Event Archive
PhD Scholarship Winners
Congratulations to Ashley Moyse, Scott Kirkland and Andrew Watts on winning full PhD funding for 2011 at the UoN. These are three of our research students studying with GRIT members Professor Hilary Carey in History and Professor John McDowell and Dr. Timothy Stanley in Theology and Religious Studies at the UoN.
Andrew Watts will be working on the Presbyterian missionary to the Aborigines, J.R.B. Love, Ashley Moyse, is working on the intersection between Karl Barth’s theology and bio-ethics, and Scott Kirkland is working on the category of judgment in Karl Barth’s theology.
The scholarships commence (in some cases retrospectively) for 2011 and include two Australian Postgraduate Awards (APA) to Kirkland and Watts, as well as the University of Newcastle International Postgraduate Research Scholarships (UNIPRS) and and University of Newcastle Research Scholarship Central (UNRSC) to Mr. Moyse. The UNIPRS scholarship provides tuition fees and the UNRSC is a living allowance scholarship. The 2011 rate for both the UNRSC and APA both is $22,860 p.a. tax free.
Part of the success of these applications has to do with the strong research culture in Religion and Religious Studies at the UoN, and we strongly encourage students interested in our research areas to apply for funding in 2012.
Here’s a link to further details on applying
Deadlines:
- International applicants - 31 August each year
- Domestic applicants - 31 October each year
Applications will be accepted by email to researchscholarships@newcastle.edu.au or fax to 61 2 4921 6908 up until midnight of the closing date. Originals of applications, transcripts etc. submitted in this way must be also be posted to the University as soon as possible.
Marxism and Religion Reading Group
The Marxism and Religion reading group, led by Roland Boer, will recommence on 1 September, a Thursday, from 12-2pm in room GP1.24. It will meet on the first and third Thursdays of the month for this semester, so, September 1 and 15, Oct 6 and 20, and Nov 3 and 17. Reading material will be on the contemporary debate, beginning with the work that started it all: Alain Badiou’s “Saint Paul,” available here
Further details are available from Roland’s site
Morpeth Lecture 2011
The Morpeth Lecture was established in 1967 to celebrate the great partnership between the University of Newcastle and the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle. The name of the Morpeth Lecture comes from the College of St John the Evangelist at Morpeth, the previous ministry training and education centre of the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle.
The 2011 Speaker is Father Nicholas King from the University of Oxford.
DATE: Tuesday, 13 September 2011
VENUE: Christ Church Cathedral, 46 Newcomen St, Newcastle
TIME: 5:45pm for 6pm START to 7:30pm
COST: FREE (RSVP essential as seats limited)
RSVP: partnerships@newcastle.edu.au Ph: (02) 4921 7454
Click here for further information
Click here to view the Morpeth Lecture 2011 on Vimeo
Dead Sea Scrolls Public Lecture
The Dead Sea Scrolls: From Mystery to Meaning
A public lecture by Professor George Brooke, The University of Manchester
Co-hosted by GRIT and the Humanities Research Institute
Short bio: For over thirty years the Dead Sea Scrolls have occupied the principal place among Prof. Brooke’s research interests. Since 1992, he has been a member of the international team editing the Dead Sea Scrolls under the auspices of the Israel Antiquites Authority. His editions of the Commentaries on Genesis were published in 1996 and he is currently working with Prof. Moshe Bernstein (Yeshiva University) on a new edition of several manuscripts. He is a founding editor of the journal Dead Sea Discoveries (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994- ) and served as an area editor for the Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: Oxford Un
iversity Press, 2000). With P. Davies and P. Callaway, he is the author of, The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which has been translated into five languages and has been recently re-released in a new revised edition by Thames and Hudson. “With numerous factfiles, reconstructions, scroll photographs, and a wealth of other illustrations, it is the most comprehensive and accessible account available on the Dead Sea Scrolls.”
