AUR vol48, no2, May 2006
Cover artwork by Flavia Bottazzini
In this issue of AUR: (available in PDF format)
ARTICLES
Multiculturalism’s discontents
All in the same boat
by David
McKnight
An email from the ether: after the Cronulla
events
by David Burchell
Last December’s riots in Sydney’s south raised once again the ongoing controversy over Australia’s version of multiculturalism. David McKnight argues that 1970s multiculturalism, whatever its strengths then, needs to be revisited and revised to allow for a stronger affirmation of our common humanity. And David Burchell muses on the incapacity of critical intellectuals to consider the riots and the revenge attacks which followed them in the same light, as an instance of inter-communal strife.
Fight for your right to say it?
Beyond ‘political
correctness’
by Carolyn Allport
Race matters
by Gillian Cowlishaw
‘It is forbidden...’
by Jennifer Rutherford
Legitimate enemies
by Dr Judy Lattas
In the latter part of last year, a Macquarie University academic aroused outrage with his comments over the supposed links between race and criminality. For his colleagues and the Union alike, the case provided a difficult example of the clash of shared academic values and the right to speak. Here four participants in the controversy reflect on the thorny matters at issue.
Sedition and academic freedom
Strategies to protect academic freedom
by George Williams
A short history of sedition laws in
Australia
by Andrew Nette
Last year’s sedition laws were the latest and most controversial instalment in a raft of legislation since the war on terror was announced five years ago. George Williams argues that, while some security measures were necessary, the recent laws have far exceeded the modest scale of the threats that confront us. And Andrew Nette gives a short history of sedition in Australia.
The international student journey
by Gail Baker & Ken Hawkins
Over the last decade the Australian higher education sector has
become increasingly reliant upon the income generated by overseas
fee-paying students. Yet the experiences of these students are
sometimes traumatic, and institutions have been slow to develop.
Peer mentoring as academic resource
by JaneMaree Maher, Jo Lindsay, Vicki Peel
& Christina Twomey
On current projections in could take thirty years for women to be
equally represented in the academic workplace. Traditional
methods of mentoring by senior staff often seem relics of an
earlier era, but here a group of more junior academics reflect on
the success of a peer-mentoring exercise which helped transform
their first experience of sabbatical.
CORRIDOR OF
UNCERTAINTY
AUR’s satire column,
created in the belief that the contemporary academy provides rich
resources for wit, irony and humour. Reader contributions
welcome.
Diseases of the thesis
by Chris Fleming
An entire psychiatric manual could
probably be written out of the tormented experiences of
PhD-writers. Here Chris Fleming pulls up a comfy chair beside his
couch, and outlines some of the telltale symptoms.
REVIEWS
The Latham Diaries
reconsidered (from a safe distance). Hugh Stretton’s latest
call to arms assessed. And the future of Asia’s
universities imagined.
Young man Luther
The Latham
Diaries by Mark Latham
Review by David Burchell
Girt by sea
Australia Fair by Hugh
Stretton
Review by Dennis Woodward
The eastern academy
Asian universities: historical perspectives and contemporary
challenges by PG Altbach & Toru Umakoshi (eds)
Review by Norma Koehne