Welcome to Brisbane and the Fourth Biennial Conference of the Australasian Centre for Italian Studies. Sincere thanks to the conference organising committee, its chair Dr Claire Kennedy and Griffith University for putting together such a dynamic program. Fellow committee members Dr Gino Moliterno (ANU) and Professor Des O’Connor (Flinders) send their apologies as does our overseas representative, Professor David Moss (Università degli Studi di Milano).

Since our last conference in Treviso in 2005 we have farewelled Dr Olivia Mair who left her position as Cassamarca Project Officer for a new life in Milano, where she continues to support ACIS as an Italy-based contact. We are fortunate to have Ms Bianca Galipo as the new Project Officer who has managed to ‘hit the ground running’ in taking over the significant workload.

Over the past two years, the ACIS committee has continued its work supporting Italian studies in four main areas: lectureships, scholarships, conferences and service. In its coordination of the 13 Cassamarca academic positions we have concentrated on formalising the in-perpetuity agreements with participating universities. As you will recall, the first six years of these positions were funded almost entirely by the Foundation’s extraordinary gift of $6 million. In 2004, the Foundation further gifted an astonishing $22.5 million (900,000 Euros per year for thirteen years) to consolidate these positions in perpetuity. Independent research has shown that the Cassamarca’s Australia project is responsible for Italian Studies being the only university language studies area to have expanded over the past decade; a truly exceptional contribution to Italian language and culture in Australia.

The transition to the shared funding model between the Cassamarca Foundation and Australian universities has proceeded quite smoothly thanks largely to the efforts of UWA’s Office of Development and Legal Services and in particular the careful and astute management of Ms Dierdre De Souza. At this point in time, six universities have moved to this new arrangement and the remaining seven will have finalised their agreements by 2008. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the participating University staff for their efforts in providing the necessary paperwork (never fun to do with busy workloads), especially the annual progress reports and three year plans, which are always impressive and which continue to be carefully (and constantly) audited by the Cassamarca Foundation. The ‘Australia Project’, as it is known, is defined by many at the Foundation as its most successful international initiative. Lastly, I would also like to thank my fellow members of the Lectureships Committee for their input and the time dedicated in safeguarding the high standards expected of all Cassamarca Lectureships.

ACIS continues to offer student scholarships and conference travel bursaries. In 2005 and 2006 we awarded six scholarships to talented new scholars in the (broadly defined) field of Italian studies. Many thanks to the Scholarships Committee and its Chair, Professor Bill Kent, for their much appreciated efforts. Since 2004, ACIS has offered scholarships jointly with AFSI (Australian Foundation for Studies in Italy) and this year marks the closure of AFSI. We acknowledge the tremendous work of Professor Gary Ianziti and the AFSI committee over the years in funding dozens of study trips to Italy.  ACIS has happily agreed to continue to honour AFSI’s joint funding arrangement with the Associazione Sarda del Queensland in providing a scholarship to people working on projects linked to Sardinia. If you have any ideas about other potential scholarship sponsors, let us know! Supporting student scholarships is one of the best ways of nurturing future generations of Italian studies scholars.

Two years ago at the launch of the Third Biennial ACIS Conference in Treviso, the President of the Foundation, Dr Dino De Poli, suggested that our next conference in Australia be centred on Europe and the European Union. In response, ACIS co-hosted the New Europe, New Governance, New Worlds? conference with Monash University’s European and EU Centre in April this year welcoming Dr De Poli as our guest of honour along with scholars from around the globe (including ACIS postgraduate student travel bursary recipients from Italy, England and India). A day long program on Italy was included in the conference with funding support from the Grollo-Ruzzene Foundation [and the Italian Australian Institute, La Trobe University]. Many ACIS members participated in what was a very successful event. I would like to acknowledge the key organisers, Prof. Pascaline Winard and Dr Amanda Crichton at Monash; Olivia Mair and Bianca Galipo at UWA; and in particular thanks to our Melbourne-based ACIS committee members, Prof. Bill Kent, Dr Tony Pagliaro and Dr Andrea Rizzi (who, despite jet-lag, performed an inspired simultaneous translation of one of Dr De Poli’s usual erudite speeches).

Finally, we have worked hard to develop the ACIS website, thanks largely to the efforts again of both Olivia Mair and Bianca Galipo.  It now features Cassamarca academic profiles and updated information on our scholarships and conferences. Similarly, do not forget to take advantage of the ACIS email list to send out relevant notices. The list now has 130 subscribers. We welcome suggestions on how we might improve and expand these services.

To conclude my report, I would like to include a special acknowledgment to two tireless supporters of Australian Italian Studies who are shortly to leave us. Firstly, Ms Francesca Laura, whose appointment as the Cassamarca Lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast in February 2001 represents the only Cassamarca lectureship that carried the significant responsibility of establishing an inaugural Italian program. More or less single-handedly for the last seven years, Francesca has developed Italian studies at Sunshine Coast into an enviably healthy undergraduate degree course. It is with great sadness that we farewell Francesca from academia and it is with great joy that we wish her well in her future endeavours.

ACIS has the honour of thanking another inspired and inspiring Italian studies crusader who retires this year from our committee, Prof Des O’Connor. Des has represented South Australia on the committee since its inception and has been a constant and continuous source of support over the many years including in his role as Scholarships committee chair. Des, you will be greatly missed, so much so, that I am certain we will have many occasions to call on you for assistance in the future (can an academic ever really retire?). Thank you for your service to Italian Studies in Australia.

Auguri per un convegno stimolante e piacevole.
Loretta Baldassar
Chair, ACIS committee

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