Professor Antonella Riem is an outstanding scholar dedicated to the internationalization of university programs. Thanks to her relentless work, scores of students have been able to develop and emerge as leaders.
There are many reasons why Professor Antonella Riem has distinguished herself. She is a believer in the importance of education, and the importance of collaboration in creating the most positive learning experience for students who will be graduating into a complex globally intertwined world. Her internationally recognized work on Partnership Studies is a centre-piece of those efforts, but her impact extends further. She has represented the University of Udine professionally and diligently as it has reached out to other institutions, and has demonstrated the patience and persistence needed to make successful collaborations happen.
Professor Antonella Riem is highly esteemed nationally and internationally for her expertise in language, literature and communications. I became aware of her work soon after I was appointed as Australia’s Ambassador to Italy because of her long-standing connections with Australia and Australian studies worldwide. I was delighted to be invited to visit and give a lecture at the University of Udine. It was quite clear during my visit that Professor Riem is held in high esteem by her university colleagues, both staff and students. Antonella Riem is also respected by civic and political leaders and her work is seen as a bridge to international engagement. She brings to the University of Udine both academic prestige and extraordinary national and international contacts that serve the university, her city, region and country well. I believe she would make an outstanding President.
Professor Antonella Riem is an outstanding figure internationally in the field of language, literature and education, contributing greatly to dialogue and understanding between the Italian speaking world and, particularly, the English speaking world, including Australia. As Ambassador of Australia in Italy, I am convinced that forging links through academic and artistic endeavour, as Professor Riem has done with great merit in her over thirty years work on Australian studies, is critical to enhancing the broader relationship between our countries. This is because such links touch our common humanity, providing a deeper and more enduring basis upon which to build relations between individuals and peoples. In this spirit I congratulate Professor Riem for her powerful commitment to building international relations and thank her warmly for her role in enhancing appreciation of Australian literature in Italy and beyond.
From her earliest academic days, when I met her in 1985 at the University of Queensland as the winner of the prestigious Australian-European Award, Antonella Riem has continued her investigative critical exploration of Australian Literature at an extremely sensitive and outstanding level. Her academic and critical work at the University of Udine and worldwide has won the recognition and commendation from scholars in Australia and internationally.
Professor Antonella Riem is a much admired scholar internationally and a uniquely successful innovator in the field of interdisciplinary and transnational studies. Her Partnership Studies Group founded at the University of Udine in 1998 has become a wide collaborative network stretching beyond Italy to Australia, India, and America, thanks to her unfailing encouragement through personal connections, research, conferences, and regular publications. She is an outstanding academic with a strong ethical motivation to promote international understanding and co-operation.
Professoressa Antonella Riem is a figure of international standing, known around the world for the incisiveness of her academic writing, her administrative skills, her collegiality and her groundbreaking work in the field of partnership studies.
There are few scholars with the impressive kind of international, cross-cultural and collaborative academic profile that Professor Antonella Riem possesses, both individually and institutionally (with her Partnership Studies Group). She is a national - and international - treasure.
Professor Antonella Riem is outstanding in her commitment to the study of literature, and the extent to which she has facilitated and encouraged wide-ranging international collaboration in multidisciplinary scholarship in the humanities testifies to her organisational and, in fact, inspirational qualities. Her study of Australian fiction is exemplary in its combination of theoretical sophistication and sensitive and extremely perceptive readings of individual texts, and is a substantial contribution to the field. For many years she has also been a keen follower of contemporary Australian culture and has been a regular attendee at Australia’s major literary festival. The esteem and admiration with which she is held internationally is indeed fully justified.
Professor Antonella Riem is a scholar of the highest caliber. Her invaluable scientific contribution to the ongoing debate within the Humanities has played a significant role in shaping the study of world cultures and literatures. Along with other members of the Partnership Studies Group based at the University of Udine, she provides a theoretical model for a more dialectical, equalitarian, and transnational approach that effectively fosters an interwoven evolution among different cultures. Her eminent pioneering scholarship, her remarkable drive for teaching, and her empathetic qualities are widely respected by European, Asian, Australian and American academics and make her a unique and outstanding scholar and humanitarian.
