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Australian, New Zealand historians on "intellectuals and war"

January 23, 2006

bongiornosm.jpgHistorians from Australia and New Zealand will meet next month to examine the role of intellectuals in those nations’ involvement in – and memory of – war.

The conference, at The University of New England, will discuss, for example, the role of clergymen, journalists and historians in the creation of the “Anzac legend”.

Titled “Mars and Minerva” (after the Roman deities of “war” and “wisdom” respectively), the conference will explore wars ranging in time from the Maori Wars of the mid-nineteenth century to the current “War on Terror”. Organisers believe the conference, to be held at UNE’s Drummond and Smith College from the 4th to the 6th of February, is unprecedented in its scope.

One of the organisers, UNE’s Dr Frank Bongiorno (pictured here), pointed out that “while military history, and the history of war and society, are immensely popular in Australia today (both academically and among the general public), historians have had little to say about the role of intellectuals in wartime”.

“The experience of war has interacted with intellectual endeavour in complex ways,” Dr Bongiorno explained. “For example, the Second World War was a major period of innovation in literature and the visual arts in Australia. Wars help to disrupt old ways of seeing and understanding, and mould new perspectives and modes of expression. And, in the aftermath of war, there is an interaction of popular perception and intellectual engagement in the stories that emerge.”

In this respect, a presentation on the history of Anzac will conclude that “we do not need to choose between a sacred legend and historical reality, because we can have – and benefit from – both the cynical and the sacred. Indeed, for Anzac to speak to us with maximum effect, it needs both.”

Dr Bongiorno said that the “intellectuals” to be discussed at the conference would include scientists, poets, visual artists, linguists, bureaucrats, medical practitioners, journalists, clergymen, psychoanalysts, occultists, historians, philosophers, politicians, diplomats, labour and social movement activists, broadcasters, educators and academics. Keynote speakers will include Associate Professor Neville Meaney from the University of Sydney and Professor Joy Damousi from the University of Melbourne. Professor Damousi, whose book "Freud in the Antipodes: A cultural history of psychoanalysis in Australia" was published last year, will speak on “Freudianism, the Wars and Intellectual Life in Australia”. Dr Simon Potter from the National University of Ireland in Galway will travel to the conference to deliver a paper on radio broadcasting by Australian and New Zealand intellectuals during the Second World War. The conference program can be found at:
http://www.une.edu.au/arts/scch.htm/marsminerva.html.

This will be the Second Trevenna Conference (named after “Trevenna”, the historic house that is now the Vice-Chancellor’s residence at UNE). The first, in February 1999, resulted in a book titled "The German Empire and Britain’s Pacific Dominions, 1871-1919", published in 2000. The co-organisers of “Mars and Minerva” with Dr Bongiorno are Dr John Moses (Adjunct Professor, UNE) and UNE’s Associate Professor Iain Spence.


Media contact: Dr Frank Bongiorno, School of Classics, History and Religion, UNE (02) 6773 2088 or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 3049.


Posted by Jim Scanlan at January 23, 2006 04:28 PM