Centre for Law, Arts & the Humanities
The Centre for Law, Arts & the Humanities brings together humanities-based research into questions of law and justice, both within the College of Law and across diverse disciplines including art history and theory, literature, philosophy, human rights, history, and cultural studies at ANU.
The Centre is the first of its kind in Australia. Through international collaborations, research and teaching, the Centre will build new bridges and open new dialogues in three dimensions: across disciplines; between critical theory and law; and with the wider community. For more about what we’re doing, see the About tab, below.
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Recently
Big Ideas on ABC Radio National recently recorded an event with ANU Law's Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities. The thought provoking conversation with Alexis Wright, Peter Singer, Russell Jacoby and Jacqueline Dutton will go to air this Monday evening at 7:05pm. You can listen via radio, stream or download the podcast.
Today we welcome our visiting doctoral student to the Centre. Teagan-Jane is completing her doctoral work based at Monash University after a successful stint at Birkbeck College London in 2016. She will be in residence for the next six months. Teagan’s research focuses on the contemporary scene of torture, drawing on perpetrator testimony supplied by US personnel who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay in 2003-06, as part of the so-called ‘War on Terror’.
Her analysis and development of theories of the subjectivity and power is used as a tool to re-think the way in which torture is understood in relation to law. She asks what the role of law is in the scene of torture, and what this indicates about how law is fundamental to "who we are" as subjects.
Philosophy in the times of populism and post-truth. Join a group of Canberra legal philosophers for a chat over a delicious pint. An accessible, casual event for anyone interested in current events.
2016 was branded the year of post-truth. The contributions of both science and humanities have been questioned and criticised for their distance from the society and “the real life”. But perhaps “experts” aren’t really so far removed from the reality. Dare to find out what philosophy can contribute and join a group of Canberra legal philosophers for a chat over a delicious pint. Find out what “the love of wisdom” can offer and whether it can explain the reality of today. Can Freudian desire explain the rise of Trump or did Nietzsche predict the post-truth society?
The four philosophers presenting are:
- Desmond Manderson is Director of the Centre for Law, Arts, and the Humanities at the ANU College of Law. Topic: A Freudian analysis of the rise and rise of Donald Trump.
- Anne Macduff works at the ANU College of Law. Anne’s research explores how law devalues difference. She has a particular interest in exploring issues of law and identity, including race, gender and sexuality. She has a passion for legal education, and for creating active and engaging environments to enable students to critically engage with the law.
- Justine Poon is a PhD candidate at the ANU College of Law and occasional poet and filmmaker. Topic: Why Representation Both Does and Does Not Matter.
- Dorota Gozdecka is a Senior Lecturer at the ANU College of Law and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Helsinki. She has published books and journal articles on theoretical aspects of accommodating cultural diversity and has been preoccupied with the place of the Other in philosophy and legal theory. Topic: Have philosophers foreseen the rise of post-truth society?
Challenging Words, led by Dorota Gozdecka, will bring together artists, cartoonists and musicians with students and legal academics in an innovative and creative workshop, the first of its kind in Australia.
New Work in a new field
The Centre is the first of its kind in Australia. Through international collaborations, research and teaching, the Centre will build new bridges and open new dialogues in three dimensions: across disciplines; between critical theory and law; and with the wider community.
The Centre is committed to advancing world-class teaching and research in the field. We aim to consolidate and expand domestic and international networks of scholars, and to support new interdisciplinary collaborations.
We are also committed to a strong public engagement with the most important contemporary problems in Australia and around the world—including questions of social justice, human rights, rule of law, globalization, pluralism, and sovereignty. Bringing the insights and traditions of the humanities and the arts to bear on law, justice and ethics in the modern world, has never been more urgent or more necessary.
