Next Reading Group: Friday November 23rd

Hi Everyone,

The next reading group is on 23rd November @USyd, Madsen Conference Room.

The proposed reading is :

Smith, S. 2007 ," Owner-occupation: at home with a hybrid of money and materials" , Environmental planning A , advanced online publication

Discussant: Adrian Emilsen ( Macq.)

This will be the last reading group for 2007.

"Emergent Geographies" : GSNSW postgraduate conference

The Geographical Society of NSW is hosting 'Emergent Geographies', a geography postgraduate student conference, on Thursday 15th November 2007, as theUniversity of NSW. This one-day conference will showcase current geographicalresearch from emergent scholars - the geography postgraduate community - anddiscuss emerging themes and agendas for the discipline. Papers at this conference will present some of the most recent empirical research projects being undertaken in various sub-fields of geographic enquiry and will be of interest to professional geographers and academics.For those interested in attending, the draftprogram and registration form for the conference are available from the Society website: http://www.gsnsw.org.au

October 25th: "Transcultural ‘home’" - Seminar by Dr Divvia P.Tolia-Kelly

Transcultural ‘home’ - ‘Timeless’ Ecologies and PhilosophiesThe Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, with support from theDepartment of Human Geography and the Division of Environmental LifeSciences,Macquarie University, invites you to a seminar by Dr Divvia P.Tolia-Kelly (Durham University, UK)Abstract: ‘Home’ has been theorised within the social sciencesthrough the lens of feminist accounts of the value of the domestic scenepolitically, socially, culturally and economically. These accounts haveproliferated in the disciplines of geography, anthropology, culturalstudies, law and sociology. Contemporary research on the cultural valuesof home has rested on notions of ‘being’ and ‘feeling’ human andat home in the space of ‘dwelling’ (Heidegger) or ‘habitus’(Bordieu). These are critical philosophical starting points intothinking about the role of ‘home’ in human consciousness, identitypractices and in socio-political economies and networks. However, theseare squarely based in a western canon. This seminar on transculturalvalues of ‘home’ attends to the need within international qualityresearch to think ‘home’ transculturally and internationally beyondthis framework of thinking. This is not to dismiss the cultural andphilosophical values of ‘home’ based on notions of ‘dwelling’and ‘habitus’ but to build and extend dialogues across to theAntipodes where Maori and Aboriginal cultural values offer differentstarting points, timescales and relationships between individuals andsociety. The starting point for this symposium will be the figuring of‘home’ in non-Western cultures (such as Aboriginal, Maori andInuit). ‘Home’ in these social groups and contexts isphilosophically embedded in different frameworks of time, heritage,territory and ‘dwelling’. Most importantly ‘social’ and‘posthuman’ accounts of human-land relations are critical torites, rituals and notions of social laws of land rights, human rights,appropriation and governance. The seminar will engage with the temporaland spatial evolution of 'home' through a truly interdisciplinaryapproach.Date & time: Thursday October 25th @ 3pm - 5pmVenue: Venue: C5C 498 Macquarie UniversityThis seminar is free but bookings are recommended.To reserve your place (and for directions), please contact:Dr Armen Gakavian - crsi@scmp.mq.edu.au, tel: 9850 9171ORDr Nicole Cook- ncook@els.mq.edu.au, tel: 9850 8385For further information and abstract, visit www.crsi.mq.edu.au

Next Reading Group: 12 October

The next reading group is on Friday 12th October, 3.30pm, @ USyd, MadsenConference Room.

The proposed reading is:Davison, A., 2006. 'Stuck in a Cul-de-Sac? Suburban History and UrbanSustainability in Australia', Urban Policy and Research, 24(2), 201-216.

Discussant: Nicole Cook (Macq.)
Please email us if you would like a copy of the paper:
Human Geography Reading Group Convenors
Therese Kenna (UNSW): t.kenna@student.unsw.edu.au
Adrian Emilisen (Macq): aemilsen@els.mq.edu.au
Sarah James (UWS): s.w.james@scholar.uws.edu.au

Katharyne Mitchell Seminar : 30th August 2007

Marseille's Not for Burning: Immigrant Cities and the Production of Peace

CCR Seminar Series 2007
Professor Katharyne Mitchell (Simpson Professor in the Public Humanities, Department of Geography, University of Washington, USA) is presenting a paper at the Centre for Cultural Research at the University of Western Sydney.

Date: 30 August 2007
Event Details: 3:00pm start, Venue TBA.
Please RSVP to: a.ajiri@uws.edu.au
Convenor: Professor Kay Anderson

Emergent Geographies : GSNSW postgraduate conference

The Geographical Society of NSW is hosting 'Emergent Geographies', a Geography
postgraduate student conference (http://www.gsnsw.org.au). The conference is
to be held on Thursday 15th November 2007, at The University of NSW. Attached
to this email is a call for papers for the event. The conference is intended
to provide a forum for postgraduate students, at whatever stage of their
candidature, to present their research in a fairly relaxed and friendly
environment. It will also be an excellent opportunity to meet other postgrad
students and academics from various universities in NSW, and connect with the
broader geography community.

Abstracts of approximately 250 words should be submitted to Therese Kenna
(t.kenna@student.unsw.edu.au) by Friday 31st August 2007.

Sharon Zukin Lectures 19th and 23rd July

Professor Sharon Zukin is presenting two lectures as part of her visit to the Centre for Cultural Research, UWS.

