Arts
History at Monash
Newsletter Volume 15
June 2013
www.arts.monash.edu
Welcome Letter
C
Bain Attwood, Head of History
It gives me enormous pleasure to
introduce this newsletter in my role as
the new Head of the History Program.
I am delighted to be able to report that
History at Monash continues to thrive.
In the federal government’s 2012
survey of Excellence in Research, the
discipline of History at Monash, which
is mostly based in the History Program
in the School of Philosophical, Historical
and International Studies, received the
highest possible score, one which is
only awarded to those programs whose research performance is
regarded as 'outstanding' and 'well above world standard'.
No small part of this fine achievement springs from the Program’s
success in winning Australian Research Grants and especially
Australian Research Council Fellowships. (The awards won in the
most recent Australian Research Council round are described
later in this newsletter.) At the same time, two members of the
Program have recently held or secured prestigious international
fellowships, which are also featured in here.
The winning of Australian Research Council fellowships by
tenured members of staff has enabled us to make several exciting
new appointments to three-year lectureships — Scott Dunbar,
Kathleen Neal and Taylor Spence (see below). Earlier this year our
ranks were similarly strengthened by the appointments of Paula
Michaels and Susie Protschky to tenured lectureships in Modern
History (see below).
The Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, which is part
of the History Program and which was featured in the previous
newsletter, goes from strength to strength. Most recently, its
members, both staff and graduate students, were involved in
hosting the annual conference of Australian and New Zealand
Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies.
The Program also continues to excel in its teaching. This is
especially evident in the winning of several teaching prizes and
citations, including ones awarded by the Vice-Chancellor.
Ahead of a recent review of the BA at Monash, the Program has
undertaken a good deal of curriculum reform. This includes the
introduction of core courses or units which we require all History
majors to take. This includes an exciting new course Making
Histories, led by the former Head of the Program and current
Head of School, Al Thomson, in which students made short digital
history videos (for more on this see later in this newsletter).
Finally you will see featured in these pages the books published
recently by members of the Program. These include two which
have been short-listed for major history prizes.
We welcome the following new staff
Scott Dunbar: Lecturer for Centre for
Studies in Religion and Theology. Scott is
currently an Assistant Professor of Global
Issues at the University of Prince Edward
Island, Canada and will join Monash in July
2013. Scott completed an interdisciplinary
doctorate in religion and social issues at
the University of Saskatchewan in 2011,
and has extensive experience in teaching
and course design in world religions,
interfaith dialogue, and religious violence.
Scott is also Academic Co-Editor of the
Journal of Religion and Popular Culture.
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Taylor Spence: History Lecturer. Taylor
specializes in American History. He
completed his PhD at Yale University in
2012 and has held fellowships at the
Newberry Library and McGill University. His
PhD dissertation, ‘The Endless Commons:
Contested Borders, Land-Right Cultures,
and the Origins of American Expansion,
1783-1848’, traces the origins of North
American settler colonial culture to the
collision between the English belief in a right
to the commons and the seeming expanse
of available land in North America. Taylor
joins the History Program in July 2013.
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Staff News
Paula Michaels: History Lecturer. Paula
studies the history of medicine, and is
especially interested in the ways that
medicine is mobilized to further political
and social objectives. Paula’s research
and teaching focuses on twentiethcentury world history. Her work bridges
the histories of Eastern and Western
Europe, integrating the USSR into a panEuropean and global narrative through
the study of social and cultural history.
Paula joins the history department
having taught at the University of Iowa.
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the Australian Early Medieval Association
and has a highly regarded academic
blog, In Thirteen Century England, http://
thirteenthcenturyengland.wordpress.com/
Susie Protschky History Lecturer. Suzie
returns to teaching in July 2013 to
lecture in International Studies. Suzie’s
research focuses on the Netherlands
Indies (colonial Indonesia), with a
special focus on visual culture and
photography. Suzie currently holds an
Australian Research Council Postdoctoral
Research
Fellowship
(2010-2015).
Kathleen Neal: History Lecturer. Kathleen
holds a Master of Studies in Historical
Research (Medieval History) from Oxford
University and a PhD in neuroscience from
the University of Melbourne, and is currently
completing her PhD in History at Monash on
the role of letters in political communication
between the royal government and its
subjects in thirteenth-century England.
Kathleen has served on the standing
committee of the Medieval Academy of
America and the executive committee of
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Congratulations to...
Ernest Koh who was awarded the 2012
Vice-Chancellor’s Citation for Outstanding
Contribution to Student Learning – 'For
sustained contributions to the innovative
teaching of history in multi-disciplinary
settings, and the fostering of a research
culture among his students'.
Luke Bancroft who was recognised for
outstanding contribution to teaching of
ATS1317 Renaissance Europe (SoPHIS).
Rachel Stevens and Timothy Verhoeven.
Rachel and Tim were awarded the Faculty
Citation for Outstanding Contributions
to Student Learning at the 2012 Arts
Faculty Teaching Awards and Citations.