Research and creative work
The Centre reflects the growth of research in law, literature and the humanities—a creative interdisciplinary field in which Australian scholarship leads the world. The Centre is directed by Professor Desmond Manderson, FRSC and draws on his recent Australian Research Council Future Fellowship which pioneered Australian research into representations of law and justice in the visual arts; and by Professor Tim Bonyhady, AO, one of Australia’s leading writers whose work extends from environmental law to art and social history.
The Centre does not just aim to encourage creative work about the arts, but in them. Genuine collaborations and engagement with major Australian cultural institutions and artists lie at the heart of our mission.
I enjoyed this SO MUCH! In fact it re-inspired me and reminded me why I am so interested in interdisciplinary study of law and the humanities.
An inspiring and original event
This was a great challenge but transformative. There was a healing in this and a revelation.
Our current projects include:
- Challenging Words, led by Dorota Gozdecka, will bring together artists, cartoonists and musicians with students and legal academics in an innovative and creative workshop, the first of its kind in Australia.
- In December 2016, the largest international exhibition of the Australian Impressionists will open at the National Gallery in London – with a lead catalogue essay written by Professor Bonyhady.
- In 2018, at the Australian National Gallery, Tim will curate a major exhibition on the colonial frontier in nineteenth century Tasmania. Law, justice and reconciliation are core themes.
- In conjunction with ABC Radio National and the Australian National Library, Utopia 500 is a major event being organized by CLAH Director Desmond Manderson. It features major Australian public intellectual and artists and will take place in March 2017.
- And Professor Manderson continues his creative work in music and in theatre. More news as it comes to hand.
| Portrait of Professor Desmond Manderson, by Jackie Adcock, 2001 |
Portrait of Professor Timothy Bonyhady, |
Innovative Teaching
The Centre is taking a university-wide lead in developing major new interdisciplinary courses that will help students bring their degrees and their interests, their career and their passions, together in innovative ways. The first of these courses, Law, Literature and Human Rights, will be jointly taught in Law and English in 2017. A course on Democracy, Legitimacy and Sovereignty, will be jointly taught in Law and Philosophy in 2018. A Vice-Chancellor’s course on Truth, Evidence and Discourse, which will include participation from every College in the University and be open to all undergraduate students, is also planned for 2018.
Directors
Tim Bonyhady
Professor
Desmond Manderson
Professor
Members
Higher degree research students
Affiliates
Visitors
Jonathan Blaine
SJD Candidate
Latest news
In the Media
Terror threat in Australia has us losing liberties as we fight to defend them
Kim Rubenstein speaks to The Courier Mail
Concerns raised about proposed new values test for Australian citizenship
Kim Rubenstein quoted in Australia Forum
Dumped Abbott-era changes resurface in Turnbull government's citizenship bill
Kim Rubenstein speaks to SMH
Would-be citizens at Dutton’s mercy
Kim Rubenstein quoted in The Saturday Paper
Tougher citizenship requirements to be introduced this week
Kim Rubenstein speaks to ABC Radio National Breakfast
'Totally unwarranted and draconian': Lawyers condemn Peter Dutton 'power grab' on citizenship
Kim Rubenstein quoted in Canberra Times
Give Me Beauty or Give Me Death: Understanding Trump's Nostalgia Through La La Land and Jackie
Justine Poon writes in Demos Journal
People wanting to become Australian will face tougher tests.
Kim Rubenstein speaks to Crinkling News
Everything you need to know about changes to the Racial Discrimination Act
Simon Rice, Dilan Thampapillai, Margaret Thornton speaks to News.com.au
Upcoming events
The Derrida Reading Group
The ANU Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities is proud to present the Derrida Reading Group, an interdisciplinary gathering intended for staff and research students.
Mr Mothercountry: Colonialism and the rule of law
- Professor Keally McBride, University of San Francisco
One of the most interesting areas of scholarship in recent years has been the relationship between colonialism and the rule of law. Several important books have used the materials of legal history to interrogate the meaning, development, and effects of the rule of law in colonial and post colonial societies.
