(Melbourne) Wed 8 Dec 2021 at 6pm – 8pm. The Melbourne Salon presents Myriam Boisbouvier-Wylie Honorary Consul General of France in Melbourne in conversation with Kerry Mullan Myriam Boisbouvier-Wylie Honorary Consul General of France in Melbourne in conversation with Kerry Mullan « Les joies et les tribulations d’une consule honoraire » at the Honorary Consulate General of France, Melbourne. Mme Boisbouvier-Wylie presented a fascinating insight into the world of diplomacy and being an Honorary Consul, speaking candidly and animatedly about the most rewarding and the most challenging aspects of her role. It was the perfect occasion for everyone to come together after so long; the strong and longstanding local French-Australian friendships and connections were on display throughout the evening.
(Online) Tue 12 Oct 2021, 6pm – 7pm. The Melbourne Salon presents What did it mean to be French in Australia during the First World War? Dr Pauline Georgelin, University of Melbourne. This talk will focus on how French Australians responded to the Great War and consider the role of French identity and culture in the wider pro-war discourse. In Australia, support for France – ‘our noble ally’ – stood alongside loyalty to the British Empire as a reason to continue fighting, and to encourage recruitment. French cultural symbols inspired support for French war charities.
(Online) Thu 5 Nov 2020 7pm – 8pm. The Melbourne Salon presents Unravelling the cancer puzzle from an ecological and evolutionary perspective – an Australian and French International Associated Laboratory. Frédéric Thomas and Beata Ujvari. Cancer is not only a major cause of mortality worldwide that touches nearly every family, but also a disease which affects all other multicellular organisms. Oncology as a scientific field has, until now, developed in relative isolation from ecological and evolutionary sciences. To overcome these caveats, the presenters established the “Cancer in Ecology and Evolution International Associated Laboratory (LIA)” in order to understand the ecological and evolutionary consequences of cancer in ecosystems. This talk will focus on how applying evolutionary principles to cancer revolutionises treatment strategies and approaches.
(Online) Mon 14 Sep 2020 6pm – 7pm. The Melbourne Salon presents What’s France got to do with it? Contemporary memoirs of Australians in France. Juliana de Nooy in conversation with Barbara Hanna. While only one book-length memoir recounting the sojourn of an Australian in France was published in the 1990s, well over 40 have been published since 2000, overwhelmingly written by women. Although we might expect a focus on travel, intercultural adjustment and communication in these texts, this is the case only in a minority of accounts. More frequently, France serves as a backdrop to a project of self-renovation in which transplantation to another country is incidental, hence the question ‘What’s France got to do with it?’
(Melbourne) Mon 4 Nov 2019 7pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents An intercultural dialogue: when linguistics is involved in the current French-Australian submarine project. Emmanuelle Crane. This talk will question the role of language in enhancing dialogue and focus on eliminating misunderstandings that can occur in our sensitive defence industry. English is often the accepted working language in our global working environment, but how can the French adapt when the project is due to last for perhaps another 50 years? Overcoming language barriers and facing resistances that are not always easily recognisable to Australians is a real issue. The French who have worked internationally are puzzled to find that their previous experience with other native English speakers: Brits, Canadians or Americans, leaves them unprepared when interacting with Aussies.
(Melbourne) Thu 8 Aug 2019 7pm – 9 pm. The Melbourne Salon presents Book launch of Castaway. Robert Macklin. The astonishing story of Narcisse Pelletier, a French cabin boy abandoned on the Far North Queensland coast and saved by the local Uutaalnganu (Night Island people) with whom he lived for almost two decades. Robert Macklin re-creates Narcisse’s experiences in vivid detail drawing on the work of the great Australian anthropologist Donald Thomson, who lived with the Kuuku Y’au and the Umpila people in Sandbeach country, together with interviews Narcisse gave on his return to France and research through the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).
(Melbourne) Thu 2 May 2019 at 7pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents “French Cinema: The New Wave and its Legacy“. Dr Andrew McGregor. In this Melbourne Salon we will explore the careers of key filmmakers of the French New Wave such as François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Alain Resnais, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer and Agnès Varda and examine their lasting legacy in the context of contemporary French and international cinema.
(Melbourne) Thu 8 Nov 2018 5:30pm – 7:30pm, State Library of Victoria. The Melbourne Salon presents The Referendum in New Caledonia: what is at stake?. On 4th November 2018 New Caledonia will hold a referendum on the future of this French overseas territory to decide whether it will remain with France or become independent. Two experts will explore the background to this crucial vote: the evolving role of France in the Pacific; the issues surrounding the lead up to the vote, such as the constitution of the electorate; and what the outcome of the vote means for New Caledonia, France and Australia.
(Melbourne) Thu 2 Aug 2018 7pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents French convicts and the case for freedom in Australia. Alexis Bergantz. Escape was on every mind. How many succeeded remains a tantalising question. For the thousands of convicts France sent to New Caledonia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the best way to stay at large, but also the most dangerous, was to reach Australia. The ones who survived the hazardous journey were quick to disappear, doing what they needed to go on: some became prostitutes, kitchen porters, or reinvented themselves as heirs to French nobility.
(Melbourne) Thu 10 May 2018 7pm – 9pm. The Melbourne Salon presents Were it but for a lemon. The influence of scurvy on French exploration, conquest and colonisation in the 19th century was dramatic. While the two nations, France and England, rivalled each other in scientific discoveries and competed for new territories, the state of health of the crews of their sailing ships could not have been more different. When the le Géographe, captained by Nicolas Baudin, and the Investigator, captained by Mathew Flinders, met by chance while exploring and mapping the south coast of Les Terres australes (South Australia), the crew of the British ship was hale and hearty but that of the French was pitiful – exhausted by scurvy. Why so different? Dr James (Jim) Tibballs is an intensive care physician who has recently completed doctoral studies in French.
The Melbourne Salon 2022-
The Melbourne Salon archive 2018-2021
The Melbourne Salon archive 2014-2017
The Melbourne Salon archive 2010-2013