place in early 2013, effectively replacing the review social significance of humanities scholarship and its vital of the National Research Priorities undertaken in importance in shaping effective public policy. March 2012. The Academy played a key role in informing this earlier review, and in January 2013 was asked GOVERNMENT INTERACTIONS by the Australian Research Committee to nominate humanities representatives to serve on expert working The Academy held meetings over 2012–13 with Senator groups to develop the new Strategic Research Priorities. the Hon Chris Evans, Minister for Science, Research and Our representatives were among many others from Tertiary Education, the Office of the Chief Scientist, the across the research sector, as well as from government Australian Research Council, departmental representatives, departments and agencies. and Ministerial advisors. There were several Ministerial changes during the reporting period, with Senator the The Government established a Book Industry Collaborative Hon Chris Evans, the Hon Chris Bowen MP, the Hon Council in June 2012 to examine and advise on the changes Dr Craig Emerson MP, and Senator the Hon Kim Carr all in the publishing industry in Australia. Industry-based holding the post of Minister for Science, Research and expert working groups were formed around key areas Tertiary Education at different times. for reform, such as copyright, data, distribution and scholarly book publishing. The Academy was represented In August 2012 the Academy held discussions with the on the Scholarly Book Publishing Expert Reference then Minister, Senator the Hon Chris Evans, and the Chief Group by Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Webby AM Faha. Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb Ac, about the Academy’s Colin Steele Faha represented the National Scholarly proposal for a survey of the humanities to complement the Communications Forum. The group conducted a survey study undertaken by his office – the Health of Australian of stakeholders and prepared a report on guiding Science report. Both the Minister and the Chief Scientist principles and practical solutions for sustainable models were supportive of the proposal, agreeing that there was for humanities, arts and social sciences scholarly book a need for wider disciplinary mapping beyond the sciences. publications in Australia. A final consolidated report is The aim of the project is to provide a sound evidence expected in the second half of 2013. base to inform decisions about research and teaching in humanities and social science disciplines. The project is The Academy has been actively engaged in the policy reported on in detail below. domain, focusing on research infrastructure needs of the humanities, opportunities for strategic investment In early October 2012 the Academy was advised of an to foster international collaboration, and developments organisational restructure of the Department, which sees in open access. The Academy provided expert advice and the four Academies and the Australian Council of Learned responded to a range of consultation papers, reviews and Academies (ACOLA) now reporting to the Science Policy enquiries, including the following: and Agencies Division alongside research organisations such as CSIRO. • Office of the Chief Scientist, National Strategy for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics The Academy again provided advice to the Cooperative (STEM) disciplines (May 2013) Research Centre programme in identifying independent experts to participate on panels for the fifteenth • Australian Research Council, Excellence in Research for selection round. Australia 2012 Review (April 2013)

New Strategic Research Priorities were announced in June • Book Industry Collaborative Council (Scholarly Book 2012. The new priorities are not discipline-specific, but Publishing Expert Reference Group), Future of Scholarly are organised around five societal challenges. Humanities Book Publishing Survey (February 2013) research will be central to contributing vital understanding about human choices, cultures and behaviour, which • Office of the Chief Scientist, Top Ten Breakthrough underpin each of the challenges. Actions for Innovation (September 2012)

• Australian Research Council, Open Access Policy (September 2012) 16 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

• Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency, The Academy’s current representatives on the Programme Future Focus: Australia’s Skills and Workforce Steering Committee are Professor Mark Finnane Faha, Development Needs Discussion Paper (August 2012) Professor Iain McCalman Ao Faha Fassa FRhistS, and Professor Peter McPhee AM Faha Fassa. The Academy • Australian Research Committee National Research records its thanks to the outgoing members of the Investment Plan consultation paper (August 2012) Committee, Professor Julianne Schultz AM Faha and Emeritus Professor Richard Waterhouse Faha Fassa. ACADEMY RESEARCH PROJECTS Professor Ien Ang Faha chairs the Expert Working Group for the Asia Literacy: Language and Beyond project, and the Securing Australia’s Future Programme Academy has representation on each of the other Expert Working Groups. The Academy is currently collaborating on a series of multidisciplinary research projects with the three other The official launch of the reports of the first two projects Learned Academies, in consultation with the Office of the to complete their work, STEM: Country Comparisons Chief Scientist, to advise the Prime Minister’s Science, and Engineering Energy: Unconventional Gas Production, Engineering and Innovation Council on long-term took place on 5 June 2013 at Parliament House in challenges facing the nation. Canberra. The event was led by Emeritus Professor Lesley Johnson am Faha in her capacity as ACOLA President and The first six projects are: the reports were launched by the Chief Scientist. Copies of the report are available from ACOLA’s website. • Australia’s Comparative Advantage

• STEM: Country Comparisons Mapping the Humanities and Social Sciences in Australia • Asia Literacy: Language and Beyond The Academy is leading an important new project which • The Role of Science, Research and Technology in Lifting will chart Australia’s current capacity in the humanities Australia’s Productivity and social sciences and identify gaps and opportunities for the future by developing a comprehensive understanding • New Technologies and their Role in our Security, of student enrolment trends and teaching and Cultural, Democratic, Social and Economic System research activity. • Engineering Energy: Unconventional Gas Production The project is funded jointly by the Academy, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, the Office of the Chief Scientist, and the Department of Innovation, Industry, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education.

The project is led by a Steering Committee comprised of Fellows of both Academies: Emeritus Professor Graeme Turner Faha (Chair), Professor Mark Western Fassa (Deputy Chair), Professor Joy Damousi Faha Fassa, Professor Stephen Garton Faha Fassa Frhists and Professor Sue Richardson Fassa.

We are grateful for the support of the former Minister, Senator the Hon Chris Evans, who approved funding for the project in late 2012, of Senator the Hon Kim Carr, of the Department, and of the Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb AC, who has been a strong supporter of the project. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 17

Learned Academies Special Projects: which reflects the views of Australians in an ongoing Humanities Connections (2010–12) participatory process. The pilot project conducted focus groups with community members in New South Wales and The Humanities Connections project focuses on improving Victoria and a national online survey to evaluate public connections for the benefit of the Australian humanities perceptions of progress and wellbeing, and identify key research community. Activities this year have supported priorities and values. Professor Joseph Lo Bianco AM FAHA new connections within academe through efforts to was the Academy’s representative on the project’s steering develop national disciplinary and interdisciplinary group. A report will be launched in the second half of 2013. networks and to encourage links between emerging scholars and senior figures. The project also fostered National Scholarly Communications Forum connections between research policy experts and those responsible for humanities development, and with The Academy supported a National Scholarly counterparts in other disciplines, in government, and Communications Forum on 3 May in Canberra on open in industry. access research issues in the humanities and social sciences. Convened by Colin Steele Faha, the forum examined how One of the aims of the Humanities Connections project open access policies can be implemented and supported, is to improve discipline-based advice mechanisms and as well as business models for sustainable open access networks. To that end this year the project funded a infrastructures that take into account the specificities of series of discipline panel meetings at the 2012 Symposium the humanities and the social sciences in relation to serials, (reported earlier). It also supported a strategic meeting monographs and data. of English representatives to progress the formation of a peak body, attended by over 40 people from 22 universities This forum brought together journal editors, policy makers across Australia. The meeting resolved to establish a group from the Australian Research Council and the Department called the Australian Universities Heads of English, which of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, will act to share information about the discipline among Research and Tertiary Education, representatives of higher universities, including curricula, benchmarking, and education peak bodies, experts in open access publishing, interactions between secondary and tertiary level English. licensing and copyright, and humanities and social science researchers. Presentations from the day are available on the COLLABORATIONS AND CONNECTIONS Academy’s website.

Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) Research Alliance

From January 2013 Academy President Lesley Johnson am In June 2013 the Academy became a signatory to a new Faha added to her responsibilities the Presidency of Research Alliance formed in the lead up to the Federal ACOLA for a term of twelve months. With the rotation election to urge non-partisan support for all forms of of the Presidency to the Academy the Executive Director, research. The alliance brings together peak research Dr Christina Parolin, assumed the role of Chair of the organisations in Australia for the first time in order to call ACOLA Secretariat. The Academy takes on the Presidency on politicians to take a coordinated approach to research at an important and busy time for ACOLA, with the new investment and development in accordance with six collaborative research programme, Securing Australia’s fundamental principles. Those principles are: Future, delivering two reports early in the year and with 1. Investing strategically and sustainably additional projects to be added over the course of 2013. 2. Building our research workforce – In addition, ACOLA continues work on its ARC–LASP, getting and keeping the best Making Interdisciplinary Research Work. The Academy is 3. Building a productive system and getting represented on the project by Emeritus Professor Cliff the most out of it Hooker Faha and Professor Elspeth Probyn Faha Fassa. 4. Being among and working with the world’s best ACOLA’s report on research workforce development, Career 5. Bringing industry and academia together Support for Researchers: Understanding Needs and Developing a Best Practice Approach, was released in November 2012. 6. Expanding industry research

This year also saw the completion of the Australia’s Progress in the 21st Century pilot project run by ACOLA and VicHealth for the Australian National Development Index. The Index aims to develop a holistic measure of progress 18 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

PUBLICATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS

HUMANITIES AUSTRALIA This issue of Humanities Australia had the largest distribution list to date, and was sent out to Fellows, The fourth issue of Humanities Australia was produced friends of the Academy, government departments, cultural and distributed in 2013 and featured contributions by institutions, media outlets, the university community, Professor Julianne Schultz am Faha, Professor Kevin university and state libraries, and allied overseas Hart Faha, Professor Ross Gibson Faha, Professor organisations. We are grateful for the continuing support Anne Freadman Faha, Emeritus Professor Brian of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade which Nelson Faha and Associate Professor Rita Wilson, distributes the journal to Australian Embassies and High Professor Margaret Kartomi Faha, Alex Miller Faha, Commissions, and to Qantas for displaying the journal in Professor Barbara Creed Faha, and Emeritus Professor Qantas Club Lounges throughout Australia. An electronic David Frankel Faha fsa. version of the journal is available on the Academy’s website.

