Anzac Day at home and abroad: a centenary history of Australia's national day. Australia is fast approaching the centenary of Anzac Day and many believe this is the one day of the year that captures the spirit of the nation. This project will examine Anzac Day's complex and much contested history, retrieving private and collective memories of war through archival research and novel and participatory public history.
Places of the Heart: Memorials in Australia since 1960. This project investigates the proliferation of non-war memorials in Australia within the framework of an emerging culture of commemoration from the mid twentieth century. It explores important shifts in the purpose of memorials and their role and meaning in Australian society, particularly the move towards a more democratic and personal expression of mourning in public arenas. The project assesses the cultural significance of particular sit ....Places of the Heart: Memorials in Australia since 1960. This project investigates the proliferation of non-war memorials in Australia within the framework of an emerging culture of commemoration from the mid twentieth century. It explores important shifts in the purpose of memorials and their role and meaning in Australian society, particularly the move towards a more democratic and personal expression of mourning in public arenas. The project assesses the cultural significance of particular sites through a nationally devised schema which takes account of their place in the landscape, their form and materiality and will contribute to contemporary heritage conservation research, policy and practice.Read moreRead less
The transition from print to electronic textuality in the scholarly editing of Australian literature: practice and theory. Scholarly editions of Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils and colonial poet Charles Harpur's Complete Poems will afford access to authenticated texts of classic works of Australian literature. The editions complete the Academy Editions of Australian Literature series, a long-term project of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. The analysis of versions will allow a newl ....The transition from print to electronic textuality in the scholarly editing of Australian literature: practice and theory. Scholarly editions of Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils and colonial poet Charles Harpur's Complete Poems will afford access to authenticated texts of classic works of Australian literature. The editions complete the Academy Editions of Australian Literature series, a long-term project of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. The analysis of versions will allow a newly informed study of the works. The Academy Editions series makes a staged transition to electronic delivery with these editions. The new methodology will lay the groundwork for future projects, and the text-authentication method may have further application. The State Library of New South Wales website will make fruits of the scholarship available to a wider public.Read moreRead less
Beijing: China's Heritage and the City as Spectacle. This project will provide the major national focus for trans-historical research on China, that is research that is grounded in traditional Sinological skills but that addresses some of the most important and long-term issues of Chinese history, culture and society and their contemporary relevance in North-east Asia and the Asia Pacific. It will provide a national hub for the focused study of late-traditional China and its contemporary relevan ....Beijing: China's Heritage and the City as Spectacle. This project will provide the major national focus for trans-historical research on China, that is research that is grounded in traditional Sinological skills but that addresses some of the most important and long-term issues of Chinese history, culture and society and their contemporary relevance in North-east Asia and the Asia Pacific. It will provide a national hub for the focused study of late-traditional China and its contemporary relevance to Australia.
This project through publications and an innovative web-presence will provide a unique opportunity for a multifaceted understanding of the underpinnings of the cultural heft that China will increasingly demonstrate in the years to come.Read moreRead less
Conciliation Narratives and the Historical Imagination in British Pacific Rim Settler Societies. This project deepens Australian understandings of the negotiated forms of conciliation that occurred between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in the colonial period to present. By comparing these with conciliation events in New Zealand and British Columbia, the Australian experience is positioned within the global context of the Pacific Rim. The project's innovative approach unites historical an ....Conciliation Narratives and the Historical Imagination in British Pacific Rim Settler Societies. This project deepens Australian understandings of the negotiated forms of conciliation that occurred between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in the colonial period to present. By comparing these with conciliation events in New Zealand and British Columbia, the Australian experience is positioned within the global context of the Pacific Rim. The project's innovative approach unites historical and legal research with material culture of extraordinary heritage significance held by three major national collecting institutions (partner organisations) and others. Among the outcomes are scholarly publications, international symposia, publicly assessable web-based and educational materials, a travelling exhibition, and professional training. Read moreRead less
