TOI TANGATA | ARTS UPDATE - University of Canterbury

TOI TANGATA | ARTS UPDATE

                                                                                                 12 October 2018

News

Canterbury School for Continental Philosophy

The Canterbury School for Continental Philosophy invites you to a seminar by Dr Rosie Overell, Lecturer, Otago
University, Media, Film and Communications Dept.

Considering #MeToo from a Lacanian perspective

Monday 15th October 12:30-1:30, Music, Room 206 - everyone is welcome!

#MeToo irrupted onscreens in October 2017. This moment generated what many have regarded as an ‘exciting’
debate in popular media about sexual harassment and violence against women by men. Such apparent excitement
hinges on an assumption that #MeToo has galvanised women in a global feminist movement with the power to
generate juridical and socio-cultural effects through the act of ‘calling out’ men who perpetrated these acts. This
paper, unpacks how we might understand such excitement in terms of Lacanian jouissance and the semblant. This is
part of a broader project which tackles #MeToo in terms of a different, but not unrelated, affect to excitement: that
of anguish. I consider how articulations of, and dialogues around, #MeToo demand a partial, not-whole,
understanding of a divided subjectivity which challenges masculine power through women’s articulation, and
discussion around #MeToo. I suggest that this operates to bring women together through a shared articulation and
reckoning with the not-wholeness of the Woman subject.

In the first section of this paper, I will briefly introduce how #MeToo worked as a ‘media moment’ which was
regularly presented as exciting due to its apparent inspiring of a popular feminist movement united against what was
offered as ubiquitous violence of men towards women. I will look at this excitement from another angle and
consider it in terms of jouissance and the semblant.

If time permits, I will move to a discussion of how the subject implied in the #Me of ‘#MeToo’ is not only an excited
subject, but also one of anguish. I will use Lacan’s work on affect to elaborate this point. I suggest that if we take
Lacan’s proclamation that anguish is an ‘exceptional affect’ because of its ability to indicate the ‘truth’ of the
impossibility of the sexual relation we can see the anguished affects of #MeToo as demonstrative of two things.
Firstly, that the position of ‘not-whole’ for the Lacanian Woman is not necessarily an index of disempowerment and
points to my second claim: that the anguish expressed through discussions of #MeToo also demonstrates the divided
and fallible subjectivity of male perpetrators of sexual violence for women can only ever be a symptom.

UC Arts at the Arts Centre

Music
For our penultimate New Music Central of 2018 we featured staff, students and guests for an interesting programme
of contemporary American art song and cabaret.

Our final New Music Central for the year will be Stravinsky’s ‘A Soldier’s Tale’, a performance by SoM honours
student, Daniel Cooper. Come along on Monday night at 7pm to see one of our talented students in action.

Come and enjoy our Friday lunchtime concert today, featuring contemporary vocalists with band.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI, UC Consortia Chamber Choir presents ...In tempore
belli… In Memoriam, music by Haydn, Oswin, Hamilton, Hnat & Whitacre. The concert will feature the UC Consortia
Chamber Choir with Mark Menzies, Sue Densem, Daniel Cooper and Angus Simmons, supported by musicians from
the University of Canterbury & wider community.

When: Saturday 13 October, 7.30 – 9.30pm
Where: St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, 373 Manchester Street
Tickets: Entry by koha. Suggested koha $10 pp.

Teece Musem
Next Tuesday, as part of BECA Heritage Week 2018, Dr. Gary Morrison of the Department of Classics will be
presenting a talk on ‘Homeric Echoes in a WWI Diary’. He will apply a “Homeric Lens” to the WWI Diary of Hugh
Stewart, identifying and discussing classical allusions that Stewart made while serving on the Gallipoli Peninsula and
the Western Front. It will become clear that the ancient world is a part of the WWI narrative and has therefore

shaped what and how we remember the war. This will be very apparent when we consider Stewart’s Diary, classical
allusions and one of Christchurch’s most significant monuments, the Bridge of Remembrance.

Come listen to this free short-format public talk, and enjoy a private viewing in the Teece Museum. The Museum will
open from 5.30pm and the talk will commence at 6pm.

When: Tuesday 16 October, 5.30-6.30pm
Where: UC Arts City Location, 3 Hereford Street
Tickets: Free, registration required.

As part of FESTA 2018, Adjunct Associate Professor Robin Bond & the Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities present
‘Roman Dining – A Guide to Status and Mores’. This free public talk will explore the ancient contexts for feasting and
the influence of food on the development of a society. Using as source material the works of the Roman satirists and
their recurrent topic of the 'cena / banquet' as a guide, Associate Professor Robin Bond will investigate social
distinctions and mores in Rome in the first century CE/AD.

Visitors will enjoy the opportunity to browse the Teece Museum’s newest exhibition ‘Beyond the Grave: Death in
ancient times’ from 5-6pm, before heading into the Recital Room for Professor Bond’s talk from 6–7pm.