When: Monday, 15 August, 2011, 7pm
Where: Room SR.LT 3 in the Social Sciences Building (Campus Map)
For further information please contact: Linda Hutchinson, Executive Officer of the Humanities Research Institute, +61(0)2492.17915
Update on Monday, August 22, 2011
The lecture went off without a hitch this past Monday with 115 people visiting to hear Professor Brooke take us back to the world of the Dead Sea Scrolls. More copies of his book are still available at the Co-op bookshop in the Shortland Hub on campus, and free shipping is being offered for all orders online.
Photo gallery
The talk was recorded and we’ve posted the video here for those who couldn’t make it. A PDF of the powerpoint and handout are available by clicking here.
The Dead Sea Scrolls: From Mystery to Meaning by Prof. George Brooke from Timothy Stanley on Vimeo.
For University of Newcastle viewers, this file is video is also available via lectopia
2011 Semester 2 Seminars
All seminars will be held in the Cultural Collections Room, Auchmuty Library (campus map)
4-5pm Tuesday 13 September
Roland Boer will speak on the topic Lenin: The Gospels and What is To Be Done?
One of Lenin’s key texts in the early years of the Russian Social democratic Worker Party is What Is To Be Done? Laying down a strategy for the merger of socialism and the worker movement in Russia, with an argument for professional revolutionaries and a regular, widely distributed newspaper (iskra, The Spark), Lenin clarified a highly effective strategy that led to the revolution. However, at the centre of the work is the parable of the Wheat and the Tares, around which are gathered a range of other parables dealing with agricultural metaphors. I explore three dimensions of this unnoticed feature: why Lenin preferred the Gospels; Lenin’s propensity to develop his own parables; and the radicalising effect on Gospel interpretation, radicalising the figure of Jesus and the disciples.
4-5pm Tuesday 18 October
Dr. Kath McPhillips will speak on Sainthood in Modern Australia – Contradiction or Possibility?
Last October, Australia celebrated the canonization of its first saint – Mary MacKillop. Unlike other Western nations, particularly in Europe, the tradition of sainthood is relatively unknown in secular Australia, and it is no surprise that the processes of beatification and canonization were somewhat perplexing to the average citizen. This paper will consider what sainthood might mean for the modern secular Australian nation, and why in a secular age, we are asked to sit – often very uncomfortably - with this ancient religious tradition? How might we ‘read’ the life of Mary MacKillop to produce understandings of who we are as a nation and as individuals? I shall argue that the saint disrupts the symbolic orders of gender, and through this, the idea of the nation, to provide a new understanding of ethics, justice and love.
4-5pm Tuesday 15 November
Dr. Kathleen Butler will speak on Religion and Aboriginal intellectual traditions, Title, TBC.
Australian Bonhoeffer Conference 2011
Practical Mysticism: Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Conversation with Mary McKillop
Practical mysticism denotes the idea of living out the experience of union with God in a practical and applied manner. It is a mystical knowing, including an intense knowing of self and God, that implies and impels action, practical action for good.
At the conference we will explore the idea of practical mysticism as an authentic Christian pathway, explore the ramifications for insight into the nature of saintliness in Bonhoeffer and St Mary of the Cross, and finally bring these two heroes of the church into conversation with each other.
- Where: St Joseph’s Spirituality & Education Centre Kincumber, NSW
- When: 17-18 November, 2011
- Further information: Geoffrey.See@newcastle.edu.au
- Conference Program (PDF)
Political Theology Call for Papers
Political Theology: Between East & West Call for Papers
Taipei: 23-26 September
With a seminar in Shanghai, 21 September.
This conference seeks to open up a dialogue between East and West concerning the intersections between religion and politics. The enabling conditions for the conference include the overt ‘return’ of religion to geopolitical realities and debate, the rise of interest in ‘political theology’ by secular philosophers, the polemic of the ‘new atheists’, the thorough questioning of the givens of secularism, and the reassessments of the relation between ‘religion’ and ‘politics’.
