The meritocratic moment in West Germany, Singapore, and Japan. This project aims to investigate the history of meritocratic ideas in West Germany, Singapore and Japan. The project will generate new knowledge on the ways in which democratic societies built political legitimacy after World War II by analysing the history of education reforms. Expected outcomes include a deeper understanding of the historical conditions which promote social cohesion in modern societies. This project should provide ....The meritocratic moment in West Germany, Singapore, and Japan. This project aims to investigate the history of meritocratic ideas in West Germany, Singapore and Japan. The project will generate new knowledge on the ways in which democratic societies built political legitimacy after World War II by analysing the history of education reforms. Expected outcomes include a deeper understanding of the historical conditions which promote social cohesion in modern societies. This project should provide significant benefits by fostering social and educational policy-making which enhances the political legitimacy and stability of parliamentarian democracies in Australia and around the world.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120100474
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Perilous embassies: diplomatic encounters between Europe and Asia, 1600-1800. This project examines a series of European embassies dispatched to the most powerful states in Asia and uses them to reassess the nature of the global encounter between Europe and Asia in the early modern period.
Disaster, human suffering and Colonial photography. This project aims to investigate how photography shaped modern understandings of disaster. During the period modern European empires were at their most expansive, they became increasingly interventionist in indigenous environments and societies. The project will use rich but largely neglected sources from colonial Indonesia (c.1840-1950) to study how images of human suffering in different disaster contexts evolved since the invention of photogr ....Disaster, human suffering and Colonial photography. This project aims to investigate how photography shaped modern understandings of disaster. During the period modern European empires were at their most expansive, they became increasingly interventionist in indigenous environments and societies. The project will use rich but largely neglected sources from colonial Indonesia (c.1840-1950) to study how images of human suffering in different disaster contexts evolved since the invention of photography. Understanding how and why European expansion shaped modern ideas about disasters, and how photography has developed to communicate human suffering, is expected to benefit community and scholarly awareness of environmental disaster, war and their effects.Read moreRead less
Claiming possession: Asia, Europe and empire. This project aims to reassess the nature of claims to possession across the early modern world. Claiming created the borders we take for granted and its legal artefacts are everywhere evident. Claiming was never only a European enterprise, and Asia was and remains an active site for claiming. The project will examine how Europeans claimed possession over people, lands and resources in the shadow of powerful Asian states and charts the emergence of lo ....Claiming possession: Asia, Europe and empire. This project aims to reassess the nature of claims to possession across the early modern world. Claiming created the borders we take for granted and its legal artefacts are everywhere evident. Claiming was never only a European enterprise, and Asia was and remains an active site for claiming. The project will examine how Europeans claimed possession over people, lands and resources in the shadow of powerful Asian states and charts the emergence of local counterclaims and processes of legal resistance. The research will also analyse Asian polities’ historical claiming practices across borderland areas. This project could show how practices developed in the early modern period influence current sovereignty disputes in the South and East China Seas.Read moreRead less
Submerged Histories: Memory Activism in Indonesia and the Netherlands. This project aims to investigate the recent emergence of joint Indonesian and Dutch activism to demand recognition of submerged and marginalised cases of historical violence, economic exploitation and racism. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the interdisciplinary field of memory studies by discovering the motivations, strategies and future plans of these unique forms of collaboration. Expected outcomes of thi ....Submerged Histories: Memory Activism in Indonesia and the Netherlands. This project aims to investigate the recent emergence of joint Indonesian and Dutch activism to demand recognition of submerged and marginalised cases of historical violence, economic exploitation and racism. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the interdisciplinary field of memory studies by discovering the motivations, strategies and future plans of these unique forms of collaboration. Expected outcomes of this project include new insights into how these activists are affecting change in public institutions such as museums and setting trends in global social movements. This should provide significant benefits for understanding how memory activism is changing complex multi-ethnic societies.Read moreRead less
Ayahs and Amahs: Transcolonial Servants in Australia and Britain 1780-1945. This project looks at female domestic care workers from India and China who travelled to Australia and elsewhere during the period of British colonialism. Accompanying colonial families along circuits of empire between Australia, Asia, and the UK over two centuries, these were extraordinarily mobile women. By exploring the historical experiences and cultural memories of these earliest global domestic workers, the project ....Ayahs and Amahs: Transcolonial Servants in Australia and Britain 1780-1945. This project looks at female domestic care workers from India and China who travelled to Australia and elsewhere during the period of British colonialism. Accompanying colonial families along circuits of empire between Australia, Asia, and the UK over two centuries, these were extraordinarily mobile women. By exploring the historical experiences and cultural memories of these earliest global domestic workers, the project aims to illuminate a broader transcolonial history of domestic work. Expected outcomes include a number of publications and a website; and the project offers the social and cultural benefits to be gained by advancing our historical understanding of the forgotten cross-cultural relationships that have shaped our world today.Read moreRead less
Empires of honour: violence and virtue in colonial societies, 1750-1850. The moral sentiments and moral practices of any society depend on how that society understands honour. This project will show how different concepts of honour clashed or were recreated through global movements of people in the age of empire, and investigate the enduring effects of such contests in the colonial societies of the India-Pacific region.
Spare parts: the cultural history of organ transplantation. Organ transplantation is of considerable contemporary concern to Australians. Despite decades of campaigns seeking organ donors, this country has one of the world's lowest donation rates. This study will explore how this situation arose and offer a new understanding of the factors that impinge upon people's perceptions of transplantation.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101770
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$327,841.00
Summary
Secularism and Philosophy: The Challenge of Spinozism. With the resurgence of religious conflict throughout the world, the question of secularism has acquired renewed importance. Nowhere has the plausibility of a secular worldview been more rigorously debated than within the history of philosophy, and no philosopher has aroused more controversy on this subject than Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677). This project will result in the first history of Spinozism's pivotal role in the history of secular ....Secularism and Philosophy: The Challenge of Spinozism. With the resurgence of religious conflict throughout the world, the question of secularism has acquired renewed importance. Nowhere has the plausibility of a secular worldview been more rigorously debated than within the history of philosophy, and no philosopher has aroused more controversy on this subject than Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677). This project will result in the first history of Spinozism's pivotal role in the history of secularism, focusing on three distinct episodes of philosophical conflict generated by Spinoza's thought from the late eighteenth century to the present. The study will make clear that secularism is not simply a social and political phenomenon, but a philosophical conundrum, thus far irresolvable.Read moreRead less
War and displacement: from the Soviet Union to Australia in the wake of the Second World War. This project studies postwar immigrants who came from the Soviet Union via Displaced Persons camps in Europe and elsewhere and encountered an Australia already in the grip of Cold War anti-communism and spy mania. Transnational in scope, themes and sources, this project adds a new strand to the story of the making of the Australian people.