From Dolly the sheep to Chicago gangsters

 

Published by the Communications and Development Department

 

5 December 2003

 

From the philosophies of Chicago gangsters to the biopolitics of Dolly the Sheep and her daughters, the Cultural Studies Association of Australia’s annual conference in Christchurch will examine how values are formed and people’s tastes and opinions judged.

 

It is the first time the association has held its conference outside Australia. It will be based at the Christchurch Arts Centre 6-8 December with 180 speakers from throughout the world.

 

The event marks the first year that students at the University of Canterbury will graduate with Honours degrees in Cultural Studies. Other students are enrolled in courses throughout the programme, from first year to doctoral level, where there are already three thesis-writers.

 

Conference convenor Associate Professor Howard McNaughton , Head of Canterbury’s School of Culture, Literature and Society, describes it as “a major international conference, and the most innovative in the history of the Association”.

He said cultural studies was a relatively new subject in universities internationally, and had been a substantial growth area in American, Australian, and some European universities.

 

“It is an emerging academic field which analyses the cultural structures we live with and within, and how they shape our own identities.

 

“Today, theories of culture are seen as particularly useful in explaining how we form our personal and social identity. This means looking at how we relate to literature, the media, recreation, advertising, and even politics, how we form our values, and how we judge other peoples tastes.”

 

International speakers include Andrew Ross (New York, author of The Chicago Gangster Theory of Life), Sarah Franklin (Lancaster, a controversial theorist of the Nature/Culture interface, famous for her research on Dolly the sheep), Elspeth Probyn (Sydney, author of Blush: Essays in Shame), and Alphonso Lingis (USA, author of Dangerous Emotions ). There will be panels on the culture of road safety, Antarctic lifestyle, animalism, cyborg posthumanism, and sex for life: all of them cultural structures which shape lives.

For more information email cultural-studies@canterbury.ac.nz or contact Associate Professor Howard McNaughton on 364 2224.

 

For enquiries about studying Cultural Studies at Canterbury, email the coordinator, Dr Adam Lam at adam.lam@canterbury.ac.nz or visit the website at www.cult.canterbury.ac.nz