We are a 100% volunteer organization and we rely on our vibrant membership to help maintain and lead the organization in our operations as well as hosting exciting events. 2019 is going to be another busy and exciting year.  If you would like to be involved please contact us at admin@fulbrightalumni.org.au.  There are a range of ways you can get involved:

1. We have space on our committee - please nominate yourself if you'd like to join the national committee.

2. We are hosting our next national conference in 2019 in Sydney and are now staffing our conference organizing committee. Want to be involved? You don't have to be located in Sydney to contribute - the organizing committee takes on a range of activities such as inviting keynote speakers, designing panel sessions, reviewing abstracts, finalizing the conference program and much more.  Join us now to help make this another great event.

3. Host a local event - want to host a local event (either informal like fish and chips or after work drinks, or formal, like a public speaker event) - get in touch and we can help support you.

On 20th November, some 90 people attended the 2018 AFAA Victoria Salon, Finding a voice in a post-truth world: valuing a critical perspective.

We were honoured by the participation of: US Consul General to Victoria, Michael F. Kleine; Diane Kirkby, Fulbright alum, Professor of Law and Humanities at the University of Technology Sydney, and Research Professor (Emeritus) in History at La Trobe University; Prof Dennis Altman (La Trobe University and Fulbright alumnus); and  Phillipa McGuinness (author and publisher). 

Following opening remarks by US Consul Genera Kleine, Prof Kirkby set the agenda for a fascinating and provoking discussion on the role of truth in modern society: 

How do you make sense of reality when elected representatives, supposedly trustworthy officials and leaders, routinely lie, distort the truth, or claim indeed, remarkably and incomprehensibly, ‘truth isn’t truth’?  What can that possibly mean?

History is not always a comfortable truth but the professional standards and ethics of our discipline require that we adhere to a rigorous interrogation and ask hard questions. Story-telling is at its heart, but the stories are not fibs. And they are not fiction.

All three speakers offered diverse and original perspectives on Prof Kirkby's call for us all to remember "the importance of truth-telling in the public domain as critical to maintenance of democracy and the public domain". 

We were delighted that Dr Alice Garner also could speak at the launch of Prof Diane Kirkby and Dr Alice Garner's new book, "Academic Ambassadors, Pacific Allies: Australia, America and the Fulbright Program".

We extend our sincere thanks to the Vice Chancellor's Office at the University of Melbourne for sponsoring this event. 

For a full photo gallery visit the salon page. Below a picture of AFAA president Iain Butterworth and speaker Dr Alice garner.

We are pleased to announce that the topic of this year's AFAA Salon is: Finding a voice in a post-truth world: valuing a critical perspective.

The 2018 AFAA salon will be held on November 20th at the Woodward Conference Centre.  Fulbright alumni Prof Diane Kirkby and Dr Alice Garner will lead the event and also launch their new book on the history of the Fulbright program.

This event is hosted by the Victoria Chapter and we thank the University of Melbourne for their generous sponsorship.

This is an annual public event and is widely popular (nearly always a sell out!). Tickets will be enabled several months prior to the event.

Did you know that the first Fulbright Grantees traveled abroad 70 years ago in 1948? To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Fulbright Program AFAA will be hosting a range of events this year including an upcoming Victorian Quarterly Gathering reflecting on the local Australian Fulbright History and our annual Victorian Salon will also take a historical perspective (more forthcoming). Our 2019 Fulbright Alumni Conference will also celebrate the anniversary with a stimulating conference program and dinner.  Watch this space for more announcements of event details!

This year the Fulbright Program turns 70.  What better way to say Happy Birthday to the Fulbright Program than to celebrate its local history? The upcoming Victorian Quarterly Gathering will do just that with Prof Diane Kirkby and Dr Alice Garner!

The Australian Fulbright Alumni Association's Victorian chapter welcomes you to our upcoming Melbourne event, Wednesday 29th August, 6pm @ the Leather Room, University House, Professors' Walk, University of Melbourne:

Telling the story of the Fulbright program: From 'war junk' to 'the greatest action taken'

 Prof Diane Kirkby and Dr Alice Garner will discuss the findings of their ARC project, which has researched the story of the Australian-American Fulbright program.

Refreshments at 6pm; presentation at 6:30pm. Dinner will follow at 7:30pm. 

RSVP: Dr Elizabeth Brooke, AFAA's Victorian Convener, ebrooke425@gmail.com

About the presenters:

Prof Diane Kirkby is Professor of Law and Humanities, University of Technology Sydney and Research Professor (Emeritus) at La Trobe University, Melbourne where she taught US and Australian history for many years. She has published extensively and is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, and in 2015 became only the second Australian to be elected a Fellow of the American Society for Legal History. She is a Fulbright Alumnus and has served several terms on the Victorian Fulbright Selection Committee. Research on the Fulbright program in Australia was funded by an Australian Research Council grant and resulted in a book, Academic Ambassadors, Pacific Allies: Australia America and the Fulbright Program, being published by Manchester University Press later this year.

