This event is presented in association with the Hopes and Fears: Australian Migration Stories exhibition.

Bookings are essential.

Program

• 9:30 am - Welcome/ Acknowledgement of Country
• 9:40 am - Keynote address: Alice Pung
• 10:20 am - Morning Tea (included)
• 11:40 am - Library Panel with panellists from the National Library's Family History and Collections teams
• 1:10 pm - Lunch Break (lunch not included)
• 2:15 pm - Fellows Presentations from Salvatore Rossano, Dr Mei-fen Kuo and Dr Vannessa Hearman
• 3:15 pm - Afternoon Tea (included)
• 3:45 pm - Curatorial Panel with panellists from the National Library's Exhibitions and Collection Care teams
• 5:15 pm - Finish

About the guest speakers

Alice Pung

Alice is an award-winning author, the writer-in-residence at Janet Clarke Hall, the University of Melbourne, and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. She is the bestselling author of the memoirs Unpolished Gem and Her Father's Daughter, the novels Laurinda and One Hundred Days, the essay collection Close to Home, as well as the editor of the anthologies Growing Up Asian in Australia and My First Lesson. Her books have been published internationally, including in the US, UK, Italy, Germany and Indonesia.

Her Father's Daughter won the Western Australia Premiers' Award. Laurinda won the Ethel Turner Prize at the 2016 NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Her second novel One Hundred Days, was shortlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Award, and has been optioned by Michelle Law for development as a film. She is also the author of children's books including Be Careful, Xiao Xin!, When Grandma Came to Stay and the Meet Marly books.

Alice has taught and mentored students in Australia and around the world, and given guest lectures at Brown University, Vassar College, the University of Milan and Peking University. She delivered the 2022 State of the Writing Nation Address, and in the same year was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her services to literature. A qualified lawyer, Alice still works part-time in the area of minimum wages and pay equity.

Dr Mei-fen Kuo

Dr Mei-fen Kuo is a lecturer in Contemporary Chinese Culture and History at Macquarie University. Over the past decade, she has dedicated her research efforts to the field of Chinese diaspora history in Australia. She is author of the Making Chinese Australia: Urban Elites, Newspapers & Chinese-Australian Identity During Federation and Unlocking the History of the Australasian Kuo Min Tang. Her research has been supported by Australian Research Council, The Australian Academy of the Humanities, The National Library of Australia, Taiwan Fellowship and Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.

Dr Vannessa Hearman

Dr Vannessa Hearman is Senior Lecturer in History at Curtin University. She coordinates the History program and lectures in History and International Relations. She is a historian of Southeast Asia, in particular Indonesia and Timor-Leste (East Timor). Her research is concerned with the effects of the Cold War in Asia, Australia's engagements with Asia and the Pacific, and struggles for historical justice and human rights. Her award-winning monograph, Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia is a study of the mass violence against the Left in Indonesia in 1965-68. Her research is also published in top ranked journals in History and Asian Studies and in edited collections on history, nationalism, mass violence and human rights.

She has 2 active research projects funded by the Australian Research Council on the history and remembrance of East Timorese migration to Australia (sole Chief Investigator) and post-conflict artistic production in Timor-Leste (co-Chief Investigator). Over the course of her career, Dr Hearman has also worked in the aid and development sector, cross-cultural training, electoral administration, and higher education policy advice.

Salvatore Rossano

Salvatore Rossano is a musician, an ethnomusicologist and a composer. His career has thus far united his passion for musical research and performance. Salvatore has been an ambassador for Italian folk music since his migration to Australia in 2013, when he formed the group 'Santa Taranta'. The concepts of travel, movement and migration have been present in his artistic and academic work throughout his career. He has travelled, played and conducted field research in Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Australia, meeting amazing people and musicians along the way.

He holds a Masters Degree in Hispanic Music and a PhD in Ethnomusicology and is currently an Adjunct Research Fellow at Monash University. Since his arrival in Australia he has been part of music research projects with the Melbourne University and Monash University and he has also conducted independent research among the Italian community in Melbourne. In 2015 he was granted an IIS Institute Fellowship to research the folk music revival in Southern Italy and to develop his skills as a musician. From 2017 he has been collaborating with the National Library, collecting oral history and music of migrants from many parts of the world and documenting the new and old diaspora in Australia.