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Book launch turns page in history

December 14, 2004

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A Mediaeval score, a treatise on Western sexuality and a novel about writing a thesis were just some of the books launched by the University of New England’s Faculty of Arts on Monday, December 13.
A total of 15 books from the faculty have been published in the past year and more than 400 books written by Arts academics have been printed across the world in the past 50 years.
Professor Michael Macklin, Dean of the Faculty, said this year, in which the University has celebrated its 50th Anniversary, had been the most prolific since 1997, when a total of 25 books were published.
This year’s range of tomes written by academics from the Arts, however, is among the broadest.
Polity Press, publishers of Drs Gail Hawkes and John Scott’s anthology, Sex and Pleasure in Western Culture, predict the tome to be an academic bestseller for next year.
The work is the first from the Australasian region concentrating on sexuality topics from pornography and risky sex through to sex education and prostitution.

Publishing was not only confined to the written word, with Senior Lecturer Ann Ghandar penning three scores, all with themes around the New England region and one for the cello. Her colleague, Dr Rex Eakins, had organised the recording of the Baroque work, Capella Sistina 51: Liber Missarum into a synthetic work which can be played through a computer.
Said Professor Macklin: “This has been a prodigious year for the faculty. All schools have published a book or manuscript, from Classics, History and Religion through to Music, Social Science and Languages, Cultures and Linguistics.”
The publication of texts remains a powerful tool for universities to judge their academic efficacy and in terms of size, UNE is among the most prolific.
Its Arts Faculty has produced some leading academics in their field who have produced over the years an array of important tomes, including Professor Alan Atkinson’s work, The Europeans in Australia (published this year by Oxford University Press) and from previous years, Professor Mike Morwood (who recently came to international attention with his discovery of a new human species) who published Rock Art and Ethnography, in 1992.
The first work that was published from the Faculty was by F J H Letters, from the then-School of Classics, The Life and Work of Sophocles.
Perhaps the most controversial work to be published from the Faculty was last year, with J Pender’s work Lethal Humour: Nick Garland, Barry Humphries and the Adventures of Barry McKenzie.
For more information phone Lydia Roberts on 6773 2779 or
Professor Macklin on 6773 2223.

Posted by Lydia Roberts at December 14, 2004 05:28 PM