SOPHI News

Monday 25 August 2008
12:30 - 2:00 pm
Oriental Room, Main Quad S204

Professor Zev Harvey will be presenting: "`Ishq, Hesheq, and Amor Dei Intellectualis – Spinoza on Intellectual Love"

Zev Harvey is a professor at the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies, in the Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned his PhD from Columbia University in 1973. His research interests include the philosophy of Hasdai Crescas, Maimonidean philosophy, Spinoza, and Hobbes. He is the author of Physics and Metaphysics in Hasdai Crescas (J.C. Gieben, 1999).

Dr Annie Clarke of the Department of Archaeology and convenor of the Heritage Studies Program is one of ten people to have been awarded the "SAR Prize Session in Anthropological Archaeology."

Annie will attend a five-day Advanced Seminar at the School for Advanced Research (SAR) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, during which she and her colleagues will have the opportunity for sustained conversations on their topic of how museum collections have been underutilized as sources of information about the nature and characteristics of cross-cultural interactions between Indigenous artifact makers and traders and collectors.

More details

Associate Professor Rick Benitez has been awarded a 2008 Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC – formerly Carrick) citation for teaching that leads to "positive transformations" not just in students' academic understanding, but in their understanding of themselves. This is a remarkable achievement, especially given how difficult and demanding the application process for these citations can be. It is a huge tribute to Rick’s passionate commitment to teaching and the enormous amount of work he puts into his students. Learn more about the citation here: http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=2487

The University of Sydney has become the first Australian institution to win a prestigious Sawyer Seminar grant from the US-based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The grant will support a one-year program of research and expert seminars into the way in which ideas flowed between the Indo-Pacific worlds and the Atlantic worlds over three centuries, from 1700 until today.

The University of Sydney has become the first Australian institution to win a prestigious Sawyer Seminar grant from the US-based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The grant will support a one-year program of research and expert seminars into the way in which ideas flowed between the Indo-Pacific worlds and the Atlantic worlds over three centuries, from 1700 until today.

Titled The Antipodean laboratory: Humanity, Sovereignty, and Environment in Southern Oceans and Lands, 1700-2009, the Seminar will support cross-disciplinary research into how "the northern hemisphere used comparisons with the Pacific and the Antipodes as a way of thinking about the world," says Professor Iain McCalman AO.

More information

Citizenship and the Bill of Rights
Speakers:
Robyn Banks (Director, Public Interest Advocacy Centre)
Helen Irving (University of Sydney)

Friday 22 August, 3:00 - 5:00pm
Philosophy Room,
Quadrangle building, University of Sydney
Please RSVP to Charmaine Tapper by Friday 15 August
Email:
Phone: (02) 9351 2028. We look forward to your attendance.

Dr Li Baoping
Postdoctoral Fellow,
Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Queensland

*** NEW DATE, TIME & VENUE ***
Date: Tuesday 19 August
Time: 5.15 pm – 7pm
Location: The Refectory, Main Quadrangle, University of Sydney
(Access down stairway near Faculty of Arts Office, south-western corner of the Quad, below MacLaurin Hall)


Ancient Chinese porcelain: global exporting, China-West interaction, antique collection, and authentication
Porcelain was invented in China 2000 years ago and became an indispensable part of the Chinese civilisation. Chinese porcelain has also been exported worldwide and served as a vehicle of cultural interaction for over a millennium. Ancient Chinese orcelains are also important antiques, and recently a jar from the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368 AD) was auctioned for a world record of £15.68 million. However, modern forgers are making excellent fakes and these cause many controversies, including fake allegations against a Nobel Prize candidate. This talk introduces the archaeological and art-historical significance of porcelains such as:

• Global trading of Chinese porcelain: lost porcelain cities of Genghis Khan’s Mongol Empire, shipwrecks along the maritime Silk Road extending from Southeast Asia to Africa...
• Vehicle of cultural interaction: huge Chinese plates for Islamic commune feasting in Middle East; new eating habits in Malaysia caused by Chinese bowls...
• Significance of porcelain for studying ancient China: social life and fashions, state rituals, religious ceremonies, burial customs...
• How modern science helps to source Chinese archaeological porcelains from tombs and trading routes and authenticate antiques…

Baoping Li received his BA and MA (1992–1999) from the Archaeology Department of Beijing University. Before starting PhD research he worked for the English language journal China Archaeology and Art Digest as a researcher and editor. He was awarded his PhD degree from the University of Queensland in 2006 and the work received Graduate School Dean's Commendation for Outstanding Research Higher Degree Thesis. Baoping is continuing to work at UQ and his research focuses on art history study of Chinese porcelains and their interaction with other ceramic traditions such as Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and Middle East.

• The seminar is held 4:30 – 6:00 on the last Friday of each month (except where noted) Please see the Philosophy website for more information.
• Friday 25 July
  A14 Quadrangle room S421
  Bruce Langtry (University of Melbourne)
  Molinism and the Free Will Defence
• Friday 29 August
  A27 Marjorie Oldfield Lecture Theatre, Edward Ford Building
  Matheson Russell (University of Auckland)
  Philosophy of Religion – What Is Its Question?
• Friday 19 September
  A14 Refectory, Main Quadrangle
  Lisa Bortolotti (University of Birmingham)
  Agency and the Meaning of Life
• 26 September
  A27 Marjorie Oldfield Lecture Theatre, Edward Ford Building
  TBA
• Friday 31 October
  A14 Refectory, Main Quadrangle
  TBA
• Friday 7 November
  Refectory
  Eric Gans (UCLA)
  Religion and Originary Anthropology