The Australian Association for the Study of Religions

Keynote Speakers

Dr Anne Gardner

http://www.latrobe.edu.au/history/staff/gardner.html
Born and brought up in Newcastle on Tyne. Married with two sons

Education:

M.A. B.D.(hons), Ph.D. at Edinburgh University
Cert. Ed at Goldsmiths’ College, London

Work History:

Taught History and Religious Education in High Schools in Edinburgh for a few years.
Was appointed Lecturer in Religious Studies at La Trobe University in 1986.
Religious Studies was disbanded in 1994 and tenured members of staff were moved to
departments deemed most appropriate. I, along with two others, was sent to History where I have been ever since.

Teaching:

First Year: Ancient Civilisations (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Canaan, Israel,
Greece and Rome) - no longer running
unfortunately

Second/Third Year:

Ancient Israel (Israel to the exile)
Israel, Jews and the Nations (Israel from the Exile
to the compilation of the Talmudim)
Jesus Fact or Fiction (Historical Jesus)
Antiquity, Gender and Religion

Fourth Year:

Interpreting Ancient Texts (Methodologies)
Apocalyptic through the Ages

Postgraduates:

At present I have 6 working on a variety of topics

Publications:

Numerous articles on a wide variety of Biblical
and non-Biblical topics including Daniel and
Apocalyptic and Eco-theology

Current research:

Jerusalem, David and Solomon Daniel Issues in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Committees:

Charles Strong Trust
Fellowship of Biblical Studies AUQA committee of MCD

Dr Deane Fergie

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/deane.fergie

Deane Fergie is an anthropologist who has an abiding interest in cultural knowledge. Over thirty years of research she has sought to understand how, in a variety of cultural contexts, knowledge is shared, restricted, gained, applied and experienced in ways that can go ‘beyond words’. Deane began her research career concerned with the study of religious practices and beliefs in coastal and island Melanesia. In the late 1980s she began a series of studies of Australian society and culture researching the social history of the Birdsville Track District and then institutions of public pedagogy (such as Zoos, Museums, Public Libraries and Botanic Gardens).

More recently she has explored to her own community of practice by initiating a study of academic and scholarly cultures. Despite a right-royal-doing-over in the Hindmarsh Island Bridge Royal Commission (1995) and a civil trial that followed, Deane’s fundamental commitment to making research-knowledge count in the world has survived and flourished. In recent years she has led a small team of historians, anthropologists and social scientists which form LocuSAR, a Locus of Social Analysis and Research at the University of Adelaide, who have researched and provided expert reports on several native title cases in SA, Victoria and Queensland. Deane and the LocuSAR team are now looking forward to bringing insights, analyses and methodologies developed in their cultural heritage and native title research to bear in the challenges of ‘closing the gap’ and engaging Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike in the futures of complex Australian communities.