Dodson and McAuliffe dual appointment to Harvard chair

Professor Chris McAuliffe and Professor Mick Dodson have been awarded the dual chair of Australian studies at Harvard University for the 2011-12 academic year. Dodson, director of ANU’s National Centre for Indigenous Studies and 2009 Australian of the Year, will be appointed to the indigenous development program at the Kennedy School of Government. McAuliffe, director of the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne, will be appointed to the Department of Art and Architecture in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard. Dodson is a prominent advocate on land rights and issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, has worked for the rights and interests of indigenous people worldwide through various roles with the United Nations, and was Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. McAuliffe’s appointment is the first in Australian art history in over 20 years. He has written extensively on contemporary art and its relationship with sport, popular music, suburbia and Australia culture. During his appointment, he intends to develop closer links between academic programs and university collections, as well as establishing a dialogue between American and Australian art