ISFAR Colloquia »

ISFAR Symposium 2023 13 – 14 April 2023

New Perspectives in French-Australian Studies

The 2023 ISFAR Symposium was held on Thursday 13 and Friday 14 April. Papers covered a variety of topics in addition to the two keynote speakers: Matthew Graves spoke on unofficial diplomacy, through his presentation of the Fleurieu mission to Australia in the early twentieth century; and Nic Maclellan spoke on the ‘silenced voices’ of local Pacific leaders on major power politics in the region.

Click to view the Symposium programme.

The inaugural Colin Nettelbeck Scholarship, was awarded to Alice Duncan, currently a PhD student in Fine Art at RMIT University, for her paper: ‘Exploring Cross-Cultural Representations: French Children’s Literature and Australian Indigenous Culture’.

ISFAR@35 Symposium 8 – 9 April 2021

Australia and France in a Regional and Global Context: Past Engagements and Future Research Directions

The 35th anniversary symposium held in April 2021 in honour of Professor Colin Nettelbeck was opened by French Ambassador S. E. Jean-Pierre Thébault, while Honorary Consul-General in Melbourne, Mme Myriam Boisbouvier-Wylie closed proceedings. This provided the opportunity both to welcome the Ambassador and to hear of his priorities and to thank Mme Boisbouvier-Wylie for her strong support of ISFAR’s activities. Although the Symposium was held online, it was an inclusive and collegial event, attracting attendances of between twenty-five and forty-five for the various sessions. The papers covered a broad range of political, cultural and historical topics, from the early history of French-Australian relations to the contemporary diplomatic rapprochement in the Pacific in the context of an encroaching China; photography and viniculture; student educational tours and language enrichment; and aspects of the history of World Wars One and Two in Europe and the Pacific.

The Symposium afforded the occasion to pay tribute to Professor Colin Nettelbeck, one of the founders of ISFAR, and to announce a Scholarship in his honour that will finance the attendance of Postgraduate and Honours students at future ISFAR conferences. The keynote presentation by Professor Robert Aldrich, ‘From the French East Indies Company to the French in the “Indo-Pacific”’, provided a clear and comprehensive overview of four centuries of French presence in the Indo-Pacific region. An adapted version of Professor Aldrich’s keynote was published in The French-Australian Review 70.

ISFAR Colloquium 27 Sep 2018

The 2nd ISFAR colloquium was held on 27th September 2018 at the University of Adelaide, with the theme of “French Contributions to Australian Life”. Thank you to all delegates, who presented a rich array of papers including a very interesting round table discussion on the topic of “Reflections on the Commemorations of the Great War”.

The colloquium culminated in a keynote address by Emeritus Professor Colin Nettelbeck (Past President of ISFAR) entitled “France and the French in Australia’s growth to nationhood: 1914-1945”, as part of the centenary celebrations of French Studies at the University of Adelaide. The title and abstract of Prof. Nettelbeck’s address were as follows:

France and the French in Australia’s growth to nationhood: 1914-1945
In the more than 200 years of relations between France and Australia, the ambiguities and complexities of the period that spans the two world wars of the 20th century are of special interest. This lecture will argue that the specific role of France and the French in Australia’s growth to nationhood deserves much closer attention than it has received to date. It will show how, from the military alliance of World War I to the appointment of Australia’s first ambassador to France in 1945, the tension between attempts to forge closer bonds, on the one hand, and frequently resurgent distrust and conflict, on the other hand, were crucial to Australia’s self-image and self-positioning as an emerging nation in a dramatically unstable geo-political world.