Murdoch University
The Krishna Somers Foundation has been established through the generous benefaction of Dr Krishna Somers, a Perth physician and cardiologist. The aim of the Foundation, which is located in the Division’s Centre for Social Change and Social Equity, is to foster research in the study of diasporas. It is envisaged that the Foundation will award short-term visiting fellowships to researchers who wish to pursue a program of research in diaspora studies as well as support general research in this area in other ways
The Foundation’s August lectures are given below. Please endeavour to come to these and enjoy the talks with top class wine.
Marcella Polain:
When: Wednesday August 13 4.30 PM
Where: Education and Humanities 3.041
Title: The Third Collision: The Armenian Genocide and After
Marcella Polain has published essays and articles on writing, as well as two volumes of poetry: Dumbstruck (1996), which won the Ann Elder Poetry Prize; and Each Clear Night (2000), which was shortlisted in the WA Premier's Poetry Award. She has taught creative writing at Murdoch
University and UWA over the last 8 years, and is a PhD candidate in the Creative Writing program at UWA.
As part of her research Marcella has completed a manuscript employing fiction, biography and oral history in order to both tell the story of her family's survival of the Armenian genocide and to explore what happens in subsequent generations of families who suffer massacre and dispersal.
Marcella will read from that manuscript, give an overview of the Armenian genocide and raise questions about contemporary Armenian identity. She is particularly interested in the role played in its formation by Turkey's continuing denial and the world's disinterest in/ignorance of the genocide.
