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Thursday, 8 February 2001

The role graffiti plays in society, and the difficulties associated with subtitling, are just two of the interesting topics being discussed during a conference at Adelaide University this week.

The Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association's (AULLA) 31st annual congress features more than 100 speakers from across Australia and overseas delivering papers on a vast range of topics.

Keynote speakers at the congress include noted South African academic Professor Dorothy Driver, and the University of Nottingham's Professor Nicholas Hewitt.

Some of the other speakers at the congress include:

Monash University researcher Anne Menis speaking on the conversational nature of toilet graffiti, including the differences between men's and women's graffiti;

Roger Hillman from Australian National University examining the difficulties of subtitling in films, including what expect to have, and not to have, subtitled;

Anthony Long from Adelaide University, who will speak on the rise of the Holocaust denial scene with the advent of the Internet.

Congress co-convenor Dr Greg Hainge, from Adelaide University's Centre for European Studies and General Linguistics, said the theme of the congress was Changing Landscapes.

"The theme is important on a number of levels, the most obvious being the changing nature of language and literature, and I'm pleased that all of the speakers have incorporated this theme into their papers," he said.

"There is also the broader theme of Australian universities being in a climate of change, and this congress gives participants a chance to talk informally about the issues facing language and literature research in Australia, and to build links as colleagues, rather than being members of competing institutions."