In the opening essay Julianne Schultz shared her insights into the development of Australian cultural policy, while the other contributions featured in this issue focused on cultural products of various kinds, from a wide range of periods and places: twentieth-century France and North America; Bronze Age Cyprus; Aceh from the sixteenth century to the present. Many articles also had a material focus on the roles cultural products – whether films, dances, pots or high fashion – play in particular societies at particular times. We were delighted to include two new poems by Kevin Hart and a short story by one of Australia’s leading novelists, Alex Miller. We were also delighted to feature the artwork of Kristin Headlam, an award-winning Australian artist based in Melbourne, on the cover and to illustrate Hart’s poems, which greatly enhanced the issue. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 19

GRANTS AND AWARDS

The Academy welcomed two new members to its Awards McCREDIE MUSICOLOGICAL AWARD Committee in 2013. Professor Joy Damousi Faha Fassa and Professor John Sinclair Faha joined existing member The McCredie Musicological Award celebrates the Dr Robert Young Faha. The Academy is indebted to outstanding career of the late Professor Andrew outgoing members Professor Stephanie Trigg Faha and McCredie Faha, Fellow of the Academy and eminent Professor Kate Burridge Faha for their contributions to musicologist, who greatly influenced the teaching of music the Committee. in Australian universities and schools. The award is funded through the proceeds of a bequest to the Academy by The Awards Committee met in late 2012 and in 2013, to Professor McCredie, and the Medal is presented every four consider applications for the Max Crawford Medal and the years by the Academy to an Australian-based, early-career McCredie Musicological Award (in 2012) and applications musicology scholar, who has contributed to the enrichment for the Humanities Travelling Fellowship and Publication of the cultural life of Australia. The award recognises Subsidy schemes (in 2013). high-quality academic research that contributes towards a deeper understanding of an aspect of the humanities by a MAX CRAWFORD MEDAL general audience.

The Max Crawford Medal recognises outstanding The Academy congratulates the 2012 recipient, Dr Michael achievement in the humanities by young Australian Hooper from the University of New South Wales. scholars currently engaged in research, and whose Dr Michael Hooper’s research of the music of David publications contribute towards an understanding of their Lumsdaine is the first analytical study of this composer discipline by the general public. The award is funded from to be published, and possibly the first monograph on a major bequest to the Academy by Emeritus Professor any Australian composer devoted to the analysis of their R. M. Crawford and is presented biennially. In late 2012, music. His work, The Music of David Lumsdaine: Kelly for the first time, the Academy awarded the Crawford Ground to Cambewarra (Ashgate, 2012), provides new Medal jointly to two candidates, Dr Michael Ondaatje and detail of music that is significant not just to Lumsdaine Dr Lisa Ford. studies, but to everyone with an interest in contemporary Australian music. Dr Ondaatje is Senior Lecturer, Head of History and Director of International Operations in the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Newcastle. His first book, Black Conservative Intellectuals in Modern America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010) became a Top 20 International Bestseller in US history, was recognised with the University of Newcastle Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence, and was shortlisted for the Australian Historical Association’s W. K. Hancock Prize.

Dr Ford, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of New South Wales, has established herself as a leading scholar, working on the socio-legal history of late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century anglophone settler Award certificates and medals at the awards ceremony at the 2012 Fellows’ societies, Australia among them. Dr Ford’s path-breaking Dinner. photo: olga nebot/designed photography book Settler Sovereignty: Jurisdiction and Indigenous People in America and Australia, 1788–1836 (Harvard University Press, 2010), has significantly advanced our understanding of colonialism and state formation. 20 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

PUBLICATION SUBSIDY SCHEME

The Academy’s Publication Subsidy Scheme provides support of up to $3,000 for the publication of scholarly work of high quality in the humanities. The Awards Committee granted seven subsidies in 2013.

RECIPIENT AMOUNT TITLE PUBLISHER

Professor Geraldine Barnes Faha $2,000 The Bookish Riddarasögur: The University Press of Writing Romance in Late Medieval Iceland Southern Denmark

Professor James Donald Faha $2,000 Black Stars: European Modernisms: Oxford University Press African-American Culture in 20th Century Europe

Dr Leah Gerber $2,000 Tracing a Tradition: The Translation of Australian Children’s Fiction Röhrig Universitätsverlag into German from 1945 to Present

Dr Cameron Muir $3,000 Broken Country: The Forgotten Promise of Modern Agriculture Routledge – Earthscan

Associate Professor Mary Roberts $3,000 Istanbul Exchanges: Ottomans, Orientalists and Nineteenth-Century University of California Press Visual Culture

Dr Celeste Rodriguez Louro $2,000 Perspectivas Teoricas Y Experimantales Sobre el Espanol Iberoamericana Editorial Vervuert de la Argentina

Dr Matthew Stavros $3,000 Kyoto: An Urban History of Japan’s Premodern Capital University of Hawai’i Press

HUMANITIES TRAVELLING FELLOWSHIPS

The Humanities Travelling Fellowships enable early-career the Ernst Keller European Travelling Fellowships, made researchers to undertake research overseas, including possible by a generous bequest to the Academy from accessing archives and other research materials and the estate of Professor Ernst Keller Faha, and the David connecting with international researchers and networks. Philips Travelling Fellowship, provided thanks to a Fellowships of up to $4,000 are available to permanent generous bequest to the Academy from David’s mother, resident scholars in Australia working in the humanities. Mrs Joan Philips. The Awards Committee granted seven The Humanities Travelling Fellowships also incorporate Humanities Travelling Fellowships in 2013.

RECIPIENT AMOUNT PROJECT

DAVID PHILIPS TRAVELLING FELLOWSHIP

Dr Ben Silverstein $4,000 Governing Settlers: Race and Labour in Colonial Kenya

ERNST KELLER EUROPEAN TRAVELLING FELLOWSHIPS

Dr Matthew Chrulew $4,000 The History and Philosophy of Zoology and Ethology

Dr Christina Clarke $4,000 Metal Vessels in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East from the Chalcolithic to the End of the Bronze Age: Local Innovations and Inter-Regional Influences

HUMANITIES TRAVELLING FELLOWSHIPS

Dr Amir Ahmadi $4,000 Sacrifice and Eschatology in the Zoroastrianism

Dr Christine Barry $2,500 The Artist as Ethnographer: A Discourse Between Art and Anthropology

Dr Catherine Grant $3,800 Pathways to Sustainability: Assessing the Vitality of Music Genres in Contemporary Cambodia

Dr Ruth Morgan $3,500 Engineers of Empire: British Engineering Expertise in Asia, Australia and Africa THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 21

BILATERAL EXCHANGE PROGRAMMES

The first recipient of the exchange fellowship between the Academy and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Italy) awarded in 2012 was Katherine Aigner (National Centre for Indigenous Studies, Australian National University). The aim of Katherine’s research project was to study Australian Indigenous collections held by the Vatican Museums and other cultural institutions in Italy, exploring the history and context of the collections and the biographies of the collectors. Katherine’s research led to some remarkable discoveries about the role of these collections in the development of palaeoethnology in Italy. In the long-term Katherine’s research will be used to assist in re-connecting Aboriginal source communities with the meanings and interpretations of objects held in the collecting institutions overseas. In October 2012 Katherine Aigner (centre) met with the President of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Marco Zeppa, and International Relations Coordinator Pina Moliterno at their offices in Rome. In 2012–13 the Academy undertook an audit of its photo: courtesy of katherine aigner international activities, including its bilateral exchange agreements, informed by its new International Strategy (see over page). Due in part to ongoing budgetary constraints, Council agreed that the Academy should place less emphasis on individual exchange agreements that fund just one scholar to undertake short-term research projects overseas. Instead, efforts are being channelled into establishing targeted workshop programmes and research networks with a small number of international organisations. We anticipate that this new approach will provide an opportunity for a greater number of Australian humanities researchers to participate in, and benefit from, collaborative research overseas. In light of this new strategy, the Visiting Scholars Programme and the Swedish Exchange Programme – which have attracted fewer applicants for a number of years – have been discontinued.

ACADEMY SUPPORT Part of the Australian collection on display at the Museum of Natural History, Florence. photo: courtesy of katherine aigner The Academy supported a symposium in honour of Bernard Smith Faha, Foundation Fellow and former President of the Academy. The Legacies of Bernard Smith discussed Bernard’s pioneering work in art history and his profound influence on the disciplines of history, anthropology, art history and art criticism in Australia. Co- convened by Professor Jaynie Anderson Faha, Professor Mark Ledbury and Dr Chris Marshall, the symposium was staged over four days at the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney in September and December 2012.

Australian film director Warwick Thornton and Professor Marcia Langtonam give a presentation at the Legacies of Bernard Smith symposium at the Australian Institute of Art History, University of Melbourne in 2012. photo: kit haselden/ sdp media, courtesy of the australian institute of art history, university of melbourne 22 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES

INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY Tim Murray Faha), archaeological heritage management, communities and conservation in Australia (Dr Tracy Following last year’s adoption of the new International Ireland), preparing graduates for professional careers in Strategy to guide the Academy’s international engagement cultural heritage management (Dr Sean Ulm), integrating over the coming years, a part-time International heritage and tourism management at Angkor, Cambodia Coordinator, Dr Meredith Wilson, was appointed to (Professor Richard Mackay), and the social significance of the Secretariat in August 2012. heritage sites (Associate Professor Heather Bourke).

As recommended in the International Strategy, one of the principal tasks of the International Coordinator is to begin to map the international activities of Fellows. This exercise will allow us to update the Fellows’ database and to gather information that can be used to tailor the Academy’s international programmes (international grant schemes, funding for international activities, and bilateral partnerships). An online survey of international activities will be undertaken later in 2013 to gain a more detailed understanding of existing collaborations with specific countries and organisations across the humanities disciplines.

