Michael McDonnell, Author at History Matters

MENTOR Workshop

Professor Glenda Sluga co-convened the inaugural MENTOR workshop with the Director, Culture Strategy at The University of Sydney. The very successful workshop, which was co-organised by Hollie Pich and Marama Whyte, offered women and gender diverse ECRs in the humanities and social sciences concrete advice on how best to forge a career in academia. MENTOR ran from December 5 – 7, and was attended by a group of ECRs selected from The University of Sydney and universities around Australia.
MENTOR Workshop Program
Wednesday December 5, 2018
1.00-2.00pm
Welcome Lunch and Registration
2.00-3.30pm
Workshop Opening
Associate Professor Jennifer Barrett, University of Sydney
Plenary Panel: Career Planning
Professor Barbara Caine, University of Sydney
Professor Glenda Sluga, University of Sydney
Associate Professor Jennifer Barrett, University of Sydney
3.30-4.00pm
Afternoon tea
4.00-5.30pm
Roundtable: Work/Life Balance
Dr. Anne Rees, La Trobe University
Associate Professor Clare Corbould, Deakin University
Associate Professor Sarah Gleeson-White, University of Sydney
6.00-8.00pm
Welcome Drinks at the Western Tower Balcony
SOPHI Research Quadrangle, K6.07, The Quadrangle
The University of Sydney
Thursday December 6, 2018
9.00-9.30am
Light breakfast
9.30-11.00am
Practical Session: CVs and Cover Letters
Dr. Anne Rees, La Trobe University
Dr. Gorana Grgic, United States Studies Centre
Dr. Rebecca Sheehan, Macquarie University
11.00-11.30am
Morning tea
11.30am-1.00pm
Practical Session: Job Applications and Interviews
Associate Professor Clare Corbould, Deakin University
Professor Janette Bobis, University of Sydney
Professor Lisa Adkins, University of Sydney
1.00-2.00pm
Lunch
2.00-3.30pm
Practical Session: Postdoctoral Positions
Dr. Alana Piper, University of Technology Sydney
Dr. Anne Rees, La Trobe University
Professor Glenda Sluga, University of Sydney
3.30-4.00pm
Afternoon tea
4.00-5.30pm
Roundtable: Media Engagement
Dr. Alana Piper, University of Technology Sydney
Jennifer Peterson-Ward, University of Sydney
Dr. Kiera Lindsey, University of Technology Sydney
6.00-8.00pm
Conference Dinner at The Terrace, Sancta Sophia College
8 Missenden Road
Camperdown NSW 2050
Friday December 7, 2018
9.00-9.30am
Light breakfast
9.30-11.00am
Roundtable: Beyond the Academy
Dr. Gorana Grgic, United States Studies Centre
Dr. Kate Evans, ABC Radio National
Associate Professor Susan Goodwin, University of Sydney
11.00-11.30am
Morning tea
11.30am-1.00pm
Practical Session: Grant Applications
Professor Glenda Sluga, University of Sydney
Associate Professor Julia Kindt, University of Sydney
Dr. Kiera Lindsey, University of Technology Sydney
1.00-2.00pm
Lunch
2.00-3.30pm
Practical Session: Teaching
Professor Janette Bobis, University of Sydney
Dr. Kiera Lindsey, University of Technology Sydney
Associate Professor Sarah Gleeson-White, University of Sydney
3.30-4.00pm
Afternoon tea
4.00-5.30pm
Roundtable: Building Relationships
Associate Professor Clare Monagle, Macquarie University
Professor Glenda Sluga, University of Sydney
Dr. Lucia Sorbera, University of Sydney
Workshop Close
Professor Glenda Sluga, University of Sydney

