UQ public lecture examines issues around Australia's last hanging

Ronald Ryan, the last man to be hanged in Australia, was executed behind a green tarpaulin on February 3, 1967. Not even the witnesses saw his body drop.

The history and significance of Ryan's hanging will be examined in a free public lecture by Associate Professor Anne Freadman at The University of Queensland on Thursday, March 30.

A highly contentious, even shameful, episode in Australian history, the story of Ryan's hanging reveals sharp contradictions in Australia's legal, political and social processes.

For The Green Tarpaulin: Telling the story of the Ryan hanging, Dr Freadman draws on original research to investigate the wealth of stories that have accumulated around this moment in Australian history.

An Associate Professor in UQ's Department of Romance Languages, Dr Freadman has an international reputation in critical theory and cultural studies and is best known for her work on the development of semiotics and on genre theory.

Dr Freadman's lecture gives an account of a highly original research project which deals with history, culture, and the law. A version of this work was recently published in The UTS Review.

The Green Tarpaulin is the first in a program of public lectures by Faculty of Arts researchers for UQ's new Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, which aims to promote research culture within the arts and humanities.

The 2000 lecture program will showcase the diversity of research in the fields of critical and cultural studies at The University of Queensland.

The lecture, to be chaired by Centre director Professor Graeme Turner, will begin at 5.30pm on Thursday, March 30 in Mayne Hall, St Lucia campus.

For more information, contact Professor Graeme Turner (telephone 3365 7183 or email graeme.turner@mailbox.uq.edu.au).