| MESSAGE FROM THE NEW PRESIDENT
As incoming President, I first of all want to thank the outgoing
executive – in particular Ian Tyrrell as President,
Doug Craig as Treasurer and Tom Dunning as Secretary –
for all their excellent work on behalf of ANZASA over the
past four years. ANZASA has prospered under their care and
is in good financial and intellectual health.
The conference in Launceston was a great success and I want
to extend our thanks and congratulations again to Tom Dunning
and Andrew Gregg for all their organisational work, and for
the energy and imagination they brought to the construction
of the program. As more than one person commented, this was
the most musical ANZASA for a long time – the singing
(and guitar and banjo playing) providing a thread of entertainment
and instruction through the 4 days.
The conference very appropriately honoured three extraordinarily
distinguished long-term ANZASA members – Donna Merwick,
Rhys Isaac and Greg Dening – each of whom gave a challenging
keynote address. Donna’s latest book, The Shame
and the Sorrow – Dutch-Amerindian Encounters in New
Netherland, was launched at the conference dinner. One
of our more daunting tasks is to try to ensure that ANZASA’s
intellectual future is as rich as its past.
The core business of ANZASA is discussion. It was gratifying
to see again so many people staying the full 4 days, attending
session after session, asking animated questions, ingeniously
linking disparate papers – all the things we admire
in ANZASA stalwarts.
There were a dozen or so postgraduate students at Launceston,
and many of them gave excellent papers. I think we should
try to make it a priority to significantly increase that number
for Sydney in 2008– encouraging and assisting postgrads
in whatever ways possible to attend the conference. Those
who did come to Launceston found it a very rewarding experience.
There are few other conferences they could attend which have
such traditions of supporting and encouraging postgraduate
work, and which are still small enough that students can meet
all the speakers.
A special session on the ANZASA American History Teacher's
Website Project initiative decided to set a deadline of the
end of September for going live with the site. The aim is
to have some content for each section by that time. I hope
that all those involved with this excellent initiative will
try to find the time over the next couple of months to get
this initial content up. If the website is to be a success,
it will continue to grow after that, as we receive feedback
and additional materials. The hope is that this will evolve
as a genuine collaboration between university and secondary
teachers.
Finally, I hope we can continue to use the Listserve and website
as an effective means of communication. Mike McDonnell has
been doing a great job posting messages to the list, and I
would encourage everyone to emulate him in posting news of
local events. It may be worth someone’s while to time
a trip to Sydney or Adelaide or Canberra to coincide with
a seminar or other event organised by ANZASA members –
so do let us all know what is happening on your campus.
David Goodman
University of Melbourne
AMERICAN HISTORY FOR AUSTRALASIAN
SCHOOLS WEBSITE
If you recently volunteered to help out with the American
History Teacher's Website Project, read on....At the recent
ANZASA conference it was decided to set a deadline of the
end of September for going live with the American History
Teacher's website. To that end, the aim is to have some content
for each section by that time.
It is therefore important that we move on this as quickly
as possible. So, if you did volunteer, could you please contact
the person responsible for the area in which you have an interest.
If you are interested in volunteering, here are the subject
areas with relevant people to contact.
* American Revolutions (coordinator: Michael
McDonnell)
* Native Americans (co-ordinator: Bruce
Dennett)
* The US, 1919-1941 (coordinator: Stephen
Robertson)
* Civil Rights (coordinator: John
Hewitt)
* The Cold War (coordinator: Peter
Bastian)
Remember, for each topic within your area, we are seeking
a narrative overview, historiographic overview and a selection
of short primary sources available online.
If you have any questions, please get in touch with Stephen
Robertson (at stephen.robertson@arts.usyd.edu.au)
or Mike McDonnell (michael.mcdonnell@arts.usyd.edu.au).
|