Historians in the News 2018

November 2018
Associate Professor Frances Clarke gave radio interviews on November 4, 2018 on ABC’s Nightlife on American feminist icon Susan B. Anthony, and on November 20, 2019 on 2SER’s breakfast show on the myths surrounding Thanksgiving.
Senior Lecturer Thomas Adams wrote an essay on birthright citizenship for the ABC.
October 2018
PhD student Pamela Maddock wrote an essay on gender segregation in Australian schools for ABC Religion and Ethics
Dr. David Brophy wrote an opinion piece on the Ramsay Centre controversy that was published in the New York Times
September 2018
Senior Lecturer Thomas Adams contributed an essay on judicial politics in the midst of the Kavanaugh controversy to the ABC.
PhD Student Marama Whyte published an op-ed in the Washington Post, entitled: “The media’s #MeToo problems will continue until its culture changes.”
August 2018
Professor Dirk Moses wrote a piece entitled: “Nazism, Socialism, and the Falsification of History in ABC Religion and Ethics
June 2018
Professor Penny Russell reviewed two new books focused on early Aboriginal-European relations in the Sydney region in the Sydney Morning Herald: The Sydney Wars by Stephen Gapps, The Quiet Invasion by Tim Ailwood.
Several Sydney Uni historians weighed in to the controversy surrounding the Ramsay Centre’s plan for a new Western Civilization degree. These included responses by Dirk Moses in the Sydney Morning Herald and in the ABC’s Ethics and Religion, and Warwick Anderson in the Sydney Morning Herald. Many joined a petition denouncing the Ramsay Centre’s overtures to Sydney University, reported on in the Guardian.
Historians also responded to related criticism of the History Curriculum at the University by the IPA’s Bella d’Abrera, including Chris Hilliard in the ABC’s Religion and Ethics, and one of James Dunk’s students – Hamish Wood – in his Imperialism course, who wrote in Overland.https://overland.org.au/2018/06/okay-lets-talk-about-the-west-a-students-response-to-bella-dabrera/ about his experiences.
May 2018
Clean out our own home before we cast aspersions on others, wrote recent PhD recipient Dr. Lizzie Ingleson,in an essay on political donations and foreign influence in the ABC.
Sky News interviewed Professor James Curran from the United States Studies Centre and the Department of History about current politics in North Korea and the US. News.com.au also quoted Professor Curran about payments made by US President Donald Trump to Stormy Daniels. The article was syndicated across News Corp Australia online.
NITV Online quoted Professor Mark McKenna in the Department of History about a proposed monument at Botany Bay to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s landing in 2020.
April 2018
ABC Radio National replayed a talk by Professor Mark McKenna in the Department of History on his Quarterly Essay: Moment of Truth, History and Australia’s Future. APN News Media’s regional newspaper network and an AAP article syndicated across Yahoo!7, SBS News and Daily Mail Australia also quoted Professor McKenna about a proposed monument at Botany Bay to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s landing in 2020.
Sky News interviewed Professor James Curran from the United States Studies Centre and the Department of History about the US’s actions towards Syria and the Trans Pacific Partnership, and more recently Sky News Live interviewed James about the historic meeting between the two Korean leaders as well as US President Trump’s potential meeting with Kim Jong Un in June.
The Conversation published an article by Dr Meredith Lake, Honorary Associate in the Department of History, about Australia’s declining biblical literacy, while ABC Radio Adelaide interviewed Dr Lake about the same subject.
Sky News interviewed Professor James Curran from the United States Studies Centre and the Department of History about the US imposing additional tariffs on Chinese goods.
Emeritus Professor Richard Waterhouse from the Department of History was interviewed on ABC Radio (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Gippsland) about how Easter traditions have changed in Australia.
March 2018
ABC Radio Brisbane’s Focus interviewed Professor Mark McKenna from the Department of History about the Uluru Statement and recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Constitution, and ABC Radio Sydney and 2SER Sydney interviewed Mark about his new Quarterly Essay, Moment of Truth: History and Australia’s Future, while the Sydney Morning Herald and Canberra Times published an edited extract of the essay. Both articles were syndicated across Fairfax Media online.
Straits Times (Singapore) mentioned Dr David Brophy from the Department of History and China Studies Centre led a submission to the Senate inquiry into the federal government’s foreign interference legislation by a group of academics with research expertise in China, as did SBS Online.
Dr David Brophy reviewed Clive Anderson’s new book Silent Invasion for the Australian Book Review, and follows up with an op-ed in the Sydney Morning Herald. In addition, 网易新闻 (China) quoted David on the same topic.
News.com.au quoted Professor James Curran from the Department of History about the resignation of White House communications director Hope Hicks. The article was syndicated across News Corp Australia online. While Sky News Live also interviewed James Curran about US gun laws and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s visit to the US, and the New York Times quoted James US and Australia’s relationship with China.

