Wednesday 20 March 2019 4:55pm
With an impressive international lineup of speakers confirmed, organisers of September’s ‘1869’ conference are now calling for papers that will explore, and celebrate, the many important scientific, political, commercial, cultural and medical milestones reached 150 years ago.
University of Otago History programme Associate Professor Angela Wanhalla says that in 1869 the scientific journal Nature was first published, the Suez Canal opened, the first periodic table was presented, Paul Langerhans discovered pancreatic islets, and John Stuart Mill published The Subjection of Women.
A hemisphere away, the University of Otago was founded and, as part of its 150th anniversary celebrations, the University’s Centre for Research on Colonial Culture (CRoCC) has joined with the Australasian Victorian Studies Association (AVSA) to co-host a conference and heritage festival focussing on '1869' this September.
Wanhalla, who is also a CRoCC member, says the conference will combine a traditional academic programme with a range of public heritage festival events, special forums and social engagements.
Associate Professor Angella Wanhalla
Forthcoming papers will augment an already impressive academic programme, which includes keynote addresses from Dr Helen Pearson (Chief Magazine Editor, Nature), Megan Pōtiki (Otago) and Professor Marion Thain (King’s College, London).
A public programme of events will feature novelist, essayist and literary scholar Dr Tina Makereti (Massey University) whose recent novel, The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke, has been long-listed for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
Guest speakers Lisa Chatfield, producer of BBC mini-series The Luminaries, and the series’ set decorator Daniel Birt will round out an impressive lineup that will have wide-ranging appeal for both the public and historians.
“CRoCC is excited to be partnering with the AVSA to deliver the 1869 Conference Heritage Festival, and to present a theme inspired by the commemoration of the University’s founding.
“We hope the conference will offer an opportunity to critically explore what was a crucial decade in New Zealand, Otago and University history. In that decade the Otago goldrush began, there was war in Taranaki, the Waikato and on the East Coast of the North Island, and at the end of the decade British and New Zealand writers and intellectuals argued for women’s political rights.
“This was also an important decade in scientific, literary and cultural production. We have invited speakers and keynotes who embody these diverse histories and we look forward to sharing all these important discussions with our academic and wider communities,” Wanhalla says.
Abstracts, panel proposals and posters from all disciplines and perspectives from the University of Otago academic and professional staff community, and especially postgraduate students are welcomed.
The 1869 Conference and Heritage Festival will be held in Dunedin between 25 and 29 September 2019: the closing date for paper abstracts is 1 April 2019. Please submit proposals as a Word attachments to: 1869@otago.ac.nz