Jo-Anne Duggan (1962-2011) was a great artist and a great friend of the Australasian Centre for Italian Studies (ACIS). Her artistic practice left what is arguably the richest and most compelling recent collection of photographs by an Australian artist to engage with Italian culture, history and art. Her work demonstrates not only artistic rigour and depth but also remarkable breadth, spanning from public spaces/places of Italian diaspora in Australia to enquiries into the re-contextualisation and museification of Renaissance art, from Australian archives of Italian migration to complex case studies on the legacy of the Gonzagas. In her research-led and interdisciplinary endeavour, Jo-Anne asked crucial questions and opened up original paths with regard to the construction of space/place, our relationship with the past and its reception, and the role of photographic art in mobilising and questioning the viewer’s gaze, starting from what she called her ‘postcolonial eye’.
To honour her memory, ACIS, with the generous support of Kevin Bayley, The Colour Factory and the editorial committee of Portal: Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, established a biennial Jo-Anne Duggan Essay Prize which was awarded for the first time in 2015. The aim of the Prize is to foster and expand Jo-Anne’s rich creative, artistic and scholarly legacy in order to maintain enquiry into the nexus between creative practice and research, especially among younger/emerging scholars. The Prize is designed to keep Jo-Anne’s questions alive in order to continue to learn from her own answers.
THE PRIZE
Up to three awards may be made:
• $1,000 for the best entry (essay or creative work with accompanying exegesis); it will also be mentored for submission in a top quartile journal for publication;
• $250 each for two highly-commended entries (essay or creative work with accompanying exegesis
All three award-winners will be invited to present their submissions at the ACIS biennial conference at the Monash Prato Centre (Italy), 4-7 July 2017, for which their full conference registration will be paid.
One award will be reserved for an entry of sufficient merit by a student.
CATEGORIES
The assessment criteria will be weighted appropriately for each of the two categories:
1. Essay category
Originality; argument; conceptual framework (cultural and/or historical context); approach/methodology; engagement with any aspect of Duggan’s research or creative output; knowledge of scholarship in field; critical analysis; focus; written expression/style; structure; referencing.
2. Creative work with accompanying exegesis category:
Creative work: originality; competence in the specialized medium and its artistic/industry standards;
Exegesis (a critical interpretation informing the creative work): purpose/process of the creative practice/product; conceptual framework (artistic, cultural and/or historical context); approach/methodology; engagement with any aspect of Duggan’s research or creative output; knowledge of scholarship in field; focus; written expression/style; structure; referencing.
GUIDELINES
The details of the GUIDELINES for eligibility and submissions for the 2017 Prize are available:
https://acis.org.au/guidelines-for-2017-jo-anne-duggan-prize/
ENQUIRIES
Dr Catherine Dewhirst: catherine.dewhirst@usq.edu.au
Dr Malcolm Angelucci: malcolm.angelucci@unimelb.edu.au