Sexual Offences, Legal Responses and Public Perceptions: 1880s-1980s. Testimony of sexual abuse before the current Royal Commission has exposed the historic neglect and cover-up of institutional offences. Yet, to unearth the deeper and wider dimensions of sexual offending requires scholarly historical analysis. This project aims to use qualitative and quantitative analysis to track how and why certain forms of sexual behaviour sparked public concern and provoked legal responses and public inquir ....Sexual Offences, Legal Responses and Public Perceptions: 1880s-1980s. Testimony of sexual abuse before the current Royal Commission has exposed the historic neglect and cover-up of institutional offences. Yet, to unearth the deeper and wider dimensions of sexual offending requires scholarly historical analysis. This project aims to use qualitative and quantitative analysis to track how and why certain forms of sexual behaviour sparked public concern and provoked legal responses and public inquiries from the 1880s to the 1980s. The systematic examination of these patterns through archival and published documents is intended to test the relation between shifting community and political concerns and the conduct of criminal trials.Read moreRead less
Architecture and industry: the migrant contribution to nation-building. This project aims to explore the post-war architectural, rural and industrial landscapes of Australia as shaped by the labour of displaced persons. Migrants after the Second World War were critical to the spatial making of modern Australia. Major federally-funded industries driving post-war nation-building programs depended on the employment of large numbers of war-displaced persons. While the immigrant contribution to natio ....Architecture and industry: the migrant contribution to nation-building. This project aims to explore the post-war architectural, rural and industrial landscapes of Australia as shaped by the labour of displaced persons. Migrants after the Second World War were critical to the spatial making of modern Australia. Major federally-funded industries driving post-war nation-building programs depended on the employment of large numbers of war-displaced persons. While the immigrant contribution to nation-building in cultural terms is well-known, its everyday spatial, architectural and landscape transformations remain unexamined. This project aims to bring to the foreground post-war industry and immigration to comprehensively document a how Australia has uniquely shaped its built environment.Read moreRead less
To be continued: exploring the world of novels in colonial periodicals. In the nineteenth century Australians read most of their fiction in newspapers and magazines. This project explores what novels were being reading - and where in the world this fiction came from - in order to better understand how literature travelled globally at this time and how this movement of fiction shaped Australian literature and history.
A reliable absolute chronology for the Aboriginal rock art in the Kimberley, Western Australia. The Aboriginal rock art in the Kimberley region of Western Australia is an internationally significant record of human occupation and cultural evolution. This project will determine the antiquity of human expression in one of the richest (and possibly the oldest) rock art regions in the world using advanced analytical techniques.
Collecting institutions: cultural diversity and the making of citizenship in Australia since the 1970s. This project will develop the first comprehensive history of the engagement of the Australian collecting sector with cultural diversity. It aims to understand the role of the sector in the management and promotion of culturally diverse societies, including the formation of citizens and to identify Australian innovation in this regard.
Resilient humanitarianism: the League of Red Cross Societies, 1919-1991. This project aims to advance the concept of resilient humanitarianism through a historical investigation of one humanitarian body, the League of Red Cross Societies, from its inception to the end of the Cold War. Global humanitarian crises abound due to ongoing conflict and natural disasters but nation states, bodies such as the United Nations and humanitarian organisations seem incapable of offering lasting solutions to in ....Resilient humanitarianism: the League of Red Cross Societies, 1919-1991. This project aims to advance the concept of resilient humanitarianism through a historical investigation of one humanitarian body, the League of Red Cross Societies, from its inception to the end of the Cold War. Global humanitarian crises abound due to ongoing conflict and natural disasters but nation states, bodies such as the United Nations and humanitarian organisations seem incapable of offering lasting solutions to intractable situations. This project will use rarely accessed archives and an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the evolution of humanitarianism, voluntary action and global civil society during the 20th century. This historical analysis can inform humanitarian policy, debates and practice of the present and future.Read moreRead less
Mobilising Aboriginal objects: Indigenous history in international museums . The project aims to build knowledge about exceptional, but poorly-documented, Aboriginal objects from Sydney and NSW coast (c. 1770-1920s) in British and European museums. These objects have not been accessible to Aboriginal communities and other researchers. This project proposes a major innovation: to bring objects to Sydney for community-led and interdisciplinary interpretation. Outcomes will include strong relations ....Mobilising Aboriginal objects: Indigenous history in international museums . The project aims to build knowledge about exceptional, but poorly-documented, Aboriginal objects from Sydney and NSW coast (c. 1770-1920s) in British and European museums. These objects have not been accessible to Aboriginal communities and other researchers. This project proposes a major innovation: to bring objects to Sydney for community-led and interdisciplinary interpretation. Outcomes will include strong relations between Aboriginal communities and overseas museums; a model for collaborative research about historic objects; and a material history of Aboriginal/colonial relations. It benefits communities, governments and museums by laying robust foundations for future projects seeking the return of Indigenous cultural heritage.