The citation is awarded to staff who in
2012 demonstrated superior performance
in the promotion of student learning.
Peter Howard who was awarded the
2012 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching
Excellence.
Professor Rae Frances, Dean of Arts,
congratulated Peter for his 'capacity to
motivate students and engage them in a
dynamic process which harnesses their
curiosity and develops their confidence
to explore new themes, individually and
in cooperation with their peers, by placing
the responsibility for learning in the hands
of the students rather than the teacher.'
Peter Howard, recipient of the
2012 Vice-Chancellor’s Award
for Teaching Excellence.
Scholarship Success
MA student Fiona Viney has won a
scholarship to undertake her PhD at
the University of California Davis. The
scholarship Fiona was awarded includes
a University of California Davis Provost
Fellowship for her first year.
Fiona’s Masters thesis, undertaken at
Monash, examined the influence of the
1971 Gove Aboriginal land rights case on
federal politics and policy-making. Fiona’s
PhD will continue the work of her MA, but
in an American context: It will look at the
ways in which American settler-colonial
governments have dealt with Native
Americans through the law, and how this
has changed over time.
§
Graduate diploma student Alexandra
Roginski has been awarded an '1854
Scholarship' from Melbourne Museum.
Alexandra's project is concerned with
the intersection of science, race and law
during the 19th Century, and the practice
of collecting Aboriginal remains during
this period. She has been researching the
Scottish-born phrenologist AS Hamilton,
whose collection of ancestral remains was
given to the Melbourne Museum sometime
after his death in 1884. 'By learning more
about collectors and their practices,
historians can help to identify where
remains came from and thereby assist the
repatriation process,' Alexandra said.
Alexandra added that 'until now, Hamilton
has been something of a mystery, as his
personal notes cannot be located. My
research using online newspaper archives
has traced Hamilton's 30-year career
of travel, lecturing and trouble-making
across Australia's eastern colonies and
New Zealand. A morally ambiguous figure,
Hamilton was a frequent attendant at highprofile executions and a central campaigner
against Ned Kelly's murder conviction.'
The Melbourne Museum, where Alexandra
Roginski will be completing research on AS
Hamilton. (Image courtesy of the Melbourne
Museum.)
Cover Image: Firefighters are tackling a fire which has broken out in houses at the Southwark end
of Blackfriars Bridge. William Henry Pine; William Combe (1904) [1809] "Fire in London" in The
Microcosm of London or London in Miniature (Volume II ed.), London: Methuen and Company, pp.
Plate 35. Turn to page 6 to read 'How Fire Remade the European City'.
History at Monash University Newsletter
3
Australian Research Council Grant Success
Constant Mews
Clare Corbould
Timothy Verhoeven
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Encountering diversity:
Communities of learning,
intellectual confrontations and
transformations of religious thinking
in Latin Europe, 1050-1350
The Revolution in Black American
Life: Memory and History in the
Making of African America
Secularism in Nineteenth-Century
America: A History
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The role of religion in public life has been
a divisive issue in the United States from
the Revolutionary era to the present day.
The vast majority of Americans agreed
that there should be no national church.
But there consensus came to an end. In
the wake of the Revolution, Protestant
churches sought to make public policy
conform to their beliefs. In opposition,
other Americans adhered to the notion
that their Republic was founded on a strict
dividing line between religion and politics.
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Constant's project will analyse how
intellectual confrontations between different
communities in medieval Europe (from
1050-1350), including Jews and Muslims,
were generated by competition between
teachers from different groups, both within
and outside formal educational structures
and established religious communities,
thus helping to transform religious thinking.
It explores the significance of the
educational transformation in Western
Europe from monasteries to urban schools,
and the way encounters with a range of
experiences and ideas from within and
outside the Latin west helped generate new
ways of thinking about Christian belief. It
will lead to a monograph titled Community,
scripture and the invention of theology:
from monasteries to the urban schools.
The American Revolution has shaped the
United States and the world in which we
now live in profound ways. Understanding
how that event has been remembered,
commemorated and invoked by successive
generations of African-Americans is critical
in comprehending the role of memory
and history in the business of nationmaking, citizenship and democracy.
Tim's project investigates these battles
over the dividing line between Church and
State in the nineteenth century. Although
often regarded as an intensely religious
period, this era witnessed a series of
contests over the place of religion in the
American republic. On a range of issues
– Sabbath laws, slavery, temperance,
legislative chaplains – an organised
secularist movement mobilised to defend
its conception of a secular public sphere.
This project brings to light this hitherto
neglected movement in the American past.
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Keep up to date with the school’s research via
http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/history-studies/research-2/
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History at Monash University Newsletter
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Princeton Bound
Adam Clulow
Clare Monagle
One of only six scholars worldwide to
receive an invitation, Adam Clulow will travel
to Princeton University to research the
nature of claims to territory and sovereignty
in the early modern world.
