Will the ‘hope' and ‘change' Barack Obama promised the people of the United States reach as far as Australia?

This will be the topic of a free public forum to be hosted by The University of Western Australia with panellists including Kim Beazley, UWA Professorial Fellow and Chancellor of the Australian National University.

Professor Beazley will be joined by Robert Hathaway, Director, Asia Program, Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars (WWICS), Washington DC; Brendon O'Connor, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney; and Greg Sheridan, Foreign Affairs Editor, The Australian.

The forum will be hosted by Professor Krishna Sen, Dean of UWA's Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. As a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, with a PhD in Politics, MA in International Relations and BA History Honours, Professor Sen is internationally recognised as one of the most significant scholars of Indonesian media and culture with a deep commitment to internationalisation.

In conjunction with the forum, the WWICS will honour two distinguished Australians - Professor Beazley and Janet Homes a Court - as recipients of the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Awards in recognition of their years of corporate citizenship.

WHAT: Free public forum - The Obama Administration: What Might it Mean for Australia?

WHERE: The University Club Banquet Hall south, a wheelchair accessible venue.(The nearest carparks are P3 or P23 off Hackett Drive Entrance 1.)

WHEN: Tuesday 10 March at 9.30am for coffee and from 10am to noon for the discussion

RSVP: RSVP by Thursday 5 March to the Institute of Advanced Studies (+61 8) 6488 1340 or email iasuwa@admin.uwa.edu.au

Media references

Susan Takao (Institute of Advanced Studies) (+61 8) 6488 8937
Sally Ann Jones (UWA Public Affairs) (+61 8) 6488 7975 / (+61 4) 20 790 098