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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Immigration Restriction and the Racial State, c. 1880 to the present. Legislating the specific criteria by which people are refused entry into sovereign territory has posed critical problems for policy and law from the late nineteenth century to the present day. By analysing the long history of medico-legal border control in the Asia-Pacific region, the project will uncover previously forgotten legal and policy links and will analyse a history of mutual influence between Australia and neighbouri ....Immigration Restriction and the Racial State, c. 1880 to the present. Legislating the specific criteria by which people are refused entry into sovereign territory has posed critical problems for policy and law from the late nineteenth century to the present day. By analysing the long history of medico-legal border control in the Asia-Pacific region, the project will uncover previously forgotten legal and policy links and will analyse a history of mutual influence between Australia and neighbouring nations. This will productively assist a policy environment (both national and international) primed for ever more intense border control. Read moreRead less
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
Health and Medicine in the Dutch East Indies: Medical Research, Health Programs, and Colonial Networks of Mediation. Investigating the culture of plural medicine in the former Dutch East Indies, where different medical cultures existed side by side, will bring a greater understanding of our closest neighbour, Indonesia, in an area of prime importance: medicine and health. It will provide a greater insight into the colonial heritage of the Dutch East Indies. It will also provide new insights in t ....Health and Medicine in the Dutch East Indies: Medical Research, Health Programs, and Colonial Networks of Mediation. Investigating the culture of plural medicine in the former Dutch East Indies, where different medical cultures existed side by side, will bring a greater understanding of our closest neighbour, Indonesia, in an area of prime importance: medicine and health. It will provide a greater insight into the colonial heritage of the Dutch East Indies. It will also provide new insights in the approach to health issues in today's Indonesia, because indigenous medicines are very popular. They are manufactured by a large industry which is currently hoping to expand its exports abroad. Read moreRead less
Enduring is the Perfection: State Formation and Socio-Cultural Change in the First Capital of Ancient Egypt (c.3200 to 1069 BCE). This is an unprecedented and systematic investigation of the Egyptian state and its extraordinarily rich society and culture over 2,000 years. It will impact profoundly on the disciplines of World History and Egyptology, confirm Australia as a world leader in ancient Mediterranean studies, and provide exciting new opportunities for academic and cultural exchanges betw ....Enduring is the Perfection: State Formation and Socio-Cultural Change in the First Capital of Ancient Egypt (c.3200 to 1069 BCE). This is an unprecedented and systematic investigation of the Egyptian state and its extraordinarily rich society and culture over 2,000 years. It will impact profoundly on the disciplines of World History and Egyptology, confirm Australia as a world leader in ancient Mediterranean studies, and provide exciting new opportunities for academic and cultural exchanges between our country and the Middle East. By making a major contribution to preserving, interpreting and explaining Egypt's magnificent but imperilled heritage, it will significantly enhance Australia's image there and underwrite our country's strategic and commercial relations with our most important partner in the Arab world. Read moreRead less
'Ordinary Writings': lower-class writing practices in the transition to mass literacy in Europe, 1800-1918. This project contributes to public debate on literacy and literacy standards. Its historical perspective offers an antidote to conventional wisdom. It will show that there is no clear separation between literacy and illiteracy, that levels of literary competence vary according to specific occasions and specific tasks, and that schooling is not necessary for literacy acquisition. It will he ....'Ordinary Writings': lower-class writing practices in the transition to mass literacy in Europe, 1800-1918. This project contributes to public debate on literacy and literacy standards. Its historical perspective offers an antidote to conventional wisdom. It will show that there is no clear separation between literacy and illiteracy, that levels of literary competence vary according to specific occasions and specific tasks, and that schooling is not necessary for literacy acquisition. It will help put Australian research in the international forefront of cultural history. It will show that written heritage deserves full recognition in all its aspects, not just as the expression of educated elites. This aspect of our written patrimony needs re-evaluation, and we need to improve preservation of it and accessibility to it.Read moreRead less
Women, War and the Stalinist State, 1941-45. This project will produce a sociocultural analysis of the experiences of Soviet women soldiers in the Second World War. It will address three pivotal questions:
Why did women assume wartime roles that challenged official representations of Soviet women?
What did the phenomenon of female fighters say about relations between women, men and the Soviet state in the 1930s-40s?
What light does this phenomenon shed on the paradox of massive mobilisation ....Women, War and the Stalinist State, 1941-45. This project will produce a sociocultural analysis of the experiences of Soviet women soldiers in the Second World War. It will address three pivotal questions:
Why did women assume wartime roles that challenged official representations of Soviet women?
What did the phenomenon of female fighters say about relations between women, men and the Soviet state in the 1930s-40s?
What light does this phenomenon shed on the paradox of massive mobilisation in defence of a repressive state?
Expected outcomes include a significant conceptual advance in the historiography of women under Stalinism, to be published in a scholarly monograph and refereed journals.
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A study of recent social movements in the Philippines. This project seeks to understand the nature and development of social movements in the Philippines since the 1970s. The Philippines is an important Australian neighbour; a point endorsed by the 2005 agreement of cooperation between the Australian Federal Police and the Philippine government. And yet, it is far too little studied in this country where there are very few specialists. Australia needs to understand the Philippines better as it w ....A study of recent social movements in the Philippines. This project seeks to understand the nature and development of social movements in the Philippines since the 1970s. The Philippines is an important Australian neighbour; a point endorsed by the 2005 agreement of cooperation between the Australian Federal Police and the Philippine government. And yet, it is far too little studied in this country where there are very few specialists. Australia needs to understand the Philippines better as it will continue to be an important ally. How the tenets of an activist group in Southeast Asia are transmitted to other potential members is necessary to Australian understandings of regional social movements, and this in turn is vital to political interactions, to NGO work, and to multicultural interactions.Read moreRead less
Post-war repatriation to Japan: citizenship, identity and integration, 1945-1956. This research project contributes to our knowledge of the region by exploring the early post-war history (in which Australian troops participated as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces) of one of Australia's most important and oldest trading partners. However, the project also has broader and more contemporary significance: on the one hand, it contributes to our knowledge of the increasingly importan ....Post-war repatriation to Japan: citizenship, identity and integration, 1945-1956. This research project contributes to our knowledge of the region by exploring the early post-war history (in which Australian troops participated as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces) of one of Australia's most important and oldest trading partners. However, the project also has broader and more contemporary significance: on the one hand, it contributes to our knowledge of the increasingly important 20th century phenomenon of mass migration, and of the development of strict state controls over population movements across national borders. On the other hand, it explores the complex integration of minority groups into national populations; this is a process which clearly has relevance beyond Japan and beyond the 1950s.Read moreRead less
Soviet state and society in the Great Patriotic War, 1941-45. This project will produce a sociocultural analysis of what motivated the mass of the Soviet citizenry to defend the Stalinist state against Hitler's onslaught in the Great Patriotic War. Its significance lies in explaining a pivotal but neglected moment in the development of the Soviet Union: massive mobilisation in defence of a repressive state. Expected outcomes include a significant conceptual advance in the understanding of Soviet ....Soviet state and society in the Great Patriotic War, 1941-45. This project will produce a sociocultural analysis of what motivated the mass of the Soviet citizenry to defend the Stalinist state against Hitler's onslaught in the Great Patriotic War. Its significance lies in explaining a pivotal but neglected moment in the development of the Soviet Union: massive mobilisation in defence of a repressive state. Expected outcomes include a significant conceptual advance in the understanding of Soviet cultural and social history to be published as a scholarly monograph as well as other contributions to international, refereed journals.Read moreRead less