European Studies Postgraduate Conference

Abstract

The papers included here were presented at a very lively European Studies Postgraduate Conference that was held at The University of Sydney on Friday 17 June 2005. The conference offered a wide brief that drew more than thirty papers on an enormous range of topics in European studies. The presenters were predominantly from New South Wales but with contributions from students in other states and several from abroad. As is very often the case, because post graduates are working at the forefront of their fields, the quality of the papers presented on the day was high. The innovative conception and the sheer stylishness of approach by many of these young scholars made for energetic and engaging sessions. Sarah Morgan, Will Noonan, Elizabeth Roberts and Francesco Ricatti, in the final stages of their doctoral degrees at The University of Sydney, are representative of the diversity and calibre of students who are undertaking post graduate research degrees in Australia. The range of their topics and the variety of the approaches employed is also very typical of new research in the Humanities. Sarah Morgan’s undergraduate degree at the University of Colorado was followed by a Masters in Italian at Berkely. Her doctoral thesis is a study on gender and sport in Italian fascism. Will Noonan completed an honours degree in French before beginning a Ph D in English that examines ‘inappropriate humour’ in a series of historical and linguistic contexts. Will is also the editor of the online journal Philament. Elizabeth Roberts’s honours degree was in American history and her doctoral thesis in European history is a cultural study of the phenomenon of British soldiers of conscience as volunteers in European wars. Francesco Ricatti, whose undergraduate degree was at the University of Rome, is completing a doctoral thesis in Italian Studies which is based on letters from Italian migrants to the Sydney newspaper La Fiamma.