When: Friday 19 October, 6.00-7.00pm
Where: UC Arts City Location, 3 Hereford Street
Tickets: Free, registration required.

Looking for something to do these school holidays? The Teece Museum is celebrating the 125th anniversary
of women's suffrage in New Zealand by letting some of our wee mates make some mischief in the museum for
three weeks.
Come along, pick up a free activity book, and learn about some of the women in our show 'Beyond the Grave' with
the help of our wee friends. Every activity book completed will get the chance to go in the draw for a museum prize
pack. See the Facebook page for details.

School of Humanities and Creative Arts

Philosophy
Our current Erskine visitor Prof. Stephen Stich (Rutgers) gave the third in his series of talks on Tuesday. Steve asked
the question “Can the Empirical Study of Moral Disagreement Resolve the Moral Realism Debate?” and answered
“No”. The talk had three parts

Part I:
Many leading moral realists are worried about an abductive argument often called the argument from
disagreement. The argument maintains that the best explanation for widespread and intractable moral
disagreement is that moral realism is false -- there is no moral truth to be found. But, though they take the challenge
seriously, these moral realists are not convinced by the argument from disagreement. They think that in just about
every case, there are alternative explanations of persistent disagreement. So anti-realism is not the best explanation.

In a series of papers published over the last 20 years, John Doris and I maintained that we could find lots of cases of
moral disagreement in the literature where none of the alternative explanations the moral realists proposed were
plausible. And if we could, then by the realists’ own admission, anti-realism would be the best explanation. But after
some initial success we realized that the moral realists’ list of alternative explanations was neither clear nor
complete. We stopped looking for examples of disagreement that not could be explained by alternative
explanations, because the project was ill-defined: We didn’t know what we were looking for. Without a specification

of the allowable alternative explanations, the project of seeking counterexamples to the realists’ claim that there are
(almost) always alternative explanations available is a fool’s errand.

Part II:
For a while, Doris and I considered constructing our own list of realist-compatible alternative explanations. But to do
this, we had to ask how a proposed alternative explanation could be justified. We could find no answer that did not
beg the question by assuming that we already know lots of moral truths. So that project too has been abandoned.

Part III:
We then became increasingly skeptical that the abductive argument that worried leading moral realists was worth
worrying about in the first place. We suspect that the proposed inference to the best explanation provides no
explanation at all. The bottom line is that moral realists have led us down the garden path. They should never have
been concerned that persistent moral disagreement is best explained by anti-realism. And we should never have
taken the bait and tried to find cases where their alternative explanations would not work.

English
This week Erin Harrington spoke with Jesse Mulligan on RNZ
Afternoons about the representation of death in popular culture.
The interview was a part of the promotion of the inaugural edition
Freerange Press’s new Radical Futures series, Death and Dying in
New Zealand, which is being launched on October 22 during the
Festival of Transitional Architecture. Erin has a chapter in the book
called The Casketeers: Prime-time Tangihanga, which looks at the
New Zealand observational documentary The Casketeers with
regards to the representation of death and funeral practices on
television, and the ways that we do (and don’t) show death and
the dead in pop cultural texts.

School of Fine Arts

School of Languages, Social and Political Sciences

Global, Cultural and Language Studies

UCSA Lecturer of the Year (Arts)
Congratulations to Masayoshi Ogino, winner of the 2018 UCSA Lecturer of the Year award for the College of Arts!
Masa adds this coveted trophy to the UC Teaching Award as well as the Certificate of Commendation from the
Japanese Ambassador he received earlier this year. Masa is an innovative, enthusiastic, and empathetic teacher who
enhances student experience through creating an inclusive learning community, involving third-year students
mentoring first-year ones. His consistently exceptional performance is truly inspiring. We wish Masa every success
for years to come.

GCLS was well-represented at this year’s Staff of the Year, with Sergio Redondo winning the inaugural “Shady
Award” (of the “Make Your Own Award” category): “Not only does Sergio make 300 level Spanish entertaining,
engaging and interesting, he makes it fun with his shady remarks, pedagogical sarcasm, use of apps, maracas and
squeaky toys.” Warm congratulations to Sergio and also to Antonio Viselli who was a runner-up for the 2018
Lecturer of the Year.

Spanish & Latino Week
As part of the Spanish & Latino Week in Christchurch (15th to 22nd October), Victoria Escaip from the Spanish
Programme will be taking the following workshops at UC next week:

•   SPANISH FOR TRAVELERS – Monday 15th October, 3-4:30 p.m., at the Undercroft 101 Seminar Room.
    If you’re planning to travel to Latin America or Spain, or just want to learn a range of useful expressions to
    communicate with native speakers of Spanish, this is the perfect workshop for you! You’ll leave this interactive

and fun workshop with a wonderful repertoire of Spanish words and expressions that will make you feel
    confident and allow you to have even more fun in your trip or when socializing with Latino friends J

•   DANCE TO LEARN SPANISH – Tuesday 16th October, 5-7 p.m., at the Undercroft 101 Seminar Room.
    Do you like the Spanish language, Hispanic culture and dancing? Then you cannot miss this great workshop
    where you will learn lots about Latin rhythms and some dance moves that we’ll put together to dance to a
    popular Latin song while you learn some useful Spanish words and expressions and have loads of fun!

