The arts, humanities, and social sciences celebrate publications

December 13, 2006

The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at The University of New England has celebrated an impressive output of books and journal articles over the past year. The Faculty’s Executive Dean, Professor Michael Macklin, said these publications were representative of “a tradition of scholarship going back to the foundation of the University”.

At the celebratory function last Friday [8 December], Professor Macklin outlined the Faculty’s achievements during what he called “another successful year for research”.

It had been a year, he said, in which research projects within the Faculty had received funding of more than $2.5 million from the Australian Research Council, and the Faculty’s research centres had attracted considerable amounts of funding from other sources. The number of students beginning postgraduate research in the Faculty had risen for the fifth successive year.

Professor Macklin acknowledged the contribution of the Faculty’s Associate Dean (Research), Professor Majella Franzmann, and included her recent election to the Council of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in a list of national accolades bestowed on members of the Faculty during the year.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, said he was “absolutely impressed” by the books on display, mentioning several on topics as diverse as the mathematical modelling of shopping trips and the fundamental principles of medical practice according to the ancient Greek physician Galen.

Dr Ian Johnston, the author of Galen On Diseases and Symptoms (published by Cambridge University Press), travelled from his home in Tasmania for last week’s event. Dr Johnston, a retired neurosurgeon, began his study of Classical languages and literature at UNE in 1980, and graduated with a PhD in 2003. The book on Galen, based on his PhD thesis, contains a translation of several texts by Galen hitherto unpublished in translation, and an introductory essay. “These works – focusing as they do on fundamental principles – still have relevance for present-day practitioners,” he said.

Another of the new books in the field of Classical studies also has a medical flavour. The Wounded Hero: Non-Fatal Injury in Homer’s Iliad by Tamara Neal (published by Peter Lang) is a study of the significance of the motifs of non-fatal injury and bloodshed in The Iliad. Dr Neal, who was a lecturer in UNE’s School of Classics, History and Religion from 2004 until earlier this year, said she had “always been passionate about Homer”. While the purely medical aspect of the topic had interested her at first, she said, the final product was a literary study.

Dr Johnston and Dr Neal are pictured here at the event.

In all, the event celebrated the publication of eight books written by members of the Faculty, 30 books that contain chapters contributed by Faculty members, and 81 refereed journal articles. The publications come from all parts of the Faculty – from History to Psychology; from Linguistics to Social Science; from Theatre Studies to Archaeology.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at December 13, 2006 04:23 PM