We’re a bit late on reporting on our Markers of Authenticity series in 2017, but thought we should put out a recap as we look ahead to 2018.
In 2017 the Markers of Authenticity Interdisciplinary Seminar Series continued at Macquarie University, supported by funding from Faculty of Arts Research Theme funding scheme, and the MQ Ancient Cultures Research Centre: we’re very grateful to both bodies for their generous support.
Our 2017 program saw an increase in disciplinary representation across the Faculty and University: as well as the range of fields represented by the presenters, the audiences regularly featured staff and students from a wide range of departments (International Studies; English; Ancient History; Music, Media, Communication and Cultural Studies; Linguistics; Philosophy; Modern History; Security Studies and Criminology; and Cognitive Science). Audience numbers averaged between 20 and 30 throughout the year, with several larger events exceeding this. This year we aimed to enhance our links with other research clusters and centres, and to this end co-sponsored events with the Centre for Applied History, the ‘Environmental Humanities’ research cluster, the ‘World Literatures and Cultures’ Research Cluster, and the Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies.
In the first half of 2017 we held three events: a seminar ‘On Authenticity and Race’ on May 26th, given by Dr Adam Hochman (Philosophy) with a response by A/Prof. Andrew Gillett (Ancient History); an introduction and progress report on the ARC-funded Project ‘Forging Antiquity’ by A/Prof. Malcolm Choat, Dr Rachel-Yuen Collingridge, and our PACE intern (and now Research Assistant) Vanessa Mawby (Ancient History) on June 2; and a conversation on June 9th on ‘The Internet Antiquities Trade: Insight into an Invisible Market?’ between Lauren Dundler (MRes student, Ancient History) and Iain Shearer (Freelance archaeologist, Honorary Fellow University College London).
We began our program for the second half of the year on August 14th with a seminar on ‘Faking the News’, with papers by Dr Colin Klein (Philosophy) and Dr Margie Borschke (Music, Media, Communication and Cultural Studies). This was followed on September 5th by a seminar by Dr Julian Droogan (Security Studies and Criminology) on ‘The Authentic Terrorist?: Mobilising the Past, Battling for the Future’.
On October 13th–14th, we co-hosted a conference, ‘Imagining the Real: Alternative (Arte)Facts from Antiquity to the Present Day’ with the Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies, which featured keynote speakers from the University of Western Australia (Emeritus Professors John Melville Jones ) and University of Agder (Professor Årstein Justnes), in addition to a range of other speakers ( program and abstracts for the conference).
In late October (26th), we held a seminar on ‘Creative Authenticity: Originality and the Real’ with papers given by Dr. Mio Bryce (International Studies) and Dr Ilona Hongisto (Music, Media, Communication and Cultural Studies).
In early November (2nd), we co-sponsored a panel on the ‘Authenticity of Experience: 
History and Gaming’ with the Centre for Applied History, which was attended by nearly 60 people. Dr Rowan Tulloch (Music, Media, Communication and Cultural Studies), Daniel Keogh (Educational Games Designer, 3P Learning), and Abbie Hartman (Modern History), gave presentations, followed by a lively Q&A with the audience. Thanks to funding contributed by the Centre for Applied History, the presentations were recorded on video, and can be seen online.
One week later (Nov. 9th), we held a seminar on the ‘Authenticity of Desire’ with papers by Dr Thomas Baudinette (International Studies), and Dr Chelsea Barnett (Modern History). Finally, we co-sponsored a workshop on December 11th on ‘Environmental Change and the Historical Imaginary: Ancient, Medieval, Modern’, with the ‘Environmental Humanities’ research cluster, convened by Professor Louise D’Arcens (English) and featuring an international keynote as well as speakers from Ancient History, Modern History, and English.
We think the 2017 iteration of the series had extremely good outcomes in terms of bringing together a broad cross-disciplinary group to a regular forum to discuss a central theme from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Planning for our 2018 program is well advanced (see our ideas here), and we hope to see many of you at these events: we’ll post a final schedule as soon as it’s available.
markersofauthenticity.com 