Anne Aly – 2014 award for outstanding media commentary
January 13, 2015 8:43 am
The Curtin University 2014 Public Relations Award for Most Outstanding Commentary on a Media Issue went to Anne Aly for her media commentary relating to Muslim extremism and the Islamic State. Anne has engaged with a range of media including The Australian, The West Australian, The Guardian, The Conversation, and the Women’s Weekly on a number of topics including the situation in Syria and Iraq, Australian’s leaving the country to join ISIS, deradicalization of young Muslims in Australia, community calls for the banning of the Burka and other related matters.
Anne is Director of the Countering Online Violent Extremism Research (CoVEr) Program at Curtin University.
Recent articles include:
“Radicalisation and the lone wolf: what we do and don’t know,” The Conversation, 17 December 2014.
“Sydney siege: don’t call Man Haron Monis a ‘terrorist’ – it only helps Isis,” The Guardian, 16 December 2014.
“Is it fair to blame the West for trouble in the Middle East,” The Conversation, 6 October 2014.
“Radicalisation,” The West Australian Newspaper, 4 October 2014.
Anne is also featured in “Taking on terror in the suburbs”, the Australian Women’s Weekly, December 2014, pp. 77–78.
Special themed edition of Angelaki co-edited by Matthew Chrulew
January 13, 2015 7:03 am
CCAT Research Fellow, Matthew Chrulew recently co-edited a themed issue of Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities on the work of philosopher Dominique Lestel. The first of three special issues on ‘Philosophical Ethology’, it includes a general and editorial introduction, many translations and images, an interview, and a comprehensive essay on Lestel’s thought by Dr Chrulew. An essay on ‘The Phenomenology of Animal Life’, co-authored by Lestel, Chrulew and Jeffrey Bussolini, also recently appeared in volume 5 of the journal Environmental Humanities.
CCAT at the Disrupted Festival of Ideas
November 12, 2014 5:11 amFour CCAT members – Kim Scott, Len Collard, Katie Ellis and Eleanor Sandry – were among a host of international, Australian and local creative thinkers who participated in the joint writingWA / State Library of Western Australia event, Disrupted Festival of Ideas, 31 October – 2 November 2014.
Kim Scott and Len Collard were part of a panel discussion on ‘First Words’ which discussed several local Noongar language revitalisation projects and explore the relationship between language, land and cultural identity. The policies of past governments vigorously discouraged the use of traditional languages and left devastating effect on Australian Indigenous languages, Today, language revival is now a priority for many Indigenous groups with a range of exciting projects underway nationally.
Katie Ellis and Eleanor Sandry led a two-part presentation – Depending on Technology – exploring the ways in which products such as smartphones and tablets have been integrated into our daily lives in an almost prosthesis-like fashion. While for the majority this has meant new ways of doing things, for people with disabilities the technology is providing previously unavailable forms of participation and social inclusion. Using illustrative examples ranging from robotic prosthetic limbs to robot home helps, Eleanor Sandry considered the issues relating to design choices, accessibility and integration of these technologies into people’s homes.
Image above (from left): Eleanor Sandry, Len Collard, Kim Scott & Katie EllisGrant and publication successes for Matthew Chrulew
November 12, 2014 2:42 amIn May and June, CCAT’s Matthew Chrulew undertook research in Switzerland, France and Belgium as an Ernst Keller European Travelling Fellow. The grant was awarded by the Australian Academy of the Humanities for the research project, “The History and Philosophy of Zoology and Ethology.” It enabled Matthew to conduct archival research at Zürich Zoo and Basel Staatsarchiv on the influential zoo director Heini Hediger, and to collaborate on editing and translating projects with colleagues in Paris and Brussels. This research is central to a number of publications in progress, including a book on zoological gardens, co-written essays, and a number of special journal issues.
Matthew is also guest editor, with Chris Danta from UNSW, of issue 43:2 of the leading journal SubStance: A Review of Theory and Literary Criticism. The special issue, titled “Fabled Thought,” brings together twelve essays responding to Jacques Derrida’s final seminars, The Beast & the Sovereign. Contributors include leading Derrida translators and commentators such as Peggy Kamuf, David Wills, Michael Naas, Paul Patton and Vicki Kirby. The issue includes Matthew’s essay, “‘An art of both caring and locking up’: Biopolitical Thresholds in the Zoological Garden.”
Visiting Scholar from China’s Fujian University of Technology
November 3, 2014 5:40 amWe welcome Jianfeng (Ada) Zhang, a lecturer from China’
s Fujian University of Technology who is a Visiting Research Associate at CCAT from September 2014 to to October 2015.
Ada’s research topic is the creative industries in which Australia is playing a leading role through the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, of which CCAT is a partner. She will be working with CCAT Principal Researcher, Lucy Montgomery, in the New Models of Publishing program, investigating different approaches to Open Access publishing and distribution.
Formerly a deputy marketing manager and a senior copywriter, Ada graduated from the School of Journalism and Communication, Wuhan University, China, in July 2004. Upon graduating she took up a teaching position at Fujian University of Technology, focusing on the Media Management, Integrated Communication and User Generated Content.
CCAT’s research collaboration will continue with Ada when she returns to China in late 2015.