Adam, a senior lecturer in of the Monash
University’s School of Philosophical,
Historical and International Studies, has
been selected for the inaugural intake of the
prestigious Fung Global Fellows Program.
Administered by the Princeton Institute
for International and Regional Studies,
these highly prestigious fellowships reflect
Princeton’s commitment to engaging with
international researchers and inspiring
ideas that transcend national boundaries.
Sexing Scholasticism: Gender in
Medieval Thought 1150-1520
Clare’s research project is titled ‘Sexing
Scholasticism: Gender in Medieval
Thought 1150-1520’. The starting
point was a small section in Peter
Lombard’s Sentences of 1156, in which
he pondered why it was necessary that
Christ had been born in the male sex.
Clare said the following about her project:
‘This book was the major textbook in
theology throughout the Middle Ages, and
was commented upon by every student in
theology during that time. Consequently,
we have centuries of discussion, in
Lombard’s wake, as to why Christ was
born a man. To my mind, these discussions
offer some important insights into the ideas
of gender and divinity embedded within
medieval Christianity, and how they change
over time. Much to my surprise, when
I discovered this section of Lombard’s
Sentences, I realized that it had received
almost no scholarly attention, by neither
historians of theology or of gender. This
project aims to excavate these medieval
discussions about the necessity and
nature of Christ’s masculinity (reading a
lot of tough Latin in the process), in order
to tell a larger story about how theology
was ‘gendered’ in the Middle Ages.'
The program funds exceptional early-career researchers in social sciences and
humanities to travel to Princeton for a year of research, writing and collaboration focused
around a common topic. The 2013-14 Fung Global Fellows Program will examine how
languages interact with political, social, economic and cultural authority.
Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research, Professor Pauline Nestor congratulated Adam:
‘It’s a testament to the quality of Adam’s research that he was selected for such an
exclusive program so early in his career. At Princeton, he will be a wonderful ambassador
for the Monash history program,’ Professor Nestor said.
Adam, who will spend ten months in Princeton from September 2013, said he was
looking forward to engaging with a diverse group of scholars all working around a
shared theme. ‘The Fung Global Fellows Program is unique in that it not only provides
a wonderful opportunity to engage in sustained research but also because it offers an
overarching framework that is designed specifically to facilitate academic collaboration
across disciplines'.
The U.S Institutes for Scholars Program
Rachel Stevens
History Lecturer, Rachel Stevens, has been selected to participate in the United States
State Department’s Study of the United States Institutes for Scholars program, which is
designed to enhance the teaching of US studies in universities outside the United States.
In this fully-funded six week program in June and July, Rachel will be a fellow at
the Multinational Institute of American Studies at New York University. Along with
15 other scholars from around the world, she will participate in a series of lectures,
seminar discussions and site visits related to the program’s theme of reconciling
American cultural and social diversity with national unity. The program will include
more than 60 speakers from universities, political organisations, labour unions,
business, media organisations and the arts. During the program Rachel will also
be taken on study tours of the diverse regions of New England and New Mexico.
Rachel is in the early stages of her next major research project on American immigration
history and said she is looking forward to establishing contacts with academics and
migration organisations in the New York area.
History at Monash University Newsletter
5
How Fire Remade the European City
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An Interview with Professor David Garrioch
by
In 2012 Monash History Professor, David
Garrioch, was awarded an Australian
Research Council fellowship to undertake
a study on urban fires across Europe,
focussing primarily on five major cities
– London, Paris, Stockholm, Milan, and
Vienna. David’s project, 'How fire remade
the European city, 1550-1850', examines
a seminal, though in some aspects,
overlooked, part of urban history.
Milan and Stockholm, David discovered
evidence of state-driven experiments with
fire pumps that predated fire brigades.
Conversely, a study of a single city, such
as London alone, would not reveal, for
example, the way the Great Fire prompted
changes in building regulations across
For David, inspiration for the project was
sparked by two particular encounters.
The first was discovering stories of fire
in the archival material of European
cities he had been researching. In the
official city archives, and in particular the
police archives, reports of fires feature
prominently. The vision for his work came
when he realised the incredible historical
stories of people and their cities waiting to
be discovered.
The scope of David’s project is wide. His
definition of fire incorporates all uses of
flame, thereby including not only destructive
fires, but fire’s everyday cultural and social
uses. It was common in early modern cities,
for example, for people returning home late
at night to obtain a light from one of their
neighbours, a practice which led to the
disastrous Warwick fire of 1694. Tobaccosmoking depended upon the ubiquity of
fire, and created new patterns of sociability,
but its spread in the seventeenth century
led to a large number of destructive fires.
The cost of fuel enhanced the impact of
celebratory bonfires, of fireworks, and
of bright lighting, demonstrations of the
power of rulers to banish, albeit temporarily,
the night darkness, yet the spark of ten set
roofs or stacks of wood ablaze.
‘There are amazing stories: of people
falling asleep next to fires and their
clothes catching alight; stories of babies
crawling into fires; stories where dozens of
neighbours from the street would rush in to
quell a blaze, knowing that that the whole
neighbourhood would otherwise go up in
flames’, he said.
