XIVth Annual Conference

of the

Australian Society for French Studies

(ASFS)

11-13 July 2006
(Reception - public lecture & barbecue - to be held on the evening of July 10)

University of Adelaide
South Australia

Theme: "Utopias/Dystopias"

The French Discipline at the University of Adelaide is pleased to host the XIVth annual conference of the Australian Society for French Studies.

  

Keynote Speakers

Margaret Sankey
University of Sydney

Margaret Sankey is McCaughey Professor of French Studies at the University of Sydney. She has worked extensively on the history of ideas and mentalities in France, with particular interest in French notions of Terra Australis, an interest she has pursued through her research on the writing of Abbé Paulmier (1663-1664) and various other French explorers, most notably Nicolas Baudin. Her talk will focus on the journals from the Baudin expedition to Australia in 1800-1804.  

Dominique Kalifa
Université de Paris I - Panthéon

Dominique Kalifa is a specialist in the history of crime and its representations. He is the author, among other publications, of Naissance de la police privée (Plon, 2000), La Culture de masse en France: 1860-1930 (La Découverte, 2001), Crime et culture au XIXe siècle (Perrin, 2005), and of L'Encre et le sang (Fayard, 1995), a study of the social and cultural phenomenon of crime in the late nineteenth century. His address at the conference will focus on the utopian/dystopian dimensions of the punishment battalions in Algeria known by the name of the "biribi", with particular reference to Georges Darien and his novel of the same name.

Philip Gerrans
University of Adelaide

Philip Gerrans is a member of the Philosophy Discipline at the University of Adelaide. His main research interest is the philosophy of psychology and psychopathology. He has also published widely on political philosphy, and in particular on nationalism and eighteenth-century political theory. He will be speaking about Montesquieu and his anti-utopian politics.

David Bellos
Princeton University

David Bellos is a renowned scholar of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is well known for his work on Balzac, and for his influential biography on Georges Perec (Georges Perec: A Life in Words, 1993). He is also the author of Jacques Tati: His Life and Art (1999). He will be speaking at the conference about Romain Gary's particular vision of utopian and dystopian futures for mankind.

Nicholas Hewitt
University of Nottingham

Nick Hewitt is Professor of French and Head of the School of Modern Languages at the University of Nottingham. He has worked extensively on twentieth-century French literature and cultural history (Céline, the Third and Fourth Republics, the inter-war years, the Occupation...). He has published numerous articles and books, including The Life of Céline (1999), The Golden Ages of Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1987), Literature and the Right in Postwar France (1996) and La France et les pays de l'est (2000). He is also the Editor of French Cultural Studies. He will be presenting a paper on jazz in Marseille during the inter-war years and the Occupation.

Other features of the conference include:

• Welcome barbecue on July 10

• Common day with the Rudé Seminar on July 13

• Special joint session on July 13 to commemorate the long-standing contribution of Colin Nettelbeck to both the ASFS and the Rudé Seminar

• Public lecture series running from July 8 to July 15 by renowned specialists on aspects of French/Australian culture and history (full programme will soon be available)

• Convivial conference dinner at the Jah'z Café, just off Rundle Mall in the city, on July 11

• Annual meeting of the Association of Heads of French Programmes in Australia on the afternoon of July 10 (2-5 pm)

This conference is being held in conjunction with the inaugural conference of the Federation of Associations of Teachers of French in Australia (FATFA)
(July 8-9, Theme: "Explorations et Rencontres)
and the 15th George Rudé Seminar in French History & Civilisation
(July 12-15, Theme: "French Identities").

 Links:
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/fatfa/

http://www.arts.adelaide.edu.au/historypolitics/rude/

There will also be a series of free public lectures, entitled French Connection: Adelaide 2006, which will take place during the week of 8-15 July. The programme is available at:

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/frenchconnectionadelaide

last modified 20/01/2006 10:52 by Dr John West-Sooby