Queer Thinking preparations

Plans are well underway for this year’s Queer Thinking events. As was the case last year, the Sexuality and Space Group at Sydney is teaming up with New Mardi Gras to bring a special guest speaker for the weekend. This year it is the brilliant Professor Sara Ahmed. Sara is a regular visitor to the [...]

Surveillance and Everyday Life

Sydney University’s Surveillance and Everyday Life project is running a two day conference next month, and the program (pdf) has just been announced. Looks like I’m speaking on day two. The paper is something I’m working on for a collection on ‘identity technologies’ edited by Anna Poletti and Julie Rak. This is one of a [...]

Orientation

An impressive new post at Music for Deckchairs takes on an extreme case in recent university marketing strategies – no doubt expressing some of the reservations others may feel in the lead up to a new academic semester. It reminds me of the remarkable experience I had heading out for lunch outside the Quadrangle at [...]

NTEU Future of Higher Education Conference

Has anyone heard of this conference? I hadn’t – even as a union member and a Sydney employee – but am interested to know who would go based on the speakers listed. From the titles alone, it’s not clear that any of the academic speakers are active teaching staff in the present, let alone the [...]

Holiday consumption

This fascinating post at Supervalent Thought is timely motivation for new year writing projects. Makes me wonder if I should rethink my avoidance of MLA. I’ve never been, having lost touch with literary studies after my Honours year. I still think in terms of textuality though… indeed the more I go through peer review processes [...]

Sydney MACS

On Wednesday I am planning the launch of Sydney MACS – a cross-institutional network of media and cultural studies researchers. This is another branch of the network I first started in Brisbane back in 2004 (remember?!), and which my mates Ellie and Jinna have now extended to Melbourne. This blurb from the Facebook group explains [...]

Nominees for ACS Board & Chair

This is a repost for any locals not subscribed to the CSAA-forum, and for anyone with an interest in cultural studies… In coming months, the Association for Cultural Studies (ACS – the organisation that runs Crossroads) will be calling for nominations for a board election that will take place prior to the general assembly in [...]

Academia.edu

After resisting for some time I have finally joined academia.edu. Initially I was reluctant to provide another online profile given that all my publications are listed here anyway. I was also hesitant because it had been recommended as yet another form of department promotion/branding at a time when I was already struggling with extensive online [...]

Between stops

I have been been back in Sydney for a couple of weeks following the ICA conference and some side trips afterwards. A few extra days in Townsville this week because of the ash cloud was a nice enforced break in the weather! Between marking and closing off the semester’s grades I’ve been working full time [...]

After the crisis, if there is one

The last few posts and comments have a further purpose which is to prepare for Boston ICA this week. I’m on a panel with Nick Couldry (Goldsmiths), Isabel Maria Capeloa Gil (Universidade Catolica Portuguesa) and Stewart M. Hoover (U of Colorado) and the topic is ‘The University in Crisis’. Here’s the abstract: Anyone who has [...]

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