The campus is empty for the mid-semester break and students and colleagues have scattered. Many congratulations to all for finishing the semester and especially to those who might have finished their degree this past semester!
If you are wondering what your Lecturers and Tutors do over the break, they are not usually on ‘holiday’ as often assumed! As soon as the last exams are marked most of us try to get back to the other part of our job – research and writing.
Often this involves heading overseas to the archives, or for conferences, as myself, James Findlay, Kirsten McKenzie and Niro Kandasamy have all done recently (to South Carolina, Paris, and London – you can judge who got the better deal!).
Closer to home, many of us attended the 50th anniversary conference of the Australian Historical Association next week in Melbourne, either to present our own research papers, or listen to others in our fields (you can read a little more about it here: https://theaha.org.au/aha-conference-2023-milestones/). Others are busy writing articles, essays, books, and book reviews.
And of course the teaching part of our job never quite stops as we will also be starting to prepare Canvas sites and outlines and readings for semester two units.
We also get busy writing references for students, and helping them with their future plans. In that regard, we’d like to congratulate recent Honours studentsPatrick Flood (2022), Harry Waugh (2021) and Celeste van Gent (2020) who are all heading to Oxford University in a couple of months to start or resume their postgraduate studies. Celeste and Harry have also both won prestigious Ramsay Centre Postgraduate Scholars Awards (see: https://www.ramsaycentre.org/news-and-media/2023-ramsay-postgraduate-scholars-announced/)
I originally wrote this from a steamy Columbia, South Carolina in late-June. I had just attended and given a paper at a Conference on the American Revolution, and then did some some work in the archives in South Carolina – while trying to keep an eye on what’s happening in Sydney…..
For many of your lecturers, the mid-semester break means a constant juggle between teaching and getting some research done, so the winter break is as busy as ever for most of us – and I suspect many of you are turning more to part-time work or care in the break too. Still, I hope everyone manages some kind of ‘holiday’ in the midst of it all.
If you are looking for a good read this weekend, try former Chair and current coordinator of HSTY3903 Professor Kirsten McKenzie’s freshly minted English Historical Review essay entitled: “A Dance of Crown and Parliament: Empire and Reform in the Age of Liverpool.” It is currently on open-access at the following link. Congrats to Kirsten and her co-author, Lisa Ford. It is definitely not everyday that you can get published in the very prestigious English Historical Review – it is one of the top historical journals in the world.
Check out Associate Professor Frances Clarke’s latest blog about her recently published book on Child Soldiers in the American Civil War Era. Frances’ recent book, called Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era published by Oxford University Press this year is making waves in the United States. Frances will be back in Australia in second semester and teaching our blockbuster first year unit called HSTY1023: Emerging Giant: The Making of America, which takes you from the origins of the United States through to the Civil War.
You might also be interested in an article written by one of our current Honours students, Marika Mehigan. She recently published a version of her research on Korean comfort women that she did in one of her History Honours seminars on “Writing War.” Marika pitched her idea to the editors of Honi Soit, and they gave her the green light. It is a great example of what we might call an “op-ed” essay – in which we use our historical research to help think through contemporary historical problems. Congrats, Marika – and you can read the article here: https://honisoit.com/2023/05/is-there-a-future-without-sexual-violence-first-we-must-confront-the-past/If any other students are putting your work to interesting uses, please get in touch and let us know about it.
Dr. Sophie Loy-Wilson, senior lecturer in History and a scholar of Chinese Australian history, recently attended a new production from the Sydney Theatre Company called “The Poison of Polygamy” – a play based on what was probably the first Chinese Australian novel, originally written in 1909-1910.
You can also listen to Sophie Loy-Wilson’s recorded talk at Fisher Library Rare Books and Special Collections on the material they hold and “Sydney’s Chinese Ghosts”
If you’re looking for some interesting television watching between World Cup Football games this weekend, have a look at the SBS show, “Who the Bloody Hell are We?” In particular, Series 1, Episode 3 hosted by Adam Liaw, features our own Dr. Sophie Loy-Wilson commenting on some interesting Chinese Australian migrants who have enriched Australian history.
If you are interested in US Affairs, you can also read an article co-written by one of our History HDR students, Ben Ormerod, supervised by Dr. Hélène Sirantoine. The article was published in last week in the journal Cogent Social Sciences and examines the way U.S. Presidents use the optics of the White House to implement public policy. The article is available to read for free on open access here.
Finally, if anyone has some spare time while waiting for a bus this weekend, why not have a listen to me and a colleague, Professor Fitzhugh Brundage at the University of North Carolina talk about a new publication of ours – a collaboratively authored text called A New History of the American South.
