New Members.
CHRG would like to extend a warm welcome to Andrew Singleton and Dario Cositore!
Andrew Singleton is Professor of Sociology and Social Research in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin. His work explores the interconnections between social and religious change, with a specific focus on Australia and the Global South. Recent research has explored teen religion and spirituality, and the history and current expressions of Spiritualism in Australia (the religion that contacts the dead). A social research practitioner, Andrew incorporates survey research, ethnography, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and archival research into his work. He is particularly interested in the application of mixed methods and deals in the dark arts of statistics. Before joining Deakin in 2015, Andrew taught in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University.
Dario Cositore is a cotutelle PhD candidate at two universities. He studies History with specialisation in Economics and Economic Institutions at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain, and Political Philosophy with a focus on critical theories of the state at the University of Naples ‘Federico II’ in Italy. His academic training is rooted in Marxist logic and epistemology, as well as in the critique of political economy and the state. Dario’s doctoral project concerns ‘Late Imperialism’. He investigates the development of the productive forces that brought about a change in production relations since the era of fluctuating exchange rates. In doing so, Dario grafts himself into the contemporary debate about economic, political, and environmental transformations.
Achievements.
Dr Jason Gibson with colleagues from the Universities of Western Australia and Adelaide, South Australian Museum, the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the Warlayirti and Warlukurlangu art centres has been awarded $487k for the ARC Linkage Project ‘Collecting at the Crossroads: Anthropology, Art & Cultural Change (1939-85)’.
The project applies current scholarship on museum collecting practices, art and anthropology to produce a better understanding of one of Australia’s most significant, yet little known, collections of Aboriginal art and culture —the Berndt Museum collection. The project will explore the legacy of this collection and generate new ways of appreciating its depth in partnership with the descendants of the Aboriginal people who made it. Focusing on materials collected in inland Australia, we will develop a collaborative means of interrogating the collection. The project will benefit Aboriginal communities and the wider Australian public via the production of on-line resources and public exhibitions celebrating this unique cultural collection.
Publications.
PhD Candidate Deborah Lee-Talbot‘s article titled ‘Why Do Not the Britaniata Come to Us?’ Locating Papuan Settlement Discourses Within 19th-Century Annexation Sketch Maps,’ has been published in The Journal of Pacific History. DOI: 10.1080/00223344.2020.1829966.
Dr. Carolyn Holbrook has written a chapter, ‘Ideas and Nationhood‘, which has been published in The Oxford Handbook of Australian Politics, edited by Jenny M. Lewis and Anne Tiernan.
Professor Klaus Neumann has had an article published on Inside Story. Titled ‘Cancelling Bismark‘, this article discusses Black Lives Matter, a princess from Zanzibar and Germany’s “moral hygiene”.
Dr. Tiffany Shellam has co-authored The Conversation’s Friday Essay, ‘5 museum objects that tell a story of colonialism and its legacy’. You can read the piece here.
Book Reviews.
Honorary Fellow Roy Hay‘s book, Albert “Pompey” Austin: A man between two worlds, has been reviewed by Gary Osmond for Sport in Society and by Gideon Haigh for The Australian.
Events.
Seminar: Publishing in a History Journal – Tips from the Editors of History Australia (online)
2 December 2020, 2pm-3:30pm AEDT
Join the editors of History Australia for a free 1.5 hour online workshop for junior scholars on getting published in history journals. Hear tips about submissions, revisions, dealing with feedback, estimating a timeline for your article, and much more. This seminar is open to any postgraduate student or early career scholar, and will suit scholars who are yet to publish an article in a journal or have only had a couple of publications thus far. If you would like to virtually attend the session, please email history.australia@mq.edu.au and Zoom details will be emailed to participants 48 hours prior to the event.
Panel: History in a time of pandemic: nourishment, consolation and guidance
3 December 2020, 5:30pm-7pm AEDT.
Join History Council of Victoria for their end of year Friends gathering and to farewell our outgoing Executive Officer, Margaret Birtley AM. Presenters include Emeritus Professor Peter McPhee, Dr Susie Protschky and Dr Yves Rees.
