[Anthropgrad] Anthropology seminar Wednesday 21 May

[Melinda Hinkson]

Anthropology seminar Wednesday 21 May, 9.30 am, Coombs Seminar Room A.

Douglas Miles (Anthropology, James Cook University)

Afternoon Light on the 'Thailand Controversy': A¹ Secret¹ Indochinese War
(1968-1982) and Postgraduate Supervision in Australian Anthropology
(1969-2002).
 
This paper begins as a retrospective consideration about the influence of an
academic¹s political priorities on his supervision of theses by honours and
postgraduate students in Anthropology at three Australian Universities
(University of Sydney,1969-83; ANU, 1983-93 ;  and JCU (1993 -   ) The
initial focus is the impact of the Indochinese War especially during
Australian conscription for the Vietnam deployment in the 1970s ; also , of
opposition during the next two decades to the Suharto regime (including its
occupation of East Timor). Enquiry then highlights for detailed attention
the ŒThailand Controversy¹ which polarised students and staff within and
beyond Anthropology at Macquarie University as well as at the University of
Sydney for at least most of the 1970s but I suggest, for much longer.
 
The discussion provides me with an opportunity to add my own perspective to
a growing list of publications on this issue (eg Wakin, 1992; Robinson,
2004); also, to respond to an article (Hinton, 2002) concerning inter alia
my contributions to the same debate through an unpublished paper
(Miles 1969 mimeo) about an anthropological research project in Sarkhan,
which is the fictive Southeast Asian nation where Lederer and Burdick (1959)
located the main action of their novel, The Ugly American.
 
All welcome.

____________________________________
Melinda Hinkson
School of Archaeology & Anthropology
A.D. Hope Building
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200

T: +61 2 6125 8246
F: +61 2 6125 2711
W: http://arts.anu.edu.au/AandA/

Information about the Master of Visual Culture Research
is available at: http://rsh.anu.edu.au/vcr.php