The interpretation of global politics: Methods and epistemologies after the event
- Professor Dvora Yanow, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
In the era of ‘post-truth’ and electoral outcomes that don’t follow the seductions of quantification (Merry 2016), it might be appropriate to return to discussions of the ‘event’ in the Derridean sense —that which always exceeds calculation and prediction (Derrida 2007).
Past events
The Derrida Reading Group
The ANU Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities is proud to present the Derrida Reading Group, an interdisciplinary gathering intended for staff and research students.
The Derrida Reading Group
The ANU Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities is proud to present the Derrida Reading Group, an interdisciplinary gathering intended for staff and research students.
The Derrida Reading Group
The ANU Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities is proud to present the Derrida Reading Group, an interdisciplinary gathering intended for staff and research students.
Wellbeing in the Law Week - Mon 8 to Fri 12 May
The ANU College of Law is committed to health and wellbeing in the law, for all our students and academic and professional staff. This is the inaugural Wellbeing in the Law Week, presented by the ANU College of Law Wellbeing Initiative and the ANU Law Students' Society.
ABC Radio National Big Ideas program - Utopian Thinking
ABC Radio National broadcast of Big Ideas program on Utopian Thinking - recorded on 28 March at a joint event presented by the National Library of Australia and ANU Law's Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities.
Members of the CLAH engage in many research projects which employ the theoretical and methodological model of law and the humanities. Their work appears in leading publications and journals around the world. Readers are invited to explore this work on the individual research pages of our members, and to browse our recent publications.
In addition, the Centre works together to develop new collaborations and joint projects. This involves collaborations with the Early Modern Conversions project at McGill University; an application for funding through the COST program for Literature and the Rule of Law in the New Europe; and the development of a Summer School in Law and the Humanities here at ANU. We will provide regular updates on these activities and collaborative projects.
Listed below are a selection of recent publications by Centre members, in alphabetical order by surbname under each subheading.
Please note this is not a complete list of all the publications of all our members. Please see the 'People' tab, and click on the link to their personal profile page for more publications and for a link to their ANU Researchers profile for a complete list.
Recent books
- Bonyhady, Good Living Street (2011)
- Gozdecka, Rights, Religious pluralism and the Recognition of difference (2015).
- Manderson, Kangaroo Courts and the Rule of Law (2012).
- Manderson, Littoral Readings –Representations of Land and Sea in law, Literature, and Geography (2015).
- Strange, C., Honour violence and emotions in history (New York: NYU Press, 2016)
- Strange, C. et al, eds., Honour Killing and Violence: Theory, Policy and Practice (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)
Recent book chapters
- Henne, K and Shah, R 2016 (in press), Feminist Criminology and the Visual. In Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Crime, Media and Popular Culture. Brown, M, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Henne, K 2015, Testing for Athlete Citizenship: Regulating Doping and Sex in Sport, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
- Neoh, J ‘Law and Love in Eden’, in Paul Babie and Vanja Savić (eds), Law, Religion and Love (Routledge, forthcoming)
- Neoh, J. Rothwell, D and Rubenstein, K, ‘The Complicated Case of Stern Hu: Allegiance, Identity and Nationality in a Globalized World’, in Fiona Jenkins, Mark Nolan and Kim Rubenstein (eds), Allegiance and Identity in a Globalized World (Cambridge University Press, 2014)
- Strange, C. ‘Mercy and Parole in Anglo-American Criminal Justice Systems, from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-First Century,’ in Paul Knepper and Anja Johansen, eds., The Oxford Handbook of the History of Crime and Criminal Justice Oxford: OUP, 2016
Recent refereed journal articles
- Gozdecka, DA., 'A Community of Paradigm Subjects?, Rights as corrective tools in culturally contested claims of recognition in Europe', Social Identities, Issue 3, 2015 (forthcoming).