January-February 2018
KPFA Radio (US) interviewed Dr Chin Jou from the Department of History and the Charles Perkins Centre about the role of the American government in creating an abundance of fast food restaurants in low incomes areas of the US.
In early February, ABC Online quoted Dr Sophie Loy-Wilson from the Department of History about China now allowing citizens of foreign countries with Chinese heritage to apply for a special five-year multiple entry visa.
Professor Shane White reviewed the latest book from Ta-Nehisi Coates, on America’s racism, in the Sydney Morning Herald on Australia Day. The article was syndicated across Fairfax Media online.
“What does justice mean in a settler-colonial society?” In January, Senior Lecturer Miranda Johnson weighed in on the debate over Australia Day on Ozy. Dr. Johnson also talked about the symbolism of Jacinda Ardern’s pregnancy announcement with The Age.
Weekend Australian published an article by Professor James Curran from the Department of History and the United States Studies Centre about a new biography of former Prime Minister John Curtin, John Curtin’s War Volume 1: The Coming of War in the Pacific, and Reinventing Australia by John Edwards. Australian Financial Review also published an article by Professor Curran about the “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue” that brings together the United States, Japan, India and Australia. ABC NewsRadio also interviewed Professor Curran about US President Donald Trump’s first year in office while Sky News interviewed him about US President Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address.
SBS World News, News.com.au, Mamamia, Central News, Yahoo!7 News quoted Dr Ben Silverstein from the Department of Indigenous Studies about the impact of changing the date of Australia Day in the light of Mark Latham’s ad to save the date.

Articles, Essays, and Presentations 2018

Dr Sarah Bendall, who recently completed her PhD, shows the value of historical reconstruction and the importance of contextualising historical comments on dress in her newly published article titled “‘Take measure of your wide and flaunting garments’: The farthingale, gender and the consumption of space in Elizabethan and Jacobean England” [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rest.12537] in Renaissance Studies, available as a read-only copy on desktop.[https://rdcu.be/baiAF]
Rohan Howitt, a PhD student in the Department published an article entitled ‘The Japanese Antarctic Expedition and the Idea of White Australia’ in the November 2018 issue of Australian Historical Studies, and is available at the following link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1031461X.2018.1509881
Professor Mark McKenna published a feature-length Quarterly Essay in the March issue, entitled: Moment of Truth: History and Australia’s Future.
Newly minted History PhD James Findlay recently featured in the Australian Historical Association’s Early Career Researcher’s blog site.
Sarah Dunstan, who recently completed her History PhD, also edits the Journal of the History of Ideas Blog. She recently spoke with Professor Stefanos Geroulanos about his latest book Transparency in Postwar France: A Critical History of the Present (Stanford University Press, 2017).
Newly minted-PhD Michaela Cameron contributed another biographical essay on an early female first fleeter, “Betty Eccles: The Dairy Maid (1730-1835)” as part of her ongoing and funded St John’s Cemetery Project.
PhD student Emma Kluge reflects on lessons learned on her recent research trip to PNG.
Dr. Sophie Loy-Wilson shared her advice for professionalisation during your PhD, based on a 2017 plenary talk she gave at the University of Sydney Postgraduate History Conference on the Australian Women’s History Network blogsite.
PhD student Tamsin O’Connor published an article entitled, “Charting New Waters with Old Patterns: Smugglers and Pirates at the Penal Station and Port of Newcastle 1804–1823” in a special edition of the Journal of Australian Colonial History entitled “Colonial Newcastle: Essays on a Nineteenth Century Port and Hinterland,” guest edited by Nancy Cushing, Julie McIntyre and David Andrew Roberts, Vol. 19 (2017), pp 17- 42.
Dr Peter Hobbins reflected on the fraught process of integrating imagination with empirical evidence in a blog post for the Professional Historians Association of NSW & ACT.
Professor Michael A. McDonnell wrote about the simple digital humanities tool he created from some recent research work that allows students to analyze historiographical trends in the flagship journal of early American history, the William & Mary Quarterly, entitled “Historiographical Revolutions in the Quarterly: From Research to Teaching,” at The Panorama.
The University of Chicago Press’s journals division has launched a site devoted to new History scholarship. Dr John Gagné’s article in I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance is that journal’s featured essay, and is available via open access until mid-May 2018.
PhD student Marama Whyte weighed in on The Conversation in January about the the historical – and ongoing – battle for equal pay in the media. The essay was republished in various other places, including Mumbrella, Australian Business, and the Daily Bulletin.
PhD student Emma Kluge reminds us that slavery is not yet history. See her January blog.
The History of Science Society’s newsletter recently reported on the REGS team’s panel at the American Historical Association conference earlier this year. Miranda Johnson spoke, along with Sarah Walsh, Sebastián Gil-Riaño, and Ricardo Roque. Warwick Anderson served as chair.
A report on the recent workshop on the Global history of Natural Resources co-organized by the Laureate Research Program in International History in December 2017 can be found on the Past and Present website, a useful resource for the state of the art thinking on environmental history.
The December 2017 issue of the American Historical Review features a lead essay in a special forum on Banking and Finances in the Modern World by Professor Glenda Sluga entitled: ‘“Who Hold the Balance of the World?” Bankers at the Congress of Vienna, and in International History.’
PhD Student Sarah Bendall blogs about an amazing bit of historical reconstruction – of an early modern Rebato Collar in December.

