Words and Their Consequences: Freedom of Expression in Britain, 1960-1979. This project plans to use contests over obscenity and racism as lenses to understand changes in freedom of expression in Britain during the 1960s and 1970s. What was the purpose of free speech? How did the liberty to write and read relate to ideas about personal autonomy? What effects do words have on those who read or hear them? Working with previously untapped archival material on regulating obscene publications and the ....Words and Their Consequences: Freedom of Expression in Britain, 1960-1979. This project plans to use contests over obscenity and racism as lenses to understand changes in freedom of expression in Britain during the 1960s and 1970s. What was the purpose of free speech? How did the liberty to write and read relate to ideas about personal autonomy? What effects do words have on those who read or hear them? Working with previously untapped archival material on regulating obscene publications and the passage of legislation against racial vilification, the project aims to provide a new history of the theory and practice of freedom of expression in modern Britain.Read moreRead less
The Rise of Decline in the Later Roman Empire. This project aims to examine the evidence for the decline of the Western Roman Empire. For over two centuries, historians have debated whether the Western Roman Empire was in decline prior to its political disintegration in the 5th century AD. This project takes a new approach by rejecting the notion that Late Roman decline can be empirically quantified. Instead, through the examination of historical, administrative, religious and literary texts it ....The Rise of Decline in the Later Roman Empire. This project aims to examine the evidence for the decline of the Western Roman Empire. For over two centuries, historians have debated whether the Western Roman Empire was in decline prior to its political disintegration in the 5th century AD. This project takes a new approach by rejecting the notion that Late Roman decline can be empirically quantified. Instead, through the examination of historical, administrative, religious and literary texts it will explore why the Late Roman elite often chose to present their own period as an age of decline. This project aims to test the hypothesis that references to economic, political and moral decline were often the result of fissures within Late Roman society prompted by radical structural reorganisation by a centralising imperial government and a newly empowered Christian Church.Read moreRead less
From Where the Fine Warships Come: Democratic Athens at War . This project aims to transform our understanding of classical Athens. This Greek state is famous for developing democracy to an extremely high level and for being the leading cultural innovator of classical Greece. Less well known is the dark side of this success story. Athens revolutionised warfare, killing tens of thousands of combatants and civilians. There is a good case that democracy itself sustained this military record. But th ....From Where the Fine Warships Come: Democratic Athens at War . This project aims to transform our understanding of classical Athens. This Greek state is famous for developing democracy to an extremely high level and for being the leading cultural innovator of classical Greece. Less well known is the dark side of this success story. Athens revolutionised warfare, killing tens of thousands of combatants and civilians. There is a good case that democracy itself sustained this military record. But this case has hardly ever been studied. By filling this big gap in our knowledge this project will be highly significant. It will massively increase capacities in research training and international collaboration. The benefits will include new ideas for better understanding the wars that democracies wage today. Read moreRead less
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
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100750
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$378,213.00
Summary
Australia and Space: Government policy and public imagination, 1957 – 2021. This project aims to be the first study to address how Australia has approached space at the public and government level from the dawn of the space age in 1957 to today. Taking a historical approach, this project employs an innovative framework that integrates Australia’s disparate space activities, analyses Australian space over a long time period, and centres the Australian experience within the global context. The pro ....Australia and Space: Government policy and public imagination, 1957 – 2021. This project aims to be the first study to address how Australia has approached space at the public and government level from the dawn of the space age in 1957 to today. Taking a historical approach, this project employs an innovative framework that integrates Australia’s disparate space activities, analyses Australian space over a long time period, and centres the Australian experience within the global context. The project is particularly timely with creation of the Australian Space Agency in mid-2018. Through publications and collaboration with space scholars and stakeholders, this project aims to inform discussion of space policy and international cooperation in space, and develop new understandings of how Australians engage with space.Read moreRead less
Enterprising women: race, gender and power in the revolutionary Atlantic, 1770-1820. This historical project will research emancipated slave women who became successful entrepreneurs in the British slave colonies in the late eighteenth-century, to show how these remarkable free black women influenced the culture of the British empire, both in the colonies and at home.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120100593
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Protecting the peace: protectors and the legal transformation of the British Empire, 1820-1850. This project will examine the impact of two new imperial offices, the Protector of Slaves and Protector of Aborigines on the legal constitution of the British Empire at a moment of rapid transformation. It will show these offices operated both as new weapons both of legal imperialism and of intimate colonial governance.
Personal liberty, British identity and surveillance in the antipodes, 1780s - 1830s. By studying surveillance in colonial Australia and South Africa, this project will come to a new understanding of what defined British liberty. It will demonstrate that our country's history lies at the centre of one of the most pressing questions of our time-how far do concepts of freedom remain tied to national and cultural particularity?
Document loss in pre-modern Europe. This project aims to map out the social and cultural effects of paper’s introduction to Europe from 1200-1800. After centuries of writing on parchment, Europeans began to use paper in the late Middle Ages. Paper proved both a gift and a curse to Europeans. Important documents could easily be destroyed or lost. This project will investigate loss as a cultural problem in history. It will trace both unintentional losses (fires, rot, vermin) and intentional ones ( ....Document loss in pre-modern Europe. This project aims to map out the social and cultural effects of paper’s introduction to Europe from 1200-1800. After centuries of writing on parchment, Europeans began to use paper in the late Middle Ages. Paper proved both a gift and a curse to Europeans. Important documents could easily be destroyed or lost. This project will investigate loss as a cultural problem in history. It will trace both unintentional losses (fires, rot, vermin) and intentional ones (censorship, document suppression, prohibitions). The project expects to uncover how obliteration led to both opened repression and blank-slate reinvention, a powerful form of cultural creativity.Read moreRead less
In the shadow of the concentration camp: responses to allied internment in Germany since 1945. The project improves Australia's understanding of a major European power and enhances national expertise in European history, memory studies and transitional justice. The project informs Australian discussions of the global modern phenomena of camps, internment without trial, regime change, democratisation, historical responsibility and justice.