The Monash University Prato Centre, located in the heart of Tuscany, is housed in a landmark eighteenth century mansion—the Palazzo Vaj. This commemorative publication highlights the elegant spaces of the Palazzo Vaj as the context for exhilarating encounters with the city and people of Prato, art and artists, researchers and experts, teachers and students from around the world.
A Site of Convergence is the result of collaboration between writer and editor Cynthia Troup, and the late Jo-Anne Duggan, the Centre’s first artist in residence. It is a tribute to the humanist vision that shaped the development of the Centre, and a celebration of Jo-Anne Duggan’s photographic art.
Interweaving narrative, vignettes and splendid images, A Site of Convergence tells a fascinating and beautifully illustrated story of the fulfillment of an audacious dream to establish an Australian cultural and scholarly home in Italy, a home which has become, over the last ten years, a vibrant crossroad for cultural and intellectual exchange, as well as a significant site in its local Italian community.
WASHINGTON — Southern Republican senators defended Jeff Sessions after an explosive new book by Bob Woodward recounted how President Donald Trump called his attorney general a “dumb Southerner” and mocked his accent.
In the forthcoming chronicle of Trump’s White House, “Fear,” Woodward writes that the president privately called Sessions a “traitor,” saying: “This guy is mentally retarded. He’s this dumb Southerner … He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.”
The remarks are said to have come during a conversation between Trump and his former staff secretary Rob Porter about Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the Russian investigation. They represent the most withering insults the president has directed at his attorney general in months of largely one-sided sniping.
“The already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources, has me calling Jeff Sessions ‘mentally retarded’ and ‘a dumb southerner.’ I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing. He made this up to divide!” the president said.
“I’m a Southerner, people can judge my intellect, my IQ, by my product and what I produce rather than what somebody else says,” said Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., in an interview.
“We’re a pretty smart bunch. We lost the Civil War, but I think we’re winning the economic war since then … I’m not gonna get into name calling because I don’t think you should be allowed to call names - including the president,” he added.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who served alongside Sessions during his 20 years as senator for Alabama, said: “Well, I’m sure I’ve got that accent, wouldn’t you think?”
He pointed out that Trump himself relied on Southern voters during the 2016 general election, warning: “I guess the president, he says what he thinks … I think the president’s probably got a lot of respect for the South, I hope so. He did well there. Without the South he wouldn’t be the president of the United States.”
Asked what he thought of Trump’s claim that Sessions was “mentally retarded,” Shelby, the fifth most senior Republican senator, added: “I think that’s strong words. I think Sessions is a very smart man and a man of integrity. I would disagree with the president on that.”
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., added to the chorus of disapproval, joking that Sessions was not a “dumb Southerner” but a “smart Southerner.” “Oh come on,” he said. “I’m a Southerner too. I think it’s not at all appropriate. It’s totally inappropriate.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, R- N.C., who grew up in New Orleans and Nashville, Tennessee, among other cities, also raised his Southern origins, saying: “As a Southerner, I have to say, Jeff Sessions … is bright, studied in the law and well-respected universally by the conference here, I think that speaks for itself. He is bright.”
The comments come a week after it was revealed that Trump last month privately revived the prospect of firing Sessions, with whom he has clashed on issues including the Russia investigation and presidential interference in the judiciary.
Republicans in Congress’ upper chamber have at the same time softened their rhetoric on Sessions, with some openly accepting he will now be replaced but urging him to stay on until the midterm elections.
Said Bob Corker, R-Tenn., on Tuesday: “I think we all know it’s likely he is going to terminate him after the midterms. In the interim I think it would be good if he stopped raving about Sessions. It’s unbecoming. Either do something or don’t, but these comments just continue to degrade our nation.”
“He doesn’t have healthy respect for the democratic institutions we have here. I was down in Venezuela back in May and the characteristics are definitely the characteristics you get out there, where you award your friends and criminalize your enemies,” said Corker, who is retiring at the end of his term.
Asked whether he thought Sessions could last until the midterms, Sen. John Neely Kennedy, R-La., told The Washington Post: “I don’t know. It’s not my call, it’s the president’s.”
On Monday, Trump intensified his criticism of Sessions, blaming him for bringing politically inconvenient indictments against two Republican lawmakers: Reps. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who were, respectively, the first and second Republicans in Congress to endorse Trump. Sessions was the third. “The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now,” Trump tweeted.
The White House did not respond to the specific allegation that Trump referred to Sessions as a “dumb Southerner,” but said Woodward’s new book was based on fabrications as a whole.