The second encounter with fire was more
particular. David stumbled upon a statistic
in a 1724 document in Paris that reported
that there were approximately 100 fires that
year in the city. Similar figures emerged for
Milan. What struck David were both the
frequency of fires, and the severity of their
consequences: in any of those fires, all of
Paris could have gone up in flames.
A comparative fine-grained analysis of
different cities has much to reveal. In
the official administrative papers of both
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A study of the everyday uses of fire expands
to examining the effects of changing
technology in candles; the social distinction
borne of access to fuel, the development
of new occupations and leisure activities
such as theatre and opera that depended
upon innovations in light, and the social
impact of curfews in cities.
This archival evidence pointed to an
opportunity to use fire as a conceptual
framework to investigate urban history.
Although fire might seem to be a constant
and unchanging force in nature, the uses
that urban people made of fire changed
over time and the way it affected cities also
changed.
David selected five major cities across
Europe with consideration to location, size,
and influence. Variations in climate also
came into play. The bitterly cold weather
in northern and central Europe and the
darkness of the northern winter inevitably
meant that the uses and significance of fire
were not the same there as in the milder
climates of western and southern Europe.
David wrote: ‘An understanding that fire has
a history is only beginning to be developed,
and nowhere is this more important or more
advanced than in Australia. This project
explores what it meant to coexist with fire,
a reality lost in modern Western cities but
still of direct relevance to people living in
bushland areas. In light of recent events in
Australia, there is little need to reaffirm the
national significance of studying fire in all its
dimensions, but it is important to make the
point that fire is not the same everywhere
and at all times. A historical perspective is
vital, both to understand the impact of fire
and human responses to it.’
the Continent or led to a new French law
setting out the nature of compensation to
be paid to fire victims. The use of fire as
a basis for conducting an urban history
highlights these parallel processes and key
divergences.
Other inspirations for David were closer to
home. Tom Griffiths’ work on pine forest
fires was influential, as were Steven Pyne’s
surveys on studies of fire. Notably, the
Australian experience was also a factor
when electing to research this project.
As David explained, 'Fire made and
remade European cities. The inhabitants
built their cities around fire, and their efforts
to manage it shaped urban form and the
behaviour of the people who lived there.’
Images: London, Fire Monument –
Photographer: Francis Godolphin Osbourne
Stuart (English), Architect: Sir Christopher
Wren (English), Monument date: 1671-1677,
Photograph date: ca. 1865-ca. 1895; The
City of Lights, another key inspiration – Paris
Exposition: Eiffel Tower, Paris, France, 1900.
Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival
Collection.
History at Monash University Newsletter
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The Trials, Tribulations and Joys of Archaeological
Fieldwork in Egypt
by Colin Hope, Director, Centre for Archaeology & Ancient History
In January 2013 a team of archaeologists
from Monash's Centre for Archaeology
and Ancient History returned to resume
archaeological fieldwork at the site of
Mut al-Kharab in Egypt's Western Desert
after a break of two years following the
tumultuous events of 2011. The political
and social situation in Egypt remains
unstable but in the Dakhleh oasis where
we work everything was reportedly calm.
Permits from the Supreme Council of
Antiquities were granted for the work and
so we headed out with expectations of
being able to conduct at least 3 weeks of
excavations. Unfortunately, not everything
was as it seemed. Apparently we had not
been granted military clearance and so no
excavation was possible initially; but, after
much negotiation, this permit was granted,
though only from the end of January and
we were due to leave at the beginning of
February! This could not be changed.
Very fortunately we had received permission
to study objects discovered during earlier
work that are stored in the local antiquities
magazine, and so we spent a productive
week looking at a variety of material.
been reduced to foundation level.
Our
epigrapher,
Professor
Gunter
Vittmannn of the University of Wurzburg,
studied inscriptions upon fragments
of pottery written in a cursive Egyptian
script that date to about 800 bce, which
document administrative and economic
activity within the temple of the god Seth
at Mut al-Kharab. Amongst these is the
largest piece of its type yet discovered in
Egypt, which is 0.5 m by 0.5m. The rest of
us worked on moulds (see accompanying
illustration) that were used to manufacture
inlays in faience, a glazed material, which
were once set into a twice-life-size image
of Seth. The god was shown in human
form spearing a serpent representing
choas; his head was that of a falcon and
he was provided with wings to indicate
his ability to move freely. The scale of this
image, which can be determined from the
size of the mould for inlays in the head and
parallels with similar images elsewhere,
assists us in reconstructing the scale of the
wall that carried the image. This is vital to
our reconstruction of the temple as it has
The date of the moulds, and thus the
image, is uncertain, but likely to be within
the last 500 years of the first millennium
bce. They are the only ones to have been
discovered for such a large image.