Empowering Australia: Collecting and Interpreting the Material Culture of Australian Technology in New South Wales, 1880-1972. In Australian social history, the industrial museum occupies an important but largely forgotten place. Today, Sydney's exciting Powerhouse Museum is increasingly conscious of its legacy and lineage, dating from its creation as the Technological and Sanitary Museum of 1880. Nevertheless, much of the material culture of manufacture and innovation that lies in its collect ....Empowering Australia: Collecting and Interpreting the Material Culture of Australian Technology in New South Wales, 1880-1972. In Australian social history, the industrial museum occupies an important but largely forgotten place. Today, Sydney's exciting Powerhouse Museum is increasingly conscious of its legacy and lineage, dating from its creation as the Technological and Sanitary Museum of 1880. Nevertheless, much of the material culture of manufacture and innovation that lies in its collections remains uninterpreted and inaccessible to historians and the public. This project seeks to 'recover' the past of the Museum, and its role in Sydney's heritage of research, design and the applied arts; and to demonstrate the dynamic relevance of historical research to the Museum's present and forward plannning.Read moreRead less
The role of recent international exhibitions in creating a new 'Asian Art'. The project will examine the reasons for the advent in the 1990s of many new international Biennales and Trienales in the Asia-Pacific region at Brisbane, Kwangju, Fukuoka, Shanghai, and Yokohama, alongside slightly older ones at Delhi and Sydney. It will investigate what role these played in the creation of a new 'Asian Art' by looking at the cycling of art works and artists between the domestic and international levels ....The role of recent international exhibitions in creating a new 'Asian Art'. The project will examine the reasons for the advent in the 1990s of many new international Biennales and Trienales in the Asia-Pacific region at Brisbane, Kwangju, Fukuoka, Shanghai, and Yokohama, alongside slightly older ones at Delhi and Sydney. It will investigate what role these played in the creation of a new 'Asian Art' by looking at the cycling of art works and artists between the domestic and international levels, between these new exhibition sites and older ones like Venice, São Paolo, and Kassel, and at the role of local, international and transnational curators as mediators in these processes.Read moreRead less
A Creole Landscape: Jamaica in Space and Time. Comparative analysis, over time and space, enables a richer understanding of the long-term consequences of changing attitudes to landscape and their impact on the exploitation of resources. Compared to Australia, the process of creolization, moving beyond acculturation and multiculturalism, is far advanced in Jamaica, leading to a redefinition of concepts of the native, the exotic and the feral, and of ideas about conservation and wilderness. Explan ....A Creole Landscape: Jamaica in Space and Time. Comparative analysis, over time and space, enables a richer understanding of the long-term consequences of changing attitudes to landscape and their impact on the exploitation of resources. Compared to Australia, the process of creolization, moving beyond acculturation and multiculturalism, is far advanced in Jamaica, leading to a redefinition of concepts of the native, the exotic and the feral, and of ideas about conservation and wilderness. Explanation of such differences can provide important lessons for policy and planning. The project will develop and refine a methodology with potential for broad application, including Australia.Read moreRead less
Monumental Shakespeare: a transcultural investigation of commemoration in 20th-century Australia and England. Shakespeare represents a key conduit of Anglo-Australian cultural definition. This first internationally collaborative investigation of the popular, political and scholarly influences at work in the desire to commemorate Shakespeare in the 20th century - beginning with the tercentenary of his death in 1916 - will produce new knowledge about the embedding of Shakespeare into English and A ....Monumental Shakespeare: a transcultural investigation of commemoration in 20th-century Australia and England. Shakespeare represents a key conduit of Anglo-Australian cultural definition. This first internationally collaborative investigation of the popular, political and scholarly influences at work in the desire to commemorate Shakespeare in the 20th century - beginning with the tercentenary of his death in 1916 - will produce new knowledge about the embedding of Shakespeare into English and Australian cultural foundations. This transcultural investigation of the ways in which very different memorials - the National Theatre (London) and Sydney's Shakespeare Place - emerged from debates over appropriate forms for memorialisation will provide new understandings of the reproduction of Shakespearean heritage across nations, hemispheres and cities.Read moreRead less
Manchu Rivers and Mountains: rediscovering the Bannerman cultural world of nineteenth-century China and its modern heritage. The late-imperial history of China is the subject of unprecedented popular and specialist interest both in China and internationally. This Project marks an innovative Australian contribution to Chinese culture and history, mapping the cultural and social landscape of the ruling elite. As Australia engages more seriously with the Chinese world in its full complexity and his ....Manchu Rivers and Mountains: rediscovering the Bannerman cultural world of nineteenth-century China and its modern heritage. The late-imperial history of China is the subject of unprecedented popular and specialist interest both in China and internationally. This Project marks an innovative Australian contribution to Chinese culture and history, mapping the cultural and social landscape of the ruling elite. As Australia engages more seriously with the Chinese world in its full complexity and historical depth, we provide insights into the functioning of elite cultural practice during the height and initial decline of dynastic China. At a time when the dynastic past is valued positively once more in China, the Project will have lasting historical value and focus international attention on a rich area that relates to the articulation of the country's 'soft power'.Read moreRead less