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION Participants at the Sino-Australian Cultural Heritage Forum at the Institute of Building on international partnerships developed Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, October 2012. photo: courtesy of tim murray faha over a number of years, and in particular through the International Science Linkages Programme funded by the Australian Government, several activities involving During the visit Professor Whitlock advanced discussions international collaboration took place in 2012–13. with counterparts at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences regarding the development of a Memorandum In September 2012 the Academy partnered with the of Understanding between our two Academies. British Academy to convene a bilateral workshop in The Memorandum will facilitate an annual series of joint Melbourne to facilitate international policy collaboration workshops over the next three years, commencing with in the areas of research excellence and impact in the a history symposium to be convened by Professor Antonia humanities. The ‘Valuing the Humanities’ joint workshop Finnane Faha at the University of Melbourne in was convened by Emeritus Professor Ian Donaldson Faha October 2013. fba Frse. This very successful workshop was attended by members of Council, Heads of Section and several Fellows. In December 2012 the final report for the International Attending from the British Academy were Dr Robin Science Linkages (ISL)–Humanities and Creative Jackson, Chief Executive and Secretary, and Professor Arts Programme was submitted to the Department. Jonathan Bate cbe fba frsl, Vice President (Humanities). The programme provided vital financial support for The workshop also discussed future collaborations between exchanges between Australian Humanities and Creative our two organisations. Arts scholars and international researchers. More than 1,300 Australian researchers and over 180 international In October 2012 the International Secretary Professor collaborators were directly involved in activities supported Gillian Whitlock Faha led a successful delegation to by the programme. Beijing for a cultural heritage workshop hosted by the Institute of Archaeology (Chinese Academy of Social In March 2013 the final activities funded under the Sciences). Discussions at the workshop focused on a broad ISL–Europe Research Collaboration Fund took place. range of cultural heritage work currently being undertaken This programme was designed to facilitate strategic by Australian and Chinese scholars and practitioners. discussions between Australian and European researchers Topics discussed by the Australian delegation included: in the humanities and social sciences and to identify ‘hidden’ histories and sustainable societies (Professor areas for future cooperation. An Academy delegation THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 23

including Professor Iain McCalman Ao Faha Fassa Affairs, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany. Frhists, Professor Joy Damousi Faha Fassa, Associate Ms Catherine Hodeir, Higher Education Attaché of the Professor Frank Bongiorno and the Executive Director of French Embassy in Canberra, met with the President, the Academy participated in a series of workshops and Emeritus Professor Lesley Johnson am Faha, Professor meetings with UK and European colleagues to discuss open Anna Haebich Faha Fassa, Professor Gillian Whitlock access policy developments, the measurement of impact in Faha, Professor Majella Franzmann Faha, and the UK’s Research Excellence Framework, and humanities Dr Christina Parolin at the 2012 Academy Symposium in and social science contributions to policy and research Sydney. These contacts are essential for maintaining the development under the European Commission’s Horizon Academy’s connections with global humanities and social 2020 funding programme. sciences networks, understanding country-specific research landscapes and opportunities, and exploring possibilities In April 2013 the final report for the ISL–Europe Research for international collaboration. Collaboration Fund programme was submitted to the Department. With modest funding, the Academy UNION ACADÉMIQUE INTERNATIONALE facilitated five activities involving 13 Australian humanities (UAI) and social science researchers from six institutions, and 59 European researchers from 19 institutions. The Academy warmly congratulates Professor Samuel The report provided a series of recommendations to N. C. Lieu Faha fras FRhistS fsa, our current delegate the Government on how best to further strengthen to the UAI, for his election to the Union’s Bureau international collaboration for Australian humanities and (Council) at the 87th General Assembly in Mainz social science researchers. (12–17 May 2013). Professor Lieu will serve on the Bureau for a term of four years. The Academy has been extending its links with the Royal Society of New Zealand, whose mandate now covers the This year the General Assembly gave its assent to a number humanities disciplines. On 15 February 2013, the Academy of changes to its statutes, the most important of which is sent a letter to the President of the Union Académique that the General Assembly will from 2013 onwards meet Internationale (UAI) endorsing the application of the only once every two years. The next General Assembly will Royal Society of New Zealand to become a member of be held in Brussels in 2015. the UAI. The Royal Society of New Zealand was admitted to membership of the Union at its General Assembly in Mainz The Union has published a handbook titled Towards in May 2013. a Century of Support to Major Intellectual Achievements, listing all the current major projects as well short chapters In May 2013 the President Professor Lesley Johnson am on a selection of them. Faha and Dr Christina Parolin held an introductory meeting at the Academy offices in Canberra with the new One project co-sponsored by the Academy of the President of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Professor Humanities was included in the five-year evaluations this Sir David Skegg KNZM OBE FRSNZ and Chief Executive year: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (Project 1). The project Dr Di McCarthy ONZM, to discuss matters of mutual was awarded ‘congratulations’, and a detailed report was interest and possible future collaborations. presented by Professor Margaret Miller Faha detailing the achievements of the Australian contributors. In March 2013, during a visit to the UK funded by the ISL- Europe project, the Executive Director visited the Royal Three projects either sponsored or co-sponsored by the Society of Edinburgh to discuss various aspects of their Academy were included in the Annual Evaluations this operations, including the Young Academy, the bequests and year: Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum (Project 26); Corpus legacies programme and their international engagement. Fontium Manichaeorum (Project 59); Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages (Project 60). All were awarded Over the course of the year a number of productive ‘congratulations’. Project 59 published two volumes in meetings were held with diplomatic staff at several 2012–13, and Project 60 produced a highly impressive Embassies in Canberra, including Professor Oscar Moze, volume that was displayed at the meeting. Science Attaché at the Embassy of Italy; and Laura de la Cruz and Dr Anne Braun, Officers of Scientific 24 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

OBITUARIES

RALPH WARREN VICTOR ELLIOTT am 1921–2012

He often wrote about the defining events and people in his life, and they were of great importance to him. He remembered what happened when, where and to whom; the coincidences and dissonances of life struck him keenly, and one can see the same kind of ability to draw meaning from the particularities of place and specific texts in many of his scholarly writings. His charming autobiography and family history, A Kilted Kraut: The Recollections of Rudolf Ehrenberg, narrated by Ralph Elliott (2006), was published in a collection of his essays, Chaucer’s Landscapes and Other Essays, in 2010 and gives a marvellous insight into what made Ralph tick. A shorter autobiography, ‘One Life, Two Languages’ was published in 2005 in a Japanese collection of autobiographies of scholars of medieval English.

Ralph Elliott’s university career began when he enrolled at the University of St Andrews in 1939. However, his tertiary education was disrupted by war and he did not graduate MA until 1949. At St Andrews he specialised in English Language and Medieval Literature, and came under the influence of J. P. Oakden, whose major work was a study photo: aah archive of Middle English alliterative poetry and whose interests also included the study of place-names, especially those alph Elliott was born Rudolf Ehrenberg in Berlin on of Northern England and Scotland. These interests, and 14 August 1921 and died on 24 June 2012 in Canberra. Oakden’s personal friendship, were undoubtedly what He was a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of contributed most to Ralph’s own academic development, the Humanities and at various times served as its Treasurer as he began his career as a lecturer in English at St Andrews and Deputy Secretary. On both sides of his German and from 1949–52. Jewish family Elliott could, and frequently did, enumerate famous ancestors and relatives, academic, professional and In 1952 Ralph accepted an offer of appointment to a more recently in the creative arts, a list that was topped lectureship in medieval English language and literature by the name of Martin Luther. Ralph himself had a long, at the recently founded University College of North distinguished and eventful life, being caught up as a young Staffordshire, later named the University of Keele, where man in the turmoils of Nazi Germany and the events of he spent the next seven years. He published a number the Second World War. His parents sent him to the United of articles during his Keele years, and became fascinated Kingdom in 1936, where he attended school and began his by the local landscape, which he linked, by means of university studies. During the war, he was interned on the exhaustive studies of its topographic vocabulary, to the Isle of Man and in Canada but returned, was trained as an Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and officer (during which time he won the Sword of Honour, the other poems of the fourteenth-century manuscript an achievement he always described in self-deprecating BL Cotton Nero A. xv. He returned to this strand of literary fashion), and fought on the British side against the detective work in the late 1970s and the early 1980s. Germans in 1945, nearly losing his own life. Later still, in 1959, he moved to Australia and lived, first in Adelaide Towards the end of his Keele years, for both personal and and then in Canberra, until his death. He deposited the professional reasons, Ralph began to look for another medal that he was awarded for his military service in the position, and serendipity played its part when he found Australian War Memorial.1 himself sitting on a bus during a conference next to Colin Horne, then Jury Professor of English at the University 1. See http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/REL34675.002. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 25

of Adelaide and later a Fellow of the Academy (elected Children’s Literature, a subject in which Ralph himself 1972). An offer of a Senior Lectureship at the University of retained a strong interest over the years, and the University Adelaide followed and Ralph came to Adelaide in what was also became a leading centre of the study of the New to prove a permanent move to Australia. With him came Literatures in English. In the meantime Ralph continued his second wife Margaret Robinson, who was amongst to inspire honours students in Old and Middle English and other things a talented musician, and his two children by Old Norse as well as supervising postgraduates in a range his first marriage; Ralph and Margaret subsequently had of topics. Beyond English he also made a huge contribution two children of their own. Ralph’s very happy marriage to to the development of a vibrant School of Humanities of Margaret, whom he called, in a characteristic and deeply which he was twice chairman. felt echo of the words of his ancestor Martin Luther, ‘a good and precious wife’, lasted until his death more than It must have been about this time that Ralph began one of fifty years later. his most endearing habits – that of always having a small teddy bear in the pocket of his jacket. One of the great The English Department at the University of Adelaide pleasures on meeting him, especially in the company of in the late 1950s and early 1960s was a marvellous and children, was to ask this distinguished scholar which of his dynamic place, peopled by exceptionally talented staff and collection of bears he was carrying that day. Always a tiny (one likes to think) excellent students. This was a period of teddy would appear from his pocket – generally not one expansion in the Australian university system, supported seen before, usually carefully wrapped to avoid its being by new government money that came in as a result of the damaged. There must be very few men of such eminence Murray Report (1957), and Ralph Elliott was one of the who can be remembered in this way. new faces made possible in this expansion. He brought with him knowledge of Old and Middle English and several Ralph remained at Flinders until 1974, when he became of the related Germanic languages, Old Norse, Old High the third Master of University House at the Australian German and Gothic. Suddenly the doors to the study of all National University in Canberra, a position he held for these languages and their medieval literatures were opened thirteen years until 1987, when he retired. He once said, to students of English, as they had not been before, and half jokingly, to one of the present writers that he had one of the present writers well remembers her excitement always wanted to do two things, teach in a university on beginning Old and Middle English with Ralph and a and run a hotel, and that being Master would allow him small number of fellow students. His own enthusiasm for to combine the two roles. The position certainly suited medieval English was infectious. We had great fun and Ralph’s gregarious and generous character, and it is learnt in ideal circumstances of small classes and expert generally acknowledged that he invigorated University teaching. Later Ralph offered Old Norse as an extra (it was House and brought it into the centre of Canberra life, not on the formal curriculum) and he, one of the present academic, political and artistic. He remained vigorous after writers and a then tutor, John Anderson, who later took his retirement, and was appointed an Honorary Professor a position at the University of Manchester, used to meet in the English Department at the Australian National in the lunch hour to study the Icelandic language and read University, where he taught classes in Old and Middle extracts from sagas of Icelanders. English and supervised postgraduate students for some years to the point where he was able to boast that he had Ralph was promoted to Reader in English in 1961, but been teaching for fifty years. He also played an important spent only four years at the University of Adelaide before role at the Humanities Research Centre, where he was being appointed Foundation Professor of English and Head Honorary Librarian from 1990–2005 at what is now known of the School of Language and Literature, later the School as the Ralph Elliott Library. Typical of his practical bent in of Humanities, at the University of Adelaide at Bedford bringing knowledge of the English language to the general Park which in 1966 became Flinders University. He always public, Ralph ran a very popular fortnightly talkback liked to joke, with typical linguistic playfulness, that he was linguistics session on local Canberra radio for ten years one of the ‘foundering fathers’ of the University. (Though from 1990. Honours and recognition of his contribution already appointed to the new university, he continued to Australian cultural life came through several awards, before it opened to teach at Adelaide University where the notably his membership of the Order of Australia (1990) other of the present writers first encountered him, with and a Centenary Medal (2001). lifelong effect, as a fascinating and engaging lecturer on the history of the English language.) Under his benign but Although Ralph Elliott was thoroughly at home in the forward-looking leadership, and with his appointment of whole field of English literature, his contribution to some outstanding staff members, the English discipline scholarship in the form of publications was made in three rapidly established a high reputation, including in two major areas, the study of Middle English poetry, specially new areas: Flinders was the first university (as opposed to alliterative poetry, and in particular Sir Gawain and the teachers’ college) in the British Commonwealth to teach Green Knight, in which he followed his mentor Oakden; 26 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

