Physical treatments for war neurosis

School of Humanities and Social Science,
The University of Newcastle
2012, Semester 1

Held in the Cultural Collections (near the Information Desk)
Level 2, Auchmuty Library, Callaghan Campus

Friday 1st June, 10:00am, followed by morning tea

Dr Elizabeth Roberts-Pederson,
University of Western Sydney

“Some measure of revolution”: physical treatments for war neurosis in Britain, 1939-1945

During the Second World War, thousands of British service personnel were treated for ‘war neurosis’ in the psychiatric wards of military and civilian hospitals in Britain and overseas. While historians of psychiatry have tended to emphasize the rise of ‘therapeutic communities’ during this period as a new and innovative means of rehabilitating neurotic service personnel, less attention has been given to the widespread use of what medical practitioners termed ‘physical treatments’ to mitigate neurotic symptoms.

In this paper I argue that the wartime adoption of drug therapies, insulin comas, convulsive therapies and prefrontal leucotomies for the treatment of neurotic conditions holds implications not only for the ways in which we understand the development of psychopharmacology and the ‘biological turn’ in psychiatry in the latter half of the twentieth century, but for our conceptualization of the problematic relationship between psychiatric theory and psychiatric practice in wartime.

All welcome!

Maurice Shadbolt, William Malone and Chunuk Bair

 

School of Humanities and Social Science,
The University of Newcastle
2012, Semester 1

Held in the Cultural Collections (near the Information Desk)
Level 2, Auchmuty Library, Callaghan Campus

Friday 18^th May, 10:00am, followed by morning tea

 Dr James Bennett

School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Newcastle University

‘Maurice Shadbolt, William Malone and Chunuk Bair:  Gallipoli and late 20^th century New Zealand cultural nationalist productions’

With some notable exceptions, representations of Gallipoli (especially popular ones) have long been confined to singular national (and nationalistic) interpretations of the campaign that are typically built around the elevation of mythology, national identity and sentiment. Peter Weir’s 1981 feature film, Gallipoli, a near classic version of the Anzac legend, is perhaps the most influential text ever on this historical turning point.

Given the audience’s familiarity with Weir’s feature film, the paper will introduce it as a comparative anchor for the discussion around Maurice Shadbolt, architect of a cultural nationalist moment in 1980s New Zealand. Particular emphasis will be given to Shadbolt’s dramatic 1982 stage play, Once on Chunuk Bair, and his related writings from other genres on the First World War. The 1991 adaptation of the play into a low budget feature film will also be briefly considered. The paper will interrogate Shadbolt’s motivation for this incisive intervention in New Zealand public life, situating it in an era when the nation was transitioning to decolonisation and cultural independence.

In order to place discussion of Gallipoli and cultural nationalism in a broader context, the presenter will also briefly speak to the issue of a key shift in Gallipoli studies over the past decade underpinned by a growing body of revisionist historical scholarship on the campaign. This work informs two significant transnational documentaries made to mark the occasion of the 90^th anniversary in 2005. Both are important tools in helping us to transcend the national paradigm and to rethink the campaign in more holistic and complex ways.

Was New Zealand part of New South Wales 1788-1817?

School of Humanities and Social Science,
The University of Newcastle
2012, Semester 1

Held in the Cultural Collections (near the Information Desk)
Level 2, Auchmuty Library, Callaghan Campus
Friday 4th May, 10:00am, followed by morning tea

Professor Lyndall Ryan
Centre for the History of Violence, Newcastle University

“Was New Zealand part of New South Wales 1788-1817?”

When Captain Arthur Phillip the first governor of New South Wales, read out his commission at Sydney on 26 January 1788 he said that the boundaries of the colony extended from Cape York in the north to South Cape, all the country westward as far as 135 degrees east and “including all the islands adjacent in the Pacific Ocean” between Cape York and South Cape.

Did Phillip’s jurisdiction include New Zealand? Between 1788 and 1817 the governors of NSW were in no doubt that NZ was part of the territory of NSW and encouraged trade and missionary enterprise between the two places. However in 1817 the British government ruled that NZ was not part of NSW. This paper explores the ways historians on both sides of the Tasman have written about this period in relation to their countries’ histories and argues for a new approach to trans-Tasman history.

All welcome!

History Seminar Series, Semester 1, 2012

School of Humanities and Social Science,
The University of Newcastle

2012, Semester 1

Held in the Cultural Collections (near the Information Desk)
Level 2, Auchmuty Library, Callaghan Campus

All seminars are held on Fridays at 10:00 am, and  are followed afterwards by morning tea

9th March – Michael Rosenthal, Warwick University (UK):  Edward Close: prospects of the colony 1817-?

23rd March – Alan Ward, Newcastle University:  Is a treaty any use at all? A perspective from restless New Zealand

4th May – Lyndal Ryan, Newcastle University:  Was New Zealand part of New South Wales 1788-1817

18th May – James Bennett, Newcastle University:  Maurice Shadbolt, William Malone and Chunuk Bair: Gallipoli and late 20th century New Zealand cultural productions. Please note that this date has been changed.

1st June – Elizabeth Roberts-Pederson, University of Western Sydney: “Some measure of revolution”: physical treatments for war neurosis in Britain, 1939-1945

Download the program as a PDF

Everyone is welcome!

Is a treaty any use at all?

