UNSW Sydney and Harvard University are proud to announce the appointment of Associate Professor Jennifer L. Biddle (Director, Visual Anthropology & Visual Culture, National Institute for Experimental Art, UNSW) and Professor Andrew Schultz (Professor of Music, UNSW) to the Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University, in the academic year 2021–22.
The Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Chair in Australian Studies was established through a gift of the Australian government to Harvard University, in recognition of the American Bicentennial in 1976, to further understanding of Australia in the United States. Over the past 35 years, the Chair has been occupied by some of Australia’s most outstanding intellectuals.
The concurrent appointment of Associate Professor Biddle and Professor Schultz is an opportunity for ‘Australian Studies’ at Harvard to focus on current practices of the creative arts in Australia. Associate Professor Biddle, an anthropologist, has studied contemporary Aboriginal visual culture, highlighting innovations in the materials and themes of artists working in ‘remote’ Outback communities. Professor Schultz, a prolific and prize-winning composer and teacher, has given musical expression to stories that are central to Australian experience such as Gallipoli and the Finke River Mission (Hermannsburg) to the Arrernte people.