I have known Antonella since the 1980s, so we go back a long way! I have watched her move with assurance and grace through her academic career. She is an example to many of us; a renowned scholar in international academic circles, an academic writer of great critical acumen and rigor, an interdisciplinarian in the full sense of the word. Her research work is always at the cutting edge of her disciplines. Furthermore, she has the gift of drawing together teams of young researchers for the multiple projects she has undertaken over the years. She thus enables an international projection for young scholars and exposes them to the rigors of first-class critical research. Those who have worked with her have been extraordinarily lucky to be able to count on the warmth of working within a well-led and adjusted research team
A result of Antonella’s ability to draw people in towards what she does with such enthusiasm came to full fruition when she founded The Partnership Studies Group at Udine University in 1998. This, together with its online journals and press, is an outstanding achievement in the work being done in multi-disciplinary, cross disciplinary areas of scholarship which is fundamental if the humanities and sciences are to come together in fruitful coalition. It was no surprise to those of us who have followed Antonella’s work to hear that this year Center for Partnership Studies (CPS, California) had awarded her its inaugural prize for distinguished scholars “in acknowledgement of her international scholarly work on partnership studies”
Antonella’s abilities go beyond her research and her team work, however. She has organized multiple international conferences and seminars over the years. The meticulousness of her organizational abilities is outstanding and having worked with her on one conference, she again revealed how “teamship” is one of her great abilities. She may be rigorous, but unlike many who are so, she carries her administrative work through with a warmth and passion not often seen. Becoming a Pro-Vice Chancellor was, I think, just an extension of her ability to pull together both extraordinary research and high-powered administration, no mean feat in tertiary institutions today.
Antonella is intrinsically honest, plain speaking and with a strong sense of justice. These are some of the qualities that have brought to where she is now and will, I hope, allow us to see her continue her work and hear her voice for many years to come.
A leading scholar and a natural diplomat, Professor Antonella Riem is a born leader who excels both in pursuing the highest quality of academic research and in energetically championing the work of Udine University’s Partnership Studies Group. An international researcher and educator of great repute, her remarkable skills ably and admirably demonstrate the best academic, organisational and interpersonal qualities.
Dr. Antonella Riem has committed her brilliant intellect toward opening doors of academic reality far removed from the normal university classroom. Her inimitable will and vision has given marginalized voices, indigenous voices an opportunity to be part of the poignant conversations of human partnership and interaction. As an indigenous, Cheyenne, professor and cultural activist who avoids the usual self-serving polemic so popular in academic circles, I applaud Dr. Riem for her steadfast dedication to the creative processes of non-manipulative education.
Professor Antonella Riem is not only a renowned scholar and innovative thinker of rare refinement, she is also a remarkably effective, efficient and inspiring leader and organizer. Her work at the University of Udine is legendary among scholars and writers who have worked with her on projects ranging from book and journal publications to international conferences to administrative duties large and small. There is simply no one better at what she does.
Professor Antonella Riem is a renowned scholar who combines a prodigious academic output with a flair for organisation. I have benefitted from both aspects of her professional expertise at the conferences she has organised, and her establishment of the Partnership Studies Group at Udine University in 1998 is a supreme example of her tireless energy. This achievement was recognised when the Center for Partnership Studies (CPS, California) awarded her its inaugural prize for distinguished scholars “in acknowledgement of her international scholarly work on partnership studies.” With its online journals and press Professor Riem has put Udine firmly on the map of global humanities studies. Professor Riem’s personality never fails to attract people and puts her in an enviable position to resolve conflicts whether academic, administrative or personal. She is clearly a natural leader.
Many years ago I answered a somewhat puzzling letter from a mysterious but, judging from his flourish and energy, somehow very attractive correspondent named Bernard Hickey. I have often looked back on that moment which could so easily have seen the letter being consigned automatically to the waste paper basket; intrigued, however, I answered it and did my best to provide Bernard Hickey, then based at Ca' Foscari in Venice, with as much support as I – a junior lecturer at Flinders University in South Australia – could quickly muster in the way of books, advice, and examples of courses in Australian Literature. What I had done, unknowingly, was to enter an extraordinarily exciting Italian world of academic discussion, writing, research and pedagogy being conducted, often against the odds, by staff and students. In this firmament of youthful stars, Antonella Riem – one of the first of them to whom I was introduced – was clearly outstanding: an adventurous thinker, a consummate organiser, an innovator who dared to depart from convention, but above all, a scholar and an academic devoted to research and writing of a kind that would soon transcend disciplinary boundaries and generic constraints. It has been a privilege to have been associated – however distantly at times – with her energy, her inexhaustible creativity, her critical acumen as a literary scholar and, not the least, her profound capacity for collegiality and friendship – to quote her: “… long-standing friendships like ours that we carry on in the heart even if we don't see or talk much”. Professor Riem would bring to the important position of President, as she has done to her many significant academic and literary roles, all the powerful personal and professional attributes that I have discussed here. As always, I wish her well and look forward confidently to her continued success.