We seek paper proposals that address such issues. Papers may also focus on:
Please send paper titles and proposals to Kenpa Chin, Philip Chia and Roland Boer at:
* 曾慶豹 chinkenpa@gmail.com
* Philip Chia ppchia050@gmail.com
* Roland Boer roland.t.boer@gmail.com
Deadline: 15 July 2011
UoN Postdoctoral Fellowships
The University of Newcastle has just announced five, three year postdoctoral research fellowships to commence in 2012. Although there is an emphasis in this scheme for Priority Research Centres in the sciences, “Outstanding applicants from any discipline in which the University has research strength are also encouraged to apply. Candidates must discuss their applications with appropriate academic staff members and the host unit Director/Head of the Priority Research Centre or research group prior to submission.”
Because Religions and Religious Studies scored 4* in the last ERA, applicants with projects in this area will be considered. PRFs in this research area should coordinate their applications with the Humanities Research Institute. Prof. Hugh Craig is its director, and PRFs should contact their Research Development Manager, Catherine Oddie in the first instance.
HRI promotes the study of religion through its Group for Religious and Intellectual Traditions, of which I am the convenor. One of our key research foci for the next three years concerns the intersection between Religion and Political Life, and we are particularly keen to receive applications in this area.
The application deadline is 20 July, and further details can be found here
The application pack can be downloaded by clicking here
Myth and Religion Workshop
Myth, Religion, Inspired Authors, and Allegorical Interpretation
All are welcome to participate in a one-day workshop, looking at the Derveni Papyrus in the light of the ‘Inspired Voices’ project
To take place under the Auspices of the Humanities Research Institute (HRI) and the Group for Religious and Intellectual Traditions (GRIT).
Most sessions will consist of short introductions followed by general discussion.
When: Monday 9th May, 10.00-4.15
Where: Lambert Lounge, University of Newcastle Union (Campus Map)
RSVP: Professor Harold Tarrant
2011 Semester 1 Seminars
All seminars will be held in the Cultural Collections Room, Auchmuty Library
3.30pm Tuesday 19 April
Prof. Hilary Carey will speak on her new book God’s Empire: Religion and the Settler Revolution. Drinks reception to follow with the book’s launch.
Prof. Carey’s talk will introduce her new book, God’s Empire, where she charts Britain’s nineteenth-century transformation from Protestant nation to free Christian empire through the history of the colonial missionary
movement. This wide-ranging reassessment of the religious character of the second British empire provides a clear account of the promotional strategies of the major churches and church parties which worked to plant settler Christianity in British domains.
Tuesday 24 May 3.30-5pm
Dr. Tim Stanley, The Return of the Scroll: From Codex to Google
Search is a feature on almost every software application we use today, and it explains why a much older information technology has returned along with it, the scroll. Of course the scroll does not return in the precise manner as the ancient papyrus rolls of antiquity, but rather, it gives a crucial clue to the longer history of information technology which precedes our digital era. In other words, if we are to understand the return of the scroll in our digital screens today we must look back to the rise of the bound pages of the codex roughly 1800 years ago.
Tuesday 21 June 3.30-5pm
This seminar will be co-hosted with the Endangered Languages Documentation, Theory and Application Group, drinks and nibbles provided.
Dr. Jim Wafer, Semantics of “soul” in the Hunter River-Lake Macquarie language
Lancelot Threlkeld, to whom we owe most of our knowledge of the Hunter River-Lake Macquarie language (HRLM), recorded almost no indigenous texts, but devoted himself to scripture translation. From a linguist’s perspective this might perhaps be considered a deficiency, since it deprives us of the opportunity to understand HRLM verbal art as it was practiced by the speakers themselves. Nonetheless, it gives us the chance to investigate semantically HRLM’s approaches to the issues of human subjectivity with which the scriptures deal, and these are less likely to be encountered in indigenous stories and songs.
Update on Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 1:57PM by Registered Commenter GRIT
This 21 June, Dr. Jim Wafer’s paper Semantics of “soul” in the Hunter River-Lake Macquarie Language was given at the Auchmuty Library Cultural Collections Archive for the GRIT seminar cohosted with the Endangered Languages Documentation Theory and Application group. Jim’s paper was followed by a response by Mr. Ray Kelly and both papers have been recorded and posted on the Cultural Collections’ Youtube channel embedded below.
