Crosscurrents
Projects current and completed
Crossing Cultures
A conference on Crossing Cultures, examining the nature of cross-cultural exchange in relation to colonial encounters in Northern Australia and Southeast Asia, was organised by Associate Professor Kleinert and held in Darwin in late 2005. The participants were current and recently graduated postgraduate students from Charles Darwin University and the Australian National University. The papers reflected a broad range of interdisciplinary research in the areas of anthropology, art history and theory, history and political science. Following the conference the papers were submitted to a double blind refereeing process drawing upon the expertise of academics both within and without CDU. The resulting book, Crossing Cultures: Arts, Politics and Identity, edited by Sylvia Kleinert, was published by CDU Press and officially launched by CDU Vice Chancellor Professor Helen Garnett on 11 August 2006. Further information and ordering details can be found on the CDU Press website.
Politics, History and Society of the Northern Territory
This project, undertaken by Professor Carment, examines how governments and political organisations in the Northern Territory created and promoted notions of regional identity for the purpose of establishing bonds of loyalty and institutions of social control in a ‘frontier’ environment. The research is set within the wider scholarly context of the emergence and invention of identities and traditions in western societies since the late nineteenth century. Professor Carment has recently completed a book for this project titled Territorianism: Politics and Identity in Australia’s Northern Territory 1978-2001. The book will be published by Australian Scholarly Publishing in late 2007.
Webcast
This project is an inter-disciplinary, cross-cultural project examining the relationship between identity and media technology in Northern Australia, with a particular focus on Australian Indigenous people. The project, being coordinated by Associate Professor Kleinert, Associate Professor Christie, Dr Scott and Mr Greatorex, will allow an investigation of the role that technologies such as radio, television, film, mobile phones and the internet have and will play in the dissemination of information. The project will examine and support the social and cultural uses of new media technologies and the historical evolution of these technologies within communities. An understanding of the history, impact and future implication of new media technology is vital in terms of promoting and developing arts, education and Indigenous cultures and tourism within the Northern Territory.
It is proposed to hold a major conference bringing together leading scholars in the field investigating the role of new media technologies in remote communities, including the history of these technologies within remote communities and its present day impact upon social culture. It is envisaged that the conference proceedings will be published.
Another plan of the group is the development of the CDU online Indigenous art units by incorporating a component of ‘two-way learning’. Through the internet, Indigenous Northern Territorians living in their communities would be able to interact directly with CDU students. The group is currently seeking funding for this project.
Timor Project
This project involves Associate Professor Shoesmith, Associate Professor Mearns, Dr Farram and Mr Nixon. The researchers held a symposium in Darwin in November 2006 with the title The Crisis in Timor-Leste: Understanding the Past, Imagining the Future. The symposium examined the causes of the recent unrest in Asia’s newest independent state and its prospects for the future. A book resulting from the symposium will be published in late 2007 by CDU Press. A major conference with the title Democratic Governance in Timor-Leste: Reconciling the Local with the National is to be held at CDU in February 2008. It is foreseen that the conference and the research of the individual team members will result in a number of books and journal articles.
The researchers have received funding from the International Centre for Excellence in Asia Pacific Studies (ICEAPS) to establish a research partnership with the Australian National University and the Timor Institute of Development Studies, the major non-government research agency in Timor-Leste. Through this partnership the researchers aim to establish CDU as a significant centre of research contributing to the policy and intellectual debate on Timor-Leste’s nation building efforts.