So, in the end our frustration turned into
success. And in the last week of January
we managed 6 days of excavations. More
inscribed material was found in what are
probably magazines associated with the
temple, including document seals, and
elsewhere a block from the temple that
gives us the ancient name of the site, 'Mit',
undoubtedly the origin of the modern name
of the site and also the capital of Dakhleh.
And, perhaps better still, the military
clearance when it did arrive turned out to
be valid until next year, so the team will be
there for a month of excavations.
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Moulds for the production of the inlays for a relief of Seth, Lord of the Oasis, found at Mut al-Kharab
in Egypt's Dakhleh Oasis.
History at Monash University Newsletter
7
What's On
Thursday July 18th @ 5:30pm
Making Public Histories Seminar: 'First Peoples Exhibition at Bunjilaka, Melbourne Museum'
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Bunjilaka at the Melbourne Museum is a living Aboriginal cultural centre that celebrates the strength and vitality of Koori people in
Victoria. A major exhibition redevelopment will strengthen and revitalise Bunjilaka as a place to celebrate and engage with the cultures
and histories of Victoria’s first people.
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Members of the exhibition team discuss their experiences of creating First Peoples, the new major exhibition at Bunjilaka, opening in
mid-July.
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The exhibition has been created with extensive community consultation and co-curation by members of Victoria’s Aboriginal community. The First Peoples Yulendj Group has brought stories, culture and knowledge to every aspect of the exhibition development.
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Speakers include: Genevieve Grieves, lead curator; Caroline Martin, manager, Bunjilaka; Amanda Reynolds, senior curator; Members
of the First Peoples Yulendj Group
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Venue: State Library of Victoria, Village Roadshow Theatre, 328 Swanston St Melbourne (Entry 3 via La Trobe St)
All welcome to Attend. Bookings Essential: Phone: (03) 8664 7099 or bookings@slv.vic.gov.au
Online http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/event/making-public-histories-series
Thursday July 25th @ 5:30pm
Making Public Histories Seminar: HCV Annual Lecture, 'From architecture to ornament: the Melbourne
Public Library in the nineteenth century'
In celebration of the centenary of the domed La Trobe Reading Room, Professor Harriet Edquist (RMIT) will reflect on the intersections
of design and architectural history with the history of Melbourne and its public library, now the State Library of Victoria.
Professor Edquist will also look at one of the featured items in the ‘Enchanted Dome’ exhibition, Owen Jones’s book, The Grammar
of Ornament, its influence on colonial liberals such as judge Sir Redmond Barry and architect Joseph Reed, and the design of Melbourne’s historic public buildings
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Harriet Edquist is Professor of Architectural History at RMIT, Director of the RMIT Design Archives, and an Honorary Fellow of the
Royal Australian Institute of Architects. She has published extensively on Australian architecture and she has contributed significantly to the Library’s Dome Centenary Celebrations, including curating the exhibition ‘Free, Secular and Democratic’.
Venue: State Library of Victoria, Village Roadshow Theatre, 328 Swanston St Melbourne (Entry 3 via La Trobe St)
All welcome to Attend. Bookings Essential: Phone: (03) 8664 7099 or bookings@slv.vic.gov.au
Online http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/event/making-public-histories-series
Monday August 5th @ 5:30pm
Making Public Histories Seminar: 'Historians and their Publics: Confronting Histories of Violence'
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Professor Richard Bessel (University of York) will explore will explore some of the problems involved in presenting difficult and complex
histories within the wider public arena.
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This seminar forms part of the public program of the third Dr Jan Randa Conference in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, hosted
by the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, in partnership with the History Program at Monash University and the University of
Warwick.
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Richard Bessel is Professor of Twentieth Century History. He works on the social and political history of modern Germany, the aftermath of the two world wars and the history of policing. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of German History and History Today.
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Venue: State Library of Victoria, Village Roadshow Theatre, 328 Swanston St Melbourne (Entry 3 via La Trobe St)
All welcome to Attend. Bookings Essential: Phone: (03) 8664 7099 or bookings@slv.vic.gov.au
Online http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/event/making-public-histories-series
8
History at Monash University Newsletter
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Join our mailing list: http://eepurl.com/v0QEP
Thursday 19th September @ 5:30pm
Making Public Histories Seminar: 'Drought stories, past and present'
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Droughts have long punctuated Australia’s rural, regional and national histories. In this seminar, Deb Anderson and Ruth Morgan
consider how Victorians and Western Australians in the Mallee and the Wheatbelt have experienced drought and climate change over
the past century.
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Drawing on the oral history collections of Museum Victoria, the State Library of Western Australia and the National Library of Australia,
this seminar will explore how rural Australians have developed their own narratives of hope and endurance in a changing world.
