Agnes Bosanquet

Abstract: In 'What is Enlightenment?' Foucault poses the question: 'How can the growth of capabilities be disconnected from the intensification of power relations?' This article revisits that question by raising critical questions about graduate capabilities. Its aim is to reflect, and to prompt reflection, on the complexities of the definition, implementation and evaluation of capabilities-based curriculum in the discipline of cultural studies and in the higher education sector more broadly. It asks what types of graduates are being �produced' by universities and for what purposes? Does cultural studies construct the student subject differently from institutional graduate capability frameworks? What is the role, if any, of higher education in the development of capabilities such as ethical practice or moral standards? What of the principles that are demonstrated in institutional graduate capabilities (sustainability etc)? Are these universal values? What relations of power and processes of normalisation underpin the �education revolution� of capabilities-based curriculum?

Abstract: This paper outlines the findings of a study that examined the conceptions of academics regarding the nature of �leading� and �managing� learning and teaching in six Australian universities. These data were considered in the light of institutional systems and documentation regarding the leadership and management of learning and teaching and the contemporary literature on leadership and management, particularly in higher education. The research found that there was congruence between academic conceptions of the roles of leaders and managers in HE and those found in other contexts. In contrast, there was considerable variance and significant gaps between these conceptions and HR and professional development practices. The paper reports findings that have significant implications for more systematic and explicit professional development for University leaders and managers of teaching and learning. In addition, it argues that changes are required to the prevailing approaches in the current HR systems and policies in order to effectively develop, support and recognize effective leadership and management practices as they relate to learning and teaching.

Abstract: In Sexes and Genealogies, Luce Irigaray refers to becoming divine as �entering further into womanhood�, and goes on to say that �the becoming of woman is never over and done with. A woman�s subjectivity must accommodate the dimensions of mother and lover as well as the union between the two� (1993c, pp 60-63). In �Body Against Body: In Relation to the Mother�, Irigaray describes the mother/daughter relationship as �an extremely explosive core in our societies. To think it, to change it, leads to shaking up the patriarchal order� (1993c, p 86). Accepting the invitation to think and change the mother/daughter relationship, this paper unravels a series of associations Irigaray makes between angels, the placental relation, carnality and divinity. Testing the weight and resonance of Irigaray�s philosophy through my own experiences, I challenge her construction of the mother/daughter relationship, arguing that she privileges the becoming of the daughter and neglects the fluid subjectivity of the mother.

Abstract: In An Ethics of Sexual Difference, Luce Irigaray suggests that �sexual difference � could be our �salvation� if we thought it through.� Thinking through the issue of sexual difference, she continues, would signal the beginning of a newly fertile and creative era, �the production of a new age of thought, art, poetry, and language: the creation of a new poetics� (1993a: 5). Irigaray�s insistence on sexual difference has been justifiably problematic for many of her readers, particularly in relation to arguments for the cultural and historical performativity of gender and sexuality. Irigaray explicitly states, however, that she is �not advocating a return to a more repressive, moralising conception of sexuality. On the contrary, what we need is to work out an art of the sexual, a sexed culture� (1993: 3) This paper asks: is it possible to accept Irigaray�s call for a differently sexed culture without imposing a proper, real or natural gender or sexual identity? Might it be possible to speculate differently about sexual difference, utilising the ingredients that lie within Irigaray�s work? In answer, I propose carnal difference as a means for moving beyond sexual difference. Carnal difference formulates difference in erotic terms by emphasising the irreducibility of bodies, , poeticsand the inability of one to entirely consume or incorporate the other in a carnal encounter or exchange. This paper not only explicates a theoretical model for carnal difference; it also attempts to put into practice a poetics of carnal difference. This is an exploratory, experimental and speculative philosophy that requires a poetic logic, not an analytical one, and so privileges a mode of writing that is subjective and playful. The intention is to demonstrate that the philosophical inconsistencies and ambiguities of carnal difference might be meaningful and productive.

Abstract: The term curriculum is familiar in school education, but more ambiguous in its usage in a higher education context. Although it is frequently used in academic staff discussions, policy and planning documents, and to describe advisory bodies, its usage is inconsistent and multifarious. This article reports a phenomenographic study of the ways in which academics conceive of the curriculum in higher education. It examines the variation in perceptions of curriculum, which is critiqued through the work of school curriculum theorists, who utilise Habermas's theory of knowledge-constitutive interests. The intention of this article is to explore the epistemologies and assumptions that underpin these conceptions, in order to promote an inclusive and shared vocabulary as a basis for curriculum development.

