Today is the last newsletter for 2021! It has been a huge and strange year, but thank you all for sharing your successes, books, publications, conferences, events and moments with me, and the CHRG community.
We wish you all the a safe and happy festive season – and I hope you get to take a break in the coming weeks. I am looking forward to not looking at zoom for at least a few weeks!
Publications
An extended version of Klaus Neumann’s contribution to the “Tampa Election” panel at the recent AHA conference was published here.
Peter Edwards’s biography of the formidable public servant Sir Arthur Tange, Arthur Tange: Last of the Mandarins, has been re-published in digital format, as part of “Untapped: the Australian Literary Project“. “Untapped”, a collaborative project led by Rebecca Giblin of the University of Melbourne, is republishing notable Australian books that are now out of print.
Nate Moir has book that will be published by Hurst (London) mid-December – Number One Realist – Bernard Fall and Vietnamese Revolutionary Warfare. The book will be available in Australia, the UK, Europe, and elsewhere in Asia.The book will also be published in North America in late March 2022 by Oxford University Press. There is a Twitter handle for the book too – @number1_realist
Phillip Deery has a book being published on 1 February – Spies and Sparrows – ASIO and the Cold War. The book will be launched at Readings Carlton on the 15th February 2022 at 6:30pm. You can register here.
On the radio…
Jacqui Baker presented a summer edition of 3RRR’s The Glasshouse on Wednesday 8 December. She interviewed Daniel Juckes, associate editor and managing editor for the online special issue of Westerly (of which Cassandra Atherton is one of the commissioning editors). Daniel and Jacqui chatted about the latest issues of Westerly: Westerly 66.2 and Westerly: Great Southern. In addition, Daniel provided some tips and suggestions about submitting to Westerly and kindly shared his pathway into editing and the kind of experience that helped him land these roles, such as his experience as a PhD student and research assistant. Jacqui also spoke to Syazwani S from Hoppers Crossing Secondary College. Syazwani’s poem, “Gum Tree”, was the winner of Red Room Poetry’s Poem Forest lower secondary (year 7-9) prize.
Congratulations
Congratulations to David Lowe who along with Kate Darian-Smith, Jon Piccini, and Melanie Oppenheimer has been awarded an Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Workshop Grant for their workshop Post Pandemic Positions: Australian NGOs and education in a century of internationalism – students, experts and friends.
Congratulations to Luke Keogh who’s book The Wardian Case has won Book of the Year with the Garden Media Guild in the UK.
AHA Conference at Deakin 2022
We look forward to the 2022 AHA Conference – Urgent Histories – at Deakin Waterfront.
History-writing is proving both persistent and insistent in the face of current assaults on the human condition. The pandemic and climate change demand historians respond as both scholars and engaged citizens in the face of worldwide political efforts to realign the past to fit present imperatives. Populism and authoritarianism are undermining the humanities and revealing the urgent need for historical thinking in public and policy debate. Our response to these challenges depends on how they are understood in relation to human experiences past and present, narrated in rich historical context, and made compelling through skilled storytelling.
‘Urgent Histories’, on Wadawurrung country in Geelong, Australia, invites historians to focus on the uses and usefulness of the past in pressing contemporary public debates, disputes and narratives. It welcomes histories and history-making distinctive to the local and particular through to addressing shared human conditions.
The call for papers will close on 28 February 2022.
APH
This week on the APH website we have a book review by Deborah Lee-Talbot of the new collection What is History, Now?
Congratulations to Clare Corbould who’s 2020 piece Why is the Confederate flag so offensive? is the most read article for the year on the APH website. Congratulations also go to Richard Trembath, who’s piece Aftermath: Vietnam Veterans and their Historians is the most read piece that we published in 2021.
PROV Local History Grants Program 2021-2022
The Victorian Government recognises that local and community history is an important part of Victoria’s memory. The Local History Grants Program encourages and fosters community activities that preserve, record and share the local, social and community history of Victoria and Victorians. Applications are due by 24 January 2022. You can find further information here.
Army History Research Grants – Closing Date Extended!
The Australian Army History Unit is now accepting applications for the 2022/23 Army History Research Grants Scheme. The Scheme is designed to support and encourage original research into the history of the Australian Army. The AAHU values new or unique research that contributes to a deeper understanding of the history of the Australian Army and can contribute to Army’s current and future development and the professional military education of its members. AAHU encourages applications from a broad field of researchers, either individually or as a team. Grants are available up to a maximum amount of $15, 000 for one year. For significant research projects, multi-year grants are available for up $15, 000 per year for up to three consecutive years (to a maximum of $45, 000). If you have any questions about the grants scheme, how to apply, or whether your research is eligible, please contact AAHU.Grants@defence.gov.au. Applications close 28 January 2022, and you can find further information here.
The Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand History Network’s Public Environmental History Prize will be awarded every two years from 2022 to recognise outstanding work in public engagement on topics in the environmental history of Australia and/or Aotearoa New Zealand (broadly conceived), including international perspectives that shed new light on the environmental history of Australia and/or Aotearoa New Zealand. This prize seeks to recognise environmental historians’ leadership in public engagement and encourage researchers to build public engagement into their historical work from the ground up; and also to recognise public engagement with the field of environmental history. Applications due 1 February 2022. More information here.
Magarey Medal for Biography
This is awarded biennially to the female person who has published the work judged to be the best biographical writing on an Australian subject. The 2020 Medal will be awarded for a book published in 2020 or 2021. For the 2022 round, the Magarey Medal will be administered by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL). Applications close 31 January 2022. More information is here.
The W. K. Hancock Prize
This prize recognises and encourages an Australian scholar who has recently published a first scholarly book in any field of history. 2022 Prizes will be awarded for a work published in 2020 or 2021. Applications close 31 January 2022. Further details here.
Journal of Applied History Seeks Submissions
The Journal of Applied History, published by Brill, welcomes articles on a wide range of subjects using an Applied History approach. Information about the journal and how to submit an article is available here. The journal would be grateful if members of the Contemporary Histories Research Group at Deakin could share this information with other faculty, their networks, and advanced graduate students. Please direct any questions to CHRG affiliate Nathaniel Moir at nmoir@hks.harvard.edu
Call for Papers Reminders
‘WWII in the Asia-Pacific: Border Crossing Mobilities’ – Two-Day Workshop CFP
18-19 July 2022, online
This workshop focuses on international mobilities and migration as a way to understand the impacts of WWII across the Asia-Pacific region. Crises, including war, famine, natural disasters, political upheavals (such as revolution), epidemics and pandemics, create human mobilities and migration on a large scale. WWII was no exception. Charles Tilly describes World War II as “one of the greatest demographic whirlwinds to sweep the earth” (Tilly 2006). This demographic whirlwind also swept through the battlefields of the Asia Pacific region. This workshop will challenge dominant paradigms in both war histories and IMS and enrich various social histories of war. Proposals due 17 January 2022. More information here.