- Gozdecka, DA. and Jackson, AR., ‘Caught Between Different Legal Pluralisms: Women Who Wear Islamic Dress as the Religious ‘Other’ In European Rights Discourses’, (2012) Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 64:2011
- Gozdecka, DA., Jackson, AR., ‘Caught Between Different Legal Pluralisms: Women Who Wear Islamic Dress as the Religious ‘Other’ In European Rights Discourses’, (2012) Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 64:2011
- Gozdecka, DA., ‘Human rights, fundamental rights and the common constitutional traditions in the protection of religious pluralism and diversity in Europe – a study in the democratic paradox’, (2012) Finnish Yearbook of International Law, 2010
- Gozdecka, DA., ‘Catholic Family Values instead of Equality - Polish Politics Between 2005-2007 Envisioning the Role of Women.’ (2009) in Sulkunen Irma, Nevala-Nurmi Seija-Leena, Markkola Pirjo (eds) ‘Suffrage, Gender and Citizenship - International Perspectives on Parliamentary Reforms’ Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press.
- Gozdecka, D.A., Kmak Magdalena, and Airytman Ercan Selen, ’ From Multiculturalism to Post-multiculturalism: Trends and Paradoxes', (2015) Journal of Sociology vol. 50 no. 1 51-64
- Henne, K 2014, 'The "Science" of Fair Play in Sport: Gender and the Politics of Testing', Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 787-812.Neoh, J. ‘Jurisprudence of Love in Paul’s Letter to the Romans’ (2016) 34 Law in Context [Special Issue on ‘Law and Love’]
- Henne, K 2014, 'The Emergence of Moral Technopreneurialism in Sport: Techniques in Anti-doping Regulation, 1966-1976', International Journal for the History of Sport, vol. 31, no. 8: pp. 884-901.
- Henne, K 2013, 'From the Academy to the UN and Back Again: The Travelling Politics of Intersectionality', Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, vol. 33. URL: http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue33/henne.htm
- Henne, K and Troshynski, E 2013, 'Mapping the Margins of Intersectionality: Criminological Possibilities in a Transnational World', Theoretical Criminology, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 455-473.
- Henne, K and Shah, R 2012, 'Re-imagining the Images of the Crimino-Legal Complex: Toward a Critical Pedagogy', The Critical Criminologist, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 4-9.
- Manderson, D, 'Towards Law and Music: Sara Ramshaw, Justice as Improvisation: The Law of the Extempore (Oxford: Routledge, 2013)' (2014) Law and Critique, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 311-317.
- Manderson, D, 'Memory and Echo: Pop cult, hi tech and the irony of tradition' (2014) in C Davies, S L Knox (ed.), Cultural Studies of Law, Routledge, London, pp. 11-29.
- Manderson, D, 'Judgment in law and the humanities' (2013) Revista Forumul Judecatorilor, vol. 1, pp. 43-62.
- Manderson, D, 'Making a Point and Making a Noise: A Punk Prayer' (2013) Law, Culture and the Humanities, vol. Online (published dates tbc), pp. 1-15.
- Manderson, D, 'The Law of the Image and the Image of the Law: Colonial Representations of the Rule of Law' (2012) New York Law School Law Review, vol. 57, no. 2012/13, pp. 153-168.
- Manderson, D, 'Modernism, Polarity, and the Rule of Law' (2012) Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, vol. 24, pp. 475-505.
- Manderson, D, 'Between the Nihilism of the Young and the Positivism of the Old - Justice and the Novel in D.H. Lawrence', (2012) Law and Humanities, vol. 5.
- Manderson, D, 'Mikhail Bakhtin and the Field of Law and Literature' (2012) Law, Culture and the Humanities, vol. 8.
- Manderson, D, 'Klimt's Jurisprudence-Sovereign Violence and the Rule of Law', (2015), Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, vol. Online Early Version, no. 2015, pp. 1-28.
- Manderson, D, 'Bodies in the Water: On Reading Images More Sensibly' (2015) Law and Literature, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 279-293.
- Manderson, D & van Rijswijk, H, 'Introduction to Littoral Readings: Representation of Land and Sea in Law, Literature, and Geography' (2015) Law and Literature, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 167-177.
