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
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL200100144
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,801,473.00
Summary
Population policy in modern world history: Challenges from the Asia Pacific. As the planet approaches 8 billion, international debate on population will be ignited again. This project aims to capitalise on Australia’s place in the global South, to lead a distinctively regional perspective on how population policies emerged, and what their present legacies are. Comparing Australia, Japan, India and China, the project intends to analyse highly diverse polities, challenging Europe-outward theses on ....Population policy in modern world history: Challenges from the Asia Pacific. As the planet approaches 8 billion, international debate on population will be ignited again. This project aims to capitalise on Australia’s place in the global South, to lead a distinctively regional perspective on how population policies emerged, and what their present legacies are. Comparing Australia, Japan, India and China, the project intends to analyse highly diverse polities, challenging Europe-outward theses on modernisation and development. This promises a much-improved historical model with which we might better assess the enduring population-environment-economy nexus well into the 21st century. The project should energise a new form of world history writing, boosting Australia's reputation as a leader in big-idea histories.Read moreRead less
Imagining India in white Australia: Inter-colonial relations and the empire, 1901-1950. This project will take a historical perspective on the Australia-India relationship within the broader context of the British Empire, focussing on important developments during a period, 1901-1950, that often falls outside the purview of International Relations studies, delivering a deeper understanding of past intercolonial relations.
A transcolonial history of domestic service in the Asia-Pacific. This transcolonial history of male domestic service in the Asia-Pacific explores the ways in which colonial cultural norms were shaped by the interactions between European colonists and the Asian and indigenous peoples that worked for them. We aim to develop a regional perspective on colonialism that includes networks outside the British world.
Chinese indentured labour in the colonial Asia Pacific region, 1919–1966. This project aims to investigate the abolition of Chinese indenture in the Asia Pacific region after 1919. It intends to investigate whether labour standards set by the International Labor Organization (ILO) were able to influence and overcome the European colonial preference for coerced migrant labour. The project expects to generate new knowledge about Australian, Chinese and global attitudes towards labour migration, by ....Chinese indentured labour in the colonial Asia Pacific region, 1919–1966. This project aims to investigate the abolition of Chinese indenture in the Asia Pacific region after 1919. It intends to investigate whether labour standards set by the International Labor Organization (ILO) were able to influence and overcome the European colonial preference for coerced migrant labour. The project expects to generate new knowledge about Australian, Chinese and global attitudes towards labour migration, by combining a comparative regional approach with detailed case studies of Southeast Asia and the Pacific.Read moreRead less
Mrs O'Keefe and the battle for white Australia: The O'Keefe Deportation Case of 1949 and the unravelling of the White Australia Policy. The purpose of this project is to better understand the decline of the White Australia Policy by providing the first detailed examination of the policy in the 1940s. The resulting book will provide a timely examination of themes such as border protection, refugees, race and immigration policy.
Traffic in women and girls in the Asia Pacific region, 1865-1940. This project will offer a critical analysis of historical narratives on the traffic in women within Asia Pacific networks. It will position Australian history at the forefront of international research on transnational history, informed by race and gender studies and considers parallels with today’s human trafficking debates.
A cultural history of food safety from Singapore. This project aims to trace how ordinary people’s thinking about food safety has changed over time; from this, we can investigate food safety techniques and practices by government and industry. In studying Singapore, which has always imported nearly all food, the project expects to generate new lessons from Singapore's history that may widely apply in an era of globalisation and contemporary food system complexity. Benefits of the project include ....A cultural history of food safety from Singapore. This project aims to trace how ordinary people’s thinking about food safety has changed over time; from this, we can investigate food safety techniques and practices by government and industry. In studying Singapore, which has always imported nearly all food, the project expects to generate new lessons from Singapore's history that may widely apply in an era of globalisation and contemporary food system complexity. Benefits of the project include assisting food exporters and other food safety stakeholders in Australia to better understand the origins and complexity of food safety thinking.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100330
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$359,966.00
Summary
Empire and religion in early modern Inner Asia, 1650-1800. This project aims to re-examine China’s imperial expansion from the perspective of the Qing dynasty’s chief rivals in Inner Asia—the Junghar Mongols. Stretching from Siberia to Afghanistan, their nomadic empire linked the steppe with the Silk Road, and the Buddhist and Islamic worlds. Grounded in multilingual research in Chinese and Russian archives, and wide reading in Inner Asian chronicles and hagiographies, the project seeks to eluci ....Empire and religion in early modern Inner Asia, 1650-1800. This project aims to re-examine China’s imperial expansion from the perspective of the Qing dynasty’s chief rivals in Inner Asia—the Junghar Mongols. Stretching from Siberia to Afghanistan, their nomadic empire linked the steppe with the Silk Road, and the Buddhist and Islamic worlds. Grounded in multilingual research in Chinese and Russian archives, and wide reading in Inner Asian chronicles and hagiographies, the project seeks to elucidate the micropolitics of the Eurasian borderlands, and the non-Chinese narratives that accompanied the creation of China as we know it today. By offering a new account of early modern Inner Asian history, this project expects to advance the fields of Chinese, Inner Asian and imperial history in Australia.Read moreRead less
Pearls, People, and Power: the Transformation of the Indian Ocean World. This multidisciplinary project aims to be the first transoceanic investigation of pearling in the Indian Ocean World (IOW), focusing on the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, India/Sri Lanka, Sulu Sea and northern Australia. It will use commodity-based historical analyses and object-centred biographies to undertake comparative studies of labour systems, trade networks and the cultural value of pearls/pearl shell during an era marked by ....Pearls, People, and Power: the Transformation of the Indian Ocean World. This multidisciplinary project aims to be the first transoceanic investigation of pearling in the Indian Ocean World (IOW), focusing on the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, India/Sri Lanka, Sulu Sea and northern Australia. It will use commodity-based historical analyses and object-centred biographies to undertake comparative studies of labour systems, trade networks and the cultural value of pearls/pearl shell during an era marked by the spread of European imperialism and industrialisation. The project includes historical, ethnographic and film components and is expected to produce texts, films and museum displays. It is also designed to deliver a new understanding of the IOW past, and a new appreciation of Australia's place in IOW history.Read moreRead less