Interdisciplinary Unsettlings of Place and Space, 2019
Migrants and their children are often ‘unsettled’ from their ancestral homelands, caught between ... more Migrants and their children are often ‘unsettled’ from their ancestral homelands, caught between identification with one culture and another. This chapter explores the experience of in-between-ness that this kind of relationship generates. The author focuses on his own connections to Venice and the Veneto: a site in which he identifies himself as an insider/outsider—a familiar-stranger to his own past. By referring to theories of nomadism, in-between-ness and translation, it is argued that writing in situ is a creative act that connects the self to various terrains; linguistic, literary, historical, ancestral, real and imagined. In so doing, the writer enacts and embodies what can be thought of as a contemporary form of flânerie. This form of creative wandering is in turn a mechanism through which poetry is created, affording the author a method through which he maps subjectivity onto the terrain across which he roams, and a means to engage in processes of de- and re-colonisation that ‘resettle’ the self in time and space.
Branca and the Fondazione Cini, the Venzo family and the many friends and colleagues who offered ... more Branca and the Fondazione Cini, the Venzo family and the many friends and colleagues who offered their wisdom, guidance and support throughout the production of this thesis document I offer my sincere and heartfelt thanks. Archipelago is dedicated to the memory of my father, Albano Venzo. v The clerical sonnets Masterclass Poesia Bellunese Canzoni della Laguna-Lagoon Songs Archipelago: a journey across poetic islands of the self Introduction Imagined terrain: a subjective literature of Venice and the Veneto Creative wandering and the poetic practice of flânerie (Self)Translation and the poetry of the "in-between" Shaping the self through poetic form Conclusion
Mark Reibstein and Ed Young’s 2008 picture book Wabi Sabi tells the story of a Kyoto cat in searc... more Mark Reibstein and Ed Young’s 2008 picture book Wabi Sabi tells the story of a Kyoto cat in search of the meaning of its name. This award-wining children’s book explores identity through the composition of various layers of meaning and complexity in form and structure, suggesting that an understanding of identity cannot be expressed easily through words alone. This paper begins by examining how the use of a range of storytelling modes including collage, photography, drawing, poetry and prose are combined, inviting the implied child reader to become involved in the intermedial qualities of the text, at the same time as they follow the cat in its journey of self-discovery. Focus then turns to the use of natural, textured materials in the artwork of the picture book, analyzed as a reflection of the concept of wabi sabi; a Zen-Taoist philosophy that draws attention to the value and beauty of impermanence and imperfection. This alternative way of thinking about identity proposes that sel...
Many poets and writers have used Venice and, to a lesser extent, the Veneto as a creative topos. ... more Many poets and writers have used Venice and, to a lesser extent, the Veneto as a creative topos. There is both the writing that might be said to belong to the Italian/Venetian literary tradition, as well as the non-Italian tradition of writing Venice, a phenomenon that spans English literature, in particular, from William Shakespeare’s time, to the Romantic period and into the present day. This paper explores my relationship to this creative topos and the writers and writing that are associated with it. In particular, it focuses on the notion of literary nomadism: a method for interacting with the literature of Venice and the Veneto that allows me to find intersections between my own work and that which already exists in a broad historical and literary terrain. Moving between and across the literatures of this region, I argue that it is possible to find multiple points of reference that guide and inform my own poetic responses to it, and which reflect my own subjective nomadism and ...
Journal of Children S Literature Studies, Nov 1, 2010
Recent years have seen a flood of celebrity-authored children’s books enter the children’s litera... more Recent years have seen a flood of celebrity-authored children’s books enter the children’s literature marketplace. This paper tracks the evolution of this phenomenon as it pertains to contemporary celebrity culture, and responds to the question: what are the embedded messages about identity at play in such texts? The key contention here is that these works endorse celebrity as the most desirable identity category for the children of the new millennium, going so far as to position difference as a commodity to be traded in the quest for fame. Using critical theory around celebrity culture, and through a close reading of a short celebrity-authored picture book, this paper demonstrates that far from being innocuous pieces of popular culture, such books beckon children into a world that increasingly values visibility and stardom above all else.
Globally, ocean health has become critically compromised due to compounding negative human impact... more Globally, ocean health has become critically compromised due to compounding negative human impacts. Marine science education can play a key role in raising collective understanding of the vulnerability of marine environments and the importance of their protection, and this may best begin with integration of ocean literacy in schools. Previous research shows that K-12 students worldwide have a limited understanding of the ocean. This lack of familiarity with the ocean has been linked to the absence of topics related to marine science in most national school curricula. Teachers are the ultimate arbiters deciding whether and how to include these topics in their classes. However, the extent to which marine science may be currently being taught in formal education is still unknown. We used the Australian public school system as a case study to investigate the marine science teaching practices of primary school teachers (Foundation – Grade 6), through an online survey. Our results indicat...
