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<TITLE>Seminar: A/Prof Alan McKee at Deakin University (Burwood campus)</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><B>Seminar – all welcome<BR>
</B>Monday 30 March 2009, 4-5pm <BR>
Venue: B2.20 (Blue Room), Deakin University, Melbourne Campus at Burwood<BR>
Map: <FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="http://www.deakin.edu.au/arts-ed/icg/events/pdf/blueroom.pdf">http://www.deakin.edu.au/arts-ed/icg/events/pdf/blueroom.pdf</a><BR>
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<B>Associate Professor Alan McKee (QUT) <BR>
Title: 'Talking the language of social science: does pornography damage young people?'<BR>
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Abstract:<BR>
</B>This is the story of a humanities researcher approaching pornography, and discovering a world of social science research. The story of learning to talk like a social scientist – and wrestling with the problems that this raises.<BR>
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The difference between the humanities and social sciences is primarily that of certainty. Where humanities says ‘It’s not that simple’, social science says ‘Yes it is’.<BR>
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One of the joys of cultural studies is its claim to interdisciplinarity. It crosses boundaries – including the boundary of certainty between the humanities and the social sciences. But from a humanities background, how does one deal with the ethical implications of doing social science? In order to engage with the knowledge domain of social science, and to widely disseminate knowledge across society, it is necessary to move into the realm of certainty. But when one’s natural instinct is always to say ‘It isn’t that simple?’, how do you learn to make statements of absolute certainty and simplicity. Statements like: ‘Pornography does not damage young people’ - ?<BR>
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Associate Professor Alan McKee has written five books on popular culture, including the recent The Porn Report (with Catherine Lumby and Kath Albury), Australian Television (Oxford University Press), and Beautiful Things in Popular Culture (Blackwells). His research interests include the positive effects of exposure to pornography; television history (with a particular interest in the prehistory of televisual entertainment forms); practice-led research; and the political potential of self help books. A/P McKee teaches in the Discipline of Film and Television at QUT. He has also written gags for Paul McDermott on the variety program The Sideshow. He's written backstory for computer games, an award winning Doctor Who short story, and a regular opinion column for a queer newspaper. <BR>
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<I>This seminar is supported by the ARC Cultural Research Network and the Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University.<BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="http://www.uq.edu.au/crn/">http://www.uq.edu.au/crn/</a><BR>
</U></FONT><a href="http://www.deakin.edu.au/arts-ed/icg/">http://www.deakin.edu.au/arts-ed/icg/</a> <BR>
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