One of Australia’s foremost historians Professor Ian McCalman AO will present the 2014 Communication4Conservation public lecture at Griffith University’s South Bank campus on Friday, November 28.
In ‘Saving the Great Barrier Reef’, Professor McCalman, who won this year’s Council for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Australia Prize for his book The Reef: A Passionate History, will discuss the human history of the Great Barrier Reef. The book is the first social, cultural and environmental history of the Great Barrier Reef, receiving both national and international acclaim.
In particular, he will discuss recent community action in Mission Beach that has drawn on his historical accounts of the reef, to better communicate the science and politics of reef conservation.
Amongst the increasingly predictable debates surrounding the Great Barrier Reef, Professor McCalman’s work is refreshing, telling stories that place the powers of conservation in the hands of local people and communities.
Professor McCalman is a Research Professor at the University of Sydney and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
He has been a historical consultant and narrator for a number of BBC, ABC and other TV and film documentaries.
The Communication4Conservation is an annual lecture that showcases Humanities and Social Science contributions to environmental issues.
