The Proclamation Island moment: making Antarctica Australian

It is January 1930 and the restless Southern Ocean is heaving itself up against the frozen coast of Eastern Antarctica as the exploring ship Discovery shoves its way through the pack. One of the key moments of the British, Australian, and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE)—is about to occur: the expedition is about to succeed in its primary mission. Douglas Mawson, the expedition's Australian leader, ascends to the island's bleak summit. There, he and his crew assemble a mound of stones and insert into it the flagpole they've carried with them across the ocean. Mawson reads an official proclamation of territorial annexation, the photographer Hurley shoots the moment on film, and one of the men hauls the Union Jack up the pole. In the freezing wind, the men take off their hats and sing "God Save the King." They deposit a copy of the proclamation into a metal canister and affix this to the flagpole. The men row back to the Discovery; Mawson returns to his cabin and writes up the event. A crucial moment in Antarctica’s spatial history has occurred: on what Mawson has aptly named Proclamation Island, Antarctica has been produced as Australian space. But how, exactly, does this production of Antarctica as a spatial possession work? How does this moment initiate the transformation of six million square kilometres of Antarctica—42% of the continent—into Australian space? The answer to this question lies in three separate, but articulated cultural technologies: representation, the body of the explorer, and international territorial law. This article attends to the ways in which these spatialising forces together 'nationalise' Antarctica by transforming it into Australian national space. Mawson's BANZARE performance on Proclamation Island is a moment in which the legal, the physical, and the textual clearly intersect in the creation of space as a national possession. Australia did not take possession of forty-two percent of Antarctica after BANZARE by law, by exploration, or by representation alone. The Australian government built its Antarctic space with letters patent. BANZARE produced Australia's Antarctic possession through the physical and legal rituals of flag-planting, proclamation-reading, and exploration. BANZARE further contributed to Australia's polar empire with maps, journals, photos and films, and cadastral lists of the region’s animals, minerals, magnetic fields, and winds. The laws of "discovery of terra nullius" and of "the spirit of possession" coalesced these spaces into a territory officially designated as Australian. It is crucial to recognise that the production of nearly half of Antarctica as Australian space was, and is not a matter of discourse, of physical performance, or of law alone. Rather, these three cultural technologies of spatial production are mutually imbricated; none can function without the others, nor is one reducible to an epiphenomenon of another. This article examines the ways in which six million square kilometres of Antarctic ice were, and continue to be, produced as Australian national space

Developing Work-integrated Learning Curricula for the Creative Industries: embedding stakeholder perspectives

It is now widely recognised that the creative industries constitute an\ud important and growing global economic sector (Cunningham, 2007).\ud Career development programs for the creative industries sector are an\ud international priority (Guile, 2007) which faces several key challenges.\ud These challenges relate to the unique nature of the creative industries.\ud In the creative industries it is thus of critical importance that tertiary\ud work-integrated learning programs focus on more than just training\ud students to become employees: they must also focus on developing\ud the experience and employability of students who will undertake nonconventional\ud career paths. One challenge for work-integrated learning\ud programs in the creative industries is that there is little professional\ud tradition of internships; many employers are not experienced in workintegrated\ud learning participation, and many academics are not familiar\ud with work-integrated learning. This paper reports on the results of\ud an evaluative research program undertaken one year after the launch\ud of the Queensland University of Technology’s (Brisbane, Australia)\ud Creative Industries Transitions to New Professional Environments\ud work-integrated learning program, focusing particularly on key themes\ud and issues identified in interviews with the program’s industry partners and academic staff

Post-colonial Antarctica

This chapter explores how postcolonial perspectives have informed and contributed to ‘critical Antarctic studies’. Shortly after Dodds published an essay in Polar Record entitled ‘Post- colonial Antarctica: an emerging engagement’, leading postcolonial theorists posited the ‘The end of post- colonial theory?’ in the journal PMLA (Publications of the Modern Language Association). Lambasting postcolonial theory as irrelevant, parochial and Anglo-centric, 1 their piece captured a powerful current of discontent. But for Robert Young, a leading theorist of post- colonialism and author of field- setting introductions to postcolonial theory and practice, such an obituary seemed out of place and time..

