Sydney Sawyer Seminar Series

Atlantic Justice in the Pacific World

from 1-5pm 17th July, 2009

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney is the proud host of the first Mellon Sawyer Seminar to be held in Australia. The seminar consists of eight special seminar sessions and one international conference. Its theme is 'The Antipodean Laboratory: Humanity, Sovereignty and Environment in Southern Oceans and Lands, 1700-2009.' Session 3: Atlantic Justice in the Pacific World: Property, Rights, and Indigeneity It is a remarkable fact that the history of our understanding of human rights has been largely worked out by explaining the relations of conquered peoples to empires. Only the challenge of explaining the relations of subjects to states has assumed an equal importance but one that lends even greater importance to the history of empire and rights.

Cost: Free

Contact: Katherine Anderson Phone: (02) 9036 5347

Email: katherine.anderson@usyd.edu.au

21 August Session 4: The Experience of the Ocean: Transformative Voyages in the Antipodes from Convicts to Royalty It is a peculiar fact that while many other long sea voyages - such as that made by African slaves across the Atlantic Ocean - are seen as times of deep significance and change, the long voyage made by many Europeans to Australia has not been regarded in the same way. In this seminar we will question whether in fact the ocean was a transformative space for those who arrived in the Antipodes by ship.

We will look at this question from two very different viewpoints: firstly, the convicts who arrived in the early days of the colony, and secondly that of Prince Alfred in 1767-8. Other details as above. 30 October Session 5: Varieties of Empire in the Antipodes: Taking Over and Letting Go Settler colonialism has raised profound questions about the process of imperial expansion and the limits of decolonisation.

The papers in this session bookend the period from the late eighteenth to the late twentieth centuries, dealing with such diverse commentators as maverick convict escapees and antipodean Prime Ministers.