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Revolutionary Voyaging? Science, Politics and Discovery During the French Revolution (1789-1804). Despite the turmoil of the French Revolution, several state-sponsored scientific voyages were sent to various parts of the globe between 1789 and 1804, notably to Australia and the Pacific. This project is the first to examine these expeditions as a collective group. It seeks to determine whether they represented a new form of scientific voyaging, shaped by the radical changes of the time. It will ....Revolutionary Voyaging? Science, Politics and Discovery During the French Revolution (1789-1804). Despite the turmoil of the French Revolution, several state-sponsored scientific voyages were sent to various parts of the globe between 1789 and 1804, notably to Australia and the Pacific. This project is the first to examine these expeditions as a collective group. It seeks to determine whether they represented a new form of scientific voyaging, shaped by the radical changes of the time. It will also highlight the influence these voyages had, in return, on French debates regarding the nature of Man and human societies, our relationship with the natural world, and French understandings of Australia’s place in the world.Read moreRead less
Placenames and Personal Names in Yolngu Society and Country Through Time. The Yolngu peoples’ land and sea Country in north-east Arnhem Land is densely named, as a consequence of the actions of ancestral beings who gave shape to Country and to Yolngu society in place. Placenames are sung in ceremony, and passed down through the generations as personal names. This project aims to document the placenames of two Yolngu regions and explore what they tell us about Yolngu society as a system that has ....Placenames and Personal Names in Yolngu Society and Country Through Time. The Yolngu peoples’ land and sea Country in north-east Arnhem Land is densely named, as a consequence of the actions of ancestral beings who gave shape to Country and to Yolngu society in place. Placenames are sung in ceremony, and passed down through the generations as personal names. This project aims to document the placenames of two Yolngu regions and explore what they tell us about Yolngu society as a system that has been in place for thousands of years. In consultation with Yolngu, it aims to create an interactive map and database archive to which Yolngu historians can add in the future, providing significant benefits for a community for who consider these names to be central to their identity and wellbeing – past, present and future.Read moreRead less
The demographic consequences of migration to, from and within Australia. The long-term demographic consequences of migration to, from and within Australia, and the dynamic pathways that produced them, will be studied. This will involve the identification of the specific contributions made by international and internal migration to the age and sex population compositions of nine birthplace-specific populations from 1981 to 2011. To do this, publically available data will be collected and augmente ....The demographic consequences of migration to, from and within Australia. The long-term demographic consequences of migration to, from and within Australia, and the dynamic pathways that produced them, will be studied. This will involve the identification of the specific contributions made by international and internal migration to the age and sex population compositions of nine birthplace-specific populations from 1981 to 2011. To do this, publically available data will be collected and augmented with statistical methods to provide a complete, consistent account of population change for around 60 subnational areas. As migration and population change underpins many aspects of societal change in Australia, this research aims to provide an invaluable resource to other scientists and policy makers.Read moreRead less