Decolonisation and photography in Southeast Asia: Histories and legacies. This project aims to investigate the untold history of decolonisation in Southeast Asia through amateur soldier photographs taken on the front line of conflicts. Such photographs constitute a vast yet neglected archive that promises unique insights into encounters between combatants on all sides, and with civilians whose experiences have rarely been accessible, particularly women, children and unfree workers. The expected ....Decolonisation and photography in Southeast Asia: Histories and legacies. This project aims to investigate the untold history of decolonisation in Southeast Asia through amateur soldier photographs taken on the front line of conflicts. Such photographs constitute a vast yet neglected archive that promises unique insights into encounters between combatants on all sides, and with civilians whose experiences have rarely been accessible, particularly women, children and unfree workers. The expected outcomes of this project are to produce new understandings of violence in decolonisation and the long-term legacies of colonialism in Southeast Asia. This project also intends to provide a critical historical framework for understanding the meaning and impact of photographs taken in war.Read moreRead less
How to Feel Safe at the End of the World. This project aims to provide the first history of how early modern families created conditions to feel safe in times of crisis, revealing how ideas of safety, security and hope for the future were conceived and put into practice. Its innovative research focus explores how histories, personal and national, inform psychosocial conditions of safety and security for families and build resilience within the next generation. Expected outcomes highlight the rol ....How to Feel Safe at the End of the World. This project aims to provide the first history of how early modern families created conditions to feel safe in times of crisis, revealing how ideas of safety, security and hope for the future were conceived and put into practice. Its innovative research focus explores how histories, personal and national, inform psychosocial conditions of safety and security for families and build resilience within the next generation. Expected outcomes highlight the role of families as agents of historical change and help parents, teachers, children and youth to manage anxiety, build hope and improve life opportunities. This historical perspective on a contemporary problem has the benefit of supporting families struggling with today's changing world.Read moreRead less
Cultural values, birth and parenting: Reproductive health and Lao socialism. This project aims to provide an anthropology of procreation and parenting through ethnography of the Government of Laos’ Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health rollout as well as everyday reproduction in rural and remote Laos. It expects to generate new knowledge of core values in Laos, including those underpinning official treatment of children as human capital, difference as deprivation, and mother-and-chil ....Cultural values, birth and parenting: Reproductive health and Lao socialism. This project aims to provide an anthropology of procreation and parenting through ethnography of the Government of Laos’ Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health rollout as well as everyday reproduction in rural and remote Laos. It expects to generate new knowledge of core values in Laos, including those underpinning official treatment of children as human capital, difference as deprivation, and mother-and-child biomedical care as universal, as well as the (counter-)values lived in rural and remote practices, knowledge and sentiments. Anticipated benefits include advanced understandings of Lao culture and society, socialism as it articulates with international health and economic agendas, and the anthropology of human flourishing.Read moreRead less
Singing the News: Ballads as News Media in Europe and Australia, 1550-1920. This project aims to take advantage of new digitisation projects to reveal how songs in premodern Europe and later in Australia were used for disseminating news to the public. By analysing ballads across four centuries and five languages, the project expects to show how news-songs not only informed the public but also helped to forge national identities by exploiting the emotive and communal nature of song. Expected outc ....Singing the News: Ballads as News Media in Europe and Australia, 1550-1920. This project aims to take advantage of new digitisation projects to reveal how songs in premodern Europe and later in Australia were used for disseminating news to the public. By analysing ballads across four centuries and five languages, the project expects to show how news-songs not only informed the public but also helped to forge national identities by exploiting the emotive and communal nature of song. Expected outcomes include an innovative digital platform offering licensed recordings of ballads, a public exhibition of song treasures in Australian collections, and a re-written history of the news media industry. Benefits may include new insights into how the modern notion of Australian national identity emerged through song.Read moreRead less
Economic Sanctions after the Cold War. This project investigates the post-Cold War proliferation of economic sanctions. Advocates of sanctions see them as peaceful alternatives to armed conflict that uphold international norms without resort to force. Yet sanctions have significant and unpredictable effects and their use remains deeply contested. This project draws on detailed archival research to understand how liberal polities have come to view economic sanctions as non-violent tools of diplo ....Economic Sanctions after the Cold War. This project investigates the post-Cold War proliferation of economic sanctions. Advocates of sanctions see them as peaceful alternatives to armed conflict that uphold international norms without resort to force. Yet sanctions have significant and unpredictable effects and their use remains deeply contested. This project draws on detailed archival research to understand how liberal polities have come to view economic sanctions as non-violent tools of diplomacy and how this view has been contested by those subjected to them. By analysing the moral, political and economic theories that inform the imposition of sanctions, the research will throw new light on a crucial dimension of international politics. Read moreRead less