runology, in which he was a pioneer, at least in the English There was no introductory book on runes in the English language; and the writings of Thomas Hardy, especially language when the first edition of Runes was published, and their debt to the Middle Ages. It is unusual among it also predated the advent of a more general interest in the contemporary humanities academics to find such a breadth subject during the 1960s and later that came about largely of competence, and to some extent Ralph’s expertise through the influence of Tolkien’sLord of the Rings and reflects the situation of English Studies in the first half of other works of modern, medievalist fantasy literature and the twentieth century rather more than the specialisations film. Several of Ralph’s more recent lectures and writings of the present time. To some extent also his thorough on runes address the reception of runes and runology grounding in English and Germanic philology allowed him in modern times and show how attuned he was to the to cover an immense amount of ground with assurance and burgeoning public interest in this field. Although now skill, something that also shone through in his teaching his Runes: An Introduction competes with more specialist and was of enduring benefit to his students. writings, it still holds its own as a general survey of the subject, and is particularly good on runic inscriptions from One thing that is striking in Ralph’s writings on both the British Isles. Middle English poetry and the works of Thomas Hardy is his interest in and sensitivity to these literary works’ sense Ralph Elliott was an exceptionally fine scholar, a gifted of place, something that also comes through, as remarked teacher, and an inspiring and effective administrator, but earlier, in his accounts of his own life as a displaced those who knew him will perhaps best remember him as person making a new home for himself several times over. a man of extraordinary generosity of spirit. This quality Landscape and the representation of landscape dominate showed itself in all his roles, as father and husband, his writings and he approaches these subjects through a teacher and supervisor, academic leader and researcher, detailed study of English words, not just any words, but administrator and host. Chaucer’s Host was one of his medieval words, often dialectal words, for various features favourite literary characters and the role of host suited of the landscape. It is easy to see why he was so fond of his love of conviviality, laughter, good food and good wine Hardy, his poetry and his novels set in rural Dorset, easy and his generosity in sharing it with others. However also to see why the Gawain poet fascinated him and why he throughout the part of his academic life known to us, and was always intrigued by place names, old and new. presumably in the years before, nothing apparently gave Ralph more pleasure than encouraging others, urging The third of Ralph’s contributions to scholarship, in the them on to achieve at their best, mentoring, supporting, field of runology, cannot be accounted for in the same contacting other people on their behalf, not just enjoining way. It came about initially for purely practical reasons: them to do well, but actively helping them. One of the as a young lecturer at St Andrews, he was asked to give two present writers owes the publication of his first an Honours course on runes, but discovered there was no book to Ralph’s active intervention and encouragement: introduction to this subject he could recommend to his ‘I have written to the editor of the series. He’s expecting students. So, typical of him, he wrote one and it became a book proposal from you.’ He extended this generous something of a best seller. The first edition of Runes: An help, not just to family and friends, not just to students Introduction came out in 1959, and was reprinted in 1963, and colleagues, but to anyone who swam into his ken 1971 and 1980, the third time being issued in paperback. and seemed to him to deserve encouragement. The many He published a second edition in 1989, bringing the book people who remember Ralph Elliott for the help, support up to date with augmented chapters, especially on the new and advice he gave to them will ensure that this great and and exciting discoveries from the old Hanseatic quarter of good man of ample and generous spirit is not forgotten. Bergen in Norway and other archaeological finds that were unknown when he wrote the first edition. MARGARET CLUNIES ROSS Faha GRAHAM TULLOCH Faha THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 27

ELLIOTT CHRISTOPHER FORSYTH 1924–2012

Christie and that was the name by which Elliott was known within the extended family from then on.

Elliott was educated at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide. The seeds of his Christian faith were sown during his upbringing in a Methodist manse, surrounded by a culture of caring and humanitarian concern. These values were subsequently nurtured and fortified by his involvement during his university years in the Australian Student Christian Movement. It was here that he was exposed to ardent discussions on religious matters. He owed both the blossoming of his faith and the development of his critical faculties to these debates. His inclusive and generous approach to Christianity was an integral part of both his private life and his academic interests: an important proportion, although not all, of his research was to be on topics connected with Christianity and biblical themes.

A student of the charismatic J. G. Cornell, foundation professor of French at the University of Adelaide, himself a disciple of Melbourne’s A. R. Chisholm, Elliott Forsyth photo: courtesy of ivan barko was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours in French in 1947. He completed his teacher training lliott Forsyth was one of the most respected French at the same time, although the Diploma of Education Escholars of his generation. To his academic virtues he was not conferred until 1950. A teacher by vocation, added those of a man of thorough decency and profound he chose to move to Hobart where he was attracted by humanity. His death occurred a few days before Christmas the progressive educational philosophy of the Friends’ 2012, the second in an unprecedented series of deaths School, under headmaster Bill Oates’ leadership. His three within a few weeks of French scholars in the Australian years in Tasmania marked him profoundly, introducing academic community, and one which deprived the him to a deeper understanding of the environment Australian Academy of the Humanities of one of its long- and encouraging him to engage in a variety of activities standing Fellows. which would stand him in good stead for the rest of his life: botany, the love of Australian plants, bushwalking, Elliott Christopher Forsyth was born on 1 February photography and further involvement and indeed 1924 at Mt Gambier, South Australia, the son of the leadership roles in the Australian Student Christian Northern Irish-born Reverend Samuel Forsyth OBE and Movement and the Methodist Church. He also continued Australian-born Ida Muriel née Brummitt, both prominent to pursue his long-standing interest in music (he sang and personalities in their State and both renowned for their played both the piano and the organ) which would enrich contribution to humanitarian causes. his life to the end. During his years in Tasmania, Elliott was known to send his family and friends duplicated Christmas In 1929 Elliott’s parents went to the UK for a year and circulars addressed to ‘Dear Mainlanders’, containing the five-year old was left in the care of his mother’s an account of his activities during the year: he was a family, including his uncle Elliott. With two Elliotts pioneering forerunner of a custom that has spread widely in the household, Elliott Junior chose to be known as since the introduction of desktop printers. Christopher, after Christopher Robin, his then favourite literary character. Christopher was then abbreviated to 28 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

After Hobart and a short period in Adelaide, Elliott Forsyth It was in the second year of his tenure of the La Trobe embarked for postgraduate studies in France. He spent the Chair, in May 1967, that Elliott Forsyth, then aged forty- early ’fifties in Paris as a holder of a French Government three, married. His wife Rona Lynette née Williams was postgraduate scholarship. During his years in France, he an Educational Psychologist who later specialised in continued to nurture his church connections, including an teaching English as a second language. This professional involvement in the Reformed Church in Passy were he sat involvement in education was just one of the many at the feet of one of the great men of the French Reformed interests Rona and Elliott shared during a long and Church, Pastor Marc Boegner. At the Sorbonne, his harmonious life: these included music, international mentors were the eminent Renaissance scholars Raymond travel, bushwalking, hiking and mountaineering. One of Lebègue and V. L. Saulnier. His doctoral research, devoted their common passions was the creation of a wonderful to the study of French Revenge Tragedy in the second architect-designed house on the banks of the Yarra at half of the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth Eltham (the celebrated bush suburb), complete with holes centuries, led to the award in 1954 of a doctorate of the in the roof for the trees to grow through, surrounded by University of Paris, with the very high grade of ‘mention two acres of gum trees and wattles. Elliott’s love of native très honorable, avec les félicitations du jury’. In 1962, a plants went with them to their following residence in completely recast version of this thesis appeared in book North Balwyn, where family legend has it that some South form: La Tragédie française de Jodelle à Corneille (1553–1640): African proteas planted by Rona were ‘accidentally’ left to le thème de la vengeance, Paris, Nizet. This was a major die as they failed to meet Elliott’s criterion of ‘nothing but 516-page contribution to French literary history by a Australian flora’… young master of the art, rather than the outcome of a research training exercise, as so many doctoral theses are. Elliott and Rona started a family in the early seventies. A monument of scholarship, it has become a standard Their two daughters, Alison and Fiona, shared with their reference work, as was demonstrated by the publication parents the enriching experience of travel and study leave, of a second, updated, edition of the book by another mainly in France. Both now live in Melbourne with their distinguished Paris publishing house, Honoré Champion, families. Elliott’s love of teaching extended to the family in 1994. context where he became heavily involved in nurturing his daughters’ musical and academic pursuits. Alison and Elliott Forsyth’s 1968 critical edition of two sixteenth- Fiona remember with affection not only their father’s century biblical tragedies (Saül le furieux and La Famine ou wonderful personal and scholarly qualities but also his les Gabeonites) by Huguenot author Jean de La Taille would idiosyncrasies, such as his long explanations during family also be reprinted thirty years later, when it was selected as meals, his obsession with complicated cameras and lenses, a set text for the French Agrégation des Lettres, a national and his unending preparations to catch the perfect light to competitive examination. A similar distinction would befall take the perfect photo. his 1975 article on Ronsard’s poetic inspiration (‘Le Concept de l’inspiration poétique chez Ronsard’, Revue d’histoire Elliott Forsyth held the La Trobe Chair with distinction littéraire de la France), reprinted in 1997 in a volume of for over two decades, from 1966 to 1987, a period during collected essays on Ronsard’s Les Amours. which he was actively engaged not only in teaching and research but also in university building and in the In the meantime, Elliott Forsyth was appointed to a fostering of the teaching of French both nationally and lectureship in French – and later promoted to a senior in the State of Victoria. Already decorated by the French lectureship – at the University of Adelaide (1955–66), Government with the insignia of Officer of the Order of although he spent some of this period (1963–65) at the the Academic Palms (1971) and subsequently promoted University of Wisconsin in the US, thus broadening his Commander in the same order (1983), he was elected a academic experience. During the same Adelaide period, he Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in undertook an impressive number of professional duties in 1973 and was Convenor of the Academy’s Committee on the South Australian educational system, as well as other Foreign Languages from 1974 to 1991, also serving as Vice- cultural activities such as the presidency of the Alliance President of the Academy from 1975 to 1977. A Fellow of the Française in South Australia, an ideal preparation for his Australian College of Education from 1977, he was awarded future professorial responsibilities. the Centenary Medal in 2001.

