Friday 15 November, 3.00-3.30pm
Towards the end of The Lucky Country, Horne references Vance Palmer’s ‘Battle’ (Meanjin No.8 March 1942) and its exhortation to foster the wartime and post-war Australian culture that best determined “not only whether we are to survive as a nation, but whether we deserve to survive.” It’s one of twenty impactful pieces presented in the first-ever anthology of Meanjin essays, published just days before the symposium. In the latest Meanjin, Frank’s ‘State of the Nation’ piece offers a timely assessment of the Horne legacy for the contemporary reader, alongside pieces critically examining this Australian moment.
Join Esther Anatolitis and Frank Bongiorno in launching both books.
Meanjin 83.3 Spring 2024 featuring Frank Bongiorno, edited by Esther Anatolitis
Essays that Changed Australia: Meanjin 1940 to today, edited by Esther Anatolitis
Speakers:
Honorary Associate Professor Esther Anatolitis
Editor of Meanjin Esther Anatolitis is one of Australia’s leading advocates for arts and culture and a respected champion of artists’ voices. She is Honorary Associate Professor at RMIT School of Art, a member of the National Gallery of Australia Governing Council, and Co-Chair of the Australian Republic Movement. Across two decades, Esther’s work in arts and media leadership has created transformative change, introducing new artistic frameworks to well-established companies that generate new thinking and new work. She has led galleries, festivals, publishers, broadcasters, regional organisations, national peak bodies and advocacy consortia, and has been a bipartisan appointee to policy committees at all government levels. Her strategic consultancy Test Pattern works with arts and government bodies across Australia on creative precincts and cultural policy. A prolific writer and commentator, Esther is the author of Place, Practice, Politics, and her anthology Essays that Changed Australia: Meanjin 1940 to today is published just days before our Symposium. Her work is collected at estheranatolitis.net.
Professor Frank Bongiorno AM FAHA FASSA FRHistS
Frank Bongiorno is Professor of History at the Australian National University and was Head of the School of History from 2018 until 2021. He is a scholar of Australia, whose work has explored political, labour and cultural histories.
His books include studies of labour politics, of the history of sexuality, and of the 1980s. His Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia, was awarded 2023 ACT Book of the Year and the Australian Political Studies Association’s Henry Mayer Book Prize. The second edition of A Little History of the Australian Labor Party (co-authored with Nick Dyrenfurth) was published in May 2024. He is a regular contributor to Australian media.
Frank has previously held academic appointments at Griffith University, the University of New England, the University of Cambridge and King’s College London, and he has served as chair of the Literature and History Committee of the New South Wales Ministry of the Arts. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2019, and is President of the Australian Historical Association and the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
