Jeremy Beckett

 

Jeremy Beckett graduated with a B.A. (Hons) in Anthropology at University College, London, in 1954.  From 1955-7, he was awarded a Goldsmiths Company Travelling Scholarship to ANU. He undertook field work for his MA (1958) in Western NSW.  He then enrolled in a PhD at ANU (awarded 1964), carrying out field work in the Torres Strait Islands. Jeremy held his first teaching position at Auckland University from 1962-5, then at Monash University from 1965-6, and at Sydney University from 1966 to his retirement in 1994, where he is currently Emeritus Associate Professor. His appointments have included Visiting Professor, Queens College CUNY; Graduate Center CUNY; University of Texas, Austin; and the Humanities Research Centre, ANU.  Jeremy has ongoing field research in Western NSW, and with Torres Strait Islanders on mainland Australia and in the islands. He has also worked on Pukapuka (Northern Cook Islands, 1964) and Muslim Magindanao in Cotabato, Philippines (1969 -1979). He was Expert Witness in the Murray Island Land Case ('Mabo'), and the Torres Strait Sea Rights case in 2009.  His principal publications include: Past and Present, the Construction of Aboriginality (edited volume), ASP 1988 & 1994; Torres Strait Islanders, Custom and Colonialism (CUP, 1987 & 1988); 'Political Families and Family Politics among the Muslim Magindanaon of Cotabato', in McCoy (ed) An Anarchy of Families: State and Familiy in the Philppines, (Wisconsin UP, 1993 & 2009); Wherever I Go: Myles Lalor's 'Oral History' MUP 2000 (with Myles Lalor); A Study of Aborigines in the Pastoral West of New South Wales (Oceania Monograph, 55, 2005); Two Rainbow Serpents Travelling: Mura track narratives from the 'Corner Country' (with Luise Hercus, ANU  E Press, 2009); and,  An Appreciation of Difference: WEH Stanner and Aboriginal Australia (with Melinda Hinkson, ASP 2008).