As an Australian painter (prompted to explore contemporary Australian literature through meeting Antonella Riem) I am not that familiar with Academia and the labyrinth of disciplines therein but I would like to testify to the human qualities that first struck me on being introduced to Antonella in 1989 at the University of Florence Australian literary conference (where my exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi - La Nuova Stozzina was something of a side show).
Her warmth, charm and charisma struck one instantly and the dynamism and enthusiasm, that seemed in her such natural attributes, I remember well from our attendances at the various seminars and lectures that took place during the conference.
Quite some years later Antonella alerted me to similar events in London and at her own University in Udine - which events I attended and found her devotion to her field of endeavour undiminished - indeed enhanced and refined through her work and experience. I would keenly endorse Antonella Riem in regard to any post that might further exploit her potential in the fields she knows so well.
I wholeheartedly endorse Professor Antonella Riem’s application for the position of President of the University of Udine.
I first met Antonella in the year 2000 when as a Maori poet I took part in ‘The Words From the Edge Tour’ reading and performing my poetry with several other indigenous poets in Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Since 2000 I have returned to Italy several times to read my work at Udine University and throughout Italy. Professor Antonella Riem has played a major role in this, including facilitating the translation of many of my poems into Italian. My latest meeting with Antonella was in 2017 at a conference called, ‘Living together on this earth.’ Professor Antonella Riem’s abilities as an organiser, leader and facilitator are noticeable; she is meticulous, dedicated, industrious and can work with others in a team. Her academic qualifications are of the highest standard. She has many international contacts and any person or organisation with Antonella as President would benefit greatly from her many capabilities.
Professor Antonella Riem is a widely acclaimed and highly honored scholar. Over the decades of her academic activity, she has initiated and conducted numerous projects involving both established and aspiring members of university communities all over the globe. She is always on the frontline of innovative humanities construed as both a scholarly pursuit and an educational mission. Her excellent ideas, combined with passion and stamina, make her a born leader.
I’ve known Professor Riem for over twenty years and come to appreciate and value her scholarship in postcolonial literature and partnership studies; her incredible capacity to bring people together on collaborative projects; her impeccable organisational skills, leading to extremely successful conferences and symposia; her relentless commitment to the University of Udine and her colleagues at the University and around the world; her generosity of spirit; her resilience, strength, and focus. Professor Riem is an internationally recognized scholar and her university leadership is remarkable, an outstanding example of commitment, passion, and vision.
Through my own interest in Australian Studies, Postcolonial Studies and a transnational approach to literature and culture, I had been aware of Antonella Riem’s excellent scholarship for quite a long time before I met her personally at the ANDA conference in Genua in 2018. Not only in her brilliant work on the Australian author Patrick White, but in all her publications in general, I was impressed by the ethical and performative approach which serves as a framework to her probing questions about the function of literary works. Such consistent theoretical underpinnings distinguish her engagement with “Gestures of Reconciliation” in non-Indigenous Australian literature, for instance.
At the ANDA conference I was able to expand my academic exchange with Professor Riem, to find her engaged in cutting edge research, such as the current interest in a redefined relational subjectivity along the lines prevalent in Indigenous literatures. Besides her acclaimed and impressive academic work, Professor Riem’s extensive knowledge and broad horizon is brought to bear successfully in her organizational and networking activities. With her great generosity and natural diplomacy, she is an extremely energetic and respected promoter of institutional and personal exchanges as well as an admired teacher and supporter of students.
Professor Antonella Riem has been a consistent and engaging presence within the study of postcolonial literatures in English worldwide and her Partnership Studies Group, based at the University of Udine, has originally enriched with a new critical perspective the current debate and
inquiry into diasporic writers and transcultural relationships spanning across Europe, India and Australia. Her innovative non-binary critical approach to anglophone cultures and literatures is not only timely but very much needed in effectively fostering peaceful and transcultural scenarios.
