Assimilating Modernity: The Harmonisation of Liberal, Socialist and Conservative Thought in Modern China, 1921-1949. The project will enable Australian policy makers to understand the way in which Chinese intellectuals grappled with the issue of modernity and questions about liberalism, socialism and conservatism in the recent past. This is important because the Chinese elites are tackling similar issues today as they face the challenges of globalisation. Knowing the role of China's public intel ....Assimilating Modernity: The Harmonisation of Liberal, Socialist and Conservative Thought in Modern China, 1921-1949. The project will enable Australian policy makers to understand the way in which Chinese intellectuals grappled with the issue of modernity and questions about liberalism, socialism and conservatism in the recent past. This is important because the Chinese elites are tackling similar issues today as they face the challenges of globalisation. Knowing the role of China's public intellectuals and their way of thinking, both past and present, is critical to a further strengthening of Australia's relations with China. The project will benefit the wider community as Australians interact and deal with the Chinese intellectually and culturally, as well as in trade, politics, diplomacy and tourism.
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Planetary Health Histories: Developing Concepts. This historical research project aims to explain the conceptual development of the new planetary health, the principal means of assessing impacts of climate change and global environmental degradation on human health. Using a novel combination of history of science and medicine, environmental history, international history and Indigenous studies, this research is expected to show how environmental health and disease ecology have been re-framed and ....Planetary Health Histories: Developing Concepts. This historical research project aims to explain the conceptual development of the new planetary health, the principal means of assessing impacts of climate change and global environmental degradation on human health. Using a novel combination of history of science and medicine, environmental history, international history and Indigenous studies, this research is expected to show how environmental health and disease ecology have been re-framed and scaled up in the past century to address the effects of global warming. The project will examine critically this intellectual formation, exploring its potential in global health and revealing its blind spots and omissions, especially in relation to Indigenous knowledge and structural inequalities.Read moreRead less
European Naturalists and the Constitution of Human Difference in Oceania: Crosscultural Encounters and the Science of Race, 1768-1888. This research will promote better understanding of the historical antecedents to contemporary Australian regional interventions, relations with our neighbours and conceptions of racial or ethnic differences. It thus directly addresses current debates on the politics of history. The assumptions about regional differences which underpin current Australian attitudes ....European Naturalists and the Constitution of Human Difference in Oceania: Crosscultural Encounters and the Science of Race, 1768-1888. This research will promote better understanding of the historical antecedents to contemporary Australian regional interventions, relations with our neighbours and conceptions of racial or ethnic differences. It thus directly addresses current debates on the politics of history. The assumptions about regional differences which underpin current Australian attitudes and policies stem from much earlier debates on the racial histories and collective physical variations of Oceanian people and from beliefs about natural European dominance over indigenous populations. This project will produce an accessible history of the genesis of such ideas and demonstrate the historical embeddedness of Australia within the wider context of Oceania.Read moreRead less
Ethics and encyclopaedic culture in 13th-century France: adaptation, diffusion and contexts of innovation in the Speculum morale and its sources. This project will contribute to awareness of the ethical foundations of the Western intellectual tradition, both philosophical and religious, through studying an influential encyclopaedia of ethical instruction from 1300, known as the Speculum morale and its relationship to the evolution of ethical teaching in France during the 13th century. It will de ....Ethics and encyclopaedic culture in 13th-century France: adaptation, diffusion and contexts of innovation in the Speculum morale and its sources. This project will contribute to awareness of the ethical foundations of the Western intellectual tradition, both philosophical and religious, through studying an influential encyclopaedia of ethical instruction from 1300, known as the Speculum morale and its relationship to the evolution of ethical teaching in France during the 13th century. It will develop text similarity detection software for use with Latin texts, and by implication within humanistic studies more generally. Through connecting with an international research project into medieval encyclopaedic culture, it will enable Australian expertise in both medieval studies and information technology to become internationally recognised.Read moreRead less
Place, taste and tradition: A history of ideas about heritage in Western Australia as a foundation for change. This project aims to provide an agenda for change in heritage practice and legislation in Western Australia. It will do this through exploring a history of ideas about heritage and the built environment to trace a genealogy of a growing awareness of heritage in a variety of forms in Western Australia, and the more recent history of the heritage movement through the National Trust in We ....Place, taste and tradition: A history of ideas about heritage in Western Australia as a foundation for change. This project aims to provide an agenda for change in heritage practice and legislation in Western Australia. It will do this through exploring a history of ideas about heritage and the built environment to trace a genealogy of a growing awareness of heritage in a variety of forms in Western Australia, and the more recent history of the heritage movement through the National Trust in Western Australia. This project will provide historical understanding to current practice, an agenda for legislative and practical change within the heritage arena, a history of the National Trust of Western Australia and several scholarly articles.Read moreRead less
