The University of Auckland will mark the centennial of the birth of one of New Zealand’s most controversial writers by hosting an international conference later this year.
The International Sylvia Ashton-Warner Centennial Conference 2008, hosted by the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Arts, is an opportunity for scholars, writers, literary critics, teachers and others to celebrate and critique the work of this talented and complex woman.
Speakers at the conference include Sylvia’s son, Elliot Henderson; and Professor Emeritus of English CK Stead, who will interview Robert Gottlieb, Sylvia’s New York-based publisher, via satellite. Described by the Wall Street Journal as "the most influential book editor in the world", Robert Gottlieb has run two of America's most prestigious publishing companies, Simon & Schuster and Alfred A Knopf, where he currently works.
Speakers also include Lynley Hood, Sylvia’s biographer; and Iritana Tawhiwhirangi, Sylvia’s colleague and founder of Te Kohanga Reo, who was greatly influenced by Sylvia’s approach to teaching.
Born in 1908 in Stratford, Taranaki, Sylvia Ashton-Warner trained from 1928-29 at the Auckland College of Education (now the University’s Faculty of Education). Her writing won her international acclaim, in literary as well as educational circles, particularly in North America. Ashton-Warner’s work in rural New Zealand extended an innovative teaching system that encouraged edgy creativity and self-expression in her young Maori pupils. Her books include the acclaimed Teacher and Spinster, and several other novels, as well as her award-winning autobiography, I Passed This Way. Her life has been the subject of two feature films as well as a biography, Sylvia!, written by Dunedin author Lynley Hood, which will be re-released this year. Sylvia Ashton-Warner died in 1984.
Conference organisers say the response to the Call for Papers has been strong, and they have received a wide range of academic papers and submissions from literary critics, fiction writers, teachers, poets, historians, social theorists and philosophers.
"The conference will be a great opportunity for local as well as international scholars and writers to celebrate the work of one of our leading authors who, controversially, has been neglected in New Zealand. Ashton-Warner’s work expressed a deep sense of belonging as well as one of rejection - a tension many creative New Zealanders have felt in their lives," says Faculty of Education Professor and conference organiser Alison Jones. "Sylvia still has lessons for educators. She stressed that reading is a dangerous activity. Do many teachers today know what she meant?"
The International Sylvia Ashton-Warner Centennial Conference 2008 will be held 9-10 August at the Faculty of Education’s Epsom Campus. For registration and conference information visit http://www.eenz.com/sa-w08/
Download the poster:
The International Sylvia Ashton-Warner Centennial Conference 2008 (219kB)
For further background information about Sylvia Ashton-Warner read the article published in
TeKuaka Issue 2 - 2008 (2MB)
, by Faculty of Education writer Penelope Frost.
