Did you know Queensland has a sophisticated wine industry that has emerged from the region’s Italian diaspora to constitute a major tourist attraction? 

Just as the blending of grape varieties can produce wines greater than the sum of their varietal parts, so too the breadth and depth of scholarship on the complex of wine production, distribution and consumption benefits from a blend of disciplinary research approaches.  To what extent does this blending of disciplines define the emerging field of wine studies?

These are the issues to be explored this week when visiting scholars from History and Anthropology at the University of Southern Queensland join fellow Wine Studies researchers from History and Business at The University of Newcastle to discuss their work in the University’s second Humanities and Social Science Wine Studies Seminar, hosted by the Humanities Research Institute, the Faculty of Education and Arts and the University Gallery.

With Dr Rebecca Mitchell from The University of Newcastle as Chair there will be two presentations:

• Dr Robert Mason & Dr Celmara Pocock, University of Southern Queensland  - Strange Birds: Transforming experiences in wine tourism & regional heritage
• Dr Julie McIntyre, The University of Newcastle - Notes on Blending Disciplines: Towards a definition of wine studies

WHEN: 3.00 – 4.30pm Thursday 23 May
WHERE: Fine Arts Meeting Room downstairs, The University Gallery, Callaghan (Map)

All welcome. No RSVP required. Wine and cheese will be served.