The ANU Centre for European Studies and the Embassy of Spain in Canberra invites you to a public seminar on Monday 6 September at 1pm, followed by lunch

Europe, The Disenchantment of its Citizens

Speaker:  Guillermo Altares

Venue:  ANU Centre for European Studies, Building 67C, 1 Liversidge Street, Acton

RSVP:  Europe@anu.edu.au by COB 1 September 2010

The ANU School of Language Studies invites you to -

France in the South Pacific: of confetti, bombs and expensive dancing girls

Friday, 3rd September 2010 at 10.30am

Seminar Room W3.03, Baldessin Precinct Building, Ellery Crescent, ANU

Abstract

France's longstanding presence in the South Pacific has stemmed variously from a spirit of enquiry, missionary zeal, rivalry with "les anglo-saxons" and power projection.  It has maintained a sovereign presence in its scattered archipelagos, dubbed " les danseuses qui coûtent cher " (expensive indulgences, or "dancers"), into the twenty first century, despite the tide of decolonisation in the second half of the twentieth century.  What keeps it in the Pacific and is it likely to stay?

La présence de la France dans le Pacifique du Sud est de longue durée, et se caractérisait par l'esprit d'enquête, la mission civilisatrice, des rivautés surtout avec la Grande Bretagne, et le prestige et le rayonnement de la France.  Malgré la décolonisation des dernières décennies du siècle vingtième,  la France a retenu  sa présence souveraine dans ces archipels éparpillés, dits « les danseuses qui coûtent cher », bel et bien jusqu'au siècle vingt-et-unième.  Qu'est-ce qui  motive la France à  garder sa présence dans le Pacifique du Sud, et va-t-elle y rester ? 

Speaker 

Denise Fisher is a former diplomat and was Australia's Consul General in Noumea from 2001 to 2004. She has first hand professional experience of post-colonial situations, having served Australia in various Commonwealth countries (Kenya, India, Malaysia).  She has also served in the United States.  She was Australian High Commissioner in Zimbabwe from 1998 to 2001, accredited concurrently to Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi.  She has contributed to the Lowy Institute's Interpreter blogsite and is preparing a thesis on France in the South Pacific in the School of Language Studies at the Australian National University.

European Integration at 60: Progress, Problems, Perspectives
25-26 November 2010, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.  Call for papers.  Abstracts of 300 words should be submitted online by 1 August 2010.  Please go to www.eucnetwork.org.au  .
This is a multidisciplinary conference to investigate the past changes and future challenges faced by European integration, as well as the impact and reaction to these changes within the Asia Pacific.  More information: European Integration at 60: call for papers