History in the Making

In History in the Making, one of our three undergraduate capstone units, students write an essay of 4500 words on a research topic of their own devising in any field of history. Here we bring together the abstracts of papers crafted over the past semester, 2018, showcasing the breadth and depth of historical research this unit inspires. This year, the unit was coordinated and taught by Professor Penny Russell and Dr. James Findlay
Where their authors have granted permission, the essays themselves can also be read. We are excited to present this rich collection, as an inspiration to future students and a tribute to the present generation of historians in the making.
Struggle within a Struggle: The Palestinian women’s movement
Gladys Agius
The Palestinian women’s movement for equality and equal rights moved slowly in the decades after the Oslo Peace Accord failures. Israel imposed extreme restricting conditions on Palestinians’ freedom of mobility and encroached on agricultural land to establish settlements for Jewish communities. At the same time Palestinian males experienced excruciating high levels of unemployment and women faced restrictive job opportunities producing further crisis in Palestinian society and family life. Women were faced with intense pressures, to contribute to the family’s budget, seek employment in unfavourable conditions, and maintain family harmony. The progress for gender issues is hindered by patriarchy. Muslims mainly subscribe to strict shari’a laws which are opposed to liberal concepts of women’s independence and equal rights. Consequently education and training for women became extremely important to raise women’s voice in politics. Post Oslo the intervening years were marred by confusion and disagreements of leaders and factions which weakened Palestine’s government (PA) voice and power. Subsequently prominent women academics called for women to be returned to the national forum to represent all Palestinians. At this stage women’s journey to equality and human rights is a “work in progress” and is held firmly in the sights of twenty-first-century Palestinian women.
The Ngô Đình Diệm Coup d’État: Exposing the façade of the United States Nationalist Globalist mission in Vietnam?
William Bailey
Under the Presidency of John F. Kennedy, the world was told that in accordance with its Nationalist Globalist ideology the United States was escalating its involvement in the Civil War between North and South Vietnam. Nationalist Globalism is the ideal of America’s divinely ordained mission to bring freedom and liberal democracy to all nations of the world. Was the U.S. in Vietnam for this two-sided mission? This paper looks at the U.S. policy makers’ decision to support a coup against South Vietnam’s President that took place on November 1st, 1963. It argues that although some did believe in America’s mission, the fact that they supported this coup diminishes the significance of the American Nationalist Globalist ideology in association with their goals.

Continue reading “History in the Making”

Teaching Commendations

The Department is very pleased to note that two more of our colleagues received Teaching Commendations for their outstanding work last semester – including one of our most senior Professors in the Department, as well as one of our most recent PhD recipients.
Professor Penny Russell received a Dean’s commendation for her work on Convicts and Capitalists.
Dr. Ben Vine received one for his outstanding teaching on the unit, HSTY 2666: American Revolutions.
It should be noted that this was the first time Ben coordinated and taught a full unit, and he started the course about three days after he submitted his PhD!
Like Sophie Loy-Wilson’s recent commendation, both Ben and Penny’s Unit of Study Survey (USS) data showed that their score on the USS item relating directly to student satisfaction of teaching effectiveness was in the top quartile of the School’s performance. In addition, Ben and Penny’s focus on student feedback and engagement was also in the top quartile.
As the Dean, Annamarie Jagose, notes:
“This very positive student perception of teaching impact places your unit in the upper tier of units of study offered by the School and indeed Faculty. Given the high standards we set for ourselves, this is an outstanding achievement.”
“Just as we celebrate excellence in scholarship and research, so should we acknowledge the commitment, expertise and outcomes of our foremost teachers. On behalf of all our colleagues, please accept my personal congratulations and thanks for your exemplary contribution to the Faculty’s educational mission. Your success in fostering a positive learning environment within and beyond the classroom is critical to our success as a Faculty and University.”
Well done, Ben and Penny. Terrific work.