Dr Alice Garner is an Australian historian, teacher and performer. She completed a PhD in French History in 2001 (University of Melbourne), published A Shifting Shore (Cornell University Press) on the impact of tourism on a French Atlantic fishing town, and then a commissioned student memoir (The Student Chronicles, MUP). Alice was contemplating a move from 19th-century France to the post-war history of hitchhiking in Australia and the US when Diane Kirkby at La Trobe University encouraged her to take a side-step and join a new ARC project researching the story of the Australian-American Fulbright program. She spent the next few years digging through External Affairs and State Department archives, reading Fulbright board minutes and travelled around Australia to meet Fulbright alumni in many different research fields. She created an interactive timeline of the program history, with links to news articles and interviews, which is hosted on the Fulbright Commission website. A renewed appreciation for the power of education then led Alice to make a move into secondary school teaching, which she has pursued while co-authoring the soon-to-be-published history of the Fulbright program (Manchester University Press). Recently, Alice has combined her history and performance skills, appearing as a presenter on Coast Australia, a BBC/Foxtel (History Channel) television documentary series 2, 3 and 4 about the Australian coastline. 

Did you know that our PO Box lives with our Treasurer Vanessa Adams? This is because most of the mail we receive relates to our financials, like receiving membership dues. So where she goes, the PO Box goes.

We're pleased to announce that that Vanessa, and the AFAA PO Box, have moved South to Hobart.  Please note our new mailing address:

PO Box 5037

University of TAS LPO

Sandy Bay, TAS 7005

And if you're ever down South make sure to say hi to Vanessa and the many friendly Fulbright Alumni. 

The WG Walker Scholarship Fund is the proud legacy of AFAA.  This fund is held and administered by the Commission and is open for donations by any alumni.  The WG Walker Scholarship is awarded to the top Fulbright Scholar annually.  AFAA has fund-raised more than $250,000 for this fund since its inception in 1993.

As a sign of continued dedication to this Fund AFAA decided will donate 25% of all membership dues to the fund on an annual basis.

While AFAA can no longer receive direct donations for this fund as part of your membership renewal, we encourage all of our members to continue their tradition of donating to this fund on an annual basis.  To do this - just visit the donation page and make sure to select the 'W.G. Walker Memorial Alumni Scholarship Fund' from the menu so that your donation goes to this fund.

CALLING ALL FULBRIGHT SCHOLARS!

The Australian Fulbright Alumni Association is an official sponsor of AFFORDABLE LIVING IN SUSTAINABLE CITIES: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda

Newcastle NSW, 1^st - 2^nd November 2018.
https://www.nuaconference.com/

Opportunity for AFAA Members

The Australian Fulbright Alumni Association has been invited to sponsor this event, and bring to the Conference the richness of our members’ expertise as thought leaders, entrepreneurs, catalysts, researchers, creatives, educators, policy makers, and facilitators.

Ways in which AFAA members can engage

We are keen to hear from members who are interested to take part as:

• Keynote speakers
• Presenters
• Panellists
• Session moderators
• Discussants
• Workshop curators and facilitators
• Performers/artists in residence
• Organisers that can help us to:
• Connect to Newcastle experts, entrepreneurs, politicians, NGOs, practitioners, activists, researchers, community builders, thinkers and leaders;
• Secure sponsorship from key partners;
• Connect to the University of Newcastle and other universities;
• Engage with other regional cities, which are critical to implementing the NUA.

We thank all those who joined us at our AGM. It was a lively meeting with nearly twenty members in attendance (in person or by teleconference).  The president and treasurer presented their reports as a start of the discussion and overall review of AFAA in 2017 (AFAA 2017 Treasurer's Report 2018 AGM.pdf and AFAA 2017 President's Report 2018 AGM - FINAL.pdf). Big news items include decisions about hosting our next conference in 2019, supporting additional symposiums in 2018, and dedicating 25% of all membership dues to the WG Walker Scholarship Fund. 

To see all that was discussed visit the minutes: AFAA AGM 2018 Minutes.pdf

AFAA continues to host local events across Australia for current scholars and alumni. Make sure to visit our events calendar to see what events are coming to you.

Tasmanian Fulbrighters and friends enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast in December 2017.

New South Wales welcomed new scholars with a classic fish and chips gathering in Balmoral in April 2018.