Elliott Forsyth was appointed to the Foundation Chair After his retirement from La Trobe University in of French at La Trobe University in 1966, the year before 1988, Elliott Forsyth accepted an advisory brief from the first students enrolled. He was one of the pioneering the University of Melbourne to help run its French founders of a new university, and took an active role in Department during a particularly difficult period. This shaping its future. included a term as a Visiting Professor, and subsequently, in 1999, he was appointed an Honorary Professorial Fellow. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 29

This happy and mutually beneficial association continued In retirement, Elliott Forsyth’s research concentrated once to the end of his life. more on the French sixteenth century, or more precisely on the French Reformation. Pursuing his long-standing In retirement Elliott Forsyth’s love of teaching found interest in the poet Agrippa d’Aubigné, and returning to a ready expression in his courses on French culture at his earlier concordance (1984) of d’Aubigné’s religious the Centre for Adult Education, Melbourne, and, later, poem, Les Tragiques, he spent several years working on a at the University of the Third Age. He also conducted a major study of this poem and its background. This research series of cultural tours of different regions of France for led to the publication, in Paris, by Honoré Champion, in the Centre for Adult Education, as well as for a private 2005, of a substantial book (substantial both in content organisation, Bronz Discovery Tours. These tours extended and in length), La Justice de Dieu: Les Tragiques d’Agrippa over a decade: they only ceased when Elliott reached the d’Aubigné et la Réforme protestante en France au XVIème age of eighty and the insurance company would no longer siècle. One of the major contributions of this work is the cover him for further international tours. The organisers painstaking identification and analysis of d’Aubigné’s at the French end had the profoundest admiration for biblical sources. The book’s central theme is divine justice his in-depth knowledge of the great range of topics and and its interpretation in the light of the persecution of the regions chosen over the years, and his ‘totally infectious’ Protestants in sixteenth-century France. There is no doubt enthusiasm: his tours were always ‘thoroughly researched, that La Justice de Dieu was the crowning of a distinguished presented in an extremely lively way, and always research career, bringing together the main threads of appropriately adapted for groups of intelligent people who Elliott’s life and work. This was recognised by his alma were curious about everything’. mater, the University of Adelaide, when in 2006 it awarded him the degree of Doctor of Letters for his publications on These comments echo the memories of his former the literature of the French Protestant Reformation. students: they remember Elliott’s seriousness of purpose, his total commitment to learning, his intensity, his This account of his life would be incomplete without a rigorous standards but also his unfailing courtesy towards mention of his deep commitment to the educational his students. aspects of the mission of the Church, as well as to human rights issues and the support of Indigenous Australians He remained an active researcher during his tenure of and asylum seekers. In the later years of his retirement the La Trobe Chair, and was particularly productive after Elliott spent an extraordinary amount of his time and his retirement. energy on the promotion of such causes, writing countless letters to editors and members of parliament as well In the 1980s, shortly before the Australian Bicentenary, as formal submissions, some listing concrete practical he became involved in a new research area, covering a proposals on how to handle the influx of asylum seekers. period two centuries younger than his original interests: French exploration in the Pacific. With Jacqueline Elliott Forsyth never enjoyed good health. He did not Bonnemains of the Museum of Natural History in inherit his parents’ physical robustness and was never Le Havre, France, and his colleague from the Academy, interested in competitive sport. He frequently suffered Bernard Smith, Elliott Forsyth became the co-author, as from pneumonia and late in life had a heart condition. well as the coordinating editor and principal translator, of However he never gave in to illness, and was known to give the thoroughly researched and superbly produced Baudin classes at home when he was not fit to go to the University. in Australian Waters: The Artwork of the French Voyage of In many ways his frail appearance was misleading: he was Discovery to the Southern Lands 1800–1804 (Oxford: Oxford an enthusiastic hiker and mountaineer with whom more University Press, 1988). Again the frequently recurring athletic-looking friends found it difficult to keep up. It was words ‘rigorous standards’ are associated with his work, no doubt the triumph of his inner strength, as well as his in the words of Jacqueline Bonnemains. His daughters love of nature and his family, together with his belief in recall that during the preparation of Baudin in Australian our power to make this world a better place, that sustained Waters ‘he immersed himself in this research so much that him, and allowed him to reach the impressive age of eighty- as a family we lived and breathed Baudin for about three eight years. years. In fact, we invented the term “baudinising”, which meant going on long journeys to explore places that had IVAN BARKO Faha a connection with the French explorer’. 30 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

DAME ELISABETH JOY MURDOCH ac dbe 1909–2012

carefully, from the first page to the last, the signatures of all Fellows elected to the Academy since its foundation in 1969. She chuckled with pleasure as she deciphered the names, and paused to report some fact or anecdote about each Fellow – there were a great many of them – whom she remembered personally, before signing her own name on the final page with a firm and clear hand. She’d taken her daily swim that morning and was in good spirits. There was wine from the family vineyard on the lunch table which she urged us to enjoy, as she did herself. When the time for her siesta arrived she sent us off for a tour of the gardens with a cheerful wave.

Dame Elisabeth was a great benefactress not only (of course) to the humanities but to any cause that she considered worthy of her attention. Asked a few years ago if the number of charities she supported was around a hundred, she replied with modest vagueness that ‘That would be rather conservative’ as an estimate. She was deeply committed throughout much of her life to the work of the Children’s Hospital, of which she was President photo: aah archive for twelve years, and of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and the Murdoch Institute for Research into ame Elisabeth Murdoch, legendary philanthropist and Birth Defects. She was a Life Governor of the Royal Dfriend to the humanities, died at her home outside Women’s Hospital, a member of the Deafness Foundation Melbourne on 5 December 2012 at the age of 103. She had of Victoria, a patron of the Epilepsy Foundation, a member been elected to an Honorary Fellowship of the Academy in of the E. W. Tipping Foundation, dedicated to assisting 2009, establishing a new record, unlikely soon to be broken, those with physical disabilities. She was devoted to botany, as the most senior new Fellow ever to be recruited to the and aspects of science: a newly evolved rose and a newly ranks of the Academy. discovered star were both most appropriately named after her. Newly-admitted Fellows, as Dame Elisabeth was aware, are customarily obliged to sign the Academy’s Charter But it was Dame Elisabeth’s commitment to the Book at the first General Meeting after their election or humanities that was most astonishing in its scope, at their next visit to the Academy offices in Canberra. scale, and duration. At the conclusion of a conference In Dame Elisabeth’s case it was however proposed that, in on Philanthropy and the Humanities held in Melbourne recognition of her status, the Charter Book might instead in 2009 (organised by the Academy of the Humanities be brought to her directly for signing. ‘Oh, yes please!’ she in collaboration with the University of Melbourne and exclaimed with delight. ‘Do come to lunch!’ Three days Trinity College) a small book of essays celebrating her after Dame Elisabeth’s 101st birthday in February 2010, extraordinary contribution and that of her family to the a small group of Council members accordingly travelled to cultural and artistic life of Australia was presented to Cruden Farm, Langwarrin, with its famous gardens, the her. Si monumentum requiris, circumspice are the famous home which her late husband, the newspaper journalist words on the tomb of Christopher Wren: if you seek a and proprietor Sir Keith Murdoch, had purchased for her monument, look around. At the University of Melbourne, as a wedding gift in 1928. She welcomed the party warmly two buildings had been named after her, together with and took the Charter Book with a sense of due reverence a superbly equipped art library; the Herald Chair of Fine immediately to the sofa, where she proceeded to read Arts had been established there thanks in large measure THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 31

to the efforts of her late husband, Sir Keith Murdoch; Gallery and Sculpture Park near her home in Langwarrin, the Elisabeth Murdoch Chair of Landscape Architecture and to many other institutions, both large and small. had been substantially funded through the generosity in particular of her son Rupert, who asked that the Chair be Dame Elisabeth never gave without careful research into named in his mother’s honour. At Trinity College, which the precise needs of the organisations she supported, elected Dame Elisabeth to a Fellowship in 2000, she made and without continuing personal engagement with their provision for a quartet of young musicians to reside in activities. It was a constant pleasure for members of the the College and travel internationally, and for the College Bell Shakespeare Company, which she regularly assisted, choir to tour in the United Kingdom, the United States, to know that she would travel to Melbourne for each of and Southeast Asia. At the National Gallery of Victoria, their opening nights; for members of Somebody’s Daughter which has received many superlative bequests in its Theatre Company, founded to help women recently day, ‘no individual’ (in the words of its former Director, released from prison or otherwise marginalised in society, Gerard Vaughan) ‘has consistently contributed more to feel the warmth of her interest in their work, and her through active personal involvement than Dame Elisabeth endorsement of its value. To possess significant wealth Murdoch’. The Victorian College of the Arts, now part of was not in itself, as she well knew, a great achievement. the University of Melbourne, owed its foundation in 1972 To possess the power to disburse that wealth, however, was chiefly to her generosity, and its survival during harsh another matter. To do so judiciously, with heart and mind, financial times to her intervention, when she called the was always for her a supreme privilege, worth living, if you then-Director offering simply to provide ‘whatever is most were lucky enough to do so, a very long life to enjoy. needed’. The Victorian Tapestry Workshop, which she enthusiastically supported, on her hundredth birthday A State Memorial Service for Dame Elisabeth Murdoch commissioned a new work in her honour for display in was held on 18 December 2012 at St Paul’s Cathedral, the Melbourne Recital Centre, whose main auditorium Melbourne. Carved in stone at a high spot on the spire of was appropriately christened, with a celebratory concert, the Cathedral, her benign face continues to overlook the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall. She gave shrewdly and generously city she graced and cultivated. ‘Look, don’t go and make to Opera Australia, to the Australian Ballet and the too much of it’, she remarked when the sculpture was set in Australian Ballet School, to the Royal Botanic Gardens both place a few years ago. ‘It’s not that important.’ in Melbourne and at Cranbourne, to the State Library of Victoria, to the National Herbarium, to the McClelland IAN DONALDSON faha fba frse 32 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

JOHN ALEXANDER SALMOND 1937–2013

Though he began his academic career as a student of Commonwealth history (his first task at Wellington was to lecture on British India), Salmond’s scholarly focus soon changed markedly. He was in the forefront of that notable post-Second World War development in tertiary education in Australia and New Zealand, which saw significant numbers of intending academics attend North American institutions to obtain higher qualifications, in preference to following traditional pathways to Britain and Europe.

