home cooked theory

Swayed

One of the hardest things I find when working on a long project like my book is avoiding being swayed by the wind–that is, letting whatever is the urgent issue of the day somehow creep inside my thinking about a topic. Right now, for instance, everything I look at is coloured by the idea of [...]

Heroes

I’ve been known to argue that academics need to have a few heroes, and today I get to hear one of mine:
Professor Judith Brett, Professor of Politics, Latrobe University
‘Relaxed and comfortable with the Liberal Party’
4pm - 6pm Eleanor Room, UQ Staff and Graduates Club
These past few days I’ve been reading some work that makes me [...]

On Katrina

“…however ‘natural’ the disaster, the differential experience of the victims is entirely man-made…”


The History of Theory Begins

Last night I was excited to attend the first in a new series of seminars being run by our neighbours upstairs, The Centre for the History of European Discourses. Even the name of this centre makes me quake a little in its momentousness, and it’s currently home to some of the most formidable thinkers and [...]

In favour of new ideas

Things like this make me miss Sydney a lot. Sandy, Glen and others: please keep us updated.

We haven’t come a long way, with babies

I’ve been meaning to link to Sandy’s account of Wendy Brown’s talk at ASCP, which was so good that it saved me writing up my notes! But when I went back there just now I found some pretty alarming comments had appeared since I first read it. It’s fascinating to me that in a post [...]

Proud spaces

I hope she doesn’t mind the attention, but this blog, and this post in particular, makes me convinced all over again about the importance of this medium. And while I’m on the topic, Saturday is the Queer Pride Rally and Fair Day in Brisbane. We’re starting a bloggers’ posse, so get in touch if you [...]

Ten long years

I take it all back Michael Jeffrey. You are capable of saying some important things. Now if you could please just stop using that insulting tautology, ‘practical reconciliation’, we might be getting somewhere.
This week my students are writing their final essays. There have four questions to choose from but the most popular so [...]

Empire building

Last Friday afternoon I went to a talk by Andrew Jakubowicz, Professor of Sociology at UTS. It was called ‘This Mongrel Breed: Cultural Diversity and the Australian Empire Project’, and it summarised a book project he’s working on (more details here) that describes the specific nature of Australian Empire. He argues that Australia is best [...]

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