Kadare post Communism: Albania, the Balkans and Europe in the Work of Ismail Kadare, 1990-2008. Albanians make up a small but important segment of multicultural Australia. Through the work of Albania's greatest writer and intellectual, Ismail Kadare, we can come to a better understanding of Albanians, their history and culture, and hence of Australia as a multicultural entity. Moreover traditionally Islamic Albania, with its Ottoman history and culture, is seeking inclusion into the European Uni ....Kadare post Communism: Albania, the Balkans and Europe in the Work of Ismail Kadare, 1990-2008. Albanians make up a small but important segment of multicultural Australia. Through the work of Albania's greatest writer and intellectual, Ismail Kadare, we can come to a better understanding of Albanians, their history and culture, and hence of Australia as a multicultural entity. Moreover traditionally Islamic Albania, with its Ottoman history and culture, is seeking inclusion into the European Union, Australia's major partner in trade, tourism, education and culture. Kadare's post-communist works on the subjects of Europe, Islam, Muslims and the West, and Balkan politics and history provide a valuable lesson on the interrelationships of politics, culture and patriotism in a global context for contemporary Australia.Read moreRead less
The medieval town imagined: representations of urban culture in medieval literature. As the size and number of towns in north-west Europe expanded from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, the cultural response to economic and social changes produced by urbanisation was articulated in literary texts. The project aims to examine ways in which towns and urban culture are represented in medieval English, Welsh and French literature, foregrounding the attitudes constructed by the texts towards town ....The medieval town imagined: representations of urban culture in medieval literature. As the size and number of towns in north-west Europe expanded from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, the cultural response to economic and social changes produced by urbanisation was articulated in literary texts. The project aims to examine ways in which towns and urban culture are represented in medieval English, Welsh and French literature, foregrounding the attitudes constructed by the texts towards towns, townspeople and the impact of the urban economy. The resulting monograph and database of references will provide new evidence for the competitive relationships between feudal nobilities and emerging urban elites.Read moreRead less
Learning from Life: The Creation of Experiential and Life-Long Learning in Europe in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods. Experiential and life-long learning are fundamental principles of modern Australian educational practice, from primary and high school to university and centres of adult education; they are of interest to the Federal Government (Higher Education Review, Senate Inquiry, DEST project). This innovative project will investigate the cultural heritage of these practices, detailin ....Learning from Life: The Creation of Experiential and Life-Long Learning in Europe in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods. Experiential and life-long learning are fundamental principles of modern Australian educational practice, from primary and high school to university and centres of adult education; they are of interest to the Federal Government (Higher Education Review, Senate Inquiry, DEST project). This innovative project will investigate the cultural heritage of these practices, detailing how they arose in medieval Europe and were refined by thinkers and practitioners throughout the early modern period. It will reveal how a reliance on received authority and example was transformed into a modern pedagogic mode that encourages learning throughout the course of life and teaches pupils how to think for themselves and to learn from life experience.Read moreRead less