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Speakers include Dr Deb Anderson, National Centre for Australian Studies, Monash University and Dr Ruth Morgan, History, Monash
University
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Venue: State Library of Victoria, Village Roadshow Theatre, 328 Swanston St Melbourne (Entry 3 via La Trobe St)
All welcome to Attend. Bookings Essential: Phone: (03) 8664 7099 or bookings@slv.vic.gov.au
Online http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/event/making-public-histories-series
Thursday 10th October @ 5:30pm
Making Public Histories Seminar: '"Beers and bombs": tourism to Bali as international history'
Over a decade after the bombings of October 2002, Agnieszka Sobocinska examines the changing place of Bali in the hearts and
minds of Australian tourists in the wider context of Australia’s historic engagement with Asia.
The seminar will be delivered by Dr Agnieszka Sobocinska, Deputy Director, National Centre for Australian Studies Monash University.
Venue: State Library of Victoria, Village Roadshow Theatre, 328 Swanston St Melbourne (Entry 3 via La Trobe St)
All welcome to Attend. Bookings Essential: Phone: (03) 8664 7099 or bookings@slv.vic.gov.au
Online http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/event/making-public-histories-series
t-
Thursday 28th November @ 5:30pm
Making Public Histories Seminar: 'Rethinking the history and heritage of children and childhood'
ex
Exploring how the everyday experiences of children are collected and interpreted, this seminar will reveal the rich and varied history
and heritage of children and childhood in Australia and abroad.
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of
The seminar will be delivered by Dr Carla Pascoe, Research Fellow, University of Melbourne; Honorary Associate of Museum Victoria;
and professional historian.
ry.
Venue: State Library of Victoria, Village Roadshow Theatre, 328 Swanston St Melbourne (Entry 3 via La Trobe St)
All welcome to Attend. Bookings Essential: Phone: (03) 8664 7099 or bookings@slv.vic.gov.au
Online http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/event/making-public-histories-series
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History at Monash University Newsletter
9
Making Digital Histories
Launch
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In October 2012, the digital histories
project was launched at Museum Victoria.
The project, founded in 2011 by Professor
Alistair Thomson and colleagues from
the History Program supported Museum
Victoria in developing the Making History
online learning resource.
In 2012 students taking the Making
Histories unit researched and created
3-minute digital history videos from their
individual research projects.
The launch at the Immigration Museum
was a great success. A veritable ‘Oscars
Night’ of digital histories, the launch
gave students and their interviewees an
opportunity to share their histories with one
another and celebrate their achievements.
For students and staff alike, it was a
fascinating and challenging project.
Alistair Thomson said of the project, ‘Making
Histories has been the most challenging –
and the most rewarding – experience of my
teaching career. Within twelve weeks 80
students have designed and researched
their own history project, conducted oral
history interviews, collected images and
sourced archive evidence, read up on the
relevant historical literature, and crystalised
their research in a 3-minute digital video
that the world can enjoy on the Museum
Victoria website. As examiners the three
tutors in the unit have felt like Margaret
and David “at the movies” as we’ve been
thrilled and moved by student productions
on topics ranging from Gippsland bushfire
history, the Chinese cultural revolution and
concentration camp tattoos.’
For student Emily Maguire, the greatest
challenge was editing her piece, ‘Around
the World in 80 Days’, within the 3-minute
timeframe. ‘There was too much to fit
in!’, she said. The task of selecting what
information to include, and what to omit,
was painstaking, but ultimately useful.
As professional historians, students will face
similar challenges. One student explained:
'The mediums for learning about history
are evolving and expanding across a range
of media platforms. This digital histories
project was not only a creative challenge,
but practical experience.'
Mirah Lambert, Manager of Digital
Education at the Melbourne Museum,
declared the students ‘online content
developers’ and affirmed that they now
stand in good stead for the ever-digitalising
world.
A selection of the videos can be viewed
here:
http://museumvictoria.com.au/
discoverycentre/websites/making-history/
student-showcase/?s=True&f=false&p=1
&a=Tertiary
Visiting Scholar
Dr Carolyn James
In April 2013, Carolyn James took up a one month Australian European University
Institute Visiting Scholar Fellowship. The Institute is situated at San Domenico in the
hills above Florence, just below the ancient town Etruscan town of Fiesole. During
her time in Florence, Carolyn worked on a project funded by the Australian Research
Council which analyses the history of European Women’s Letter-Writing practices.
Carolyn's particular focus is the period from 1380 to 1580, a time when only a small
minority of women could read and write. Research has shown, however, that even
when literacy rates were low, women participated very actively in the epistolary
culture of their day through scribes and, in some cases, by teaching themselves
very basic skills. Families were often separated by emigration and war in these
centuries. Letters were therefore an essential means of communication. Women
improvised ingeniously to stay in touch with friends and loved ones. Up until modern
times, letters were the main genre of women’s writing. It is therefore essential to
understand their strengths and inadequacies as an historical source.
As part of the same project, a workshop was held on 5th and 6th April at the
Monash Centre in Prato on letters between mothers and daughters from the late
medieval period to the 20th century. The papers presented will be published next
year in a special issue of Women’s History Review.
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Conveniently located just outside of Florence, and immersed in the picturesque landscape of Tuscany, the
Monash Prato Centre is located in the elegant 18th
Century Palazzo Vaj on Via Pugliesi, in the centre of
Prato.