Salmond’s doctoral study of the Civilian Conservation Corps was to prove a prelude to a passionate career- long interest in Southern Liberalism and the Civil Rights movement. A number of factors contributed to this interest. By the time he was an adolescent, he had developed a strong commitment to an egalitarian society with liberal values. His experiences of segregation in the American South powerfully reinforced this sense – as he reminisced in his last essay: ‘It was living in Durham … during the early 1960s, the Kennedy years, the King years, the years of the widening struggle to end the photo: courtesy of the salmond family Southern caste system, to overthrow white supremacy that pushed me towards southern history.’ He was deeply ohn Alexander Salmond was born in Dunedin, New moved by John F. Kennedy’s June 1963 speech exhorting JZealand, on 28 September 1937, into a numerous family the nation to affirm the rights of all its citizens; and whose principals had migrated from Scotland towards the he participated in the massive Civil Rights march in end of the nineteenth century, to establish themselves in Washington that late August day in 1963, when Martin farming, business and academic and religious pursuits. Luther King delivered his ‘I have a dream’ speech. The Civil Rights Act followed in 1964. Salmond knew these events John’s educational career was punctuated between to be turning points in modern American history. He high school and university by spells as a slaughterman also understood them to be defining moments in his own and reporter. He graduated BA from the University of history, for he viewed them in a Wordsworthian light: Otago in 1959, and MA in 1961. In this year, he accepted ‘Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was a scholarship to join the Commonwealth Studies very heaven!’ postgraduate programme at Duke University, in Durham, NC. He obtained his PhD in 1964, but having become In a very active scholarly life, as well as many articles and interested in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, instead essays, Salmond produced a long series of monographs of a British Commonwealth topic, his dissertation was and edited collections of essays dealing with labour and on the Civilian Conservation Corps. Returning to New civil rights topics, including A Southern Rebel: The Life and Zealand, Salmond took up a lectureship in History at Times of Aubrey Willis Williams, 1890–1965 (1983); (with Victoria University, Wellington. In 1968, he was appointed Bruce Clayton) The South Is Another Land (1987); Miss Lucy to the History Department in the fledgling La Trobe of the CIO (1988); The Conscience of a Lawyer: Clifford J. Durr University, and promoted to professor in 1970. While and American Civil Liberties, 1899–1975 (1990); Gastonia he spent repeated intervals overseas on fellowships and 1929 (1995); My Mind Set on Freedom (1997); The General sabbaticals, La Trobe remained John’s academic home until Textile Strike of 1934 (2002); Southern Struggles (2004); and his retirement in 2002. (with Timothy Minchin) After the Dream: Black and White Southerners since 1965 (2011). THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 33

At La Trobe University, Salmond oversaw the expansion John Salmond’s academic achievements were recognised of the History Department. He guided generations of by a series of awards and prizes, including American students through the intricacies of United States history; Council of Learned Societies fellowships; the Gustavus he supervised many postgraduate students; and he saw Myers Centre for the Study of Human Rights in the United that the library acquired unusually good resources for the States Award in 1990; election to the Australian Academy study of North American history and culture. (He had a of the Humanities in 1993; and D.Litt. (honoris causa) from vast knowledge of film, and was well-read in contemporary La Trobe University. fiction.) He encouraged the faculty to introduce an ‘Early Leavers’ scheme, to enable people who had not As well as in history, John Salmond was keenly interested matriculated to enter university, which was subsequently in travel, cricket, rugby, AFL football, the spring Racing adopted by other institutions. At the same time, he was Carnival and conviviality. In order to renew links with active in the Australian and New Zealand American Studies distant cousins, he visited Scotland repeatedly; and he Association, and served as chair of the Victorian Fulbright meandered about the United States, as interested in Elvis Selection Committee. Together with his ever-growing and spare ribs as in old textile mills. His acquaintance with reputation as an historian of the modern American New Zealanders, both notable and obscure, was legendary. South, this work contributed largely to the national and (One of his favourite memories was having known Ray international reputation of La Trobe’s History Department Robinson in the slaughter works, whom Bradman said was in the 1980s and 1990s. a better cricketer than he.)

Salmond also played a leading role in the university’s John Salmond was a wonderful story-teller, whether of the administrative work. As well a serving on numerous American South or of the vagaries of the life he loved so committees, he was at various times Head of the History hugely. He is sadly missed by his children, grandchildren Department, Dean of the Faculty, Deputy-Chair of and many friends. the Academic Board, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Acting Vice‑Chancellor. ALAN FROST Faha FRh istS 34 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

JOHN JAMIESON CARSWELL (JACK) SMART ac 1920–2012

Readership at La Trobe University, 1972–76, before moving to the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University, in 1976, where he was Professor of philosophy and the Chair of the Department. He retired in 1985. He was a Visiting Fellow in the Research School of Social Sciences from 1986 to 1999. He moved to Melbourne in October 1999, where he was an Honorary Research Fellow in philosophy at Monash University and regularly attended philosophy seminars there for many years. Among his many distinctions were honorary doctorates from the University of St Andrews, Glasgow and La Trobe, the giving of the Gavin David Young Lectures at Adelaide in 1987, being a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and being made a Companion in the General Division in the Order of Australia in 1990.

Although born in England and educated in Scotland, Smart very quickly became identified with Australia and Australian philosophy. The directness and informality of Australia and Australian philosophy appealed to him and when the Philosophy Programme (formerly department) photo: aah archive in the Research School of Social Sciences decided to name an annual lecture in his honour, he asked the Programme ohn Jamieson Carswell (Jack) Smart was born on to change the title from the ‘J. J. C. Smart Lecture’ to the J16 September 1920, in Cambridge, England. He studied ‘Jack Smart Lecture’. His publications were marked by great philosophy and mathematics at the University of Glasgow, clarity and an unusual lack of pretension for someone of graduating with the MA in 1948. His career as an his eminence, but it was the kind of clarity and lack of undergraduate was interrupted by service in the British pretension that is only possible for someone with a deep Army, 1940–1945, serving mainly in India and Burma. understanding of difficult issues. He had a remarkable He took the BPhil at the University of Oxford in 1948, was ability to cut straight to the core of a philosophical problem a Junior Research Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and make a seminal contribution in surprisingly few words. 1948–1950, before being appointed Hughes Professor of Philosophy at the University of Adelaide. He was very His most famous article, ‘Sensations and Brain Processes’, young (29) for a chair and his appointment was part of first published in 1959, reshaped the philosophy of mind Adelaide’s policy of making bold appointments of early- and is one of the most reprinted articles in analytical career scholars to chairs. This is a high risk policy but it philosophy. In it he defended and developed the view that paid off in more than spades in Smart’s case. During his sensations are brain processes. Later he extended the time at Adelaide (1950–72), he made enormously influential view to encompass intentional states like belief and desire contributions in four areas of philosophy: the philosophy and mental states in general. Nowadays some form of of time, the philosophy of science, normative ethics and materialism is a very widely accepted position, but in the the philosophy of mind. The impact of his contributions 1960s and 70s the view was extremely controversial and can be gauged by the fact that during this time he accepted was known in some quarters as the ‘Australian heresy’. visiting professorships at Princeton (1957), Harvard (1963) (David Armstrong at Sydney also played a very important and Yale (1964), and later at Stanford (1982). Despite a role in developing the view and together they influenced a great affection for Adelaide – the city and the university – generation of Australian philosophers.) in 1972 he felt it was time to move on and he took a THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 35

In the philosophy of science Smart was one of the most utilitarianism’s guiding focus on outcomes, set the agenda influential supporters of realism about the sub-microscopic for much of the debate over utilitarianism and more particles of physics. Electron theory is not merely a device generally consequentialist views in ethics. for predicting experimental results, rather electrons are the causes of the results; otherwise, Smart argued, the results Philosophy for Smart was much more than something he would be some kind of enduring miracle. Smart viewed was quite unusually good at; it structured his life. But it time as a fourth dimension akin to the three spatial ones – was never all his life. He had a great affection for family objects are extended in time as well as in space. He saw this and friends – and then there was cricket. He was known view as the only one to hold in the light of relativity theory to check the Test score (discreetly, on a small radio held to and was impatient with those philosophers who think his ear) during philosophy seminars, and he remarked that that one can sensibly philosophise about time without due he realised he had become an Australian when he found deference to what physics has to say. In normative ethics himself barracking for Australia against England in cricket. he defended act utilitarianism: the right act is that act (He became an Australian citizen in 1976.) out of those available to the agent that would produce the most happiness (or, better, has the greatest expectation His first wife Janet Paine died in 1967. He married of doing so). His criticism of rule utilitarianism – the view Elizabeth Warner in 1968. He is survived by Elizabeth, and that the right act is the act in accord with the rule the his children Helen and Robert from his first marriage. following of which would produce the most happiness – as involving a kind of ‘rule worship’ inconsistent with FRANK JACKSON Ao Faha Fassa fba iip 36 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

JEFFREY EDSON SMART ao 1921–2013

Smart’s selection of his subjects was not a postmodernist act of aesthetic indifference but rather the opposite, the result of inspiration or, in his words, an act of enchantment. Commenting on his process of work, he noted a few years ago:

Many of my paintings have their origin in a passing glance. Something I have seen catches my eye, and I cautiously rejoice because it might be the beginning of a painting. Sometimes it is impossible to stop and sketch there because it was seen from a train or from a fast moving car on the autostrada. And it does happen that when I get back to the place, I wonder what on earth it could have been that enchanted me – it wasn’t there. Enchantment is the word for it.

