Record numbers at Research Seminars despite COVID-19!

The Research Portfolio at the School of Law & Justice (SLJ) has met the challenges of the COVID-19 lockdown –shifting as seamlessly as possible to the online, socially distant, yet enduringly connective world we now inhabit as the new normal!

Our Research Seminar Series, now in its 4th year, has rolled ahead with great speakers, engaging topics, and record numbers of Zoom attendees. Dr Rohan Price’s preview of his forthcoming two books, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Colonialism: Occupying South East Asia (Routledge), and Nietzsche and Colonial Nostalgia (Peter Lang, New York) kicked off the Series. Rohan weaved an innovative narrative of early 20th century German thinkers, post-colonial politics, and the fate of British statues in the streets of Kuala Lumpur. This excursus into critical theory and legal history demonstrated — by its large audience — the hunger in the wider university community for critical scholarship, and the importance of maintaining our scholarly endeavours in these disruptive times.

This seminar was followed by a presentation in May from Practice Professor Lee Aitken, whose forensic examination of Australian constitutional law and administrative writs proved the perfect foil to the Series’ often-erstwhile focus on the socio-legal, cultural, or theoretical. Again, a large attendance of colleagues, students, and interested others highlighted the growing momentum of the Series. Lee has enjoyed a successful career in practice and academia, including as a barrister appearing before the High Court in landmark cases. As the inaugural speaker from the School’s Practice Professor Program, this seminar showcased the strong links between the profession and the academy, and the significance of clinical legal research to the SLJ.

Other speakers have included the SLJ’s Associate Professor Nicole Rogers (Climate Activism and the Extraordinary Emergency Defence), Practice Professors Mark Carkeet (Renewable Energy Policy, from Minter Ellison Lawyers, Brisbane) and Patrick Mullins (Canon Law, from Mullins Lawyers, Brisbane), and New York Police Detective and former NYPD hostage negotiator, Dr Jeff Thompson, who spoke on ‘Building Real Resilience in the Time of the Pandemic.’

Meanwhile, the SLJ’s researchers continue to think, write and publish. Dr Rohan Price’s new book proposals, together with published journal articles in 2020 from Associate Professor Nicole Rogers (‘Climate Activism and the Extraordinary Emergency Defence’, Australian Law Journal), Dr Alessandro Pelizzon (‘Yarning as Protected Space’, AlterNative; ‘An Intergenerational Ecological Jurisprudence; The Supreme Court of Colombia and the Rights of the Amazon Rainforest’, Law, Technology & Humans, and ‘The Harmony with Nature Paradigm in Brazil’, Argumentum), and Dr Evgeny Guglyuvatyy (‘Negative Impact of Land Clearing and Deforestation on the Great Barrier Reef’, Carbon & Climate Law Rev.), amongst others, exemplify the vibrancy of the SLJ’s research.

Meanwhile, the School’s researchers meet virtually in fortnightly debriefs — to discuss new projects and forge collective responses to research policy. Our grants-writing syndicate likewise meets regularly online to finesse new grant proposals, and PhD supervisors are full steam ahead meeting with their doctoral students online as their theses continue to reach key milestones.

Last, but far from least, the SLJ is excited to announce that the School’s re-badged journal,

Legalities; The Journal of the Law & Society Association of Australia and New Zealand will be published by Edinburgh University Press. Led by Senior Editorial Consultant, Professor William MacNeil, and Managing Editors, Professor John Page (SCU), Dr Trish Luker (LSAANZ President/ UTS) and Associate Professor Carwyn Jones (VUW), the journal’s first edition is planned to be launched in April 2021. This development runs in parallel with the first SLJ edition of Polemos: A Journal of Law, Literature and Culture (de Gruyter, Berlin), which is likewise well advanced for release in early 2021. Polemos’ Managing Co-Editor is Professor MacNeil, who is joined by the SLJ’s Mr. Jonathan Harlen. Together these journals anchor the SLJ as the destination of socio-legal and law, humanities and culture scholarship in Australasia.

In challenging times, the SLJ recognises the challenges of maintaining the idea and the practice of research as the School strives to meet its mission as a leading centre for critical, contextual, cultural and clinical legal scholarship.

Kind regards,

Law