Have you heard of the Great Southern Reef? Join Professor Seaweed and her friends Frankie and Sam... more Have you heard of the Great Southern Reef? Join Professor Seaweed and her friends Frankie and Sam to learn more about one of Australia's best kept secrets! The Great Southern Reef spans thousands of kilometres along the coast from northern New South Wales to Western Australia. It is home to giant kelp forests and fascinating animals such as rock lobsters, sea snails and sponges. Explore the sandy beaches with this inquisitive trio, and discover marine curiosities that are washed up along the coast after a big storm. You may be inspired to go beachcombing yourself, to learn and care about the animals and seaweed that you find! Reading level varies from child to child, but we recommend this book for ages 6–9.
Deakin Teaching and Learning Conference 2010 Flexible Education Futures Partnering For Collaborative and Active Learning, 2010
The main theme of this paper is an exploration of how 'progressive and innovative' assessment tec... more The main theme of this paper is an exploration of how 'progressive and innovative' assessment techniques from other higher education providers might be used to 'progress and innovate' the assessment of Media and Communication students at Deakin University. As lecturers and tutors have traditionally had almost total control over the learning and assessment environment, for most students, the approach to assessment has changed little. The arrival of 'new media', 'digital culture' and 'dispersed learning' threatens this stability and control. Students are now able to operate in a more open, collaborative, interactive and distributed manner, and this fact challenges many of the traditional perceptions about what constitutes a 'university experience' and what are now 'appropriate' assessment tasks (Crisp 2009) .
In this article, we begin by discussing approximately thirty picture books dealing with the COVID... more In this article, we begin by discussing approximately thirty picture books dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic published digitally in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and other English-speaking countries in the first six months of 2020. The worldwide impact of COVID-19 resulted in the rapid global digital publication of numerous English-language children’s picture books aimed at informing child readers about public health concerns and how children could contribute to improving health outcomes. This exploration of contemporary picture books is intertwined with examinations of two other public health crises that appeared in literature for children: the discussion of British children’s health in the Junior Red Cross Magazine in the 1920s and the American polio outbreak discussed in educational materials and fiction in the 1940s and 1950s. These comparisons not only enable us to situate the COVID-19 pandemic within a history of transnational responses to concerns about c...
Interdisciplinary Unsettlings of Place and Space, 2019
Migrants and their children are often ‘unsettled’ from their ancestral homelands, caught between ... more Migrants and their children are often ‘unsettled’ from their ancestral homelands, caught between identification with one culture and another. This chapter explores the experience of in-between-ness that this kind of relationship generates. The author focuses on his own connections to Venice and the Veneto: a site in which he identifies himself as an insider/outsider—a familiar-stranger to his own past. By referring to theories of nomadism, in-between-ness and translation, it is argued that writing in situ is a creative act that connects the self to various terrains; linguistic, literary, historical, ancestral, real and imagined. In so doing, the writer enacts and embodies what can be thought of as a contemporary form of flânerie. This form of creative wandering is in turn a mechanism through which poetry is created, affording the author a method through which he maps subjectivity onto the terrain across which he roams, and a means to engage in processes of de- and re-colonisation that ‘resettle’ the self in time and space.
Branca and the Fondazione Cini, the Venzo family and the many friends and colleagues who offered ... more Branca and the Fondazione Cini, the Venzo family and the many friends and colleagues who offered their wisdom, guidance and support throughout the production of this thesis document I offer my sincere and heartfelt thanks. Archipelago is dedicated to the memory of my father, Albano Venzo. v The clerical sonnets Masterclass Poesia Bellunese Canzoni della Laguna-Lagoon Songs Archipelago: a journey across poetic islands of the self Introduction Imagined terrain: a subjective literature of Venice and the Veneto Creative wandering and the poetic practice of flânerie (Self)Translation and the poetry of the "in-between" Shaping the self through poetic form Conclusion
Mark Reibstein and Ed Young’s 2008 picture book Wabi Sabi tells the story of a Kyoto cat in searc... more Mark Reibstein and Ed Young’s 2008 picture book Wabi Sabi tells the story of a Kyoto cat in search of the meaning of its name. This award-wining children’s book explores identity through the composition of various layers of meaning and complexity in form and structure, suggesting that an understanding of identity cannot be expressed easily through words alone. This paper begins by examining how the use of a range of storytelling modes including collage, photography, drawing, poetry and prose are combined, inviting the implied child reader to become involved in the intermedial qualities of the text, at the same time as they follow the cat in its journey of self-discovery. Focus then turns to the use of natural, textured materials in the artwork of the picture book, analyzed as a reflection of the concept of wabi sabi; a Zen-Taoist philosophy that draws attention to the value and beauty of impermanence and imperfection. This alternative way of thinking about identity proposes that sel...