History Beyond the Classroom 2018

A new year of HSTY 3902: History Beyond the Classroom is under way in semester 2. With one of the highest enrolments yet, the unit is doing well along with its capstone counterparts HSTY 3901 and HSTY 3903.
History Beyond the Classroom aims, in part, to answer the perennial question, “what can you do with a history degree?” Plenty, it seems. In this unit, students frame, research and produce an original project based on an engagement with communities and organisations outside the University. Students explore history in action in a variety of contexts and think about different ways of creating and disseminating history that will interest and inform a public audience. Lectures and field trips also help frame relevant community-based questions, adopt appropriate methodologies, and explore new ways of presenting your arguments or narratives.
In addition to making history, students will be introduced to a variety of public history professionals, and different kinds of projects that you can pursue part-time or full-time well beyond your University career.
In the first few weeks of the unit, we have spent time exploring what turned out to be difficult questions about just what is history, and why do we do it? We’ve also begun to look at questions about audience, and about how different people think historically.
Last week, in week 3 of the semester, we also had a visit from one of our favourite public historians, Mark Dunn.
Photo MD.JPG
PHA-NSW & ACT Chair, Dr. Mark Dunn on Public History
Currently the Chair of the Professional Historians Association of NSW (PHA-NSW; http://www.phansw.org.au/), Mark’s career as a professional historian embodies the challenges and opportunities of public history.
After studying history at UNSW, Mark did some volunteer work on an archaeological site in Sydney, which led to a paid job as a historian for a heritage and archaeology firm in Sydney, where he worked until 2010. During that time he was involved in major conservation, archaeology (including digging), oral history, significance and interpretation projects Australia wide. Some of these include doing Oral History for the Cockatoo Island Navy Dockyard, the moving of Prince of Wales Destitute Childrens Asylum Cemetery, The Big Dig in The Rocks and numerous smaller histories. Mark has been a member of the Professional Historians Association since c1997 and is currently the Chair. He has also been a committee member and President of the History Council NSW and is currently Deputy Chair of the NSW Heritage Council. Mark now works as a consultant historian in heritage and research, as well as leading city tours for an American tour company Context Travel. He is also the current CH Currey Fellow at State Library of NSW, and recently completed his PhD at UNSW.
sydney clocks.jpg
Some of the many clocks in the collection of Sydney Trains at Central Station
Mark talked to students about the crucial role played by the PHA-NSW, and also the challenges of doing public history, which included negotiating any conflicts of interest, managing expectations, juggling tight budgets and deadlines, and the disappointments resulting from not having control over the final product, sometimes with the result that your work gets buried (sometimes literally).

An unexpected find at the Mick Simmons site at George Street 2013. After excavating and archiving this early colonial pub, the site was completely removed. Recording and archiving such sites before they are completely obliterated is just one of the many kinds of projects Mark Dunn has worked on.
Drawing from his extensive experience, Mark also reflected on why he enjoys being a professional historian, which included the opportunity to work on many and varied history projects, bringing history to a wide range of audiences who often have a real connection with the past that is being presented, and seeing your work on public display, whether it be on television, radio, the side of a building, the wall of a pub, or the web.
Mark also noted his most recent public history project for Sydney Trains Heritage NSW (http://www.sydneytrains.info/about/heritage/), the beautifully produced pamphlet called “Running on Time: Clocks and Time-Keeping in the NSW Railways” (you can download a copy at: www.sydneytrains.info/about/heritage/201602-Running-on-time-Report.pdf). There is also an accompanying short film featuring interviews with railway workers and heritage experts involved in the project (http://www.sydneytrains.info/about/heritage/oral_history). Mark revealed that he completed his report in about four weeks of full-time work, giving students something to aspire to….
Mark was an engaging speaker, and the students (and I) were clearly amazed at the breadth and depth of his work.
Mark’s talk and the readings this week about public history helped students reflect on the practice of history in the University and classroom, which often (though not always) precludes these kinds of negotiations about different kinds of understandings about the past, and present uses (though students were also quick to point out that there is a growing group of academic historians willing to engage with different public audiences, and indeed, there always has been). Our reading this week about the Enola Gay controversy in the United States in the early 1990s reinforced the dangers of not doing so, but also how difficult it might be to do so. Once again, and with the help of Anna Clark’s great interviews, in Private Lives, Public History, our discussions – and students’ reflective diary entries – invariably shifted to the History Wars in Australia and both the indifference of many to the history wars, but also the more subtle ways in which many non-professional historians understand “contest” in history. Reflections also ranged across questions about whether there is a historical middle ground between commemoration and historical analysis? Could the Enola Gay Exhibition controversy have been avoided?