19 July, 3pm, CCR Seminar Series, Building EA Lecture Room G-19, Parramatta Campus - abstract below

23 July, 5pm, Public Lecture, Riverside Theatres, Parramattta - see attached



“Authentic Public Spaces: Between Consumption and Democracy”



ABSTRACT: Contrasting a small, local park with the globally known site of a terrorist attack, this presentation examines how the idea of the public is constituted, institutionalized, and “emplaced” in different types of urban public spaces. Union Square Park is located two miles north of the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan. After September 11, 2001, these two spaces became gathering places for mourning and commemoration—but in dramatically different ways. Each site is publicly owned and managed by a hybrid form of public-private partnership; each claims to serve the public but interprets that mission in ways that advance the private interests of specific stakeholders and a neoliberal ideology. Yet differences between USQ and the WTC site suggest a spectrum extending from “benevolent” to “authoritarian” privatization of public space, with benevolence expressed in uses of space for political dissent and marketplace transactions and authoritarianism expressed in restrictions on use and nationalistic rhetoric.



SPEAKER: Sharon Zukin, the Broeklundian Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and Graduate School of the City University of New York, is one of the world’s foremost observers and theorists of the contemporary city. Professor Zukin is the author of several books, including Loft Living (1982), Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World (1991), The Culture of Cities(1995) and Point of Purchase: How Shopping Changed American Culture (2004). Broadly, her work examines the cultural economy of the contemporary city, including themes such as culture-led urban regeneration; spaces of consumption; urban development, art and real estate; and the transformation of urban life and form under globalisation. Professor Zukin recently won the Lynd Award for career achievement in urban sociology.




On: Thursday, 19 July 2007 Time: 3.00pm Venue: UWS Parramatta Campus, Building EA Lecture Room G-19
RSVP: Essential to Ania Ajiri, a.ajiri@uws.edu.au

New IAG Urban Study Group

The recent IAG in Melbourne saw the formation of a new Urban Study Group. A full day 'urban' session at the conference co-convened by Robyn Dowling(MACQ), Kurt Iveson , Therese Kenna (UNSW), Sarah James (UWS) and Adrian Emilsen(MACQ) illustrated the extent and diversity of contemporary geographical scholarship in the area of Urban Studies . The success of the session highlighted the timely nature of the study group's creation . Elected at the meeting as co-conveners of the study group were Therese Kenna (UNSW), Donald McNeil (UWS) and Rae Dufty (UTAS). Current plans are for the first event of the study group to be held before the year is out.

Next meeting 3rd August :Theorising GIS

The next reading group meeting is on Friday 3rd August, 3.30pm, @ USyd, Madsen Conference Room. The reading is:

Pavlovskaya, M., 2006. 'Theorizing with GIS: a tool for critical
geographies?', Environment and Planning A, 38, 2003-2020.

Discussant: Chris Brennan-Horley (UOW)

Next meeting: 8 June on "Reinventing Multiculturalism"

The next reading group is on Friday 8th June, 3.30pm, @ USyd, Madsen
Conference Room. The proposed reading is:

Uitermark, J., Rossi, U. & Van Houtum, H., 2005. 'Reinventing
Multiculturalism: Urban Citizenship and the Negotiation of Ethnic Diversity in
Amsterdam', International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29(3), 622-
640.

Discussant: Cameron McAuliffe (UWS)

Cosmopolitanism

Conversation with Stuart Hall

(Video Mp4 file download, 45mins)

Conversation between Stuart Hall and Pnina Werbner on the theme of Cosmopolitanism (to be shown at the Association of Social Anthropologists Silver Jubilee conference in 2006), in March 2006.

Friday 4th May: Connell on Hillsong

The next reading group is on Friday 4th May, 3.30pm, @ USyd, Madsen Conference
Room. The proposed reading is:

Connell, J., 2005. 'Hillsong: A Megachurch in the Sydney Suburbs', Australian
Geographer, 36(3), pp. 315-332.

Discussant: ... John Connell

Fri: 30 March - Nigel Thrift on cities and the natural history of hatred

The next reading group is on Friday 30th March,
3.30pm, @ USyd, Madsen Conference Room. The proposed reading is:

Thrift, N., 2005. 'But malice aforethought: cities and the natural history of
hatred', Transaction of the Institute of British Geographers, 30, 133-150.

Discussant: Donald McNeill (UWS)

2 March: Reading 'Styles of Intellectual Publics'

The next reading group is on Friday 2nd March, 3.30pm (please note the change of time), @ USyd, Madsen Conference Room. To follow a theme from the last reading group meeting, the proposed reading is:

Warner, Michael., 2002. 'Styles of Intellectual Publics', in 'Publics and counterpublics', Zone Books, NY, pp. 125 - 158.

Discussant: Kurt Iveson

For copies of the reading, please contact Therese, Sarah or Adrian.

2 February: Applying Discourse Theory

Happy new year! I hope 2007 is going well for you all.

For those that are interested, the next reading group is on Friday 2nd February, 4pm (USyd, Madsen Conference Room). The reading is:

Horwarth, D., 2005. 'Applying discourse theory: the method of articulation', in Howarth & Torfing (eds) Discourse theory in European politics - identity, policy and governance, ch. 13, pp. 316 - 347.

We hope to see you there.

Cheers,
Therese