Many of Smart’s paintings can be traced back to tiny lucid and spontaneous sketches, little visual notes made by the artist while sitting in the front seat of his car. Frequently these jottings capture the kernel of the flash of inspiration, photo: courtesy of sasha grishin that initial sense of enchantment with the scene, later they become the aide-memoire from which the larger drawings and painted studies develop. In this, Smart is he death of Jeffrey Smart on 20 June 2013, a month an old fashioned sort of artist, where draughtsmanship is Tshort of his 92nd birthday, marks the end of an epoch the basis of his art, the spontaneous sketch is rigorously in Australian art. developed into a formal drawing which then may serve as a basis for a series of oil studies. It is only when the His was a unique talent – he made memorable, enigmatic compositional structure has been satisfactorily resolved pictures about an urban reality which was common to that he moves to a final composition on a full scale canvas, the experience of most Australians. As an artist, Jeffrey where the battle with glazes and intensities of light is Smart is difficult to locate within either an Australian fought out. The process of paring down the structure of or an international tradition of art. While parallels may the painting until it functions through its basic formal be drawn with both Edward Hopper and Balthus, two elements is central to his practice. artists whom he admired, he was an artist of a very different temperament. His pictures are unmistakably and Smart’s selection of imagery remains striking and unforgettably his, they do not remind you of someone remarkable. This exceptionally well travelled artist, who else’s work, they maintain a certain autonomy within spent the past several decades living in a tranquil Tuscan our imagination. His art champions a modern urban valley, about thirty kilometres outside of Arezzo, in a iconography – autostradas, road signs, factory facades, villa opening up to a vista of panoramic splendour, found deserted airports, taxis ranks – motifs which recur inspiration in light on a concrete factory wall, peeling throughout his oeuvre. posters on building site hoardings, expressways, airport runways and bus depots. One could argue that Jeffrey Smart invented a new iconography of urban decay through which to convey, in an effective and subtle manner, his commentary on the human condition. THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 37

Jeffrey Smart was born in Adelaide, where he received his these concerns in itself is unique to the practice of Smart, training at the Adelaide Teachers College and the South but in combination they are not encountered in the work Australian School of Art and Crafts. He subsequently of any other contemporary artist, and this gives his work a taught in schools in South Australia and commenced certain solitary existence. his long exhibiting career. In the late 1940s in Europe he studied at La Grand Chaumière and later the Académie Jeffrey Smart was a man of enormous generosity of spirit, Montmartre under Fernand Léger, returning to Australia humanity, humour and subtlety. Once when staying with in 1951. He was to remain in Sydney until 1965 where he him and his partner, Ermes De Zan, in Tuscany, he asked taught and exhibited and contributed to the Australian me to accompany him to the Arezzo industrial estate Broadcasting Corporation children’s radio programme where he wanted to sketch a large and rather bleak wall of a The Argonauts, under the name of Phidias. factory seen from behind a roadway. He asked me to take a few photographs of the scene that he could use as an aide- He was first taken to Italy as a child by his parents and memoire from which his tiny sketches could be developed subsequently visited Europe on many occasions before into larger drawings, then into oil studies and the final settling permanently in Tuscany in 1971. He once famously painting. Later, when he examined my photographs, in observed: ‘I am a European with an Australian passport.’ exaggerated desperation he puffed out his cheeks, like Smart was a staunchly figurative artist who viewed the those of the pet pugs which kept him company, and path to abstraction as a path to artistic suicide. However solemnly announced that I had missed the main point – he was equally opposed to artists who simply copied the effects of light on the factory wall. His comment was picturesque scenes and engaged in a reproduction of well made; what he painted, no photograph can ever nature in their art. There is a particularly apt aphorism by capture, it was his timeless, distilled vision of modern Goethe that to me explains Smart’s approach to art. Goethe existence bathed in an eternal light. wrote: ‘The beginning and end of all literary activity is the reproduction of the world that surrounds me by the means Smart was the subject of numerous monographs and of of the world that is in me.’ a number of retrospective exhibitions, the most recent, Master of Stillness: Jeffrey Smart Paintings 1940–2011, Objects in Smart’s paintings appear more like props or completed its national tour earlier this year. He was visual metaphors, rather than constituting the content of appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2001 for the work. Light as a mystical, spiritual and physical force his service to the visual arts, and elected as an Honorary is a key concern in his art, as are questions of irony and Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities ambiguity. A recurring problem is how to express extreme in 2008. individuality through abstracted generality and the impersonality of type and how to express intense emotion, SASHA GRISHIN am Faha yet contain it within a severe geometric structure. None of 38 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

PETER DANIEL STEELE 1939–2012

English at the University of Melbourne, becoming a Tutor in the English Department from 1966 to 1971. In 1972 he was appointed to the lecturer position of Lockie Fellow in Australian Literature and Creative Writing. He did not teach the latter craft, however.

Peter Steele was ordained as a priest in December 1970, while continuing his graduate research and his University teaching, with great originality, wit and distinction. At the same time he was writing the poems which were to become his first collection, Word from Lilliput (1973).

At once brilliant, industrious and extremely self-effacing, Steele pressed ahead to write his doctoral thesis on Swift, and the subsequent book, Jonathan Swift: Preacher and Jester (1978). Published by Clarendon Press, this critical study reaches deep into the creative divisions in the mind of that passionate satirist. It is a book of great empathetic distinction.

Steele went on teaching in the English Department at photo: courtesy of chris wallace-crabbe Melbourne, ultimately coming to hold a Personal Chair. Except for six years as Provincial of the Jesuit Order in y dear friend Peter Steele died on Wednesday 27 June Australia, he remained a member of this Department until M2012, after a long battle with cancer. Remaining very recently. In his acknowledgements for the Swift book strong until very close to the end, he managed to attend he gave particular thanks to Vincent Buckley and Evan the launch of his last book, Braiding the Voices: Essays in Jones, fellow poets, who were also his closest friends in the Poetry, just sixteen days before his death. There was a deep Department at the time. satisfaction in this. However, the eighteenth century did not hold him long Steele grew up in Perth. Born on 22 August 1939, he went in its toils: of his next two prose books, one is a study to a Christian Brothers school, and had felt the religious of poetry, especially that of the Americans, while the calling by the age of fifteen. He confesses himself to have other is The Autobiographical Passion: Studies of the Self been a boyhood bookworm, early into the way ‘romance is on Show (1989). Show is the key word here, given Steele’s the stage at which we are intrigued by anything presented longstanding fascination with the performative, the for learning’. His ‘romance’ included the local libraries in ostensible, the ludic; he has even written that ‘God’s folly Perth. Such avid reading laid the ground for his becoming is to be where fools are’. The author of a monograph on one of Australia’s most brilliant poets and critics: as Steele’s work points to his focus on the jester, whether that verbally dazzling as he was modest. japing figure be wise or intriguingly foolish.

He entered the Society of Jesus in 1957. As his brother Jack But Steele was a committed poet, one whose style, at once was to say much later, Peter had always been ‘a man with dense and light, resembles nobody else’s. From his early a plan’. Coming east, he began to train with the Jesuits Word from Lilliput through at least five more volumes these who, in his phrase ‘knew what they were about’. Among the poems took modernist allusion and passionate irony in experiences of his novitiate, he always remembered long new directions, presided over by his Christian belief, of hikes around Melbourne’s north-east in hobnailed boots. course, but also by the genial spirits of Montaigne and During these years he completed a First Class degree in Cervantes. His last two collections, however, would offer THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 39

rather less ludic elasticity, more direct engagement with discourse he touched bears his own ardent, uniquely faith and with the Biblical text; both A Local Habitation: playful stamp; his depth finds itself in intellectual speed, Poems and Homilies and The Gossip and the Wine were in a whole archipelago of analogies. It seems apt to say that published in 2010. he was an intellectual diagonalist, yet devout at the same time. As colleague and friend, he was invaluable: a strong, Steele had been Rector of Campion House in Kew since courteous gentleman, ever fond of a pizza at Papa Gino’s 1973, but his pastoral administration came to involve in Carlton. him far more deeply when he was appointed Provincial Superior of the Society of Jesus in Australia. He filled Returning to his poems, the beautiful 2003 collection, this demanding role from 1985 to 2000. On the academic Plenty, draws its readers into the tantalizing realm of side, he held Visiting Professorships at the Universities ekphrastic poetry, a country whose poems have their of Alberta, Loyola, Chicago and Fordham, New York; origins in works of visual art. This kind of parallel, or his lasting overseas connection was with Georgetown metaphorical, cousinage occupied him deeply in his University, where he taught in 1994 and again from 2006 latter years, so that Plenty was followed by a second to 2008. gorgeous book in the same vein. The Whispering Gallery: Art into Poetry was published in 2006, as the result of In Expatriates: Reflections on Modern Poetry (1985) Steele observation and speculation in the National Gallery of had been obliged to share the reflections with his burden Victoria collections. Rembrandt and Poussin, Senbergs and of responsibilities as Provincial. It consists of twelve essays Cossington Smith, William Blake and Walter Burley Griffin, on single poems, eight of them American; one of the other are some of the fifty-five artists shown here in colour poets was Scottish, one Argentine and one Polish, the great plates, with fresh poems beside them. What is more, these Zbigniew Herbert. The remaining poet, represented by his poems display the very height of Steele’s invention. ‘Quixotic Sestina’, was one Michael Kent, who turned out to be Steele himself, that quixotic thinker, up to his tricks. White Knight with Bee Box: New and Selected Poems proved to be a resting point aligned with the onset of Steele’s Among the subjects he taught at Melbourne, Steele final illness, but two years later, inThe Gossip and the invented a wide-ranging course on cities, one on travel Wine, he turned to lyrics that were springing directly writing, and shared with Chris Wallace-Crabbe a ‘Studies from the gospel story: directly yes but, as ever, diagonally. in Autobiography’ seminar; it ranged from St Augustine’s As suggested earlier, he wrote prose and poetry to almost confessions to such disparate folk as Hal Porter and the very end. I think sadly of the valedictory poem which Jean-Paul Sartre. This proved to be the prelude to a new begins ‘Monday is Day Oncology…’. critical work, The Autobiographical Passion: Studies in the Self on Show (1989), an archipelago of fertile chapters on The reputation of Peter Steele burgeoned gradually, given various writers’ ‘fascination with the grit and rondure such versatility combined with innate modesty, but his of experience’. The book begins with Boswell, ‘The writing changed many expectations about what Australian Autobiographer as Scapegrace’, branching out to the literature has to offer. In this country, but also in the writings of many self-writers and free spirits. United States and elsewhere, his influence flourishes in many corners, on many campuses. Moreover, his creative Steele’s creative work fed constantly back into his energy was unabating. He was, in my judgment, the most innovative teaching, much as his recent volume of homilies original of men. interwove with his continuing life as a priest. He taught sparkling new courses, amid much else. Every kind of CHRIS WALLACE-CRABBE Faha 40 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

ROBERT K. WEBB 1922–2012

ANU. He is a creative and diligent adviser and contributor to the Australian-based Oxford Companion to the Age of Romanticism and Revolution, Webb was a reviewer of the ANU Law School and he is to chair the Humanities/Social Science review panel for the Research School of Social Sciences in the Institute of Advanced Studies.

