Growing Australian: domesticating native plants. This project is a pioneering study of the history and meanings of growing Australian native plants. It asserts the importance of the garden in ensuring an environmentally sustainable future and argues that in order to promote more environmentally responsible gardening practices, the history of Australian cultural attitudes towards native gardens must be understood, as must the ongoing resistance to gardening with native plants. The project will a ....Growing Australian: domesticating native plants. This project is a pioneering study of the history and meanings of growing Australian native plants. It asserts the importance of the garden in ensuring an environmentally sustainable future and argues that in order to promote more environmentally responsible gardening practices, the history of Australian cultural attitudes towards native gardens must be understood, as must the ongoing resistance to gardening with native plants. The project will advance the national and international debate from one concerned with "native plant vs exotic" and "indigenous plant vs weed" to one in which the cultural ideas invested in different gardening practices can be recognised and new ways of imagining and transforming gardening practice established.Read moreRead less
Fashionable Times: An Inquiry into the History of China's Modernity. Fashion, once regarded as a purely Western phenomenon and equated with thoroughly modern life, has recently made an improbable appearance in histories both of urban life in late imperial China and of twentieth-century Chinese nationalism. To speak of Chinese fashion is effectively to raise a question about the origins and course of China's modernity. The project aims to respond to this question through a study of the culture of ....Fashionable Times: An Inquiry into the History of China's Modernity. Fashion, once regarded as a purely Western phenomenon and equated with thoroughly modern life, has recently made an improbable appearance in histories both of urban life in late imperial China and of twentieth-century Chinese nationalism. To speak of Chinese fashion is effectively to raise a question about the origins and course of China's modernity. The project aims to respond to this question through a study of the culture of clothing from Ming to Mao, the expected outcome being an illustrated monograph of interest to scholars and general readers in the fields of fashion theory, material culture, and Chinese history.Read moreRead less
Shop Talk: Department Stores, Shoppers and Consumer Capitalism, 1945-2025. This project aims to provide a deeper understanding of shopping and its significance in everyday Australian life by using oral history interviews with shoppers, workers and managers who have engaged with department stores since 1945. This project expects to produce the first history of the country’s post-war department stores. Expected outcomes include new, more nuanced perspectives of shopping and the challenges affectin ....Shop Talk: Department Stores, Shoppers and Consumer Capitalism, 1945-2025. This project aims to provide a deeper understanding of shopping and its significance in everyday Australian life by using oral history interviews with shoppers, workers and managers who have engaged with department stores since 1945. This project expects to produce the first history of the country’s post-war department stores. Expected outcomes include new, more nuanced perspectives of shopping and the challenges affecting the retail sector via a range of publications, international collaborations, and an archive of oral history recordings. This should provide significant benefits to researchers examining the retail sector, to Australians working in retail, and to ordinary Australians, whose stories will be placed on the historical record.Read moreRead less
The causes and consequences of the great famines of the last two centuries in Russia, China, Ireland and elsewhere. Famines have huge human, economic, social and cultural costs. A better understanding of the multi-faceted dimensions of past famines - the interplay between politics, economics, environment and culture in causing and shaping the response to famine events - will better inform public policy in regard to analogous large-scale crises, including the impact of flu pandemics and climate c ....The causes and consequences of the great famines of the last two centuries in Russia, China, Ireland and elsewhere. Famines have huge human, economic, social and cultural costs. A better understanding of the multi-faceted dimensions of past famines - the interplay between politics, economics, environment and culture in causing and shaping the response to famine events - will better inform public policy in regard to analogous large-scale crises, including the impact of flu pandemics and climate change. The comparative study of the causes, progress, responses to and effect of the great famines of the last two centuries might serve to better inform our understanding and response to such events. Read moreRead less