Antonella Riem recently informed me that she would be running for President of the University of Udine. I welcomed this piece of news with a sense of relish because I associate Antonella Riem with literary vision. She is a woman who has devoted her life to teaching from High School to University and she has taught canonical writers on Mount Olympus alongside Commonwealth writers from down under, proposing a rare syncretism between the West and the East, which illumines her personal ethos. The last conference of ANDA, the association she presides, was called “Narrating the Human”. It is also a fit title to describe the research work she has engaged in throughout her life. From the study of Shakespeare to that of contemporary Australian or Indian Literature, via Romanticism and travel narratives, Antonella Riem has posited humanity at the core of her outlook on life and literature and she has developed worldwide partnerships based on altruistic and cooperative values. It has been a rare privilege for me to get to know her and I look forward to continuing an international partnership with her, so as to help consolidate shared models of cooperation in the field of literary studies or gender studies. As a Professor of Canadian and Commonwealth studies at the University of Toulouse, France, I am very much engaged in the development of transnational diplomas and co-tutored theses and I am willing to put my expertise in the field at the disposal of the University of Udine, to continue our fruitful collaboration.
I had been familiar with Antonella Riem’s work for several years before I became more closely acquainted with her as a friend and colleague working in the fields of Australian and post-colonial literature. Her admirable literary expertise traces back to her winning an Australia-Europe Scholarship Award in 1985 which enabled her to enrol at the University of Queensland to pursue further postgraduate studies in the field. Thereafter she has constantly organised and promoted national and international events focussed on Australian and post-colonial themes, writers and literature. She has written authoritatively on many of Australia’s most important writers and her writing on the work of the Australian Nobel Prize-winner Patrick White is particularly impressive. The breadth of her scholarship in Indian literature and philosophy and her capacity for academic collegiality left a lasting impression on me. Her most recent publication, A Gesture of Reconciliation (Forum 2017) is a highly innovative contribution to Australian Studies for it applies non-binary and trans-disciplinary paradigms within contemporary world literatures and languages. It brilliantly exemplifies the unique work of the Partnership Studies Group which Antonella has been leading since 1998. Her numerous positions, titles and awards are truly outstanding and I believe she is one of the most distinguished professors of literature in Europe and would certainly be a most illustrious President at Udine University.
Professor Antonella Riem has provided me with constant support and inspiration over the course of my academic career, as she has done time and time again with students past and present. I will always be inspired by her extensive academic career, her profound knowledge of her field, and her strong international relations with partner institutions around the globe. Professor Riem’s teaching methodology is unparalleled; her multidisciplinary approach is engaging and thought-provoking which creates a classroom environment like no other. Supportive, she truly believes in promoting the academic success of all scholars that come in and out of her classroom. I can attribute my own success to her dedication to nurturing international relations between The University of Udine and The University of Ottawa (Canada). Professor Riem exudes a type of confidence that only comes with years of experience; she has showed me what is possible after years of commitment and perseverance. I can only thank her for setting a prime example for myself and other young scholars.
I met Professor Antonella Riem when starting my academic journey in Udine. I was an undergraduate and very uncertain whether Languages and Literatures were the right choice for me. I wasn’t feeling comfortable or confident, and even considered giving up at some point but Professor Antonella Riem taught me that no pathway is ever straightforward. I’ve learnt from her that acquiring knowledge is a continuous inner search and she showed me that challenges are not necessarily obstacles – they are precious opportunities that life gives you and to make the most of them. During the course of my Master’s Degree, thanks to her support, I was able to undertake several exchange programs in Canada (6 months), Germany (2 months) and Australia (6 months). Having such valuable experiences then enabled me to apply for a PhD at Monash University. Not only was my research proposal accepted, but I was also offered a full scholarship to support my living expenses in Melbourne and to pay for my tuition fees. I can’t thank Professor Antonella Riem enough for helping me shape my life and find the right direction. I believe that she would make an outstanding and invaluable difference to students at Università degli Studi di Udine.
Abbiamo conosciuto e lungamente frequentato la Professoressa Antonella Riem nell’ambito prima dell’Interconferenza dei Presidi che si è poi trasformata nell’Interconferenza dei Direttori di Dipartimento e dei Responsabili di strutture didattiche. A tale organismo la Professoressa partecipa attivamente da anni nella sua qualità di Presidente della Conferenza di Lingue e Letterature Straniere.
È sulla base di questa frequentazione che possiamo serenamente attestare di aver riconosciuto nella collega efficienza organizzativa nell’attraversamento degli accelerati processi di cambiamento dell’Università, non disgiunta da capacità di analisi delle criticità e dei carichi sempre più intensi richiesti ai docenti e di costruzione di strategiche relazioni, anche a livello internazionale. A quest’ultimo proposito, ci piace ricordare che proprio recentemente l’Interconferenza si è complimentata con la collega per aver vinto il premio “International Prize for Research, Study, and Dissemination of Partnership Studies”, che riconosce il lavoro di studiosi che, a livello internazionale, si dedicano sul piano della didattica e della ricerca a disseminare e promuovere modelli di partnership nell’accademica. Per questi motivi, riteniamo che la Professoressa Riem sia una risorsa possibile nella guida, sempre più difficile, delle Istituzioni universitarie.
