The philosophical influences on anthropology. This project aims to undertake a comprehensive account of Kant’s impact on the early history of anthropology, offering a new framework for understanding philosophy’s role as a cultural force in society. The project will investigate the importance of Kant’s twin narratives of progressive human development and racial difference for understanding the course taken by anthropology when determining government policies regarding race relations. The benefit ....The philosophical influences on anthropology. This project aims to undertake a comprehensive account of Kant’s impact on the early history of anthropology, offering a new framework for understanding philosophy’s role as a cultural force in society. The project will investigate the importance of Kant’s twin narratives of progressive human development and racial difference for understanding the course taken by anthropology when determining government policies regarding race relations. The benefit of this reconstruction will be the identification of contemporary examples of Kant’s continued legacy, especially in the context of legacies of racial bias, and to the nature of claimed racial and ethnic identities.Read moreRead less
Passionate Knowledge: The Ethics and Politics of the Scientific Revoution. Modern science and the modern state came to the world together. They emerged from the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century, which changed not only the way people understood the world, but how they understood themselves as individuals and communities. By analysing scientific, philosophical and political documents, some canonical and some rarely read, this project aims to reveal the ethical and political implications o ....Passionate Knowledge: The Ethics and Politics of the Scientific Revoution. Modern science and the modern state came to the world together. They emerged from the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century, which changed not only the way people understood the world, but how they understood themselves as individuals and communities. By analysing scientific, philosophical and political documents, some canonical and some rarely read, this project aims to reveal the ethical and political implications of the rise of modern science. It is expected to be the first comprehensive study of the co-formation of science and the state in their era of origin, shedding crucial and surprising light on the place of science in culture and politics ever since.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120102368
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
The making of the modern chemist: struggles within Enlightenment science. The project will reinterpret the emergence of modern chemistry by challenging the iconic revolution-centred approach to the history of early modern science. Examining scientific successes alongside crises and revolutionaries alongside reactionaries, the project will chart chemists' long struggle for disciplinary independence in the Enlightenment.
Banning ideas, burning books: the dynamics of censorship in classical antiquity. How to balance the right to free speech and dissent against other legitimate concerns is an issue that is always with us. This project explores neglected literary evidence from antiquity to study responses to controversial ideas in order to enhance the modern debate on the limits of freedom of speech.
The philosophical foundations of women’s rights: a new history, 1600-1750. This project aims to show that the history of women’s rights is much longer and richer than previously thought. There is a common perception that the notion of women’s rights first emerged in the late eighteenth century. This project expects to generate a new understanding of feminist history by investigating texts calling for the recognition of women’s dignity, worth, nobility, and excellence (cognate concepts to rights) ....The philosophical foundations of women’s rights: a new history, 1600-1750. This project aims to show that the history of women’s rights is much longer and richer than previously thought. There is a common perception that the notion of women’s rights first emerged in the late eighteenth century. This project expects to generate a new understanding of feminist history by investigating texts calling for the recognition of women’s dignity, worth, nobility, and excellence (cognate concepts to rights) in England and Europe from 1600 to 1750, against the backdrop of the rise of Cartesianism. The anticipated outcome is greater awareness of an enduring feminist tradition within the history of philosophy. The expected social benefits include a shift in public thinking about feminist history and women in philosophy.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101612
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$334,746.00
Summary
The republic of feeling: Literary friendship between women, 1750-1830. This project will investigate a rare archive of letters and manuscript materials to examine forms of literary friendship between women in the eighteenth century. This was a period of unprecedented globalisation: letter-based networks stretched across continents. Such connections were conceived in terms of a modern Republic of Letters, an idealised fraternity of scholars and writers who set aside differences in order to foster ....The republic of feeling: Literary friendship between women, 1750-1830. This project will investigate a rare archive of letters and manuscript materials to examine forms of literary friendship between women in the eighteenth century. This was a period of unprecedented globalisation: letter-based networks stretched across continents. Such connections were conceived in terms of a modern Republic of Letters, an idealised fraternity of scholars and writers who set aside differences in order to foster the exchange of information and ideas. This study of fresh manuscript materials will assist in exploring the history of English-speaking intellectual networks and international exchange in early modernity and the place of women within them. The project is located within the long history of global, material and intellectual exchanges in which European Australia was settled. Looking to the past, the project simultaneously contributes to contemporary debates over the possibilities and pitfalls of cultural ‘cosmopolitanism’ as a mode of transnational exchange.Read moreRead less
The quest for the 'I': reaching a better understanding of the self through Hegel and Heidegger. The conception of the 'I' is central to our lives. The more multicultural a country is, the more pressing becomes the question of the conception of the self. Focusing on the thought of Hegel and Heidegger, this project aims to offer a richer account that avoids individualism and allows thinking of the formation of the self as a collective enterprise.
The cultural logic of Queensland architecture: place, taste and economy. The project seeks a better understanding of the cultural role of architecture in Queensland, interrogating notions of place, climate, and art, as they have been used to describe local architecture past and present. This will illuminate the strategies and effects of state support for architecture as a cultural activity and object of taste.
Indigenous land claims in historical context. By enlightening the history of Indigenous legal opposition to dispossession from the beginning of colonisation, this project will provide a means of engaging with the political challenges and responses posed by legal conflicts with Indigenous peoples over the question of land.
Corporations as sovereigns. This project aims to investigate the history of the relationship between the corporation and the state to understand tensions between states and large multinational corporations. Such tensions are as old as the state system itself and can only be reconstructed through history. The project will focus on chartered companies’ attempt to present themselves as forms of sovereign, or quasi-sovereign, political systems, bringing them into rivalry with the sovereign claims of ....Corporations as sovereigns. This project aims to investigate the history of the relationship between the corporation and the state to understand tensions between states and large multinational corporations. Such tensions are as old as the state system itself and can only be reconstructed through history. The project will focus on chartered companies’ attempt to present themselves as forms of sovereign, or quasi-sovereign, political systems, bringing them into rivalry with the sovereign claims of states. This project is expected to provide a deeper understanding of the political character of corporations.Read moreRead less