We discuss contemporary ideas about southerners in the US, historians’ new ways of looking at the region, the value of looking at history as an ‘outsider,’ and I even manage to make a controversial comment about the election of Donald Trump. I’ll leave it at that. You need to listen to get more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBi3lQ5989I
Dr. John O. Ward, who retired in 2003, taught and researched medieval history at the University of Sydney for 36 years. Born in Melbourne, John received his PhD from the University of Toronto Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies in 1972, with a dissertation whose first volume was later published as Classical Rhetoric in the Middle Ages: The Medieval Rhetors and Their Art, 400-1300, with Manuscript Survey to 1500 CE. A prolific and imaginative historian, John also authored, edited, and co-edited several books and dozens of articles on the reception of classical rhetoric in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. These include a volume on Ciceronian rhetoric in its medieval and Renaissance commentary tradition (written and edited with Virginia Cox); a volume on Abelard in the 1130s (with Juanita Ruys); an edition of William of Champeaux’s ‘Commentaries’ on Cicero’s De inventione and the Rhetorica ad Herennium (with Juanita Ruys); and an authoritative article on the De inventione and Ad Herennium for the Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum Medii Aevi. In sum, John was one of the world’s foremost historians of the rhetorical tradition, alive to its transformations and continuities across Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Renaissance.
A voluble, witty, and much beloved teacher, John was renowned for his engaging classroom analysis of historical sources and he paid equal attention to all his students, weak and strong alike. Over the years, he offered classes on humanism, witchcraft, heresy, gender, the Crusades, feudalism, and other topics. He fostered his students’ research interests and helped them publish their findings, as in the essay collection co-edited with Francesca C. Bussey, Worshipping Women: Misogyny and Mysticism in the Middle Ages (Sydney, 1997), consisting of thesis research undertaken by Honours students in History. He was also famous for his occasional appearances in full medieval regalia, whether as Pope Boniface VIII or the Devil himself.
In addition to his university work, John was an Ashfield Municipal Councillor from 1977-91, and Mayor of Ashfield from 1991-95. At the University of Sydney, he was a charter member of the Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS), later renamed the Medieval and Early Modern Centre (MEMC), the longest-lived research centre in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Thanks to a quiet benefaction John made in 1997, MEMC will be able to continue supporting student research in this field for many years. An incessant global traveller, a defender of left-wing politics, a lover of steam-trains and opera, and a perennial bibliophile, John was inexhaustibly curious about the world. In the words of his friend and colleague Rod Thomson: “Mover and shaker, protestor and policy-maker in the outside world, within the university John is the unconventional ironist, shrewd and critical observer, the never bitter, but humorous utterer of unpalatable truths. And with this is connected another paradox: the man who can fulminate, in language colourful but predominantly blue, against the baseness of his fellow man, whether in the political or the academic sphere, is also the kindest and least guileful of individuals, incapable of malicious act or motive, and with a deep attachment to his wife Gail and their children.”
Those of us who arrived in Sydney to be welcomed eventually by John and Gail remember their regular kindness and friendship, always buoyed by John’s winking humour, warmth, and intellectual openness. John always signed off his emails with a double exclamation-point in place of a valediction, a habit we honour here by concluding: we will miss him!!
A service was held in Canberra on Tuesday 9 May 2023, and a celebration of John’s life will be held in Sydney in due course.
John Gagne
Cassamarca Senior Lecturer in History Director, Medieval & Early Modern Centre (MEMC)
We also learned recently that thanks to Arta Bayat’s wonderful work for the Maritime Museum of Australia on the James McLeod acquisition concept and proposal, the diary has now been signed off to enter the National Maritime Collection.
In other related news, Darcy Campbell of the 2022 cohort won the prize for the best work in HSTY 3902, and was asked to give a speech at the School of Humanities Awards night, which you can view here.
Tess Dowell who took HBTC in 2019 recently graduated with an MA by research in Archaeology, and told us that she has just secured a full-time job with the Heritage Consultancy firm Everick, based in Annadale. Congrats Tess!
Finally, Darcy and Coordinator Michael McDonnell wrote up a blogpost about their experiences teaching and taking History Beyond the Classroom for Teaching@Sydney.
Congratulations to all our History Prize and Scholarship winners, who were recognised in a special School of Humanities event last Tuesday evening at the Women’s College.
Students from all levels – first, second, third and fourth year, as well as Honours and Postgrad students collected prizes and scholarships – and History probably has more prizes up for grabs than any other discipline in the School.
Fourth-year History Student Darcy Campbell, who won two prizes on the night, gave an excellent and impassioned speech about the importance of History, particularly in regional Australia. You can listen to Darcy’s speech at 45:50 of this link
You can also listen to Michael McDonnell’s defence of History and the Humanities and the excellent qualities of all of our students starting at 32:25 of the same video, followed by the award of all the History prizes.
