PUBLIC LECTURE: UWA Albany Skywest Series Lecture

What’s gone wrong? Has our education system lost its way? Why aren’t the classics of Australian literature studied in school and universities? In this lecture Professor Philip Mead will discuss the recent perception that there has been a decline in the teaching of Australian literature in schools and universities. This is out of step with the obvious interest of Australians in their writers and their books, as evidenced by the flourishing of literary festivals around the country. Professor Mead will consider the new National Curriculum, which is currently being designed and discuss the role of Australian literature in relation to critical literacy. As a strong advocate for students finishing school with a good knowledge of the literature of their own country, he raises the question: “How uncertain is the future of Australian literature?”

Professor Mead has taught Australian literature at Deakin University and the Universities of Melbourne and Tasmania, and has recently taken up the newly established Chair of Australian Literature at The University of Western Australia. He has special interests in literary regionalism in Australia, in poetry and poetics, and in Australian literature in education. His study of Australian poetry Networked Language: Culture and History in Australian Poetry was published in 2008.