Greeks and the politics of Australian cosmopolitanism

Location: Mezzanine Level, The Greek Centre, 168 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne 
Date: WEDNESDAY 17/10/2018 @ 6:30pm
Presenter: Professor Andrew Jakubowicz

Language of Presentation: English | R.M.L.G.*: 0 - No knowledge of Greek required.
Entry: FREE

Bookings: Bookings are requested for catering purposes. Please RSVP by Tuesday 16 October to: rupc-info@unimelb.edu.au

Synopsis

The Research Unit in Public Cultures (RUPC) and the Centre of Visual Art (CoVA) are pleased to invite you to a public lecture by Andrew Jakubowicz, Professor of Sociology at the University of Technology Sydney. 'The main argument of the Greek Community Cultural Centre review report refers to the imperative to move from multiculturalism to cosmopolitanism in public policy.
This lecture reflects on a hundred years or so of Greek political engagement with Australian cultural diversity, from the Greek immigrant experience of Anglor-Australian terrorism in the 1920s, through the creation of multiculturalism, to the contemporary era of possibly too much diversity. It looks at the struggle a decade into multiculturalism over its survival in the face of an attack from cosmopolitanists.
On the way the key role of three Greek practical intellectuals are explored and their longer term impact assessed. It ends with the contemporary challenge of whether it's OK to be White, and if so whether Greeks are White (not always so). Is the Report right to propose we now need to move on from implicit ghettoization of the multicultural era, and if so, in what directions?'
This lecture will accompany the launch of two reports from the Research Unit in Public Cultures: 'Multiculturalism and Governance: Evaluating Arts Policies and Engaging Cultural Citizenship' (2018) and 'From Ethnic Enclave to Cosmopolitan Cultures: Evaluating the Greek Centre for Contemporary Culture in the City of Melbourne' (2018).

Bio