Teaching Commendation

Many congratulations to Sophie Loy-Wilson who earned a Dean’s Commendation for her outstanding teaching in her Semester 1 2018 unit, HSTY2701 – Spies in the Archive, based on student evaluations.
Sophie’s Unit of Study Survey (USS) data showed that her score on the USS item relating directly to student satisfaction of teaching effectiveness was in the top quartile of the School’s performance. In addition, Sophie’s focus on student feedback and engagement was also in the top quartile.
As the Dean, Annamarie Jagose, notes:
“This very positive student perception of teaching impact places your unit in the upper tier of units of study offered by the School and indeed Faculty. Given the high standards we set for ourselves, this is an outstanding achievement.”
“Just as we celebrate excellence in scholarship and research, so should we acknowledge the commitment, expertise and outcomes of our foremost teachers. On behalf of all our colleagues, please accept my personal congratulations and thanks for your exemplary contribution to the Faculty’s educational mission. Your success in fostering a positive learning environment within and beyond the classroom is critical to our success as a Faculty and University.”
Many congratulations, Sophie!
Mike M.

History on Wednesday Department Seminar

History on Wednesday
Seminar Series for Postgraduates and Faculty
Held at 12.10-1.30
in Woolley Common Room, Woolley Building A22
(Enter Woolley through the entrance on Science Road and climb the stairs in front of you. Turn left down the corridor, and the WCR is the door at the end of the hall)
Click here for more details
Coordinators:
Dr Andrés Rodriguez and Professor Kirsten McKenzie
Semester 2 2018
1 August
Deborah Cohen (Northwestern University)
The Geopolitical is Personal: American Foreign Correspondents, India and the British Empire in the 1930s and 1940s
15 August
Andrew Fitzmaurice (University of Sydney)
Hobbes, democracy and the Virginia Company
22 August
Charlotte Greenhalgh (Monash University)
Women and Social Research in Australia, 1940-1970
12 September
Hélène Sirantoine (University of Sydney)
The Saint and the Saracen: Iberian hagiographical material and Christian perceptions of Islam in the Middle Ages
3 October
Chin Jou (University of Sydney)
Food and Power in American prisons in the mass-incarceration era.
17 October
Catie Gilchrist (University of Sydney)
Call the Coroner! Investigating Sudden Death in Colonial Sydney
31 October
Laura Rademaker (Australian Catholic University)
Found in translation: language and translation in Aboriginal history