Many poets and writers have used Venice and, to a lesser extent, the Veneto as a creative topos. ... more Many poets and writers have used Venice and, to a lesser extent, the Veneto as a creative topos. There is both the writing that might be said to belong to the Italian/Venetian literary tradition, as well as the non-Italian tradition of writing Venice, a phenomenon that spans English literature, in particular, from William Shakespeare’s time, to the Romantic period and into the present day. This paper explores my relationship to this creative topos and the writers and writing that are associated with it. In particular, it focuses on the notion of literary nomadism: a method for interacting with the literature of Venice and the Veneto that allows me to find intersections between my own work and that which already exists in a broad historical and literary terrain. Moving between and across the literatures of this region, I argue that it is possible to find multiple points of reference that guide and inform my own poetic responses to it, and which reflect my own subjective nomadism and ...
Journal of Children S Literature Studies, Nov 1, 2010
Recent years have seen a flood of celebrity-authored children’s books enter the children’s litera... more Recent years have seen a flood of celebrity-authored children’s books enter the children’s literature marketplace. This paper tracks the evolution of this phenomenon as it pertains to contemporary celebrity culture, and responds to the question: what are the embedded messages about identity at play in such texts? The key contention here is that these works endorse celebrity as the most desirable identity category for the children of the new millennium, going so far as to position difference as a commodity to be traded in the quest for fame. Using critical theory around celebrity culture, and through a close reading of a short celebrity-authored picture book, this paper demonstrates that far from being innocuous pieces of popular culture, such books beckon children into a world that increasingly values visibility and stardom above all else.
Globally, ocean health has become critically compromised due to compounding negative human impact... more Globally, ocean health has become critically compromised due to compounding negative human impacts. Marine science education can play a key role in raising collective understanding of the vulnerability of marine environments and the importance of their protection, and this may best begin with integration of ocean literacy in schools. Previous research shows that K-12 students worldwide have a limited understanding of the ocean. This lack of familiarity with the ocean has been linked to the absence of topics related to marine science in most national school curricula. Teachers are the ultimate arbiters deciding whether and how to include these topics in their classes. However, the extent to which marine science may be currently being taught in formal education is still unknown. We used the Australian public school system as a case study to investigate the marine science teaching practices of primary school teachers (Foundation – Grade 6), through an online survey. Our results indicat...
Have you heard of the Great Southern Reef? Join Professor Seaweed and her friends Frankie and Sam... more Have you heard of the Great Southern Reef? Join Professor Seaweed and her friends Frankie and Sam to learn more about one of Australia's best kept secrets! The Great Southern Reef spans thousands of kilometres along the coast from northern New South Wales to Western Australia. It is home to giant kelp forests and fascinating animals such as rock lobsters, sea snails and sponges. Explore the sandy beaches with this inquisitive trio, and discover marine curiosities that are washed up along the coast after a big storm. You may be inspired to go beachcombing yourself, to learn and care about the animals and seaweed that you find! Reading level varies from child to child, but we recommend this book for ages 6–9.
Deakin Teaching and Learning Conference 2010 Flexible Education Futures Partnering For Collaborative and Active Learning, 2010
The main theme of this paper is an exploration of how 'progressive and innovative' assessment tec... more The main theme of this paper is an exploration of how 'progressive and innovative' assessment techniques from other higher education providers might be used to 'progress and innovate' the assessment of Media and Communication students at Deakin University. As lecturers and tutors have traditionally had almost total control over the learning and assessment environment, for most students, the approach to assessment has changed little. The arrival of 'new media', 'digital culture' and 'dispersed learning' threatens this stability and control. Students are now able to operate in a more open, collaborative, interactive and distributed manner, and this fact challenges many of the traditional perceptions about what constitutes a 'university experience' and what are now 'appropriate' assessment tasks (Crisp 2009) .
In this article, we begin by discussing approximately thirty picture books dealing with the COVID... more In this article, we begin by discussing approximately thirty picture books dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic published digitally in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and other English-speaking countries in the first six months of 2020. The worldwide impact of COVID-19 resulted in the rapid global digital publication of numerous English-language children’s picture books aimed at informing child readers about public health concerns and how children could contribute to improving health outcomes. This exploration of contemporary picture books is intertwined with examinations of two other public health crises that appeared in literature for children: the discussion of British children’s health in the Junior Red Cross Magazine in the 1920s and the American polio outbreak discussed in educational materials and fiction in the 1940s and 1950s. These comparisons not only enable us to situate the COVID-19 pandemic within a history of transnational responses to concerns about c...
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