[csaa-forum] Reminder MACS @ QUT CI Precinct FRIDAY

[Melissa Gregg]

*Apologies if you receive this twice*

In an effort to build cross-institutional participation in the Brisbane MACS
(Media and Cultural Studies) network
(http://cccs.uq.edu.au/index.html?page=22640&pid=21774) the next meeting
will be held at QUT's Creative Industries Precinct for the first time.  

When: 3.00-4.00, Friday 9th Sept
Where: Z2, level 3, room 310, QUT Creative Industries Precinct, Musk Ave,
Kelvin Grove, followed by drinks at the Normanby Hotel.  Map of the precinct
if it's your first time:
http://www.qut.edu.au/services/aboutqut/location/map_ciprecinct.pdf

It seems appropriate to use the meeting as an opportunity to explore the
implications of the Creative Industries research paradigm for the practice
of cultural and media studies, and vice versa, in the broader context of the
widespread political and structural changes that are currently impacting on
Australian universities.

The tentative line-up of speakers includes Jean Burgess, Joshua Green, and
Ellie Rennie. But contact Jean (je.burgess at qut.edu.au) if you would like to
talk or would like someone else in particular to address these topics as
well.

The speakers will use their various experiences as cultural and/or media
studies researchers in the Creative Industries Faculty to discuss issues
such as:

- disciplinarity: what it means (practically, ethically, conceptually) to do
"media and cultural studies" under the umbrella of other disciplines (e.g.
How is it different to "do" cultural studies in an English department
compared to a Creative Industries Faculty?)
- more broadly, opportunities for and the politics of academic labour for
postgraduate research students and Early Career Researchers in the context
of the shift from individualistic "humanities" research to
project/team-based approaches
- the changing research culture of Australian universities, especially the
perceived incommensurability between "pragmatic" and "critical" approaches
as evidenced in the following quotation:

"Nowadays Australian cultural studies is increasingly normalised,
concentrating on cultural policy studies and, often uncritically, on popular
culture and the media. Indeed it is in Australia that the celebration of
popular culture as a liberating force first took off through Fiske and
Hartley's contributions. The young populists of the seventies now hold
senior posts and what was pathbreaking is becoming a norm. The readiness of
a succession of Australian governments to encourage enterprise universities
has empowered the old tertiary technical training departments in such areas
as communications, allowing them to have an impact on more abstract and
theorised cultural studies in ways that appear to have deprived the latter
of critical force. Furthermore, the structure of research funding, which
asks even young academics to apply for grants, has had a conformist effect.
Perhaps Australian cultural studies offers us a glimpse of what the
discipline would be like were it to become relatively hegemonic in the
humanities."

-Simon During, Cultural Studies: A Critical Introduction (2005) p.26

This event will be engaging with the discussion that has emerged on the
CSAA-forum over the past few weeks. The archives are available here:
http://lists.cdu.edu.au/pipermail/csaa-forum/ 

We hope this meeting of MACS will provide postgraduate students, early
career researchers and "young academics" with an opportunity to engage in
these debates from the perspective of their own experiences working in
cultural and media studies and/or Creative Industries.  We hope to
interrogate the perceived distinctions between these disciplines, and to
explore the places early career academics find themselves in as the academy
shifts.  Hosting this event at QUT will also broaden the reach of MACS,
which is becoming an important network for knowledge sharing and
collaboration among media and cultural studies researchers in Brisbane.

For more info on the event, contact Jean Burgess (je.burgess at qut.edu.au) or
Joshua Green (jb.green at qut.edu.au)

For more background on MACS:
http://cccs.uq.edu.au/index.html?page=22640&pid=21774