Media School Seminar Series

Public Secrets, Media and Extinction

This paper will explore the role and imaginary of the many advertisements put in Tasmanian newspapers throughout the 1940s concerning Tasmanian tigers ‘accidentally’ killed or captured. These advertisements were posted by the Fauna Board but countersigned by the Police Department and are a mixture of process and promise of reward.

For every reason we can imagine, the idea of ‘accidentally’ catching a Tasmanian tiger in 1945, seven years after what is now considered the last thylacine death in the Hobart Zoo seems risible now. But what work did these publicly circulated advertisements do? Influenced by Michael Taussig’s notion of the public secret and Thom van Dooren and Deborah Bird Rose’s notion of the long and ‘dull edge’ of extinction, this mediated example brings together ideas about the cultural histories of extinction and its present effects.

About the Speaker

Associate Professor Katrina Schlunke is co-investigator on the Australian Research Council Discovery project ‘Beyond Extinction: Reconstructing the Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) Archive’ and has recently published on the Anthropocene and art, fictocriticism, and a rug made from Tasmanian tiger skins. She is an Adjunct in the School of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney and CALE, University of Tasmania.

About the Event

To register to join in person at the Media School, Salamanca or to attend by Zoom webinar, select the REGISTER button on this page.

Note: for those attending the Public Lecture in person:

• From 15th January 2022, anyone coming to our campuses, facilities and events is required to be fully vaccinated or have an exemption. Masks must be worn in indoor public settings, including all university venues, from 12:01am, Tuesday 21 December 2021.
• Please arrive between 4:00pm - 4:15pm via the main entrance to the building in Salamanca Square. You will be greeted by our Front of House staff on arrival and asked to use the temperature scanning system to check in.
• Lift access is available up to the Media School from the Salamanca Square car park. Should you require mobility assistance of any kind, please advise us via email (CAM.Admin@utas.edu.au) and one of our staff will be organised to assist you.

About the Program

On the last Wednesday of every month, The Media School presents its research seminar series, featuring presentations across a range of topics including film, television, journalism, radio, marketing, advertising, strategic communications and media research.