Media Release

Friday, 5 May 2000

Schoolyard bullying will be placed in an international context at a seminar in Adelaide University on Monday 8 May (1-2pm, Room 518, Centre for Asian Studies, Ligertwood Building, North Terrace Campus).

Dr Anna Baldry, a visiting scholar from the University of Rome, will speak on Bullying in School: an Italian perspective.

The seminar will provide valuable information which can be used to compare the bullying problem in Australia with bullying in other societies. Is bullying more or less the same across different societies? What about the causes? Do Australian students bully others for the same reasons as Italian or Japanese students? Do we need to conceptualise bullying differently across different societies? Do we have a common solution to the problem, or any solution at all?

Italy is a country where student bullying is far more prevalent than in many other societies. Yet, there is no Italian word describing the behaviour which we would regard as bullying. The lack of such a word, however, does not mean that victims are free of trauma.

Dr Baldry has examined student bullying in Italy from a broad perspective (PhD social psychology, Rome, Master in Criminology, Cambridge) and written extensively on the subject.

She has been invited to Adelaide by Associate Professor Ken Rigby (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Underdale Campus, University of South Australia). Prof. Rigby has also worked extensively on bullying in Australian schools.