School of Humanities and Social Science,
The University of Newcastle
2012, Semester 1

Held in the Cultural Collections (near the Information Desk)
Level 2, Auchmuty Library, Callaghan Campus

Friday 23rd March, 10:00am, followed by morning tea

Emeritus Professor Alan Ward

Is a treaty any use at all?
A perspective from restless New Zealand

Since the 1960s there have been insistent proposals for a ‘treaty’ (or ‘Makarata’) between the Commonwealth and Australian Aboriginal people, as a basis for Aboriginal advancement. Lately the trend has been towards explicit recognition of Aboriginal rights in the federal Constitution. Arguments in support of such proposals sometimes include reference to the allegedly better race relations in New Zealand, allegedly deriving from the Treaty of Waitangi concluded between representatives of the British Crown and some 530 Maori rangatira in 1840. There is an assumption that the Treaty of Waitangi has constitutional force, or the force of fundamental law, against which statute law and the received common law are measured. This talk will examine those assumptions.

All welcome!

Gross National Happiness in Bhutan

DR. CRAIG DALTON

Gross National Happiness in Bhutan
Piloting Contemplative Practice in Australian Public Health

Tuesday Seminar
15 May 3.30-5pm

Hosted in the Auchmuty Library’s Cultural Collections at the University of Newcastle.
Tea, coffee and nibbles provided from 3.30pm for a 3.45 start finishing by 5pm.

Seminar Abstract:
Eastern contemplative practices have gained increasing popularity in North American universities since their introduction in the 1960’s and are now being reintroduced from North America back into Bhutan’s universities and public service settings. Contemplative practice is viewed as a core foundation of the Gross National Happiness development philosophy in Bhutan. An AusAid grant to teach public health surveillance in Bhutan with a contemplative practice component was the inspiration to conduct a pilot program within Hunter New England Population Health from August to October of 2011. This presentation discusses a theory of “how contemplation works,” recent neuroscience research on contemplation, and the evaluation of a pilot program of a weekly one hour contemplative program for public health practitioners in Newcastle.

Dr Craig Dalton is a Public Health Physician, Hunter New England Population Health, and Conjoint Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the UoN.

All welcome.

Download the Flyer (PDF)

Adam Smith as Theologian

PROFESSOR PAUL OSLINGTON

Religion and Economics: Adam Smith as Theologian

Tuesday Seminar
17 April 3.30-5pm

Hosted in the Auchmuty Library’s Cultural Collections at the University of Newcastle.
Tea, coffee and nibbles provided from 3.30pm for a 3.45 start finishing by 5pm.

Seminar Abstract:
Adam Smith is a crucial figure in any theological engagement with economics. Contemporary theologians struggle for an entry point into the discourse of economics, but this most famous figure in economics can be shown to be thoroughly soaked with theology. Like many of his 18th century Scottish Enlightenment friends, Smith was shaped by the Calvinism of the dominant Presbyterian Kirk. Newton and the British tradition of scientific natural theology provided the framework for his economic investigations. The Continental natural law ethics of Pufendorf and others influenced his moral philosophy, far more than utilitarianism. Aristotle was always in the background. In the following paper, I will test a theological reading of Smith’s works through the invisible hand passages.

All welcome.

Download the Flyer (PDF)

Religion and politics

PROFESSOR MARION MADDOX

Religion and Politics: How Powerful is the Christian Right?

Tuesday Seminar
13 March 3.30-5pm

Hosted in the Auchmuty Library’s Cultural Collections at the University of Newcastle.
Tea, coffee and nibbles provided from 3.30pm for a 3.45 start finishing by 5pm.

Seminar Abstract:
A number of recent articles have argued that the Australian Christian right’s political influence has been overstated, pointing to the failure of signature reforms and lack of electoral pulling-power. I respond that such analyses misconstrue the kind of pressure group politics in which Australia’s Christian right engages and the purpose for which it raises iconic issues. I then draw a comparison with the way in which similar arguments have been made about the US Christian right, usually when it appeared to have reached a low ebb and often predicting its imminent demise, only to herald a resurgence. Where Australia’s Christian right is often treated as a recent phenomenon, it, like its US counterpart, rewards a long-view analysis.

All welcome.

Download the Flyer (PDF)

GRIT Seminar Program 2012

GRIT – Group for Religious and Intellectual Traditions

Semester 1, 2012
Program of Events

Seminars

13 March

• Prof. Marion Maddox
  “Religion and Politics: How Powerful Is the Christian Right?”

17 April

• Prof. Paul Oslington
  “Religion and Economics: Adam Smith as Theologian”

15 May

• Dr. Craig Dalton
  “Gross National Happiness in Bhutan: Piloting Contemplative Practice in Australian Public Health”

All seminars are hosted in the Auchmuty Library Cultural Collections.
Tea, coffee and nibbles provided on the Tuesday dates above from 3.30 for a 3.45 start finishing by 5pm

Further details at http://www.newcastle.edu.au/school/hss/research/groups/grit/

Download the Flyer (PDF)

Everyone is welcome to attend.

Edward Close: Prospects of the Colony

History Seminar Series

School of Humanities and Social Science,
The University of Newcastle

2012, Semester 1

Held in  Cultural Collections (near the Information Desk)
Level 2, Auchmuty Library, Callaghan Campus
10am, followed by morning tea

Friday 9th March – 10am

Prof. Michael Rosenthal, Warwick University, England
Edward Close: Prospects of the Colony

In 2009 Dr David Hansen discovered that the watercolours attributed to amateur colonial artist, Sophia Campbell were the work of Lieutenant Edward Close, of the 48th Regiment, which arrived in Sydney on August 3rd, 1817. This paper builds on Dr Hansen’s foundation, to discuss some of the technical problems surrounding even knowing what we’re looking at in the field of colonial Australian art, and works are discussed according to their genre – caricatures, views, landscapes – and the latter are investigated with a view to decoding what messages their aesthetic references tell us about how Close was viewing New South Wales, Sydney and Newcastle. These in turn are linked into other issues – the ethos of the Macquarie era, the impact of European occupation upon the Aborigines and their places – to argue that art can be as eloquent as any written documentation about the actualities of historical process.

Everyone is welcome to attend