History at Monash University Newsletter
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ANZAMEMS Conference
by Clare Monagle
In February we were delighted, and
daunted, to host the meeting of the
Australian and New Zealand Association
for Medieval and Early Modern Studies
(ANZAMEMS). This conference takes
place every two years, and brings together
approximately 200 scholars from across
the globe.
The theme was ‘Cultures in Translation’
and a number of innovative papers
spoke to this brief, discussing how
cultural difference was negotiated and
experienced in the medieval and earlymodern world.
ANZAMEMS is a famously friendly and
open conference, where postgraduates
just starting their research careers can
present material alongside eminent and
experienced scholars of renown. As the
convener of the conference, with Carolyn
James, I was delighted to participate
in many panels where postgraduate
students were given excellent feedback
and support by a luminary in their field.
The conference provided a great
opportunity for us to showcase our
strengths in the field of ‘Med/Ren’
Studies. We are lucky enough to have
6 staff members who work in this field
within the History Program. We are even
more lucky to have an amazing cohort
of postgraduates in the field. They
did extraordinary administrative work
throughout the conference, and provided
wonderful welcoming support to the
delegates. As well as this, they presented
papers of excellent calibre. I want to take
this chance to thank them for their great
work.
Conference delegates meeting and greeting at
the conference dinner held at Caulfield Racecourse
L to R: Jessica O'Leary, Sally Fisher, Hannah
Fulton (all of Monash), Annick MacAskill (U
Western Ontario).
...And from the Postgraduates
by the Committee for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
In February many of the postgraduate
students and recent honours graduates in
the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance
Studies within the History Program were
busy helping out at the biennial meeting
of the Australian and New Zealand
Association for Medieval and Early
Modern Studies, which was hosted at the
Caulfield campus.
A program of events was put in place to
create networking opportunities and help
visiting students from other universities
around Melbourne, interstate and
overseas to feel at home. We held a preregistration brunch as an ice-breaker on
the first morning of the conference, and
followed it up with a pub night and an
excursion to the State Library of Victoria.
In addition to these social events,
seventeen Monash students presented
papers in the academic program, and
a number of students also acted as
conference volunteers, helping with
registration, directions, accommodation
queries, and even printing for visiting
scholars.
The student cohort was also treated
to a fabulous career-development
panel organised by the Graduate
Student Committee of the Medieval
Academy of America, at which our
own Clare Monagle was among the
panellists discussing their experiences
as globe-trotting postgraduates. It was
an exhausting but exhilarating week.
Postgraduate students visited the State Library
of Victoria for a tour of the Mirror of the World
exhibition on the last day of the conference.
L to R: Kathleen Neal, Diana Jeske, Stephanie
Jury (all of Monash) and Annick Macaskill (U.
Western Ontario).
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History at Monash University Newsletter
11
Recent and Forthcoming Publications
ANZAC Memories: Living with
the Legend
Federation Square Melbourne: The First Ten Years
Alistair Thomson
Monash University Publishing 2013
Seamus O’Hanlon
Monash University Publishing 2012
In a new edition of his 1994 book,
Professor Alistair Thomson explores how
the Anzac legend has transformed over
the past quarter century, how a ‘postmemory’ of the First World War creates
new challenges and opportunities for
making sense of the national past, and how
veterans’ war memories can still challenge
and complicate national mythologies.
Al said this new edition of Anzac Memories
has allowed him to return to his own
family’s war history that he could not write
twenty years ago because of the stigma
of war and mental illness. He has also
reconsidered the lives and memories of the
war veterans featured in the original book.
‘In researching for this book, I was able to
look through newly released repatriation
files and it made me question my own
earlier account of veterans’ post-war lives
and memories,’ Al said.
Anzac Memories was first published
to acclaim in 1994, and has achieved
international renown for its pioneering
contribution to oral history and to the study
of war memory and mythology.
The 2013 edition of Anzac Memories
features a foreword written by internationally
renowned historian Professor Jay Winter.
Professor Winter is the Charles J Stille
Professor of History at Yale University,
where he focuses his research on World
War I and its impact on the 20th century.
Australian historian Professor Kenneth
Inglis, who has written extensively on
the Anzac tradition, has also provided
comments.
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Federation Square Melbourne: the first
ten years, by urban historian and lecturer
Associate Professor Seamus O’Hanlon
explores the place of Federation Square in
the city of Melbourne.
‘Since its birth 10 years ago, Federation
Square has become the new centre of
Melbourne. From a place that was once
so reviled it has ended up popular and
successful; it is now a place that brings the
people of Melbourne together,’ Seamus
said.
Designed to link the city, the Yarra River
and the adjoining Riverside Park, Seamus
sees Federation Square as a symbol of the
‘new’ Melbourne.
‘This "new" Melbourne emerged as a postindustrial leisure and tourism-oriented city
after the factories closed in the 1970s and
1980s and Federation Square has certainly
embraced the leisure and tourism nature of
this new city.’
