UB Learning & Teaching Conference 2009

Monday 30 November - Thursday 3 December

This year the concept of a Learning and Teaching Week has been instituted to combine a number of events into one focussed week. The week will start with a TDU Showcase on Monday November 30 and be followed on Tuesday by a LEWS 'Using Technologies in Teaching' Session presented simultaneously at Mt Helen, Horsham and SMB campuses. The LEWS sessions in particular, appear to be of most value in the context of direct applicability to teaching and learning, with sessions on Mahara ePortfolio, Limesurvey, Turnitin, Moodle, Flash and video options in teaching.

On Wednesday IPOL will present a series of pre-conference workshops conducted by leading academics from around Australia who on Thursday will provide the keynote addresses to the IPOL Learning and Teaching Conference around the themes of Assessment and Evaluation.

Conference details and programmes available here.

December Book Group

Picture: Sporting Times, April 1922

The December Book Group will meet at The Known World bookshop in Sturt Street for a 2pm start. We return to James Joyce's Ulysses and continue from the section starting "In The Heart Of The Hibernian Metropolis" and ends with "Urbane, to comfort them, the Quaker librarian purred". My Penguin Modern Classics edition has this between pp. 147-235.

2009 Philosophy Symposium: Philosophy and Responsibility

Photo: Marnie Nolton

The 3rd annual Philosophy Symposium is being held at the Mt Helen campus of the University of Ballarat. In choosing Philosophy & Responsibility - A Day of Philosophical Friendship & Conversation as the theme of this year's Symposium we reflect on philosophy's two-fold nature. It is and must be a responsible practice in its own right, but it is also an activity of reconsidering the issues of our (epistemological, ontological, ethical, social, political, aesthetic) responsibilities in the world.

The Symposium will be held at the University of Ballarat on Monday 7 December 2009 and is open to interested academics, postgraduate and undergraduate students. Our goal is to provide a supportive collegial forum to promote the vital exchange of ideas and ongoing conversation in philosophy, as well as to foster ties between participants.

The UB Philosophy Programme invited abstracts of 250 words for twenty-minute papers in any field of philosophy or papers that present philosophical perspectives on other fields of the humanities and social sciences. We are please to confirm the presentation of ten diverse papers (The School of Law, Deaking University; Faculty of IT, Monahs University; Philosophy, Murdoch University; School of ITMS, School of BSSH, University of Ballarat).

For further information contact
Dr Jane Mummery
Philosophy Programme
School of Behavioural, Social Sciences & Humanities
University of Ballarat
j.mummeryAT ballarat.edu.au

For Symposium registration contact
Marnie Nolton
Philosophy Programme
School of Behavioural, Social Sciences & Humanities
University of Ballarat
m.noltonAT ballarat.edu.au

The Humanities in Australia: Taking Stock

Last week saw The Australian Academy of the Humanities hold its 40th annual symposium on 19 -20 November at the National Library of Australia, Parkes, Canberra. This year's theme was The Humanities in Australia: Taking Stock, and syposium convener Prof. Mark Finnane (Griffith University) saw this theme as befitting a retrospective on both the Academy and the state of Humanities in Australia. Papers focussed on both the development and changes in the last 40 years as well as looking to future trends which might impact upon the Academy and the humanities themselves.

A stellar cast of academics presented a diverse series of papers that provoked lively questions from the floor. Including but not limited to Catriona Elder, Genevieve Lloyd, Graeme Davison, John Frow, Mark Byron, Ian Hunter, Ien Ang, Glenda Sluga, and Ian Donaldson. The symposium was attended by Jane Mummery and Marnie Nolton.