Slavery in British Guiana in the Age of Abolition, 1804-1834. British Guiana became the most important slave colony in the British Empire following the abolition of the slave trade. Its history and the experience of the slaves who made up the majority of its population is the focus of this project, designed so that rich archival sources will be used to enable slaves to speak directly about their experience. This project is expected to illuminate the character of slavery and slave resistance in a ....Slavery in British Guiana in the Age of Abolition, 1804-1834. British Guiana became the most important slave colony in the British Empire following the abolition of the slave trade. Its history and the experience of the slaves who made up the majority of its population is the focus of this project, designed so that rich archival sources will be used to enable slaves to speak directly about their experience. This project is expected to illuminate the character of slavery and slave resistance in an especially profitable but harsh slave society in a late period of slavery. It is intended to explore the alternative kinds of colonisation that were possible in the early nineteenth-century British Empire, to deepen our understanding of slave management in plantation societies and to contribute to the historical analysis of race and slavery.Read moreRead less
Mexico 1940 to 2004: Nation and Regions in an Era of Globalisation. The outcome of the project will be a major book. A related initative is the design and maintence of an interactive website devoted to contemporary Mexico. This will provide scholars, journalists, business and international agencies with a ready source of information on contemporary Mexico.
Many issues that Australia has faced have also been encountered in Mexico's relations with the global economy and especially with the Uni ....Mexico 1940 to 2004: Nation and Regions in an Era of Globalisation. The outcome of the project will be a major book. A related initative is the design and maintence of an interactive website devoted to contemporary Mexico. This will provide scholars, journalists, business and international agencies with a ready source of information on contemporary Mexico.
Many issues that Australia has faced have also been encountered in Mexico's relations with the global economy and especially with the United States Including: immigration, national security, debt, defense of cultural identity and national sovereignty.
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Theatre and autocracy in Ancient Greece. This project aims to study the relations between theatre and autocratic power in antiquity. Theatre, from the start, appealed just as much to autocrats as to democrats and throve in autocratic states for half a millennium after the extinction of the Classical democracies. While many studies trace ancient Greek theatre’s links to democracy, none explore its links to specific tyrants, monarchs or emperors. This project will examine how autocrats moulded the ....Theatre and autocracy in Ancient Greece. This project aims to study the relations between theatre and autocratic power in antiquity. Theatre, from the start, appealed just as much to autocrats as to democrats and throve in autocratic states for half a millennium after the extinction of the Classical democracies. While many studies trace ancient Greek theatre’s links to democracy, none explore its links to specific tyrants, monarchs or emperors. This project will examine how autocrats moulded the world’s first mass medium of communication to consolidate their power, and how competing interests used the theatre to share, limit or challenge that power.Read moreRead less
Cultural defences against slavery and trafficking. This project aims to study an African slave, Josefa, whose story could inform a debate about slave cultures and understanding of the legacies of slavery. Captured and shipped to Cuba for sale in the 1840s, Josefa kept alive her Sierra Leonean initiation rites. This project will use archival research and filmed oral interviews to discover how and why she managed to do this. Since the same society existed in Sierra Leone until the 1990s and its gi ....Cultural defences against slavery and trafficking. This project aims to study an African slave, Josefa, whose story could inform a debate about slave cultures and understanding of the legacies of slavery. Captured and shipped to Cuba for sale in the 1840s, Josefa kept alive her Sierra Leonean initiation rites. This project will use archival research and filmed oral interviews to discover how and why she managed to do this. Since the same society existed in Sierra Leone until the 1990s and its girls were enslaved in the civil war, this project could offer insight into defences against slavery, and the slave trade’s legacies. This could inform the fight against human trafficking today and Australia’s response to trafficking.Read moreRead less
Knowledge transfer and administrative professionalism in a pre-typographic society: observing the scribe at work in Roman and early Islamic Egypt. This examination of documents on papyrus from first millennium CE Egypt concentrates not on scribes but the evidence for the activity of writing. It will illuminate ancient scribal practice while informing understandings of ancient education, administrations, and the way knowledge has been passed down from antiquity to the present.