Conosco Antonella Riem fin dalle prime tappe della sua carriera universitaria. L’esperienza che ha maturato in tal campo, le qualità non solo accademiche ma amministrative che vi ha dimostrato, le sue vaste conoscenze e frequentazioni internazionali, anche al di fuori dello stretto ambito universitario, la capacità di lavoro e le doti personali mi sembrano farne un ben qualificato e promettente candidato a Rettore.
La Professoressa Antonella Riem è non soltanto una studiosa di indiscusso valore, apprezzata dalla comunità accademica italiana e da quella internazionale per i suoi lavori nell’ambito della letteratura inglese e della letteratura postcoloniale, ma è anche un’eccellente organizzatrice di iniziative culturali di grande interesse. I seminari, i convegni, le conferenze che ha promosso e gestito nel corso degli anni ne fanno infatti una delle figure più autorevoli – e benemerite – dell’anglistica italiana. Spesso tali iniziative hanno avuto carattere di rilievo internazionale: tra tutte va ricordato il Partnership Sudies Group da lei fondato presso l’Università di Udine nel 1998. Antonella Riem, come Presidente della Conferenza dei Presidi di Lingue e Letterature Straniere ha inoltre dimostrato di saper svolgere un lavoro di significativa importanza in ambito istituzionale, ottenendo attento ascolto sia dai rappresentanti del CUN e dai suoi vertici, sia dagli alti funzionari del Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca.
La mia collaborazione con Antonella Riem è nata nell’ambito di una proposta che portavo all’Università di Udine. Proponevo di coinvolgere l’università in un’iniziativa internazionale nata a cavallo di molte realtà – università, città, scuole secondarie. Il dialogo intorno all’edizione udinese dell’Edinburgh Gadda Prize si è subito fatto propositivo, intellettualmente vero, e soprattutto concreto, facendomi toccare con mano la grandissima fortuna di poter presentare il mio progetto a una professionista d’eccezione. Nel ruolo di Preside di Facoltà avevo cioè incontrato una rara ambasciatrice: una persona particolarmente decisa a sostenere in modo fattivo, partecipativo, e nel pieno rispetto delle reciproche posizioni, un’idea di intervento positivo nel mondo a partire dalla comune passione per il nostro lavoro di studiose. In Antonella Riem ho avuto un’interlocutrice generosa e affatto leale per tutta la durata del progetto, cosa di cui le sono immensamente grata.
Ho avuto la fortuna di avere la Professoressa Antonella Riem come docente e mentore durante i miei studi presso l'Università di Udine. Considero un "dono" aver potuto imparare da lei, non solo perché mi ha avvicinata agli studi di partnership e alla ricerca accademica, ma soprattutto perché mi ha profondamente aiutata a definire la mia identità di persona, oltre che di studiosa. Dico studiosa perché la Professoressa ci ha sempre guidati ad essere non studenti alle prese con crediti formativi e una sfilza di esami, bensì pensatori curiosi e desiderosi di sapere, in grado di fare propri gli studi e la formazione accademica, e, soprattutto, cittadini consapevoli e aperti, donne e uomini veramente liberi. Prima ancora che per le conoscenze che mi ha trasmesso, le sono grata per quello che mi ha insegnato ad essere, come individuo e come donna. Anche adesso che lavoro in un ambito diverso dalle letterature, la tecnologia, quello che ho imparato negli anni universitari mi aiuta ogni giorno ad essere una professionista creativa, flessibile, aperta al dialogo con gli altri e con le discipline più diverse. Insegnare a chi si laurea ad "essere", e non solo a "fare", è, del resto, la migliore eredità che l'università possa lasciare al mondo del lavoro e alla società tutta.
I met Professor Riem in Udine in 2010. She had invited me to give a lecture at the University and our collaboration never stopped since then. Like many French scholars, intellectuals and writers, I admire Professor Riem, not only for her expertise in language and literature, but also for her unique approach of a cross-cultural education, and the incisiveness of her academic writing. In my view, Antonella Riem is a thinker of the highest caliber who provides what is necessary to students - and colleagues - in a complex globalized century: a vision. She has this rare ability of connecting fields and knowledges, past and present, institutions and people. This is why I am convinced that, both on a human and strategic level, Professor Riem is the best possible candidate and would make an utterly outstanding President.