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
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
Countering the Cold War: interactions between Australia and India, through the lens of the women's movements, 1945 - 1975. This project traces how international interactions between Australian and Indian women's activists were sustained and expanded during the Cold War. Understanding these nuanced interactions in difficult circumstances offers insights into how to nurture today's relationships between students, businesses and the cultural industries of both countries.
The meritocratic moment in West Germany, Singapore, and Japan. This project aims to investigate the history of meritocratic ideas in West Germany, Singapore and Japan. The project will generate new knowledge on the ways in which democratic societies built political legitimacy after World War II by analysing the history of education reforms. Expected outcomes include a deeper understanding of the historical conditions which promote social cohesion in modern societies. This project should provide ....The meritocratic moment in West Germany, Singapore, and Japan. This project aims to investigate the history of meritocratic ideas in West Germany, Singapore and Japan. The project will generate new knowledge on the ways in which democratic societies built political legitimacy after World War II by analysing the history of education reforms. Expected outcomes include a deeper understanding of the historical conditions which promote social cohesion in modern societies. This project should provide significant benefits by fostering social and educational policy-making which enhances the political legitimacy and stability of parliamentarian democracies in Australia and around the world.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120100474
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Perilous embassies: diplomatic encounters between Europe and Asia, 1600-1800. This project examines a series of European embassies dispatched to the most powerful states in Asia and uses them to reassess the nature of the global encounter between Europe and Asia in the early modern period.
Disaster, human suffering and Colonial photography. This project aims to investigate how photography shaped modern understandings of disaster. During the period modern European empires were at their most expansive, they became increasingly interventionist in indigenous environments and societies. The project will use rich but largely neglected sources from colonial Indonesia (c.1840-1950) to study how images of human suffering in different disaster contexts evolved since the invention of photogr ....Disaster, human suffering and Colonial photography. This project aims to investigate how photography shaped modern understandings of disaster. During the period modern European empires were at their most expansive, they became increasingly interventionist in indigenous environments and societies. The project will use rich but largely neglected sources from colonial Indonesia (c.1840-1950) to study how images of human suffering in different disaster contexts evolved since the invention of photography. Understanding how and why European expansion shaped modern ideas about disasters, and how photography has developed to communicate human suffering, is expected to benefit community and scholarly awareness of environmental disaster, war and their effects.Read moreRead less
Claiming possession: Asia, Europe and empire. This project aims to reassess the nature of claims to possession across the early modern world. Claiming created the borders we take for granted and its legal artefacts are everywhere evident. Claiming was never only a European enterprise, and Asia was and remains an active site for claiming. The project will examine how Europeans claimed possession over people, lands and resources in the shadow of powerful Asian states and charts the emergence of lo ....Claiming possession: Asia, Europe and empire. This project aims to reassess the nature of claims to possession across the early modern world. Claiming created the borders we take for granted and its legal artefacts are everywhere evident. Claiming was never only a European enterprise, and Asia was and remains an active site for claiming. The project will examine how Europeans claimed possession over people, lands and resources in the shadow of powerful Asian states and charts the emergence of local counterclaims and processes of legal resistance. The research will also analyse Asian polities’ historical claiming practices across borderland areas. This project could show how practices developed in the early modern period influence current sovereignty disputes in the South and East China Seas.Read moreRead less
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.