The United States Studies Centre at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

aims to increase understanding of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

and enrich the Australia–United States relationship. The centre teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students, conducts policy-focused research, and hosts public events on a range of issues.

History

Then-Prime Minister

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the ...

announced in 2006 a $25 million endowment to establish a United States Studies Centre. After a national competition administered by the New-York-based American Australian Association, the University of Sydney won the right to form the centre in partnership with the AAA, with additional support from the

NSW government The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...

and the private sector. Institute Building, the University of Sydney

The centre constituted its board of directors chaired by Malcolm Binks, AO and held its first national summit on the Bush Presidency in 2007. The centre admitted its first postgraduate students in its MA and PhD degrees in US studies in early 2008. This year also saw the appointment of the centre's founding CEO, Professor Geoffrey Garrett, its chair in US Politics, Professor Margaret Levi, as well as the completion of the centre's building on the University of Sydney's Darlington campus. In 2009, the centre appointed journalist

James Fallows James Mackenzie Fallows (born August 2, 1949) is an American writer and journalist. He is a former national correspondent for '' The Atlantic.'' His work has also appeared in '' Slate'', '' The New York Times Magazine'', ''The New York Review of B ...

as chair in US Media, offered its first undergraduate unit of study on ''The US in the world'', and formed a partnership with

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

to host the centre's second ''National Summit on Sustainable Globalisation''. In 2009, the centre hosted its first cohort of six postdoctoral fellows, chosen from 176 applicants. The fellows' work focused on a variety of issues related to the United States, including cross-national comparisons of the role of religion, effects of increases in income inequality, the history of financial exchanges, U.S. and

Arab-Israeli relations The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...

, Latino interest in education policy, and the history of sexual liberation in the 1970s U.S.Postdoctoral fellows
In the same year, the centre appointed former executive director of recovery management for the City of New Orleans

Edward Blakely Edward James Blakely (born 1938), for most his career, was a Professor of Urban Planning at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1994, he retired as a leading scholar in the field with award winning books. He is known primarily for having ...

as honorary professor in urban policy and former Australian Ambassador to the UN Robert Hill as adjunct professor in sustainability. In 2010 the centre announced the $2 million Dow Sustainability Program, funded by the US-based

Dow Chemical Company Foundation The Dow Chemical Company, officially Dow Inc., is an American multinational corporation, multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company is among the three List of largest chemical producers, larges ...

. The program was aimed at bringing together academic and policy experts from Australia and the US to develop action-oriented solutions to a range of sustainability challenges concerning energy, water, food and biodiversity that are technologically innovative, commercially scalable and politically viable. The program was extended until 2015 and completed its work in early 2016.

Bates Gill Bates Gill (, ) is an expert on Chinese foreign policy and a former Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Gill has a long record of research and publication on both international and regional security issues. ...

replaced Geoffrey Garrett as chief executive officer in October 2012.

Funding

The centre is funded from an endowment established by the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Governmen ...

of $25 million with additional support from the University of Sydney, the NSW Government and the American Australian Association through contributions from business and private individuals.

References

External links

United States Studies Centre
{{Authority control American studies University of Sydney Research institutes in Australia Think tanks based in Australia 2007 establishments in Australia Australia–United States relations