Globalisation, photography, and race: the circulation and return of Aboriginal photographs in Europe. In the digital age, it has become an urgent matter to understand and balance the role of photographs of Aboriginal people within Indigenous and Western knowledge systems. This project explores their important global historical role, current meanings for descendants, and returns this significant Indigenous heritage from European collections.
Re-inventing Motherhood: Women, Breadwinning and Childcare in Australia, 1880-1980. The project aims to analyse the evolving experiences of working mothers in Australia from 1880 to 1980 to ascertain how women and their families handled the tensions between work, survival strategies, and child care. It will challenge current views of a simple dichotomy between public work and private family lives, exploring the interlinking of forms of work and care, and their intersections with class, ethnicity ....Re-inventing Motherhood: Women, Breadwinning and Childcare in Australia, 1880-1980. The project aims to analyse the evolving experiences of working mothers in Australia from 1880 to 1980 to ascertain how women and their families handled the tensions between work, survival strategies, and child care. It will challenge current views of a simple dichotomy between public work and private family lives, exploring the interlinking of forms of work and care, and their intersections with class, ethnicity and race.This will provide a significant new base for understanding the historical evolution of women's work and family life and for formulating social policy today in an age of the dual-income family.Read moreRead less
The Two Frank Thrings. A study of two lives in the context of the performing arts in twentieth-century Australia. This dual biography of F.W.Thring (1882-1936), stage and cinema entrepreneur, and his actor son Frank (1926-94), will explore two remarkable lives in relation to their performance culture and society. It will provide the first scholarly biography of both men, and through them will illuminate the history of Australian cinema and musical theatre, investigate issues of distinctively n ....The Two Frank Thrings. A study of two lives in the context of the performing arts in twentieth-century Australia. This dual biography of F.W.Thring (1882-1936), stage and cinema entrepreneur, and his actor son Frank (1926-94), will explore two remarkable lives in relation to their performance culture and society. It will provide the first scholarly biography of both men, and through them will illuminate the history of Australian cinema and musical theatre, investigate issues of distinctively national iconography and voice, and examine the complex interactions between industrial/economic forces and artistic vision. Its principal outcome will be a book that should add significantly to our knowledge of the performing arts in twentieth-century Australia, and to continuing debates in the arts.Read moreRead less
The Living Dead: witchcraft and apparition in European culture (3rd to 18th century). By providing a major monograph, an edited collection of papers by national and international scholars, and an electronic pictorial catalogue, the project will be of immense benefit to this rich new field of international research, and also help maintain the high reputation Australian scholarship enjoys in the field of medieval and early modern studies. But the relationship of societies to their dead continues t ....The Living Dead: witchcraft and apparition in European culture (3rd to 18th century). By providing a major monograph, an edited collection of papers by national and international scholars, and an electronic pictorial catalogue, the project will be of immense benefit to this rich new field of international research, and also help maintain the high reputation Australian scholarship enjoys in the field of medieval and early modern studies. But the relationship of societies to their dead continues to evoke keen interest in contemporary Australia outside the bounds of the academy. A fully researched history of Europe's changing views towards the dead will contribute to this topical discussion, made more urgent by our aging population and changes to traditional religious and cultural responses to death. Read moreRead less
The Burden of Freedom? Aboriginal Exemption Policies in Australia. This project aims to be the first major study of the clauses in Aboriginal Protection Acts that allowed Aborigines to be released from control by the government; these are also known as exemption policies. By examining rich and underutilised government archives, it aims to provide a nuanced account of how Aboriginal people negotiated the pressures and possibilities of assimilation from 1897 to 1967. At the same time, it aims to r ....The Burden of Freedom? Aboriginal Exemption Policies in Australia. This project aims to be the first major study of the clauses in Aboriginal Protection Acts that allowed Aborigines to be released from control by the government; these are also known as exemption policies. By examining rich and underutilised government archives, it aims to provide a nuanced account of how Aboriginal people negotiated the pressures and possibilities of assimilation from 1897 to 1967. At the same time, it aims to reveal how non-Aboriginal Australians imagined Aborigines becoming equal citizens. More generally, this study is expected to advance scholarly knowledge of the intricate workings and development of assimilation policy and enable a new reckoning of the legacy and practice of assimilation.Read moreRead less
Elocution Lessons: A History of Elocution, Speech and the Auditory Self in Australian Cultural Life. This project makes a contribution to the national and community benefit by showing that speech and voice has played a central role in how Australians have come to define and understand their national identity.
A study of the aural dimension of Australian culture will also shed light on how Australians have heard themselves as well. By understanding the influence of sound and listening, this p ....Elocution Lessons: A History of Elocution, Speech and the Auditory Self in Australian Cultural Life. This project makes a contribution to the national and community benefit by showing that speech and voice has played a central role in how Australians have come to define and understand their national identity.
A study of the aural dimension of Australian culture will also shed light on how Australians have heard themselves as well. By understanding the influence of sound and listening, this project will open up a new understandings of cultural life. Finally, an analysis of the shifting sonic environment through technological discoveries will highlight the ways in which the experience of listening has changed over time. Read moreRead less
Fighting for workers: a history of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1955-2012. This project provides the first book-length history of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the largest union federation in the United States. It will focus on the central theme of declining union membership and will innovatively place the AFL-CIO's problems in an international context.
Growing Australian: domesticating native plants. This project is a pioneering study of the history and meanings of growing Australian native plants. It asserts the importance of the garden in ensuring an environmentally sustainable future and argues that in order to promote more environmentally responsible gardening practices, the history of Australian cultural attitudes towards native gardens must be understood, as must the ongoing resistance to gardening with native plants. The project will a ....Growing Australian: domesticating native plants. This project is a pioneering study of the history and meanings of growing Australian native plants. It asserts the importance of the garden in ensuring an environmentally sustainable future and argues that in order to promote more environmentally responsible gardening practices, the history of Australian cultural attitudes towards native gardens must be understood, as must the ongoing resistance to gardening with native plants. The project will advance the national and international debate from one concerned with "native plant vs exotic" and "indigenous plant vs weed" to one in which the cultural ideas invested in different gardening practices can be recognised and new ways of imagining and transforming gardening practice established.Read moreRead less
Tibet's rivers in the Anthropocene: history and present trajectories. This project aims to produce a multifaceted history of the eastern Tibetan Plateau's rivers, focusing on the increasing human impacts during the Anthropocene. It will combine data from archival, cultural and oral sources in multiple languages with the results of scientific studies of river flow, water quality, and sediment, ice, and tree-rings analysis. The project will produce both historical narratives and graphic representa ....Tibet's rivers in the Anthropocene: history and present trajectories. This project aims to produce a multifaceted history of the eastern Tibetan Plateau's rivers, focusing on the increasing human impacts during the Anthropocene. It will combine data from archival, cultural and oral sources in multiple languages with the results of scientific studies of river flow, water quality, and sediment, ice, and tree-rings analysis. The project will produce both historical narratives and graphic representations that model past land and water usage. The results of the project will underpin environmental policy for this hydrologically and ecologically crucial region, including the development of a paradigm of care based on the region's indigenous cultural resources.Read moreRead less
Land and life: Aborigines, convicts and immigrants in Victoria, 1835-1985: an interdisciplinary history. This project is an interdisciplinary investigation of dispossession and colonization of southeast Australia. It uses longitudinal cohort studies to produce new findings on the impact of stress, dislocation and economic change on individuals and families across five generations.