Dear Mr Shah I am sure that you have been overwhelmed with responses to your memo about the future of the UWAP. It was received with shock by the UWA community and the news has spread like wildfire through arts and humanities networks locally and nationally — and as you know, has been widely reported in the local and national press. While you have no doubt heard many excellent arguments for reconsidering your decision, from the importance of the press to UWA’s mission as a public university for the Western Australian community; as a widely recognized and applauded venue for new Australian writing and indigenous languages; and for the publication of high quality books on the history and natural history of this special place, I would like to add one that may be of specific relevance to your role as DVC of Global Partnerships. Earlier this year I was invited to speak at a conference in Hangzhou organized by Peking and Zhejiang universities, Wenli Confucian Academy, the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies and the Accademia Vivarium Novum (Italy). The conference, on humanist education and classical languages (Chinese, Sanskrit, Latin and Greek) was attended by over 300 local people (i.e. non-academics), and I’m told that the organizers had to turn away as many more for want of a bigger venue. After the conference, together with three professors from Harvard, Cambridge and Malaga, I visited the Wenli Confucian Academy to meet and participate in a question-and-answer session with senior students. It was truly eye-opening for me. Contrary to popular perception in Australia, Chinese students are not all STEM or business fanatics. These young people and their parents had a real hunger for the humanities — for languages, history, poetry, music, and the arts. Colleagues in the School of Humanities who have taught in Asia can confirm that Australian studies are flourishing there. Indeed, the China Australia Writing Centre hosted a conference in Shanghai last year featuring a panel with two UWAP authors, Miles Franklin award-winner, Josephine Wilson and Rachel Robertson. The event was live-streamed to an audience of thousands within China, and without UWA Publishing it would never have happened. UWAP thus has a vital role to play, along with the Berndt, the Perth Festival, and the LWAG, in promoting what is special about our place and the excellence of our humanities to high-quality future international students. You may be aware that our School hosted the first humanities ARC Centre of Excellence, for the History of Emotions, drawing in $35,000,000 of federal funding. My own position, the Cassamarca Chair in Latin Humanism was seed-funded by an Italian organization, along with 13 other lectureships in Italian studies around the country (in a national competition, UWA won funding for the only senior post). We are also home to the Wesfarmer’s Chair in Australian History and I believe that continued funding has now been confirmed, mercifully, for the Chair in Australian Literature. In short, we are already punching above our weight in the School of Humanities — the loss of UWAP would be a punch in the guts. As for the University, the damage in terms of local and national reputation will be immediate; in terms of lost opportunities for international teaching and research, incalculable. Yours sincerely, Yasmin Haskell Professor Yasmin Haskell, FAHA Cassamarca Foundation Chair in Latin Humanism Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Education University of Western Australia Perth, WA 6009 AUSTRALIA ***** ***** Support UWAP by signing the petition at Change.org Comments are closed.
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