Australian Historical Association Prizes

We are delighted to announce that two Sydney University Department of History academics have featured in this year’s AHA Prizes.
The W.K. Hancock Prize recognises and encourages an Australian scholar who has published a first book in any field of history in 2014 or 2015. Miranda Johnson won this award for her book, The Land Is Our History: Indigeneity, Law, and the Settler State (Oxford University Press).
The judges citation reads: In The Land Is Our History, Miranda Johnson has produced an ambitious, original and imaginative history exploring land, indigeneity, legal rights and activism across three settler-colonial nations. Thinking transnationally, Johnson explores legal and public discourses to draw together a raft of distinctive events and personalities into a vast and coherent canvas. She weaves nation-based histories of indigenous-settler conflict over land into wider networks and power structures, making sense of seemingly disparate developments in indigenous activism. Archival documents and oral accounts highlight the strength and moral authority of indigenous leaders who worked to gain acknowledgement of traditional ownership of land, and to interrupt and influence public debates around national identity. Johnson writes with precision, flow and economy. The work has a compelling argument, convincingly showing the complex and sophisticated ways indigenous activisms functioned to change settler attitudes towards land and indigenous belonging. An exemplary history, The Land Is Our History brings important new insights to a significant topic in both the past and the present.
The Allan Martin Award is a research fellowship to assist early career historians further their research in Australian history. Peter Hobbins won this award for his project: ‘An Intimate Pandemic: Fostering Community Histories of the 1918–19 Influenza Pandemic Centenary’.
The judges citation reads: The recipient of the 2018 Allan Martin Award is Peter Hobbins from the University of Sydney for a project titled ‘An intimate pandemic: Fostering community histories of the 1918–19 influenza pandemic centenary’. The program of study proposed is impressive, both for its academic rigour and its spirit of community engagement. Dr Hobbins proposes to work closely with local historical societies to chart how the devastating pandemic affected their communities. He has already garnered significant institutional interest for the project, with Macquarie University, the University of Sydney and the Royal Australian Historical Society all offering support. Peter Hobbins already has an impressive record of publications and innovative research. The judges are delighted to make the Award to a scholar of this calibre who is pursuing a project of such significance.

The full list of winner of 2018 prizes and awards include:
The Jill Roe Prize is awarded annually for the best unpublished, article-length work of historical research in any area of historical enquiry, produced by a postgraduate student enrolled for a History degree at an Australian university. Alexandra Roginski, ‘Talking Heads on a Murray River Mission’
The Serle Award is given biennially, to the best postgraduate thesis in Australian History awarded during the previous two years. Anne Rees, ‘Travelling to Tomorrow: Australian Women in the United States, 1910–1960’. The judges also commended Steven Anderson, ‘Death of a Spectacle: The Transition from Public to Private Executions in Colonial Australia’
The Kay Daniels Award recognises outstanding original research with a bearing on Australian convict history and heritage including in its international context, published in 2016 or 2017. Joan Kavanagh and Dianne Snowden, Van Diemen’s Women: A History of Transportation to Tasmania (The History Press Ltd)
The Magarey Medal for Biography is awarded biennially to the female person who has published the work judged to be the best biographical writing on an Australian subject. It is jointly administered by the Australian Historical Association and the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL). This year’s winner was announced by the ASAL on Tuesday 3 July 2018. Alexis Wright, Tracker (Giramondo)

Many congratulations to all short-listed and award winners.

History Postgrad Conference – CFP

Announcing the 2018 History Postgrad Conference: a conference run by postgraduates, for postgraduates, across all disciplines, with an historical focus.

CONNECTED HISTORIES
Website: https://usydhistoryconference.wordpress.com/
The University of Sydney Postgraduate History Conference will be held on Thursday November 29th and Friday November 30th, 2018. We warmly invite postgraduate students to submit an abstract for this two-day interdisciplinary conference on the theme of Connected Histories.
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Ideas. Culture. Family. Environment. Media. War. Trade. Language. Food. Histories are connected in more ways than we can imagine. At the 2018 University of Sydney Postgraduate History Conference we invite you to share your research and the historical connections you’ve uncovered. We take a broad understanding of this theme and invite you to submit an abstract based on our suggestions below or one of your own choosing:
Global, international, and transnational connections
Interdisciplinary connections
Histories of empire and colonialism
Connections of past and present: how understandings of the past impact us today
Intellectual histories of connected ideas and concepts
Chance encounters: unexpected connections?
We welcome abstracts from postgraduate students across disciplines and encourage anyone with a historical aspect to their work to apply.
If you wish to present, please submit an abstract of no more than 200 words for a twenty minute presentation, as well as a short bio, here.
Please note, abstracts are due by 3rd August 2018.
To register to attend, whether presenting or not, click here.
The 2018 University of Sydney Postgraduate History Conference will be held at the University of Sydney, Camperdown campus, on 29th-30th November 2018. We have a limited number of travel bursaries available for those travelling from outside Sydney—including Honours and Masters students considering the University of Sydney as an option for PhD study. To apply, please indicate your interest and include details of your enrolment with your abstract.
Contact the conference organisers at historypgconference@gmail.com