Abstract: In The Way of Love, Luce Irigaray suggests that we (Westerners), trained in rigid and coded meanings and senses, forget the requirement of the carnal in our communications. We let pass the opportunity to be �surprised, touched, wonderstruck, called beyond � what we already [are]� (2002, viii). By writing a philosophy that seeks to transform ethical and sexuate relations, Irigaray privileges a mode of becoming that is both creative and unpredictable. Becoming divine is not a staged and regulated process, offering a fixed and knowable ideal; rather, it is a revelation. A dialectic of divinity is therefore an impossibility; instead, a meditation on becoming opens up the possibilities for an amorous exchange with Luce Irigaray�s writings. Irigaray first uses the term �amorous exchange� in �The Bodily Encounter with the Mother�, when she seeks a corporeal way of communicating (1991b, 44). An amorous exchange is an invitation to, and a dialogue with, a desiring other in multiple texts and voices. It is also the performance of an intersubjective model of being (at least) two in language and philosophy. Reading and writing in this sense becomes an affective and intimate process of exchange or touch between authors, readers and texts. With this in mind, this work is written in multiple voices. One, a critical and theoretical voice, establishes the contexts within which writers have read and responded to Irigaray�s philosophy of becoming divine, and frames my ideas in relation to these. Another voice presents moments of becoming � or points of saturation � from my own life to demonstrate the pleasures and possibilities of Irigaray�s texts. In this way, I am following Irigaray�s call in the introductory section �Becoming Divine as Two� in Key Writings, to discover and cultivate a language of my own, and to locate this in my body. The words of another are not sufficient for my becoming (2004, 145-6). Entering an amorous or �touchful� exchange with Irigaray�s writing � and the multiple voices which speak in and around it � is a process of �becoming� which forms the basis of a sensible and carnal transcendental, or an inscription of divinity on the flesh (1993b, 147).

Abstract: This paper explores the transformative possibilities of everyday life experiences through Luce Irigaray's call to become divine women (and men). The paradoxical construction of the sensible transcendental is Irigaray's attempt to imagine a divinity that would be an "inscription in the flesh" (An Ethics of Sexual Difference 147). The paper considers an alternative language for such an understanding, including Romain Rolland's oceanic feeling and Catherine Clement's syncope, both of which locate a sense of a beyond in everyday experience. In contrast to previous readings of Irigaray's divine, which have focussed on the subjectivity offered by the sensible transcendental, I argue that the divine is primarily a passage of becoming and transformation that can be understood as operating intersubjectively. How might we experience such a becoming? The paper offers the examples of free diving, reading and writing to demonstrate an embodied divinity.

Abstract: Statements of graduate attributes have gained prominence in universities nationally and internationally in recent years (Barrie, 2006; Bowden, Hart, King, Trigwell, & Watts, 2002; Jones, 2009). Increasingly, such statements include global citizenship as an �attitude or stance towards the world� that students develop during their studies (Barrie, 2004). This paper draws on a comparative analysis of Australian university graduate attributes statements from the last fifteen years (Bosanquet, Winchester-Seeto & Rowe, 2010) to examine the meanings of global citizenship in a higher education context. In describing global citizenship, institutions frequently refer to a plethora of related concepts including intercultural awareness, cross-cultural competency, inclusivity, diversity, globalisation, sustainability, leadership, multiculturalism, internationalisation and community engagement. A review of the literature around graduate attributes demonstrates four broad conceptions of their purpose: employability; lifelong learning; preparing for an uncertain future; and acting for the social good (Barnett, 2004; Barrie & Prosser, 2004; Bridgstock, 2009; Pitman and Broomhall, 2009). The latter two are closely aligned with the attribute of global citizenship, with an emphasis on transforming the student, the curriculum and the future (Bowden & Marton, 1998) and acting to benefit the broader community (Bowden et al, 2002). This paper examines three challenges in embedding global citizenship � however it might be defined � as a graduate attribute. First, the values and assumptions concerning the purpose and nature of higher education evident in graduate attribute statements (Barrie & Prosser, 2004) and institutional definitions of global citizenship. Second, the difficulties of impacting on teaching practice (Harvey & Kamvounias, 2008; Hughes & Barrie, 2009) in a context of rapid curriculum development. Third, the impact on students. In Australia, this is a particular challenge in light of the Bradley Review of Higher Education, which has prompted a major change in student cohort, with a 20% increase in students from lower socio-economic populations (Bradley, Noonan, Nugent, Sacles 2008).

