ANNUAL REPORT CONTENTS Mission & Vision 2 From the Chairman & CEO 3 2010 in Review 4 People 6 • Appointments 6 • Visitors 10 Learning & Teaching 12 • Postgraduate 12 • Undergraduate 12 • Internships 13 • Summer School 15 Events 16 Think Tank 20 Research 22 • Publications 22 • Opinion Survey 23 • SSMART Workshops 23 • Research Grants 24 Postdoctoral Fellows 25 American Review 27 Media & Communications 28 • Media 28 • Online 30 About Us 31 • Board of Directors 31 • Council of Advisors 32 • International Academic Advisory Committee 33 • Centre Staff 34 Financial Report 36 Partners & Supporters 38 The Year Ahead 40 The United States Studies Centre reserves the right to make alterations to any information contained within this publication without notice. The UnITed States studies cenTRE Annual Report 2010 1 MISSION & VISION Our mission is to increase understanding of the United States in Australia and around the world. Spanning the study of politics and policy, economics and business, and culture and society, the core activities of the Centre include: • Postgraduate degrees and undergraduate teaching • Academic research and research training • Policy analysis and commentary • Business leadership forums • Public education and community outreach The Centre’s ambition is to become the leading institution outside America for the study of the United States. Our principal objectives are to: • Undertake analysis, research and teaching of the highest quality • Be the international hub for the study of the United States • Build networks with preeminent American institutions and scholars US Studies Centre: from 2006 to today The United States Studies Centre was established by thousand students and hundreds of visitors, experts and the howard Government in 2006 with $25 million in scholars have passed through its doors. support, to foster greater understanding of the United The Centre has held major conferences and workshops States in Australia and around the world. on a wide array of issues of importance to Australia and After a national competition organised by the American the US, ranging from defence and security cooperation Australian Association, the University of Sydney won and the rise of emerging Asia to climate change, the right to form the US Studies Centre in partnership urban planning, ethical business, multiculturalism and with the AAA. inequality. Today the Centre also receives financial support from The Centre’s experts and visitors are regular the University of Sydney, the nSW Government and contributors to media analysis of American affairs, with multinational corporations, and generates additional its flagship publication American Review offering global revenues from its teaching and research. perspectives on the US. The Centre held its first national Summit in late 2007, The Centre’s staff of more than 50 supports a wide before enrolling its first postgraduate students and ranging academic program of teaching and research appointing founding CeO Professor Geoffrey Garrett as well as a burgeoning think tank program bringing early the following year. together thought leaders and policy makers to address critical 21st century issues facing Australia and the US. The Centre’s headquarters on the University’s historic Science Road were also opened in 2008. Since then a 2 The UnITed States studies cenTRE Annual Report 2010 FROM THE CHAIRMAN & CEO represented a major leap forward in the The Centre’s Think Tank grew rapidly with the first year 2010 scale, scope and quality of the activities of the three-year Dow Sustainability program underway, of the United States Studies Centre. The Centre now featuring partnerships with Stanford University on has three major streams of work. First, it is an academic water management, AnU on climate-energy-water institution with thriving undergraduate, postgraduate and tradeoffs, and the Soil Carbon Initiative with the Faculty postdoctoral programs, supported by a team of research of Agriculture at the University of Sydney. With Dow and academics spanning the humanities and social sciences. Alcoa support, the Centre hosted its first major conference outside Sydney. The City of the Future Conference in Second, the Centre is Australia’s ‘go-to’ resource for media Brisbane was held in collaboration with the Global Change analysis and commentary on all aspects of contemporary Institute at the University of Queensland. The Centre America. Finally, the Centre is playing an increasingly was also a major player in G’Day USA 2011, with leading important think tank role in proposing policy solutions on roles in day-long conferences on the Future of Asia and issues of key importance to Australia and the US, from Sustainable Cities in January in Los Angeles and Boston. the future of relations between the two countries to the myriad sustainability challenges they both face. As you will read in the rest of this report, 2010 was a great year for the Centre. To old friends of the Centre, we With a doubling of office size in our upcoming move into say thank you. To new friends and associates, please get the