Morpeth Lecture 2010
Does God have a future? Darwin and the Design of Divinity
Speaker: Professor John McDowell, Chair in Theology at the University of Newcastle
Last year marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of the most celebrated and controversial of naturalists, Charles Darwin. While debate rages between the different types of ‘creationists’ and ‘evolutionists’ with regard to the origins of life, Prof McDowell examined some of the issues in order to argue that the significant questions lie in a more significant area – the understanding of what it means to speak of divine action.
The Morpeth Lecture was established in 1967 to celebrate the great partnership between the University of Newcastle and the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle. The name of the Morpeth Lecture comes from the College of St John the Evangelist at Morpeth, the previous ministry training and education centre of the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle.
DATE: Wednesday 21 April 2010
VENUE: Christ Church Cathedral, 46 Newcomen St, Newcastle
TIME: 5:45pm for 6pm START to 7:30pm
COST: FREE (RSVP essential as seats limited)
RSVP: partnerships@newcastle.edu.au Ph: (02) 4921 7454
Photo gallery
Professor John McDowell gave the 2010 Morpeth Lecture at Christ Church Cathedral on 21 April, 2010 on the topic, Does God Have a Future? Darwin and the Design of Divinity.
Church and State Workshop
A Workshop sponsored by the University of Newcastle’s Research Group on Religion and Intellectual Traditions in association with the Religious History Society and the Institute for the Advanced Study of Humanity at Newcastle City Hall from Thursday 11 – Saturday 13 December, 2008.
This workshop brings together national and international scholars to consider one of the central issues in western historiography - the relationship between church and state. This classic theme has never really gone away but is emerging to engage scholars in new ways in the wake of the colonial and postcolonial critique of the long history of the west and its imperial expansion from early modern times to the present. Within the West changing conceptions of the state, of marriage and family life, and the aftermath of 9/11 with an increase in Western-Islamic tension and the renewal of ‘evangelical atheism’ have all recently served to bring the issue into renewed focus.
The workshop will open on the evening of Thurs. 11 December with a keynote address from Frank Lambert (Purdue) on Church and State in the US.
Friday 12 Dec will be devoted to papers on the European background with the following speakers: Claire Walker (Adelaide): Early Modern England, David Cahill (UNSW): Early Modern Spain and Spanish America, David Garrioch (Monash): Old Regime France, Stewart J. Brown (Edinburgh): Modern Scotland and England, Jennifer Ridden (Latrobe): Modern Ireland and John Moses (St Marks, Canberra): Post-Reformation Germany.
In the evening there will be a workshop dinner.
The session on Sat. 13 Dec will focus on Church-State relations in colonial and post-colonial perspectives with papers by Rowan Strong (Murdoch) on imperialism and Anglican identity, Hilary Carey (Newcastle) on Colonial Missions, Bruce Kaye (UNSW) on the Anglican Church in Australia, John Murphy (Melbourne) on the Australian churches and welfare and Troy Duncan (Newcastle) on Bishop Batty of Newcastle.
The workshop convenors are Hilary Carey and John Gascoigne
Socrates and Alcibiades I Conference
A research conference investigating the Platonic Alcibiades I
Sponsored by the University of Newcastle’s Group for Religious and Intellectual Traditions and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, under the auspices of the Australasian Society for Ancient Philosophy
The Alcibiades I is in many ways a mystery. Is it, or is it not, by Plato? What kind of an educator is Socrates trying to be here? Is the Socratic divine sign really being treated as god here? How is Socrates’ dual role as ‘lover’ (in some sense) of Alcibiades and as his educator supposed to work? And by what arguments or promises has the hitherto arrogant Alcibiades eventually been won over so as to return Socrates’ ‘love’? Its perplexing nature has seen it decline from its ancient position as the first dialogue that most ancient students read, to its modern position as a marginal text, seldom built on for our picture either of Socrates or of Plato. What is it doing and where does it fit?