There is also photo gallery video of the Awards Night which runs for just over 3 mins. You can view it here: https://youtu.be/_D25e9IS9mA
Here is also a link to the School of Humanities Prize Night booklet, which lists the names of all our History award winners from pages 6-8, and you can find a description of the many prizes on pages 16-19 https://indd.adobe.com/view/aa690300-07d1-4770-b2e2-b26d4ce8020f
Again, congratulations to all – and we look forward to seeing many new faces at the Prize ceremony next year!
James regularly weighs in on current foreign policy issues across various media. Some of his latest engagements are listed below – but it is hard to keep up so just google him for the latest.
If you would like copies of any of James’ articles in the AFR (some of which are behind a paywall), James has offered to share them. Simply contact him at james.b.currran@sydney.edu.au
Starting in July, James will be seconded to the Australian Financial Review to beef up their Australian Foreign Policy writing, though he will maintain an active presence in the Discipline and at the University. So stay-tuned for further events featuring his work.
Australian Financial Review (AFR) column 6 March on Why America’s New Cold War has China on the back foot
Appearance at Adelaide Writers Festival on 7 March on a panel with Prof John Keane, Fintan O’Toole and chaired by Bob Carr, on ‘Whither America’
Radio interview on ABC’s, The World Today on AUKUS, Wednesday 8 March
TV Interview on Sky news on AUKUS, Wednesday 8 March – a clip of this was on ABC Mediawatch on Monday night
Australian Financial Review column in ‘Perspectives’ last Saturday: on ASIO Annual threat assessments and the question of loyalty in Australian public life
3 x 600 word each Comment pieces in the AFR on 10, 13 and 15 March: these comment pieces were all on AUKUS and all flagged on page 1 of the newspaper
Radio Interview on BBC Newshour, on the BBC World Service on Sunday evening 12 March, on AUKUS
Radio Interview on JJJ ‘The Hack’ on Wednesday 13 March on AUKUS
TV interview on SBS News Wednesday 13 March on AUKUS, for their 630pm news bulletin
Interview today, 16 March, on ABC World Today on AUKUS
Australian Book Review feature on Labor’s Foreign policy (2,500 words) to be a feature in their April issue, accompanied by P.Adams produced podcast
With the upcoming Coronation in the UK taking place this weekend, some of you might want to impress your friends and family with a little historical background to the event. If so, have a look at some of Cindy McCreery’s many media engagements over the last week or so – listed below. I particularly recommend her talk with Richard Glover on ABC radio
A quick round-up of recent media engagements in History
Originally created March 10, 2023
Marco Duranti just finished an interview with SBS on the political situation in Georgia that will be used on their 6:30 news broadcast tonight (Friday). He also did four television interviews last year on the Russo-Ukrainian conflict for Channel News Asia, as well as an ABC radio interview on the French elections.
If you haven’t already read Andres Rodriguez’s amazing new book, you can get a snapshot of it here, in a special article called “China’s Anxious Frontier: Fieldworkers on China’s Borders in the Early Twentieth Century,” in our School (SoH) Magazine https://indd.adobe.com/view/9eafd712-4524-4661-b5df-740b30ffb3de
Kirsten McKenzie, even before she clocked off as Chair, managed to finish two manuscripts – one a a co-edited collection called Mobility and Coercion in an Age of Wars and Revolutions (c. 1750 – 1830) that will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2023, and a monograph, with Lisa Ford, called Inquiring into Empire – a product of their ARC grant. Kirsten was also appointed to the Board of the Museums of History News South Wales as of Dec. 31, 2022 – a major coup and honour for Kirsten!
Roberto Chauca was awarded a prestigious 2023-2024 Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study individual Fellowship (https://nias.knaw.nl/). He is now trying to figure out whether he can actually take up the offer!
Niro Kandasamy, James Findlay and Thomas Café successfully launched the History Extension mentoring program in December with five disadvantaged schools, approximately 40 HSC History Extension students, and about 20 of our own History Students acting as mntors. The program will continue over the coming months with reciprocal visits between schools and the Uni. For more details of the launch date, see the blogpost
Julia Horne has been awarded a Humanities Research Centre Visiting Fellowship for 2023 for 6 weeks at the ANU on the annual theme of Repair. Her topic is “Universities and Post-war Repair: The idea of ‘reconstruction’, 1943 to 1957” (https://hrc.cass.anu.edu.au/highlights/2023-repair); and has just published (in December) a co-edited collection entitled Australian Universities: A Conversation about Public Good. Book launch (we hope) in early March https://sydneyuniversitypress.com.au/products/182526
Finally, Clair Sole, a History student who recently finished her BA Advanced degree (and who most of you know already!), received a 95 for her 4thYear Individual Project for creating a History and Social Inclusion High School Program DET Grant Application based on her own field research, and also secured a full-time continuous job with SoH on the 6th floor!