historic Institute Building on the University campus, involved and make 2011 even better. expanded funding from the nSW Government, and Australian Government support for a major new project on the 21st Century Australia-US Alliance, the future for the US Studies Centre looks secure and strong. Malcolm Binks AO Professor Geoffrey Garrett The Centre’s undergraduate program expanded Chairman Chief Executive Officer considerably in 2010, teaching more than 400 students, with 800 expected in 2011 and an honours year to start in 2012. Our new study and intern program in Washington, DC exceeded expectations and a second program in Los Angeles is to be added in 2012. This year the Centre also executed its first set of research training workshops for Australian PhD students and early career researchers, taught by some of the US’s finest social scientists. In 2010 the Centre also cemented its position as the Australian media’s main resource on the US, increasing our media exposure by more than one third. Our experts authored 46 opinion articles in the major newspapers, a 60 per cent increase on last year. Meanwhile Centre interviews in major prime time TV news and analysis programs such as ABC’s 7.30 Report and Lateline, SBS World news and Sky Agenda nearly doubled. Meanwhile the Centre’s flagship publication American Review is delivering distinctive global perspectives on the US by world-class thinkers and writers, with a new iPad platform launching in 2011. The UnITed States studies cenTRE Annual Report 2010 3 2010 IN REVIEW A year of growth and recognition People In a first for the Centre Australian research students and early career researchers were offered the opportunity to As the Centre’s global reputation grows, so too does its learn about cutting-edge research methods in the social staff and affiliates, and in 2010 the Centre made more sciences with a series of SSMART (Social Science Methods, than a dozen outstanding appointments including: Analysis and Research Training) workshops. These sessions • Following his retirement after more than a decade as exposed students to the best of America’s esteemed President of the Australian Law Reform Commission, social scientists including harvard’s Bruce Western and American-educated Professor David Weisbrot Stanford’s Barry Weingast, as well as the Centre’s own joined the Centre as Professor in Legal Policy, writing Margaret Levi, Michael hiscox and Simon Jackman. and speaking on all aspects of American law, legal The Centre awarded research grants totalling $100,000 policy and jurisprudence. for 15 projects in the humanities and social sciences to • Former head of the Power Institute Professor Roger academics from 12 Australian universities. Recipients Benjamin has created a new postgraduate class, will work on a diverse range of subjects including a American Art: Pollock to Warhol. comparison of maternity leave in Australia and the US, • The Centre also recruited two prominent University of child poverty, the attitudes of Latinos in the US and Sydney academics to work jointly in the Centre and waging war in a digital age. their home departments. Dr James Curran brings special expertise on the history of defence and security Learning & teaching co-operation between Australia and the US, while The Centre continued its expanded program of courses Dr Jane Park, an expert in contemporary American on offer to students at all levels. The Masters, Graduate media and entertainment, is teaching and researching Diploma and Graduate Certificate of US Studies attracted at the Centre in gender and multiculturalism. 35 students, while the Centre appointed two new PhD Our Think Tank also made a series of appointments students to its staff. We also added the Master of Letters under the auspices of the Dow Sustainability Program. (US Studies) to its postgraduate offerings, allowing Following a distinguished career in medicine, science and students to further their studies through internships in business Adjunct Professor Susan Pond AM leads the Washington, DC or an extended research project. Two of Centre’s work on biosequestration and biofuels, while our postgraduate students won prestigious internships in Adjunct Professor Howard Bamsey, possibly Australia’s the US where they worked as aides in Congress. preeminent official on climate change, leads development Our undergraduates classes US in the World and of an energy security program. Introduction to US Politics attracted more than 400 Research students, up from 75 the year before. The Centre joined forces with the University of Sydney Business School Academics and experts at the Centre had a highly to send 19 undergraduates to Washington, DC. They productive year in 2010. Special mention should be made studied and lived with students from the University of of Geoffrey Garrett and Margaret Levi’s co-edited new California while also interning in the Australian embassy, Encyclopedia of Political Science, Brendon O’Connor’s congressional offices, international think tanks and four-volume edited collection on American Foreign Policy Washington non-profits.