The purpose of the conference is to address a variety of topics, philosophical, literary, and historical, which have a bearing on the interpretation of this dialogue, which may or may not be by Plato himself. Such topics may include the picture of Alcibiades and of his relationship with Socrates elsewhere; the figure of the lover/educator in ancient Greece; Socrates’ divine sign; Socratic pedagogy; Athenian views of Persian/Spartan aristocratic education; self-knowledge and the concept of the true self; the argument, rhetoric and drama of the dialogue; individual episodes in the dialogue; its overall coherence; contexts for its composition; the ancient commentaries on it; and other dialogues in the Platonic Corpus that relate to it.
Guest speakers will include:
- Professor Victoria Wohl, Classics, University of Toronto (tentative title ‘The Eye of the Beloved: opsis and eros in Socratic Pedagogy’)
- Professor Francois Renaud, Philosophy, Université de Moncton (topic relating to the late antique view of the dialogue). A range of other topics has been promised, but the conference is open to all interested persons and further offers of papers are welcome up to 15th September.
- Dates: 4th December 2008 p.m. to 6th December p.m.
- Venue: University of Newcastle Union, Treehouse (Thurs, Fri), and Harbour View Room, Noah’s on the Beach Hotel, Newcastle (Sat)
- Organisers: Dr. Marguerite Johnson
Conference Fee: $50 (waived for overseas guests)
Click here for Conference Report
Indigenous Intellectual Traditions in Action
A workshop co-sponsored by the Research Group on Religious and Intellectual Traditions at the Ourimbah Aboriginal Education Consultive Group Sub-branch.
The workshop will commence with a barbeque for students, community and staff from 5pm on Thursday 16th October. This will be followed by the workshop launch at 6:30pm at Cs2-01 by Professor Terry Lovat, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Education and Arts, and a Keynote Address by Lola Forrester - 2003 Aboriginal Broadcaster of the Year at the Deadly Awards.
The barbeque and Public Lecture are free, although reservations are necessary. Cost of the workshop is $50 and includes the conference lunch on campus at the Preview Restaurant and the Bust Tucker afternoon tea by Original Aboriginal Creations.
- When: 16-17 October, 2008
- Where: Cs2-01
Remembering Francis de Witt Batty (1879-1961) Public Lecture
GRIT member Dr Troy Duncan of the School of Humanities and Social Science will present a public lecture on Bishop Francis de Witt Batty (1879-1961) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Bishop’s departure from Newcastle.
Bishop de Witt Batty was the seventh Anglican Bishop of Newcastle and a figure of great significance within the Australian Anglican Church during the mid 20th Century. He was a leading campaigner for an autonomous university in Newcastle during the 1940s and 1950s.
The lecture is likely to be of interest to members of the local Anglican Church, said Dr Duncan, who is currently writing Batty’s biography. The Dean of Newcastle, the Very Reverend Graeme Lawrence, will be making some introductory remarks on the occasion.
- When: Tuesday 30th September 2008 at 6.30pm
- Where: Cultural Collections, Auchmuty Library
Update on Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 12:16PM by Registered Commenter GRIT
Women, Islam and Social Inclusion Symposium
In collaboration with the Institute for the Advanced Study of Humanity (IASH)
The symposium will centre on the Australian findings of a cross-cultural ARC Discovery Grant that focussed on the issue of Islam and Australian Muslim women. It will also disseminate the findings from its partner study in Bangladesh and will take the opportunity to explore a range of updated research related to Islam and to Australian Islam in particular. A number of prominent Australian and international researchers of Islam will present on the day.
The symposium will start with an introduction by Prof Terry Lovat (University of Newcastle) and a keynote address by Dr Mohamad Abdalla (Griffith University Islamic Research Unit). Another keynote address will be delivered by Mehmet Ozalp (President Affinity Intercultural Foundation) in the afternoon. The day will conclude with a dinner and a meeting with members of the Newcastle Multifaith Association.
The convenors of the symposium are Prof Terry Lovat and Prof Hilary Carey.
When: 8 August, 2008
Where: Cultural Collections of the Auchmuty Library (Campus Map)
For further info please contact: Dr Nadine Kavanagh
Religion and the Academy Workshop
Workshop on Religion, the Academy and the Public Sphere, Noah’s On the Beach, Monday December 10, 2007