The Theatrical Revolution: The Expansion of Theatre Outside Athens. The growth of the Greek theatre has valuable insights for contemporary Australian concerns. The world's first medium of mass communication rapidly shaped Greek national identity, but also contributed to Athenian cultural and political hegemony. For its power to transform political practices, business, personal relationships, and ideas, the spread of theatre has been illuminatingly compared to the growth of the internet. Understa ....The Theatrical Revolution: The Expansion of Theatre Outside Athens. The growth of the Greek theatre has valuable insights for contemporary Australian concerns. The world's first medium of mass communication rapidly shaped Greek national identity, but also contributed to Athenian cultural and political hegemony. For its power to transform political practices, business, personal relationships, and ideas, the spread of theatre has been illuminatingly compared to the growth of the internet. Understanding this process is of clear concern to small nations struggling to conserve their national interest while adapting to global culture. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101110
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$345,928.00
Summary
Popular Perceptions of Roman Emperors from Augustus to Theodosius I. This project aims to examine how Roman emperors were perceived by the inhabitants of their empire, from soldiers, slaves and freedmen to senatorial aristocrats. It has two main aims: to explain the different ways in which the emperors' military, judicial, religious and moral authority was conceived, interpreted and transmitted in the Roman world; and to analyse the continuities and changes in these aspects between the first and ....Popular Perceptions of Roman Emperors from Augustus to Theodosius I. This project aims to examine how Roman emperors were perceived by the inhabitants of their empire, from soldiers, slaves and freedmen to senatorial aristocrats. It has two main aims: to explain the different ways in which the emperors' military, judicial, religious and moral authority was conceived, interpreted and transmitted in the Roman world; and to analyse the continuities and changes in these aspects between the first and fourth centuries A.D. The significance of this study lies in its demonstration that the popular reception of imperial rule is crucial to understanding how and why the institution of emperorship endured in the Roman world. This outcome will enhance scholarly and public understanding of the Roman empire.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100191
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$335,349.00
Summary
Creating the Atlantic World: transnational relationships and family ties in trading networks and voyages of discovery, 1480–1580. This project will investigate the part played by transnational family-based trade networks in laying the foundations of the Atlantic World. It will focus on merchants from the British Isles who cooperated with merchants from the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas in the South Atlantic from 1480 to 1580. This project will examine these merchants’ trading reach and the exte ....Creating the Atlantic World: transnational relationships and family ties in trading networks and voyages of discovery, 1480–1580. This project will investigate the part played by transnational family-based trade networks in laying the foundations of the Atlantic World. It will focus on merchants from the British Isles who cooperated with merchants from the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas in the South Atlantic from 1480 to 1580. This project will examine these merchants’ trading reach and the extent to which their relationships transcended national ties and traditional boundaries relating to gender, class and religion, and it will place families and hybrid networks at the heart of this neglected area of global history. It will demonstrate their influence on locations in Europe and across the Atlantic, and on emerging ideas of trade, 'discovery', settlement, colonisation and race in Britain.Read moreRead less
Communication and Media in the Development of the Post-Roman/Early Medieval and Byzantine World (fifth to eighth centuries). This project investigates an apparent contradiction: though the Roman empire fragmented into multiple states, its successors developed parallel, not diverse, cultural and political practices. I approach this issue by exploring the role and conduct of communication throughout these states. Applying new methodologies to unused sources, the study will examine the practicali ....Communication and Media in the Development of the Post-Roman/Early Medieval and Byzantine World (fifth to eighth centuries). This project investigates an apparent contradiction: though the Roman empire fragmented into multiple states, its successors developed parallel, not diverse, cultural and political practices. I approach this issue by exploring the role and conduct of communication throughout these states. Applying new methodologies to unused sources, the study will examine the practicalities of face-to-face and textual exchanges and their conceptual contexts, to track pathways of communication. This new conceptualisation of the post-imperial period will produce a book; translations with commentary of main sources; and an international symposium with proceedings (publishers are already involved in the latter two).Read moreRead less
Religion and Political Transformation: A Transnational Study of South American Independence, 1750-1840. This pathbreaking international research project strongly contributes to the internationalisation of Australian humanities and social science research. It ensures Australia's substantial participation in seminal intellectual debates during the approaching bicentenaries of the birth of modernity in Spain and Latin America. It guarantees that Australia will not become just a consumer of overseas ....Religion and Political Transformation: A Transnational Study of South American Independence, 1750-1840. This pathbreaking international research project strongly contributes to the internationalisation of Australian humanities and social science research. It ensures Australia's substantial participation in seminal intellectual debates during the approaching bicentenaries of the birth of modernity in Spain and Latin America. It guarantees that Australia will not become just a consumer of overseas research in this field. It renews Australia's intellectual and cultural capital in Iberian and Latin American Studies at a crucial moment of generational change. It contributes to an understanding of the generic links between religious radicalism and political violence in an age of fast-moving, global transformation.Read moreRead less