On the 7th of December, History and Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney re-launched our long-running high school outreach efforts with the 2022/23 History Extension Mentoring program. Pre-covid, the mentoring program was one of several initiatives collaboratively devised by students, high school teachers, and Faculty here in Sydney. This year, we re-introduced the History Extension mentoring program with a more ambitious scope.
The program, piloted by Chifley College Senior Campus and Cecil Hills High School in previous years, involves current University students acting as mentors to high school students who are working on their major projects in the challenging History Extension HSC course. The student volunteers undergo training and then meet with their mentees over the course of five visits between December and July, supervised by a team of academics and their teachers.
For 2022-2023, we again invited Chifley College and Cecil Hills to participate. But we also expanded the program to two new schools, Birrong Girls High and Canley Vale from western Sydney. Further, we invited our first-ever regional school, Corowa High, whose campus lies 60km west of Albury-Wodonga on the NSW/Victorian border. We were delighted at the enthusiasm of teachers and principals alike to participate in the program, and especially pleased to hear that this is the first year the Birrong Girls High offered History Extension.
On the day, we had Corowa and Canley Vale join us via Zoom and Birrong, Chifley, and Cecil Hills visited on campus. In total, we welcomed forty HSC History Extension students alongside twenty student mentors from the University of Sydney, including undergraduates, post-graduates, and even one alumni!
The day started with an introduction from Professor Mike McDonnell, who welcomed our Zoom mentors and mentees, our in-person student and mentor groups, and additional teacher volunteers Melanie Stephens and Emma Dixon.
Mike addressing our hybrid attendees in the CCNESA Conference Room.
Following a moving introduction from Mike on the program’s history and the importance of the Social Inclusion Program, Dr Niro Kandasamy and Dr James Findlay treated the groups to a presentation on the importance of historiography and how questions of historical debate and methodology factor into their research.
The presentation aimed to help the students continue thinking about their projects and the types of questions a historian asks about their secondary sources. The critical aspect of a history extension project is not so much about understanding the past but how historians’ writing is a product of their time and place. We received fantastic feedback on these presentations and are looking ahead to recording these in a structured, digital format for the students to revisit and hopefully for the use of wider cohorts.
After these excellent presentations, it was time for the real work to begin! Our in-person mentees got to meet their mentors, break the ice a little bit, and head out on a mentor-led tour of the campus after some morning tea. We received feedback from the high school teachers, before and after the day, that the campus tour can be a really formative experience for their students. It can be easy to forget your first time seeing the Quad, graffiti alley, or any of the fantastic architecture across the campus when you’re a student walking among it most weeks of the year.
During the campus tours, our Zoom groups continued their ice-breaking and discussions of history projects. Despite the limitations of zoom, we’ve had excellent feedback from Corowa and Canley Vale teachers and students. Our teachers and students were particularly pleased and impressed with the friendliness and engagement of the mentors. We are currently in discussions with both schools (yes, even Corowa!) for their visits to campus in February and March next year once the term is back in session.
On campus, we finished our day with a mountainous feed of pizza and pide from the folks at UniBros, who came in clutch on the day. After lunch, our in-person groups continued their lively discussions about their history extension projects. In addition, Niro, James and Mike mingled with the mentoring groups and provided extra support and guidance to some of the students whose projects sat close to our historian’s interests.
Though it was an exhausting launch day for all, it was also a rewarding one. Preparations are now underway for our next sessions, which will take place here on campus in February. We are also super excited about the opportunity to visit our extension groups at their schools.
We have several important people to thank for the day’s success. The first of these goes to our teacher and post-graduate volunteers Emma and Melanie, who played a crucial role in watching over Zoom calls to ensure nothing went wrong, helped bring the food, and run some great discussions with the History Extension teachers. More thanks go to all those in the Faculty who helped book, unbook, and reboot rooms to host such large groups of in-person and digital teacher, mentors, mentees, and academics! Finally, we want to thank Mike McDonnell, Niro Kandasamy and James Findlay for their hard work and support in getting this year’s iteration of the program off to a flying start.
But most importantly, we need to thank the mentors, extension teachers and mentees. For our wonderful mentors, we want to acknowledge their incredible passion for history and for giving up their time to help provide a space and platform for those exceptional young people willing to take the risk and commit to participate in the HSC History Extension course. For our teachers and mentees, thank you for taking a chance on History Extension and for allowing us to support you in that journey.
We are already looking to build on the success of the launch day in the new year and look forward to seeing our mentors at work with the students once again. Happy holidays and happy new year to all involved!
