School of Political Science, Criminology & Sociology POSTGRADUATE BULLETIN 9 OCTOBER 2003 1. Proximity Cards for John Medley Building - update 2. Australian Postdoctoral Fellowships - meeting on 14 October 3. Position in Comparative Politics - Massey University 4. PhD Scholarship - ANU 5. Call for Papers: 8th Graduate Student Conference 6. Call for articles: Graduate Journal of Social Science 7. Sociology Postgraduate Seminar Series 8. Political Science/CERC Seminar -14 October 9. Institute of Postcolonial Studies Legal Scholarship Seminar - Monday 13 October 10. Bulletin Archive *********************************************** 1. Proximity Cards for John Medley Building - update Further to the previous Bulletin: the proximity card readers for John Medley have now been installed. Access to the building after hours will require the use of a proximity card to get in and a push button to exit. After hours access is ONLY available via the main double sliding doors. The 'back' doors will remain key operated, but the locks on these doors have been changed and no keys will be issued. This means that after hours access is no longer be possible via these entrances. If you have a desk in the Department postgraduate offices on the 6th floor, a proximity card can be issued to you. Cards will be available at the end of next week. If you have been previously issued a building key, please return it to me. If you have not been previously issued a building key, I will need a $10 deposit for the card, refundable upon the card's return. DO NOT lend your card to anyone. Your card number is linked to your name and student number. If your card is lost or stolen you must report this to the Department immediately. We can then disable the card and issue another. If you do not have allocated office space on the 6th floor, we do not yet have cards available for postgraduate use. Some cards should be available soon, but it is expected that we will not be able to issue cards to individual students on an ongoing basis. Details about general card usage will be given soon, and I apologise for any inconvenience caused in the meantime. *********************************************** 2. Australian Postdoctoral Fellowships - meeting on 14 October A briefing meeting about the ARC's postdoctoral fellowships is being held this Tuesday, 14 October, 1-2 pm, Theatre A, Old Arts. If you are interested in furthering your career as a researcher it is important you start thinking about APDs well in advance. You are eligible to apply for this upcoming round if you will submit your thesis before 31 December 2004. *********************************************** 3. Position in Comparative Politics - Massey University The Politics Programme at Massey University is seeking to appoint a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in the field of Comparative Politics. Senior postgraduate students are encouraged to apply. Details of the position are available at the following website http://jobs.massey.ac.nz/positiondetail.asp?P=2303 Applications close on 3 November 2003. *********************************************** 4. PhD Scholarship - ANU Applications are invited for a PhD scholarship which will be funded by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) in Melbourne and administered by ANU. The scholar will be involved in developing a method for analysing the organisational causes of accidents. He/she will be enrolled for a PhD in Sociology at the ANU, but will be located in DSTO in Melbourne. The successful applicant may also be offered part time work in the human factors section of DSTO. This is a stimulating intellectual environment in which the scholar will be surrounded by other researchers working on similar topics. Considerable administrative assistance will also be available. There may be prospects of further employment with DSTO at the completion of the degree. The scholar will be jointly supervised by Drs Andrew Hopkins at ANU and Neelam Naikar at DSTO. Further information about DSTO can be found at: http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/index.html Application forms can be downloaded from http://www.anu.edu.au/sas/forms/sass25s.pdf Applications should specify clearly that they are applying for the DSTO scholarship. Potential applicants should contact Andrew.Hopkins@anu.edu.au , tel 02 6125 4793 Deadline for applications: 31 October, 2003 *********************************************** 5. Call for Papers: 8th Graduate Student Conference An Expanding Europe: Reflections and Prospects February 20-21, 2004 Georgetown University, Washington, DC Master's and Doctoral candidates in the humanities and social sciences (Political Science, International Relations, Economics, History, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Language and Literature) are encouraged to submit abstracts of papers that examine the process that has brought Europe to its present status and the issues and challenges facing Europe as it prepares for enlargement. The conference is multidisciplinary in nature, with possible panel themes including: * Implications of the EU Convention and Constitution for Europe * Enlargement of the European Union * Historical Perspectives on European Integration * European Culture and Identity * Security Issues in Europe * Europe's Role in World Affairs * Issues in Transatlantic Relations Two papers will be selected to receive "best paper" awards on the basis of their academic quality, as judged by the panel commentators. The selected papers will each receive a $250 award. Submission Deadline for Abstracts: Postmarked or emailed by December 1, 2003. Abstracts should be 300-500 words (1-1.5 pages) in length and should be submitted via email if possible; please include a CV with your submission. Participation is limited to Master's and Doctoral students currently enrolled in degree-granting programs. A limited number of travel grants are available. Send submissions to: cgesgradconference@georgetown.edu Graduate Student Conference BMW Center for German & European Studies Intercultural Center 501 Georgetown