University of Tasmania, Australia

UTAS Research Week 2012 featured the public session A Pocket Guide to Research in the Faculty of Arts, Launceston.

This talk, entitled Reading Reconciliation: Book Groups and ‘The Secret River’, summarises Dr Robert Clarke’s research on a recent publishing phenomenon, the fictions of reconciliation, which include books by indigenous and non-indigenous authors who address the colonial and frontier moment. Kate Grenville’s The Secret River is one of the most popular and controversial of these books. Dr Clarke’s research is keyed into an emerging movement that looks into how ordinary readers respond to these contentious texts.

In the 2012 A Pocket Guide to Research in the Faculty of Arts eight academics in the Faculty of Arts gave five-minute presentations on their own research areas:

• Dr James Chase, Newnham Campus;
• Dr Robert Clark, Newnham Campus;
• Nick Clements, Newnham Campus;
• Dr Fred Gale, Newnham Campus;
• Prof Emeritus Barbara Hatley and Dr Taufiq Tanasaldy, Newnham Campus;
• Mr Robert Lewis, Inveresk Campus;
• Dr Anthony Page, Newnham Campus;
• Dr Sonya Stanford, Newnham Campus.

The Launceston presentation A Pocket Guide to Research in the Faculty of Arts was held on the Newnham campus on 22 June 2012.