- Manderson, D, 'Literature in Law - Judicial Method, Epistemology, Strategy and Doctrine.' (2015) University of New South Wales Law Journal, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 1300-1315.
- Manderson, D, 'The Metastases of Myth: Legal Images as Transitional Phenomena' (2015) Law and Critique, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 207-223.
- Naffine, N and Neoh, J ‘Fictions and Myths in PGA v The Queen’ (2013) 38 Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy 32.
- Neoh, J ‘The Rhetoric of Precedent and Fulfilment in the Sermon on the Mount and the Common Law’ (2013) Law, Culture and the Humanities.
- Neoh, J, ‘Text, Doctrine and Tradition in Law and Religion’ (2013) 2 Oxford Journal Law and Religion 175.
- Neoh, J. ‘Law and Love in Abraham’s Binding of Isaac’ (2015) 9 Law and Humanities 237.
- Neoh, J. ‘The Name of God on Trial: Narratives of Law, Religion and State in Malaysia’ (2014) 18 Law Text Culture 198 [Special Issue on ‘The Rule of Law and the Cultural Imaginary in (Post-Colonial East Asia’)
- Roberts, H. ‘Why (Re)Write Judgments: Australian Feminist Judgments (2015) 37 Sydney Law Review 257 (with Laura Sweeney)
- Roberts, H. ‘Telling a History of Australian Women Judges Through Courts’ Ceremonial Archives’ (2014) 40 Australian Feminist Law Journal 147
- Roberts, H. ‘“Swearing Mary”: The Significance of the Speeches Made at Mary Gaudron’s Swearing-in as a Justice of the High Court of Australia’ (2013) 34 Sydney Law Review 493
- Roberts, H. “Law and Literature: Analysing style in judgment writing” in Gabrielle Appleby and Rosalind Dixon The Critical Judgments Project: Rereading Monis v The Queen (with Associate Professor Gabrielle Appleby) (The Federation Press, 2016
Recent book review essay
- Bonyhady, T 2013, Wohllebengasse: Die Geschichte meiner Wiener Familie, Zsolnay-Verlag, Germany.
- Bonyhady, T 2013, 'Man and Nature', in Roger Butler (ed.), Stars in the river : the prints of Jessie Traill, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, pp. 45-50.
- Bonyhady, T 2011, Good Living Street: The Fortunes of My Viennese Family, Allen & Unwin, Australia.
- Bonyhady, T 2007, 'Out of Aghanistan', in (ed.), Woven Witness: Afghan War Rugs, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, pp. 41-49.
- Neoh, J, ‘Just Jurisprudence: Review of Philip Pettit’s Just Freedom’ (2015) 40 Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy
Students with a passion for interdisciplinary research on the intersection of law and justice issues with history, continental philosophy, art theory and criticism, literary and cultural studies are strongly encouraged to undertake higher degree research and doctoral work in law and the humanities at ANU.
The ANU is Australia’s highest-ranking University, with outstanding international expertise right across law, arts, and the social sciences. The Centre for Law, Art and the Humanities brings together this expertise and works to generate new synergies and a critical mass of intellectual energy. We analyse historical and contemporary issues, drawing on humanistic perspectives through a range of theoretical frameworks in legal and social theory, continental philosophy, and post-colonial studies.
For further information, contact the Directors or Members of the Centre (on the People tab). They can help you craft your proposal and identify supervision resources best able to support your interests.
For examples of the kinds of projects our higher degree research students undertake, please see the list of HDR students on the People tab. Click through to their personal profiles for more information on their thesis projects.
