About the Speaker:
Simon During is Professor of English at Johns Hopkins University and Professorial Fellow of the School of Culture and Communications at the University of Melbourne.  He gained his PhD from Cambridge University in 1983 and subsequently joined the English Department at Melbourne where he served as chair for many years as well as Inaugural Director of the Media and Communications Program and Inaugural Co-ordinator of Cultural Studies.  He has published in postcolonial theory, Australian, British and New Zealand cultural and literary history, cultural studies and literary theory, and his work has been translated into seven languages.  His books include Foucault and Literature (1993), Patrick White (1996) and Modern Enchantments: the cultural power of secular magic (2002). He is editor of the widely used textbook, The Cultural Studies Reader now in its third edition (1993, 1999, 2007). His current work explores intersections between literature, politics and religion in Britain between 1688 and 1914.