Harvard Chair Lecture at the University of Melbourne 
Indigenous sovereignty: activism and the imagination

The Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne, the Harvard University Committee on Australian Studies, and the Harvard Club of Victoria are delighted to invite you to a public lecture followed by a private dinner with Professor Philip Mead, the returning Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard.

Professor Mead, Chair of Australian Literature at the University of Western Australia and the 2015/16 Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard, will be giving the 2017 Returning Harvard Chair of Australian Studies Lecture on September 20. The lecture is hosted by Professor Ken Gelder and Professor Denise Varney, co-directors of the Australian Centre of the University of Melbourne, and will be followed by a private dinner for the former holders of the Chair of Australian Studies, University of Melbourne guests, and members of the Harvard Club (and their guests). 

The title of Professor Mead’s public lecture is Indigenous sovereignty: activism and the imagination.

The recent ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’ (May, 2017), and the Final Report of the Referendum Council (June, 2017) are significant expressions of a rapidly evolving discourse on sovereignty in Australia. Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book (2013) is a futuristic meditation on the limits of sovereignty from an Indigenous perspective: what if national borders disappear under the rising waters of global warming? What if national governments are superseded by global rule? The Swan Book explores these scenarios in a complex interplay of utopian and dystopian modes. This lecture argues that Alexis Wright’s work is an instance of how the Indigenous world novel can address real world issues of Indigenous rights and national sovereignty.

At the dinner, Professor Mead will speak about his personal experience at Harvard. The Chair of the Australian Advisory Committee for the Harvard Chair of Australian Studies, Professor Nicholas Jose, also will be attending.

Lecture details
Location: Theatre B (129), Ground Floor, Old Arts, University of Melbourne, Parkville
Date: Wednesday, 20 September 2017 
Time: 6:00pm – 7.00 pm. 
RSVP: Booking is required, seating is limited http://go.unimelb.edu.au/vze6
Enquiries: Amanda Morris, ajmo@unimelb.edu.au , 03 9035 5280
 

Dinner details
Location: The Matthaei Room, University House, Professors Walk, University of Melbourne, Parkville
Date: Wednesday, 20 September 2017 
Time: 7.00 pm for 7.30 pm. 
Bookings: $120 for HCV Members (please login to purchase) and $135 for Non Members Click here to buy tickets!!!

Enquiries: Mandy Croker, mandy@harvardclubofvictoria.org.au
 

University parking locations can be found here: http://go.unimelb.edu.au/2n4a