Empires of honour: violence and virtue in colonial societies, 1750-1850. The moral sentiments and moral practices of any society depend on how that society understands honour. This project will show how different concepts of honour clashed or were recreated through global movements of people in the age of empire, and investigate the enduring effects of such contests in the colonial societies of the India-Pacific region.
Reform in the antipodes: Quaker humanitarians, imperial journeys and early histories of human rights. This study adds an important new chapter to the history of human rights by examining Quaker humanitarian tours to the antipodean colonies of Australia, Mauritius, and the Cape Colony, which led to major imperial reforms in the treatment of slaves, Indigenous peoples, convicts and indentured labourers in the British Empire.
The memory of the Holocaust in Australia. This project aims to produce a cultural history of Holocaust memory in Australia. Contemporary appeals to the memory of the Holocaust in the Australian setting are typically understood to illuminate the injustice of other instances of racial persecution. This project aims to uncover this memory’s far more complex and politically potent history. Through detailed archival and cultural analysis of key moments in the development of Australian Holocaust memor ....The memory of the Holocaust in Australia. This project aims to produce a cultural history of Holocaust memory in Australia. Contemporary appeals to the memory of the Holocaust in the Australian setting are typically understood to illuminate the injustice of other instances of racial persecution. This project aims to uncover this memory’s far more complex and politically potent history. Through detailed archival and cultural analysis of key moments in the development of Australian Holocaust memory, this project will probe the various political and social ends to which this memory has been applied. The project expects to generate a deep and nuanced understanding of the role Holocaust memory has played in shaping some of our most important, and enduring, national conversations.Read moreRead less
Christina Stead and the socialist heritage. This project explores the complex intersection of political convictions and creativity in the writing of Christina Stead, and gives due prominence to her radical, left-wing engagements, which fell from favour during and after the Cold War. It will produce the first monograph-length study devoted to this crucial aspect of Stead's life and work.
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
Regency Romanticism: Ireland, Britain and Australia, 1788-1848. This project aims to produce an interdisciplinary and transnational history of Regency culture, focusing on how Regency culture connected Ireland, Britain and Australia. It seeks to explore the relationship between the Regency and Romanticism in ways that advance the innovative approach for which Australian Romantic studies is internationally renowned. Exploring intersections between people, print media, sociable practices, architec ....Regency Romanticism: Ireland, Britain and Australia, 1788-1848. This project aims to produce an interdisciplinary and transnational history of Regency culture, focusing on how Regency culture connected Ireland, Britain and Australia. It seeks to explore the relationship between the Regency and Romanticism in ways that advance the innovative approach for which Australian Romantic studies is internationally renowned. Exploring intersections between people, print media, sociable practices, architecture and visual representations, the project aims to provide a revisionary account of Regency Romanticism as a movement of contradictory energies and innovations, and as an initiatory model of global modernity that anticipates features of the mediatised culture of fashion, sociality and spectatorship of today.Read moreRead less
Spare parts: the cultural history of organ transplantation. Organ transplantation is of considerable contemporary concern to Australians. Despite decades of campaigns seeking organ donors, this country has one of the world's lowest donation rates. This study will explore how this situation arose and offer a new understanding of the factors that impinge upon people's perceptions of transplantation.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130101179
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$289,185.00
Summary
The Australian penal colonies and British print culture, 1786-1900. This project is the first comprehensive investigation of the literature surrounding convict transportation and the Australian penal colonies, and its relationship to British print culture in the nineteenth century. Grounded in empirical research, the project will foster a new understanding of a foundational aspect of Australian cultural history.
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.