Our partners
CLAH values our links with colleagues at centres working in this area around Australia and internationally. We are actively working on projects, exchanges, and collaborations with important sites of research into law and the humanities and legal theory. In particular—
- Law, Literature and the Humanities Association of Australasia
- Institute for International Law and the Humanities, Melbourne Law School
- Legal Intersections Research Centre, University of Wollongong
- Centre for Critical Thought, Kent Law School
- Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas, McGill University
- Law & Humanities Program, Dipartmento di Giurisprudenza, Roma Tre
- Centro di Ricerca per l’Estetica del Diritto, Universita di Reggio Calabria
Activities archive
Big Ideas on ABC Radio National recently recorded an event with ANU Law's Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities. The thought provoking conversation with Alexis Wright, Peter Singer, Russell Jacoby and Jacqueline Dutton will go to air this Monday evening at 7:05pm. You can listen via radio, stream or download the podcast.
Today we welcome our visiting doctoral student to the Centre. Teagan-Jane is completing her doctoral work based at Monash University after a successful stint at Birkbeck College London in 2016. She will be in residence for the next six months. Teagan’s research focuses on the contemporary scene of torture, drawing on perpetrator testimony supplied by US personnel who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay in 2003-06, as part of the so-called ‘War on Terror’.
Her analysis and development of theories of the subjectivity and power is used as a tool to re-think the way in which torture is understood in relation to law. She asks what the role of law is in the scene of torture, and what this indicates about how law is fundamental to "who we are" as subjects.
Philosophy in the times of populism and post-truth. Join a group of Canberra legal philosophers for a chat over a delicious pint. An accessible, casual event for anyone interested in current events.
2016 was branded the year of post-truth. The contributions of both science and humanities have been questioned and criticised for their distance from the society and “the real life”. But perhaps “experts” aren’t really so far removed from the reality. Dare to find out what philosophy can contribute and join a group of Canberra legal philosophers for a chat over a delicious pint. Find out what “the love of wisdom” can offer and whether it can explain the reality of today. Can Freudian desire explain the rise of Trump or did Nietzsche predict the post-truth society?
The four philosophers presenting are:
- Desmond Manderson is Director of the Centre for Law, Arts, and the Humanities at the ANU College of Law. Topic: A Freudian analysis of the rise and rise of Donald Trump.
- Anne Macduff works at the ANU College of Law. Anne’s research explores how law devalues difference. She has a particular interest in exploring issues of law and identity, including race, gender and sexuality. She has a passion for legal education, and for creating active and engaging environments to enable students to critically engage with the law.
- Justine Poon is a PhD candidate at the ANU College of Law and occasional poet and filmmaker. Topic: Why Representation Both Does and Does Not Matter.
- Dorota Gozdecka is a Senior Lecturer at the ANU College of Law and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Helsinki. She has published books and journal articles on theoretical aspects of accommodating cultural diversity and has been preoccupied with the place of the Other in philosophy and legal theory. Topic: Have philosophers foreseen the rise of post-truth society?
Challenging Words, led by Dorota Gozdecka, will bring together artists, cartoonists and musicians with students and legal academics in an innovative and creative workshop, the first of its kind in Australia.
On Thursday 11 August we welcome Professor Alex Sharpe to the Centre for a series of events co-sponsored by the ANU Gender institute.
Alex is based at Keele University UK. She is an international scholar of issues in transgender, sexualities, and the law, as well as broader interests in contemporary critical theory. She will be fronting a Q & A session on ‘gender fraud’ at 12pm, Friday 12 August, in the Moot Court. Then at 4pm, she will be presenting a public lecture entitled Scary monsters: the hopeful undecidability of David Bowie (1947-2016), which promises to be a load of fun.
Today we welcome Professor Chris Tomlins to the Centre. Chris is at UC Berkeley in the Faculty of Law, as well as being one of the leading US scholars and guiding lights in the field of interdisciplinary studies in law and the humanities.
He is well known for the annual symposia he hosts at Berkeley around different dimensions of “law and…” which attract a mix of senior and up and coming scholars from around the world. Chris will be here for a week, to participate in the conference on aesthetics and politics being jointly organized by CLAH, the School of Philosophy, and the Humanities Research Centre.
