Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria

Presenter: Prof. Vrasidas Karalis
Entry: Free

Multiculturalism as a nation-building process ended in 1997 when the Liberals were elected to government.

By then, most post-war migrant communities were already firmly incorporated within the political, economic and cultural institutional framework of the Australian society, and consequently the reaction to the unravelling of the policy was rather weak and completely ineffective. The Greek-Australian community took little notice of the conservative triumph, as many Greek-Australians voted for the coalition abandoning the traditional allegiance to the Labor Party.

But what was and is multiculturalism? And why was it abandoned so easily and so effectively? I called this brief presentation “after multiculturalism” because it will critically investigate the structure of multicultural ideas  and  their influence on the self-perception of the Greek-Australian community .

Is there still any reason to advocate multiculturalism as a nation-building policy or a political project for the future?

Biography:

VRASIDAS KARALIS is professor in Modern Greek Studies at the University of Sydney. He has published extensively in Greek studies, modern philosophy and aesthetics. He is the editor of Modern Greek Studies (Australia and New Zealand).

His publications include books on Nikos Kazantzakis and Patrick White. He is the co-editor of two collective volumes on Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt. He has received awards for his Greek translations of Patrick White.