Monash welcomes internationally acclaimed author, anthropologist and academic
Diane Bell
Internationally renowned anthropologist, author and public intellectual Professor Diane Bell is visiting Monash University and as part of her Distinguished Visiting Professorship, Professor Bell will deliver a public lecture on Writing in the Eye of the Storm: Engaged knowledge at Queens Hall in the State Library of Victoria.
In this lecture Diane Bell explores three case studies than span three decades: Aboriginal women and land rights (1970s); violence against women (1980s); the Hindmarsh Island Bridge controversy (1990s). Each case, she argues, entailed a form of ‘engaged knowledge’, each had her writing in the ‘eye of the storm’. The fourth in which she is now engaged, the fight for the River Murray, has echoes of the previous three. Why continue to be embroiled in matters that are tagged ‘controversial’? What constitutes ‘objectivity’ in such situation? What lessons might be learned from a career of speaking truth to power?
The lecture will be introduced by Monash University's Dean of Arts, Professor Rae Francis and will start at 6pm on Thursday May 19th.
Professor Bell, who is known for her feminist scholarship, work with Aboriginal women and, more recently, her work on the environmental crisis, will be visiting Monash University between May 13 and 20 and will also hold a series of lectures and master classes in the School of Politics and Social Inquiry and at the Monash Indigenous Centre.
Professor Bell holds the positions of Professor Emerita of Anthropology at the George Washington University (USA), Visiting Professor at the University of Adelaide and Editor in Residence at Flinders University. She is a Monash alumna, having graduated from the University with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in anthropology.
She has published 10 books including, Daughters of the Dreaming, Generations, Ngarrindjeri Wurruwarrin and Listen to Ngarrindjeri Women Speaking and the acclaimed detective novel Evil. Her seminal work, Daughters of the Dreaming remains the most popular anthropology book in Australia and has continuously been in print for three decades inspiring and informing successive generations of readers.
In 2008, Professor Bell also ran as an independent in the Mayo by-election after being inspired by the crisis facing the Murray River, Lakes Alexandria and Albert and the Coorong.