Developing Work-integrated Learning Curricula for the Creative Industries: embedding stakeholder perspectives

It is now widely recognised that the creative industries constitute an important and growing global economic sector (Cunningham, 2007). Career development programs for the creative industries sector are an international priority (Guile, 2007) which faces several key challenges. These challenges relate to the unique nature of the creative industries. In the creative industries it is thus of critical importance that tertiary work-integrated learning programs focus on more than just training students to become employees: they must also focus on developing the experience and employability of students who will undertake nonconventional career paths. One challenge for work-integrated learning programs in the creative industries is that there is little professional tradition of internships; many employers are not experienced in workintegrated learning participation, and many academics are not familiar with work-integrated learning. This paper reports on the results of an evaluative research program undertaken one year after the launch of the Queensland University of Technology’s (Brisbane, Australia) Creative Industries Transitions to New Professional Environments work-integrated learning program, focusing particularly on key themes and issues identified in interviews with the program’s industry partners and academic staff

Exploring Tracks: Writing and Living Desert Space

The paper discusses Robyn Davidson's travel narrative Tracks arguing that it produces a desert space that is inhabitable, active, alive and part, rather than the ancient foe, of the non-Aboriginal Australian subject

Developing Work-integrated Learning Curricula for the Creative Industries: embedding stakeholder perspectives

It is now widely recognised that the creative industries constitute an important and growing global economic sector (Cunningham, 2007). Career development programs for the creative industries sector are an international priority (Guile, 2007) which faces several key challenges. These challenges relate to the unique nature of the creative industries. In the creative industries it is thus of critical importance that tertiary work-integrated learning programs focus on more than just training students to become employees: they must also focus on developing the experience and employability of students who will undertake nonconventional career paths. One challenge for work-integrated learning programs in the creative industries is that there is little professional tradition of internships; many employers are not experienced in workintegrated learning participation, and many academics are not familiar with work-integrated learning. This paper reports on the results of an evaluative research program undertaken one year after the launch of the Queensland University of Technology’s (Brisbane, Australia) Creative Industries Transitions to New Professional Environments work-integrated learning program, focusing particularly on key themes and issues identified in interviews with the program’s industry partners and academic staff

Media mapping: Reflections on Australian and Swedish experiences with a new educational technology in media and communication studies

This paper reports on Australian and Swedish experiences in the iterative design, development, and ongoing usage of an interactive educational system we call 'Media Maps'. Like maps in general, Media Maps are usefully understood as complex cultural technologies. That is, they are not only physical objects, tools and artefacts, but also information creation and distribution technologies, the use and development of which is embedded in systems of knowledge and social meaning. Drawing upon Australian and Swedish experiences, this paper illustrates this three-layered approach to the development of media mapping. It shows how media mapping is being used to create authentic learning experiences for students preparing for work in the rapidly evolving media and communication industries. We also contextualise media mapping as a response to various challenges for curriculum and learning design in Media and Communication studies that arise from shifts in tertiary education policy in a global knowledge economy

Learning from the pandemic: the impacts of moving student-staff partnerships online

While numerous studies on the impacts of COVID-19 on university learning and teaching are now emerging, there has been less critical attention focused on the impact of the shift to online engagement on student-staff partnership (SSP) practices. This article analyses the experiences and perceptions of students and staff from an Australian university as they shifted their partnership practices online during the pandemic. It provides valuable insights into the specific positive and negative impacts of online SSP for students and staff, foregrounding both groups’ perceptions of the accessibility and communication aspects of online SSP. The study’s findings lead to the recommendation of a blended approach and will be of use as SSP programs recalibrate for a post-COVID context

Tocilizumab in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Background: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of tocilizumab in adult patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 with both hypoxia and systemic inflammation. Methods: This randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing several possible treatments in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. Those trial participants with hypoxia (oxygen saturation <92% on air or requiring oxygen therapy) and evidence of systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein ≥75 mg/L) were eligible for random assignment in a 1:1 ratio to usual standard of care alone versus usual standard of care plus tocilizumab at a dose of 400 mg–800 mg (depending on weight) given intravenously. A second dose could be given 12–24 h later if the patient's condition had not improved. The primary outcome was 28-day mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. The trial is registered with ISRCTN (50189673) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381936). Findings: Between April 23, 2020, and Jan 24, 2021, 4116 adults of 21 550 patients enrolled into the RECOVERY trial were included in the assessment of tocilizumab, including 3385 (82%) patients receiving systemic corticosteroids. Overall, 621 (31%) of the 2022 patients allocated tocilizumab and 729 (35%) of the 2094 patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0·85; 95% CI 0·76–0·94; p=0·0028). Consistent results were seen in all prespecified subgroups of patients, including those receiving systemic corticosteroids. Patients allocated to tocilizumab were more likely to be discharged from hospital within 28 days (57% vs 50%; rate ratio 1·22; 1·12–1·33; p<0·0001). Among those not receiving invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, patients allocated tocilizumab were less likely to reach the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (35% vs 42%; risk ratio 0·84; 95% CI 0·77–0·92; p<0·0001). Interpretation: In hospitalised COVID-19 patients with hypoxia and systemic inflammation, tocilizumab improved survival and other clinical outcomes. These benefits were seen regardless of the amount of respiratory support and were additional to the benefits of systemic corticosteroids. Funding: UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research