A Cultural History of Information: Lessons from the Enlightenment. The significance of this project is that it places the idea of 'information explosion' in historical perspective. In early modern Europe (circa 1600-1800) there were already anxieties about 'the multitude of books', the expansion of the sciences, and threats to the ideal of a rounded education. The attempted solutions, such as the use of commonplace books, journals, encyclopaedias and library catalogues, emerged as responses duri ....A Cultural History of Information: Lessons from the Enlightenment. The significance of this project is that it places the idea of 'information explosion' in historical perspective. In early modern Europe (circa 1600-1800) there were already anxieties about 'the multitude of books', the expansion of the sciences, and threats to the ideal of a rounded education. The attempted solutions, such as the use of commonplace books, journals, encyclopaedias and library catalogues, emerged as responses during the Enlightenment, and subsequently became part of our current system of information management. Outcomes will include a scholarly book and another which links earlier problems and responses to current debates.Read moreRead less
Princes, power, and the battle for the past: official historiography in renaissance Italy, 1400-1500. This study will be the first in any language to investigate in a systematic way the official histories produced by humanists in the courts and chanceries of renaissance Italy. The study will present evidence suggesting that, contrary to what is usually thought, such histories were a key contributor to the development of modern historical writing.
Naming Oceania: geography, raciology and local knowledge in the 'fifth part of the world', 1511-1920. A history of the marriage of space and race in our region restores Australia to regional histories and wider Oceania to global histories. It offers a grounded basis to grasp how regional, national and local nomenclatures and identities mutated over 400 years, in contexts of European exploration, imperialism, colonisation, emergence of the science of race and intensifying face-to-face encounters. ....Naming Oceania: geography, raciology and local knowledge in the 'fifth part of the world', 1511-1920. A history of the marriage of space and race in our region restores Australia to regional histories and wider Oceania to global histories. It offers a grounded basis to grasp how regional, national and local nomenclatures and identities mutated over 400 years, in contexts of European exploration, imperialism, colonisation, emergence of the science of race and intensifying face-to-face encounters. By uncovering traces of past naming systems, Indigenous and foreign, the research will show how present names and boundaries of states, places and people are constructs rather than eternal truths. It will cast light on the antecedents to modern Australian regional interventions, neighbourly relations and conceptions of racial or ethnic differences.Read moreRead less
Tibet's rivers in the Anthropocene: history and present trajectories. This project aims to produce a multifaceted history of the eastern Tibetan Plateau's rivers, focusing on the increasing human impacts during the Anthropocene. It will combine data from archival, cultural and oral sources in multiple languages with the results of scientific studies of river flow, water quality, and sediment, ice, and tree-rings analysis. The project will produce both historical narratives and graphic representa ....Tibet's rivers in the Anthropocene: history and present trajectories. This project aims to produce a multifaceted history of the eastern Tibetan Plateau's rivers, focusing on the increasing human impacts during the Anthropocene. It will combine data from archival, cultural and oral sources in multiple languages with the results of scientific studies of river flow, water quality, and sediment, ice, and tree-rings analysis. The project will produce both historical narratives and graphic representations that model past land and water usage. The results of the project will underpin environmental policy for this hydrologically and ecologically crucial region, including the development of a paradigm of care based on the region's indigenous cultural resources.Read moreRead less
Medieval Virtue Ethics and the Formation of the Feminine Moral Subject: Jeanne of Navarre to Marguerite of Navarre (1285-1550). This research will generate fresh community awareness of the importance of teaching ethics in everyday rather than academic language, with a particular relevance to women, thus contributing to the national debate about what constitutes values education. By showing how famous women writers were not isolated individuals, but adapted an established tradition of communicati ....Medieval Virtue Ethics and the Formation of the Feminine Moral Subject: Jeanne of Navarre to Marguerite of Navarre (1285-1550). This research will generate fresh community awareness of the importance of teaching ethics in everyday rather than academic language, with a particular relevance to women, thus contributing to the national debate about what constitutes values education. By showing how famous women writers were not isolated individuals, but adapted an established tradition of communicating ethics to women, the research will contribute to contemporary debates about the relevance of the teaching of ethics. The project will develop further existing close connections between Australian scholars and researchers in both Europe and the USA.Read moreRead less