In a letter to the Academy accepting his appointment as an Honorary Fellow in 1995, he wrote ‘I hope that my future work, in or out of Australia, will continue to justify the confidence the Academy has so unexpectedly placed in me. It is certainly true that my experiences in Australia over the past decade have been central in shaping most of what I have done in that period.’

The Academy is pleased to be able to reproduce an obituary written by one of Professor Webb’s American colleagues, Professor Sandra Herbert of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Professor Herbert relates that ‘…through Bob I was able to attend an academic meeting in Australia where I met David Oldroyd, an Australian scholar who, with photo: courtesy of the american historical association Bob, was very helpful to me as I wrote my book on Charles Darwin as a geologist.’ Robert K. Webb was an American historian who developed strong associations with Australia. His election citation gives some insight into the strength of these connections: obert Kiefer Webb, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, was We commend to the Council of the Academy Robert Kiefer born in Toledo, Ohio, on 23 November 1922, and died in Webb (b. 1922) for an Honorary Fellowship. He succeeds Washington, D.C., on 15 February 2012. In a long life he our late Honorary Fellow, John Clive, as the leading ally of contributed in major ways not only to his own field of Australian historians and the main proponent of Australian British history but also to the integrity and vigor of the historical scholarship in the United States and, indeed, in academic profession as a whole. Great Britain. His authority, integrity, great personal charm and wide acquaintance make him a powerful advocate for Recognised from his youth for his academic brilliance, Australia in American and British scholarly circles. Bob Webb enrolled as an undergraduate at Oberlin College. As for so many young men of his generation, his studies […] He knows more, as John Clive did, than most were interrupted by war. Bob served in the U.S. Army Australians about Australian literature and films. Webb Artillery from 1943 to 1946, rising to the rank of master is a frequent visitor to Australia. He was a member of the sergeant. He said later that he learned in the army that he committee which scrutinised the Australian Research was good at deploying people and resources. In May 1945 Council’s support for research in European History while stationed in the Philippines, he wrote to Howard in Australia. He duly visited most of the pre-Dawkins Robinson at Oberlin College contemplating his own future universities and helped produce a courageous, sustaining as an historian, speculating that, while he then knew U.S. report. He has participated in seminars and conferences history best, he might end up at Harvard studying 19th- on topics ranging from the history of philosophy, history century Great Britain, possibly something to do with of law to the history of medicine at, to my knowledge at church history. At war’s end Bob returned to Oberlin and least, the universities of Western Australia, Melbourne and took his AB summa cum laude in 1947. For graduate school, THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 41

he chose Columbia over Harvard, prompting his Oberlin Webb served as an instructor of history at Wesleyan professor Frederick Artz, a Harvard alumnus, to quip that University from 1951 to 1953. He then moved to Columbia ‘I feel like a Baptist preacher whose daughter has gone on University where he remained for 17 years, during some of the stage.’ (It is worth noting that Bob’s family background that time chairing the university’s famed Contemporary was Baptist.) Bob Webb received his PhD from Columbia in Civilization Programme. From 1968 to 1975 Webb was 1951, having spent two years at the University of London editor of the American Historical Review, then still published partly assisted by a Fulbright Fellowship. at the AHA’s headquarters in Washington, D. C. (Bob’s work on AHA projects continued; in 1995 he contributed the Robert Webb concentrated on British history from the section on ‘Britain and Ireland Since 1760’ to The American 1780s through the end of the 19th century. One overriding Historical Association’s Guide to Historical Literature.) problem that engaged him was explaining the relative From 1975 to 1992 Bob Webb was professor of history at stability of the British state during a period of revolutions the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and served in France. In his first book, The British Working Class Reader, in a number of critical administrative positions, including 1790–1848: Literacy and Social Tension (1955), Webb sought chair of the history department and, for a time, acting to understand ‘the challenge which a literate working class vice chancellor for academic affairs. During his career, presented to its betters.’ Bob received two Guggenheim fellowships, and was for many years a member of the Educational Advisory Board In Webb’s subsequent work he explored the British of the Guggenheim Foundation. During his career Bob tradition of religious dissent. He was interested in was also active in the national leadership of the American studying the British non-conformists on their own terms. Association of University Professors. He also saw their movement as providing a safety valve for releasing social tensions. In this Webb’s work was The University of Maryland, Baltimore County was a young congruent with that of the French historian Élie Halévy. school, founded in 1966, and most of its history faculty As an indication of his high regard for Halévy, Webb were then in their thirties. Bob was half a generation translated his Era of Tyrannies: Essays on Socialism and War older than the majority of his peers. Somewhat to our into English (1966). Among the English nonconformists initial surprise, Bob took up his new position with Bob Webb settled on the Unitarians for his own work. zeal, investing his considerable energies in promoting He was drawn to them by a shared sense of the value of the history department and the university. Bob traded rational enquiry and because he noted the prominence of off chairing responsibilities with Jim Mohr, and then Unitarians among social reformers in 19th-century Britain, passed the leadership torch to John Jeffries and Jim as, for example, in the Martineau family. Grubb. Intellectually he was a ready resource to all of us. ‘Bob Webb taught the faculty’, as Victor Wexler once put Webb’s biography of one of the members of that family it. Bob was a loyal and generous colleague who could be is still a standard work on the subject: Harriet Martineau: counted on for a letter of reference, a witty anecdote, or A Radical Victorian (1960). Over the course of the next a word of encouragement or consolation, as the occasion 40 years, Bob published extensively on the English required. Throughout his career Bob aided other scholars in Unitarians, including numerous individual contributions their work, most recently Linda Lear as she was writing her to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Bob’s last biography of Beatrix Potter. To the end of his life Bob was public lecture, again touching on the Unitarians, was a regarded with admiration and affection by his colleagues. talk he gave in 2010 entitled ‘The Very Long Eighteenth Bob is survived by his wife Patty Webb, their daughters Century: An Experiment in the History of Religion’. Emily Martin and Margaret Pressler, and six grandchildren. Bob’s contributions to the field of British history were An annual ‘Robert K. Webb Lecture’ has been established honored in 1992 by the volume Religion and Irreligion in by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which is Victorian Society: Essays in Honor of R. K. Webb edited by part of a Humanities Forum series open to the public. R. W. Davis and R. J. Helmstadter. SANDRA HERBERT In 1968 Webb published Modern England, which became the UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY standard textbook for a generation of students. In 1980, with his former Columbia University colleague Peter Gay, This obituary first appeared in the American Historical Association’s Bob published Modern Europe Since 1815, a thoughtful and November 2012 issue of Perspectives on History. It is kindly reproduced here with permission from Professor Sandra Herbert and the American elegantly written survey of the subject. Historical Association. 42 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13

TREASURER’S STATEMENT

The Abridged Audited Financial Statements for 2013 appear EXPENDITURE on the following pages. An operating surplus of $60,790 is reported on the Statement of Income and Expenditure, The Academy has continued its careful management of with an overall surplus of $223,987, including unrealised resources. Expenditure for activities has increased from the capital gains on investments of $163,198. previous year reflecting the increased income available to support international participation, the commencement of INCOME the Mapping the Humanities and Social Sciences in Australia project, activities associated with LASP-Humanities TheHigher Education Support Act (2003) payment received Connections and additional activities outlined in this in January 2013 reflected the consolidation of Grant-in-Aid Annual Report. The Academy invested $50,000 of its and the Supplementary Grant into one indexed payment reserves as its contribution to the Mapping the Humanities as previously announced in the May 2012 Federal Budget. and Social Sciences in Australia project. In June 2012 the Academy received a one-off grant from the Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Despite the increase in activities, employment costs Science, Research and Tertiary Education to support continue to be maintained at previous levels, which is a international activities. Final payments for the Australian credit to the staff in the Secretariat. Costs reflected against Research Council Learned Academy Special Project (ARC– publishing this year show a return to more realistic levels, LASP) – Humanities Connections were received in December with the low figure reported in 2012–13 due to publication 2012. Income was also received from the Australia Council dates falling across financial years rather than a significant of Learned Academies for the Academy’s role in developing reduction in costs. A marginal increase in administration the Securing Australia’s Future programme, and its expenditure is reported, reflecting the increase in utilities, support for research project three: Asia Literacy: Language rent and the continuing upgrade to computer facilities in and Beyond. the Secretariat.

ACADEMY INVESTMENTS The Academy’s balance sheet continues to show improvement, recording an end-of-year result of $980,242 – The Council continues to work closely with our investment up from $756,255 from the previous financial year. Positive managers, JBWere, to ensure that the investment strategy trends in the net asset position have been recorded for is appropriate to the Academy’s needs and circumstances, several years in succession, although we are yet to return to particularly with the continuing unease in global markets. pre-financial crisis levels, indicating the need for continued The Academy’s investments increased in value through careful management of resources. the year, reflecting a more stable stock market – a marked change to the previous year. Investment income shows Prudent management of resources has provided a sound a decrease against the prior year, reflecting lower interest operating basis for the coming financial year, during which rates for term deposits, which are included in the the Academy will undertake activities to again advance Academy’s diversified investment portfolio. scholarship in the humanities for the benefit of the nation.

PROFESSOR PAMELA SHARPE FAHA HONORARY TREASURER THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 43

ABRIDGED FINANCIAL REPORT 44 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13 a THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF THE HUMANITIES

ANNUAL REPORT 2012–13