Resonant histories of musical encounter in Australia. This project aims to understand Australia’s cultural past by situating histories of musical encounter in the nation's Oceanic location and colonial history. Underpinned by multi-sensory conceptual frameworks, it aims to apply collaborative, intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches drawing on historical, musicological and ethnographic methods to reveal musical encounters as sites for understanding Australian history. Focusing on a format ....Resonant histories of musical encounter in Australia. This project aims to understand Australia’s cultural past by situating histories of musical encounter in the nation's Oceanic location and colonial history. Underpinned by multi-sensory conceptual frameworks, it aims to apply collaborative, intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches drawing on historical, musicological and ethnographic methods to reveal musical encounters as sites for understanding Australian history. Focusing on a formational period, 1888-1988, the project expects to generate new knowledge about Australian musical institutions, sites and intercultural encounters and aims to have benefits for the diversification of curricula, and implications for Australian cultural policy.Read moreRead less
Wild cities: an environmental history of urban nature in Australia. This project aims to understand relationships between people and nature in modern cities through their history. In an increasingly urbanised world, nature in cities is crucial for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services, but today’s urban wildlife, trees and reserves—and residents’ relationships with them—are legacies of a largely unknown past. By providing insights into the drivers of urban residents’ everyday relation ....Wild cities: an environmental history of urban nature in Australia. This project aims to understand relationships between people and nature in modern cities through their history. In an increasingly urbanised world, nature in cities is crucial for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services, but today’s urban wildlife, trees and reserves—and residents’ relationships with them—are legacies of a largely unknown past. By providing insights into the drivers of urban residents’ everyday relationships with nature from 1880-2020 and engaging the public through historical narratives, the research will inform current urban greening, conservation and restoration projects and policy. The project expects to promote urban sustainability and produce vital new insights into changing urban cultures and environments.Read moreRead less
Red Dirt Dreaming: Re-Imagining the History of Mining in Australia. The resources boom, and slowdown, have once again placed mining at the centre of the Australian economy and consciousness. Mining is a milieu of profound paradox, with changing national/international contexts and competing interests. The story of mineral exploration and exploitation thus demands fresh assessments of its social, cultural and political impact in Australia. This timely history of Australian mining examines the comp ....Red Dirt Dreaming: Re-Imagining the History of Mining in Australia. The resources boom, and slowdown, have once again placed mining at the centre of the Australian economy and consciousness. Mining is a milieu of profound paradox, with changing national/international contexts and competing interests. The story of mineral exploration and exploitation thus demands fresh assessments of its social, cultural and political impact in Australia. This timely history of Australian mining examines the complex interactions of people, land and governments and explores historical actors previously silenced—Aborigines, women, ethnic minorities and environmentalists—thereby providing an innovative new narrative of the multiple and diverse historical protagonists and processes created by Australia’s mighty geological windfall.Read moreRead less
Empire of Emergency: Martial Law and the British Empire, 1700-1865. Emergency powers are of enormous importance in the twenty-first century. Empire of Emergency aims to explain a core aspect of their development by exploring the history of martial law in the British Empire. It aims to show how martial law proliferated in British colonies after 1760, becoming a ubiquitous tool, not only for quelling colonial rebellion, but for managing disorder in difficult hinterlands in colonies as disparate as ....Empire of Emergency: Martial Law and the British Empire, 1700-1865. Emergency powers are of enormous importance in the twenty-first century. Empire of Emergency aims to explain a core aspect of their development by exploring the history of martial law in the British Empire. It aims to show how martial law proliferated in British colonies after 1760, becoming a ubiquitous tool, not only for quelling colonial rebellion, but for managing disorder in difficult hinterlands in colonies as disparate as Honduras and New South Wales. Using traditional research methods and new tools of digital analysis, this project expects to enhance our understanding of the complex relationships among violence, law, humanitarianism and liberalism that underpinned British imperial ideology at a crucial time in global history. Read moreRead less
Strategic Friendship: Anglo-German Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region. This project aims to investigate the untold history of Anglo-German cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region through hitherto neglected German archival materials. These materials point to thriving and thick webs of mutual assistance in cultural, scientific, economic, military and political affairs that successfully weakened local sovereignty but ended abruptly with World War One. The project expects to produce a new history ....Strategic Friendship: Anglo-German Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region. This project aims to investigate the untold history of Anglo-German cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region through hitherto neglected German archival materials. These materials point to thriving and thick webs of mutual assistance in cultural, scientific, economic, military and political affairs that successfully weakened local sovereignty but ended abruptly with World War One. The project expects to produce a new history challenging century-long Anglophone understandings of Anglo-German antagonism in the Asia-Pacific region. Its benefits include providing new knowledge of the history of great power relations in the Asia-Pacific region and establishing an improved historical framework for understanding strategic cooperation in our region.Read moreRead less