Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service

Since 1995, the Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies (CANZ) at SFS has been offering students the unique opportunity to study the region through courses in history, government, international affairs, sociology, literature, and the fine arts. The Center was established with the help of grants from the Governments of Australia and New Zealand and robust support from the private sector. Georgetown is the only university in North America offering students the opportunity to pursue an undergraduate certificate in Australian and New Zealand Studies. The CANZ certificate program is enhanced by the option of study abroad in both countries.

Georgetown is the only university in North America offering students the opportunity to pursue an undergraduate certificate in Australian and New Zealand Studies.

Patty O’Brien, the only full time faculty member in the Center, has been at Georgetown since the fall of 2000. “I came for what was to be a semester of teaching Australian studies and have been here ever since,” she states. She teaches classes on Australian and Pacific regional history and has just published a book on femininity and the colonial Pacific. During the academic year 2007-08, CANZ also hosted two visiting professors on Fulbright scholarships--Jo Diamond, lecturer in fine arts from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, whose research focuses on representations of women and indigenous Australians in Maori art, and Hou Minyu from East China Normal University in Shanghai who is interested in the US-Australia relationship in international affairs.

CANZ works closely with the Embassies of Australia and New Zealand on its extensive public outreach efforts, which includes high-profile lecture series. The centerpiece of these series is the annual ANZAC lecture, held to commemorate the landing at Gallipoli in 1915, which signified the first major combat of World War I for the forces of Australia and New Zealand. CANZ also hosts the Waitangi Day Lecture commemorating the treaty signing between Maori chieftains and the British government in 1840 and the Australian Executive Lecture series, which brings high-profile Australian business leaders to speak at Georgetown.

The current Director of CANZ, Alan Tidwell, is an expert on the region who came to the School of Foreign Service from the United States Institute of Peace. He teaches courses on international relations and conflict resolution in Australasia.