UNE > News and Events > Browse by article > "Intellectuals and War" conference breaks new ground

Next Top award for inland water research goes to UNE professor February 9, 2006  

Previous Campus improvements will greet returning students February 6, 2006 

"Intellectuals and War" conference breaks new ground

February 07, 2006

MosesSpence.thumb.JPGA conference at The University of New England has looked at war from a novel perspective: the involvement of thinkers, writers and artists in war and its aftermath.

Fifty historians from Australia and New Zealand emerged from the conference yesterday after three days of lively discussion on the conflicting forces that have influenced intellectuals on both sides of the Tasman in their approach to war. Titled “Mars and Minerva: Intellectuals and War in Australia and New Zealand”, the conference explored wars ranging in time from the Maori Wars of the mid nineteenth century to the current “War on Terror”.

One of the organisers of the conference, Associate Professor Iain Spence, Head of the School of Classics, History and Religion at UNE, listed some of the dilemmas that have faced intellectuals in times of war. One was the conflict between a pacifist outlook and a belief that fighting in a particular war (the First World War, for example) was justified. Another was the conflict between intellectuals’ need to think their way through problems and the emotionally-charged immediacy of war. “We had some really good discussions,” Dr Spence said.

“Among the topics discussed,” he continued, “was the general absence of women from war histories, despite their huge practical and intellectual contributions.” He referred to one of the conference papers, presented by Ruth Rae from Tamworth, which dealt with the work of three nurse leaders during World War 1: Ellen Gould (founder of the Australian Army Nursing Service), Margaret Graham (Matron of the Adelaide Hospital before and after the war), and Jane Bell.

“We had a good mix of academics and people from government institutions (including historians from the Army and Air Force, and the Australian War Memorial),” Dr Spence said. “One of the delegates, Dr Simon Potter, travelled all the way from the National University of Ireland in Galway to deliver a paper on radio broadcasting by Australian and New Zealand intellectuals during the Second World War. Altogether, it was an influential group of historians, and their ideas (to be made generally available with the publication of the conference papers) will help to inform future discussion of these issues.”

One of the papers, presented by Craig Barrett and Dr Martin Crotty from the University of Queensland, argued that the heroic “Anzac legend” – often criticised by historians for perpetuating a distorted popular concept of the Gallipoli campaign – has a legitimate place in our culture alongside the historical reality. They added that the legend deserved to be approached – even by its critics – with “a degree of reverence and humility”.

This was the Second Trevenna Conference (named after “Trevenna”, the historic house that is now the Vice-Chancellor’s residence at UNE). The first was in February 1999. The co-organisers of “Mars and Minerva” with Dr Spence were Dr John Moses (Adjunct Professor) and Dr Frank Bongiorno, both from UNE’s School of Classics, History and Religion.

The photograph displayed here shows Dr John Moses (left) and Associate Professor Iain Spence at the conference.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at February 7, 2006 04:37 PM