News Archive

Westerly are deeply saddened to learn of the recent death of Niall Lucy.

Professor in the School of Media, Culture & Creative Arts at Curtin University, and former Head of the School of Arts at Murdoch University, Lucy was a graduate of UWA where he received a BA and MA (English.) He later received a PhD (English) from the University of Sydney.

In a moving tribute to his friend and collaborator, John Kinsella wrote in The West Australian , "His was the best mind of a generation and a mind that lent itself to social causes, with an intensely unselfish and razor-sharp politics of scrutiny in which he held power-brokers and the socially conservative to task.

"Niall was a literary-political thinker whose investigations of the media, of the individual in the realm of the public, of the implications and costs that come with language used in the media in particular, led him to groundbreaking investigations of literary texts, music, television and performance.

"Niall's work on the philosopher Jacques Derrida is unique and will remain of importance as long as Derrida himself is read.

"A champion of Dave McComb and the Triffids, and numerous other bands, Niall will be missed as one able to interpret and translate the compulsion to make music and its impact on subcultures and broader cultural movements."

Westerly would like to mark the passing of an important contributor to our cultural landscape, a significant figure whose life was cut tragically short.

Tributes can be left at this guest book .

Media references

Westerly Centre