Both events are free and everyone is invited! Please come along and let your students know!

Latin America & Spain Film Festival
The Latin America & Spain Film Festival is a cultural event dedicated to contemporary cinematographic productions
from Latin America and Spain. This year’s festival, coordinated by the UC Spanish Programme and AHA (Aotearoa
Hispanic Association) will be hosted at the University of Canterbury and at the Christchurch Art Gallery. This event is
free and everyone is invited! Please extend this invitation to your students ☺ This is the calendar for the films that
will be shown at UC, but you can find more information about all films in http://lasffnz.co.nz/ See you there!

Media and Communication

Former UC Journalism graduate Anna Fifield has won the 2018 Shorenstein Journalism Award. The award, given
annually by Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), is conferred upon a
journalist who has produced outstanding reporting on critical issues affecting Asia and who has contributed
significantly to greater understanding of the region. When announcing the award, Shorenstein APARC director
Gi-Wook Shin said Fifield was selected in recognition of her exceptional work over a long career reporting on the
Koreas, as well as on Japan and periodically other parts of Asia. Fifield is The Washington Post’s Beijing bureau chief
and will receive the award at a special ceremony at Stanford on November 14, 2018.

                                       COMS & UC Arts Digital Lab
                                     Digital Methods and Tools Seminar Series #9
                                                      Presents
                              Validity and Reliability of Communication Measures:
                                            A Multi-National Analysis

                                    WEDNESDAY, 17 OCTOBER, 1PM LOCKE 611A

Professor Stephen Croucher
Head, School of Communication, Journalism, and Marketing
Massey University

                                       The self-perceived communication competence (SPCC) measure, the
                                       willingness to communicate (WTC) scale, and the Personal Report of
                                       Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) have been used in over 250 peer-
                                       reviewed studies since 2000. McCroskey and colleagues developed the
                                       measures to be used within the U.S. college/university classroom. Despite
                                       their intended uses, the measure are frequently used outside of the U.S. and
                                       outside of the college/university setting without tests of measurement
                                       invariance. In fact, less than 10 studies have performed tests of internal
                                       consistency on the measures since 2000, many have found poor fit.
                                       Therefore, the purpose of this talk is to report findings that assess the utility of
                                       the measures outside of their intended population. The measures were given
                                       to survey respondents in 12 countries. In most cases, internal consistency and
                                       validity were not found. Implications for theory and method will be discussed.

                                                     Attendees should bring their laptops to all sessions
                                                 Digital Methods and Tools Series Seminars are always open
                                                         to absolutely everyone. Nau mai, haere mai!

Research Centre News
New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies (NZCHAS)

NZCHAS Director Annie Potts will be at the TourismNZ Business Awards in Auckland on Thursday 10th October, after
NZCHAS won a bid to host the Australasian Animal Studies Association conference in Christchurch 2019. The
successful bid was developed and proposed by Annie Potts, Claire Hector-Taylor (Convention Bureau Manager,
ChristchurchNZ) and Jean Hendry (Business Events Bid Executive, TourismNZ).

Abstracts for this conference, AASA2019 (theme Decolonizing Animals) are due at the end of October. The
conference will be held at The Piano from 1-4 July 2019. Already NZCHAS has received abstracts from Canada, the
USA, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Finland, France, South Africa, South Korea, Japan, Brazil and
Mexico, as well as Australia and Aotearoa. Keynote speakers to date include: phenomenologist Professor Alphonso
Lingis, author/Professor Witi Ihimaera, author/Professor Alexis Swan, interspecies psychologist Pattrice Kones,
postcolonial cultural theorist Helen Tiffin, kaimangatanga scholar Kirsty Dunn and artist/activist Angela Singer. We
are encouraging PG abstracts, and will have a dedicated PG stream, a pecha kucha night for local activists and animal
advocates, indigenous plant-based kai demonstrations, a poetry event and art exhibition curated by Barbara Garrie
and Rosie Ibbotson. All accompanied by the intersectional music of Prince and an array of awesome Aotearoa
musicians.

Please email abstracts by 31 October to annie.potts@canterbury.ac.nz

See https://aasa2019.org/
Or like Decolonizing Animals fb page.

Image: Kaitiaki, courtesy of FinDAC. Find this and other stunning Christchurch street art at watchthisspace.org.nz

NEWS AND EVENTS

http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/arts/arts-news/

     UC Arts gives updates on news and events from across the College of Arts, with over 30 academic programmes
     there are always interesting events happening, many of which are open to students and the public for free.
Follow us.