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ANU VC NAMED GROUP OF EIGHT CHAIR Australian National University vicechancellor professor Ian Young has been elected chair of the Group of Eight( Go8). The Go8 coalition of Australian universities, including ANU, aims to promote collaboration, expand student opportunities and influence policymakers. Young is looking forward to taking up the post in January.“ The Group of Eight plays an incredibly important role in influencing national polices for high education and research,” he says.“ And this role plays a key part in that. ANU chancellor professor Gareth Evans says,“[ For Young ] To win the unanimous support of his colleagues so early in his term as a Go8 vice-chancellor is a great personal compliment, and a real feather in the university’ s cap.”
PSYCHOLOGIST HEADS SOCIAL SCIENCES AT USC An experimental psychologist who has worked as an academic for more than 20 years is now head of the school of social sciences at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Professor Doug Mahar recently joined USC after 18 years at the Queensland University of Technology, where his senior roles included acting head of the school of psychology and counselling, and chair of ethics committees. He is a past president of the Australasian Society for Experimental Psychology and lectured at the Australian National University in Canberra in the 1990s. Mahar is excited by the chance to incorporate USC’ s priority research areas, such as sustainability, across multiple disciplines. He says he will encourage“ smart teaching” through programs such as blended learning and work-integrated learning.
UWS WELCOMES DEAN OF EDUCATION The University of Western Sydney has announced the appointment of professor Michele Simons as dean of the school of education. Simons joins UWS from the University of South Australia, where she has been dean and head of the school of education. She has qualifications in human services and adult and community education and a PhD from the University of South Australia. She is also president of the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association. Her experience includes serving on a range of government committees, including the South Australian Teacher Education Taskforce. Simons is a wellrespected researcher, and has won a number of nationally competitive grants.
UC APPOINTS NGUNNAWAL CENTRE DIRECTOR Craig Dukes has been appointed director of the Ngunnawal Centre, the University of Canberra’ s support service for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Dukes is the inaugural CEO of Indigenous Allied Health Australia( IAHA), an organisation that represents Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander allied health professionals and students. UC alumnus Dukes says,“ I am looking forward to taking up a new and exciting challenge.” He graduated from UC in 1990 and says he used the services of the Ngunnawal Centre at the time, and that returning to the university for this role“ was part of the attraction”. Dukes was previously the director of the Allied Health Workforce Section of the Department of Health and Ageing. He has also represented IAHA on several advisory groups.
PERTH USASIA CENTRE NAMES FIRST CEO An experienced voice in US-Asia relations has been appointed CEO of the Perth USAsia Centre at the University of Western Australia. Malcolm Binks, chairman of the board of directors of the Perth USAsia Centre, recently announced Gordon Flake as the centre’ s inaugural CEO. For 15 years, Flake was executive director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, an independent organisation that promotes US-Asia relations.“ I am deeply honoured to be joining the Perth USAsia Centre and look forward to working closely with the vibrant academic, civic, political and business communities in Perth and across Australia to promote stronger ties and deeper understanding between Australia, Asia and the US,” Flake says.
UOW PROFESSOR JOINS LAW OF THE SEAS BOARD Professor Clive Schofield, from the University of Wollongong’ s Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, an authority in international maritime boundaries, has been appointed to the International Advisory Board on the Law of the Seas. The worldwide body has only 17 members and aims to provide expert advice and guidance on scientific and technical aspects of international sea law. Schofield says it is a great honour to represent Australia in this forum.“ The international legal framework for the oceans has to deal with the practical and physical realities of the vast maritime spaces involved and the complex marine environments, resources and activities that exist therein,” he says.
STRICTLY SPEAKING: HIPSTER
Hipster and hippie / hippy both owe their existence to the older adjective hip / hep meaning“ smart”, in its twin senses of“ street-wise” and“ stylish”. But the Oxford English Dictionary online notes that the 1976 record for all three entries is currently being updated, and clearly their uses are changing. Hipster is slightly older than hippie, dating from the 1940s when it referred to someone who was up with the latest, especially in jazz or swing music. By the 1960s it was eclipsed by hippie / hippy, used to refer to the young people associated with that ideological movement from California, whose members took on an alternative lifestyle and made use of hallucinogenic drugs. Their unconventional dress is remembered in this year’ s nostalgic exhibition of Hippie Chic in psychedelic colours at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. With all but old hippies relegated to history, the hipster re-enters, though not on equal terms. The hipster’ s appearance( hairiness, down-market clothing) and independent political tastes are not of the mainstream – yet their behaviour is seen as affected rather than a real commitment to alternative values against their middle-class connections. The word hipster itself may have something to do with it, since the suffix – ster has negative connotations more often than not. As the bicycle sticker has it: More hippies, less hipsters.
Written by emeritus professor Pam Peters, researcher with Macquarie University’ s Centre for Language Sciences.
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