Abstract: The research discussed in this paper presents the preliminary findings of a comparative analysis of graduate attributes statements across Australian universities. Specifically, it addresses the change over fifteen years through a thematic and word frequency analysis of institutional definitions of and justifications for graduate attributes. An analysis of the scholarship around graduate attributes demonstrates four broad conceptions of their purpose: employability; lifelong learning; preparing for an uncertain future; and acting for the social good. Our findings reveal the emergence of a further three conceptions in the last five years: adapting to change, promoting change and community leadership. This is aligned with a shift in emphasis towards community and participation. This research demonstrates a number of assumptions embedded in attribute statements concerning the primacy of the individual, the future of work and life, and the privileging of particular moral and ideological perspectives or values.

Abstract: Increasingly, universities are addressing environmental sustainability issues by modelling ecologically sound practices and supporting the integration of sustainability into the curriculum. It is not yet common, however, to examine human resource practices from a sustainable perspective. With greater than ever scrutiny of learning and teaching activities by internal and external stakeholders, ensuring the quality of learning and teaching means addressing issues of sustainable leadership. This paper, based on a study of academic leadership in relation to learning and teaching, argues that the current development and preparation of academic leaders of learning and teaching do not represent sustainable, or even good, practice. This paper examines the importance of sustainable leadership practices within universities and, in particular, proposes that there are potential benefits if institutions are more actively engaged in sustainable leadership practices around learning and teaching. Sustainable leadership practice includes recognising the need to plan for succession, and providing adequate developmental opportunities for those who are likely to become leaders of learning and teaching. This approach requires explicit articulation of the expectations held of leaders of learning and teaching, and making adequate provision for recognition and rewarding of those who take on such positions and meet the expectations. Without these steps it is difficult for institutions to assure the quality of learning and teaching into the future.

Abstract: This paper describes the way in which Macquarie University is implementing graduate capabilities in the curriculum. It asks: What potential is there for graduate capabilities defined at an institutional level to improve student experience? In embedding graduate capabilities in the curriculum, is it possible to move beyond rhetoric and enact positive changes for learning and teaching? Without academic and student engagement, any changes are likely to have a limited impact. There are three key challenges involved: interpreting the guiding principles and graduate capabilities in terms that are meaningful and relevant to different disciplines; embedding graduate capabilities in the curriculum at unit and program level through constructive alignment; and demonstrating that units and programs provide students with opportunities to develop the desired capabilities. Three case studies � from Chiropractic, Health Studies and Accounting � are presented to demonstrate the importance of a discipline or program specific approach in the implementation phase to ensure that students notice the difference.

Abstract: Carnal transcendence imagines a world in which the carnal has the weight and value of transcendence, and the divine is as liveable and readily evoked as the carnal. Carnal transcendence offers a means of thinking through difference in the work of Luce Irigaray, who asks: "why and how long ago did God withdraw from carnal love?" (1991a, p 16). This thesis argues that Irigaray enables her readers to explore the relationship between carnality, transcendence and difference, but resists elaborating it in her work. Carnal transcendence as difference risks remaining an exercise in rhetoric, rather than the transformative and creative philosophy that Irigaray imagines. -- Irigaray's resistance to the carnal is evident in her arguments for sexual difference, which offers our "salvation" if we think it through, and heralds "a new age of thought, art, poetry, and language: the creation of a new poetics" (1993a, p 5). Note the language of transcendence used here. When considered in the light of carnal transcendence, sexual difference imagines a differently sexed culture. This thesis argues that Irigaray's writing is contradictory on this point: it articulates the plurality of women's sexuality, but emphatically excludes theories of sex and gender that emphasise multiplicity. This thesis challenges these limitations by exploring the possibilities of the "other" couple in Irigaray's writing-mother and daughter - for thinking through carnal transcendence as difference. -- This thesis not only explicates a theoretical model for carnal transcendence as difference; it also attempts to put into practice a poetics - a playful rewriting of theory. This celebrates the carnality of Irigaray's writing - evident in her complex imagery of the two lips, mucus, the placenta and angels-and enables an exploration of the philosophical space of the "new poetics" that Irigaray is attempting to engender.