Australian Policy and History.
Global health pandemics, it would seem, make us reach for local remedies and cling to local identities. As state borders have closed and parochialism has increased, COVID-19 has made Australians more aware of their federal system of government than they have been for a long time. In this review of the 1919 Spanish influenza outbreak, Carolyn Holbrook finds that federal relations were even more acrimonious than they are now.
In 1952 the Menzies government passed the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act, which banned entry to ‘prohibited area[s]’, as part of its defence against the ‘red menace’. That act was barely used until 2016, when a group of Christian peace protesters entered the Pine Gap base near Alice Springs. Jon Piccini reviews Kieran Finnane’s new book about the episode, Peace Crimes, and warns about the dangers of the ubiquitous national security state.
Dr Mia Martin Hobbs finds important parallels between war crimes committed by the US and Australia in the Vietnam War and those alleged to have been committed by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan. These echoes, she argues, should cause our politicians to think carefully before sending fighting forces on counterinsurgency and anti-terror missions in the future.
The allegations of atrocities committed by Australian special forces in Afghanistan may be shocking, but they suggest continuity rather than rupture with our military past. In this article, Dr Dale Blair outlines Australia’s past involvement in war crimes, and the exalted status of Australia’s soldiers and official patronage that have obscured the truth.
The Austrian economic historian’s Walter Scheidel’s 2017 book, The Great Leveler, argues that gross inequality is the natural state of human affairs. This structure is only interrupted by events such as mass war, revolution, state failure and pandemic disease. Does COVID-19 present an opportunity to halt growing inequality and reset our economic and social order? These two books, Upturn and What Happens Next? explore the ways we might take this historic opportunity to change society for the better. Lyndon Megarrity and Richard Trembath consider their contributions.
Survey.
Notice from NLA: What do you like about the Library? What services do you access regularly? What do you want to hear more about? Help us understand your needs. Take the survey here.
Read more information about the survey here.
Opportunities.
Allan Martin Award, AHA.
The Allan Martin Award is closing soon! This offers up to $4000 for Early Career Scholars to undertake research on Australian history, with special conditions for 2021 due to Covid. Make sure to get your applications in before it closes on 1 December. Find out more here.
Funding.
Patrick-Jean Guay has identified funding opportunities that could be of interest to CHRG members. Patrick has requested to be notified (via the Faculty Research mailbox artsed-research-grants@deakin.edu.au) and via the completion of the Faculty on-line NOIS form (https://deakinuniversity-vcjls.formstack.com/forms/nois) if anyone is interested in applying to any of those opportunities. If you need any further assistance, please contact Patrick (patrick.guay@deakin.edu.au )
Balsdon and Hugh Last fellowships
British School at Rome
These enable established scholars to undertake research at the British School at Rome that will contribute to the school’s current research themes. Fellowships offer board and lodging at the BSR for three months.
Closing date: 16 Jan 21 (Forecast)
You can find more information here.
COMING SOON: Soros justice advocacy fellowships
Open Society Foundations
*** This opportunity will be available soon. The next call is expected to open soon and close in early 2021. The following information is subject to change. These fellowships support US criminal justice reform research at the local, state and national levels. Fellowships are worth up to USD 127,500 each over 18 months. ***
Closing date: 20 Jan 21 (Forecast)
You can find more information here.
Exploration grant
National Geographic Society
This enables experienced project leaders to carry out research, conservation, education, storytelling or technology projects. Grants are typically worth between USD 10,000 and USD 30,000 each for up to one year.
Closing date: 21 Jan 21 (Forecast)
You can find more information here.
Research grants
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
These support research projects which aim to safeguard the historical record, including sites, testimony and archival materials, of the Holocaust and the genocide of the Roma and which counter distortion. Grants are worth between €15,000 and €50,000 each per year.
Closing date: 22 Jan 21
You can find more information here.