University Washington, DC 20057 For more information: cgesgradconference@georgetown.edu or visit our website at http://www.georgetown.edu/sfs/cges/gradconference.html *********************************************** 6. Call for articles: Graduate Journal of Social Science The Graduate Journal of Social Science is looking for papers by graduate students (Masters to Post-Doc) with a focus on interdisciplinary methodology in the social science. Discussion papers, book reviews, conference reviews are also welcome. Deadline for submission is the 24th of November 2003. All details on the modalities of submission are to be found at http://www.gjss.org GJSS publications are expected to investigate methodological issues of interdisciplinary relevance (that is, explicitly or implicitly concerning at least two social sciences). Social science methodology is understood to encompass all analytic, theoretical, interpretive, instrumental and physical tools used for the acquisition of empirical data in research. Contributors can draw upon quantitative issues (e.g. the choice of measurement indicators, the production and use of statistics, the relevance of quantitative data gathered by the natural sciences) and qualitative ones (including for instance the use of narrative and discourse analysis; the meaning, practice and value of objectivity in field work and interpretation; the role of the social scientist as subject of the investigation and bearer/creator of knowledge). Essays will also be welcomed regarding the interplay between knowledge production/ interpretation and methodology, the possibility of maintaining a distinction between normative and descriptive research and the (possibility/impossibility of) interaction between natural and social science methodologies. For further information, see GJSS website http://www.gjss.org or contact editor@gjss.org *********************************************** 7. Sociology Postgraduate Seminar Series Postgrads in sociology will be presenting papers on their research over the next few weeks at lunchtime in Room 519. All welcome. 1-2pm Tuesday October 21, Nicole Asquith, 'Sexual Gazing in Malediction: The Role of Disrobing Out-of-Place Bodies in Heterosexist and Antisemitic Violence' 1-2pm, Tuesday October 28, Peter Gibilisco, 'A just society inclusive of people with disabilities' 1-2pm, Thursday October 30, Kristen Murray, 'Coming to Terms with the Grim Reaper: The presence and absence of death in contemporary society' *********************************************** 8. Political Science/CERC Seminar The Convention's Draft Constitution: Towards a more federal EU? Prof. Finn Laursen (Director, Centre for European Studies, University of Southern Denmark) Tuesday 14 October, 1.00 pm Room 212, Level 2 234 Queensberry Street, Carlton 1.00pm-2.00pm Presented with The Contemporary Europe Research Centre (CERC) *********************************************** 9. Institute of Postcolonial Studies Legal Scholarship Seminar Monday 13 October, 7.30pm the Institute of Postcolonial Studies, 76 Curzon Street, North Melbourne Dr William MacNeil Law, Griffith University One Recht to Rule Them All The premise of this paper is that more than just coincidence links and indeed accounts for the simultaneity of two distinct cultural phenomena: the current Tolkien revival, evidenced in Peter Jacksons two blockbuster film translations of parts 1 and 2 of The Lord of the Rings; and academic success of Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, Empire. My argument is that both texts tell similar, if not identical tales, and one particularly a propos the interesting timesin which we live: that of post-September 11 and all of its anxieties about globalization, be it terrorism or capitalism. Tolkiens Sauron can be read as a typological prefiguration of Osama bin Laden, the airborne Nazgul as al-Qaida, and the two towersthe twin towers; while Hardt and Negri s Empire, far from being a metaphor, is literalized in the current hegemony of the hegemonic, ever-expanding free market. Linking both forces, binding them together is a glaring absence, one that prompts the search for the preciousobjet petit a with which to fill it: in Saurons case for the ring of power; in Empirescase, for the grundnorm. Each search for the same thing legitimacy, even legality. In short, one recht to rule us all! But this thesis as the ring-as-law and the law-as-ring is complicated by the destruction of the ring, and the fall of Barad-dur and its Dark Lord. Does Saurons spectacular combustion render The Lord of the Rings a kind of wish-fulfillment of the anti-globalization movement? Or, to the contrary, doesnt it rather confirm than refute Hardt and Negris point that Empireis brought about by the dematerialization of the law from a posited thing into a Kelsenian norm, presupposed in juristic consciousness? Seen from this light, Aragorns restored Gondor is a blueprint for the emrging cartography of Empiremulticultural, exchange-driven and totally oppressive. All of which suggests that if EmpireGondor or global capital is to be challenged, the Ring of Power must be forged anew! Though not so that the One can rule the many, but rather that the many can rule through the One. In suggesting such a solution to Empire, literature (Tolkien), when read in conjunction with Hardt and Negri, and as law (Kelsen) may provide more than politics, sociology or critical theory a way out of the impasses of the post-modern condition. Dr William Macneil teaches and researches at Griffith University, and co-directs the Socio-Legal Research Centre there. He has degrees from Dalhousie, London and Columbia Universities, and taught at LSE and Hong Kong University before moving to Griffith. In 2001-2 he was Loewenstein Visiting Fellow in Jurisprudence at Amherst College. He is completing a book on law and popular culture. *********************************************** 10. Bulletin Archive Current and previous issues of the postgraduate bulletin are not archived on the web at: http://www.politics.unimelb.edu.au/courses/postgraduate/bulletin.html