Whilst covering the history of the Square,
Seamus also explores its design and
management structure, the tensions
between its public and private roles and
where the line is drawn between public
and private spaces.
Silences and Secrets: The
Australian experience of the
Weintraubs Syncopators
D
of
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Kay Dreyfus
Monash University Publishing 2013
Ern
The Weintraubs Syncopators, international
musical celebrities of the 1930s, embarked
on a four-year journey across Europe,
Russia and the Far East in exile from the
antisemitic ideologies of the German
Third Reich. This band of mainly Jewish
musicians arrived in Sydney, Australia, in
1937. The decision of some of them to
stay brought them into conflict with the
aggressively protectionist Musicians’ Union
of Australia. They gained employment at
a high-end Sydney nightclub but when
war came, they were forced to come to
terms with a change in their status – from
celebrities to enemy aliens. Denounced
for alleged espionage activities in Russia,
three were interned and the band broke
up.
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In this major recounting of the experience of
the Weintraubs Syncopators, Kay Dreyfus
pieces together the complex personal,
social and political forces at work in this
story of migration at a time of insecurity,
fear and dramatic conflict.
O
S
Fr
Kay Dreyfus is an Adjunct Research
Fellow in SOPHIS. Her background is
in musicology and history and she holds
doctorates in both areas.
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History at Monash University Newsletter
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Publications News
Diaspora at War: The Chinese
of Singapore between Empire
and Nation, 1937-1945
Ernest Koh, Brill Academic Publishers 2013
Much of what has been written on
Singapore's wartime past is set against
the Japanese invasion and occupation
of the island. In Diaspora at War: The
Chinese of Singapore between Empire and
Nation, 1937-1945, Ernest Koh maps a
war history that is far wider in geographical
and temporal scope. From the skies over
Western Europe and the Mediterranean to
the Burma Road, from the Atlantic Ocean
to the cities of China, individuals and small
groups of Chinese from the British colony
worked, fought, and flew in a variety of
fighting and labour units. Drawing from oral
history accounts and archival sources, Koh
recovers a rich historical reality that has
long been submerged under the weight of a
teleological national narrative.
NSW Premier's Literary and History Award
Nomination
Congratulations to Alistair Thomson, whose book
Moving Stories was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s
Literary and History Awards.
Nominated for the The Community Relations
Commission for a multicultural NSW Award, Moving
Stories tells the life stories of Phyllis, Gwen, Joan and
Dorothy, illuminating the forgotten history of women’s
lives before the advent of feminism. As housewives,
working mothers and adventurous travellers, these
women recorded, described, compared and explained
their everyday lives in Australia in the letters and
photos they sent to their families in Britain. In writing
about childcare and housework, friendship, family
and married life, these women reveal much about
Britain and Australia at the time, but as much about
themselves.
The History of Monash
Two Monash History staff have been recognised in this
year's Victorian Community History Awards. Graeme
Davison and Kate Murphy won a commendation for
their book, University Unlimited: the Monash Story,
which documents the University's youthful existence
from its inception in the '50s to its most recent history.
of
us
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ty,
Oral History and Memory in
Southeast Asia: Memories and
Fragments
ch
is
ds
Elderly Southeast Asians experienced great
changes in their lives – of war and violence,
of the imposition of the nation-state, of
economic development – and remember
them in different ways. Their oral histories
may bear the influence of state-sanctioned
narratives, attempt to speak truth to power
or reconcile individual and official memories.
By taking an inter-disciplinary approach,
Oral History in Southeast Asia: Memories
and Fragments considers the relationship
of these fragments of memory to dominant
accounts; it unravels the complex ways
through which people remember and make
sense of their pasts.
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History at Monash University Newsletter
Kah Seng Loh, Stephen Dobbs, and Ernest Koh
(eds), Palgrave MacMillan 2013
Graeme Davison and Kate Murphy's history of Monash,
has also been short-listed for the Ernest Scott Prize for
2013.This prize is awarded each year to work based
upon original research which is, in the opinion of the
judges, the most distinguished contribution to the
history of Australia or New Zealand or to the history of
colonisation.
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New Monash PhD
M
New Monash PhD a formula for success
Starting in January 2013, the first round of candidates undertaking the
new Monash PhD, one of Australia’s first PhDs with career enhancement
built into the doctorate, will commence their research degrees.
The Monash PhD will include at least three months of professional
development coursework and/or training in addition to a thesis. Enhancing
the Monash PhD is the recent requirement for all candidates to have at
least two supervisors.
Six faculties will introduce the Monash PhD in 2013, while the remaining
faculties will begin in 2014. The faculties commencing the Monash PhD
in 2013 are:
•
Art, Design and Architecture
•
Arts
•
Business and Economics (in selected departments only)
•
Information Technology
•
Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
•
Science (in the School of Biological Sciences only)
The extra professional development and supervision provided will
ensure all Monash PhD graduates are equipped with the necessary
skills to fulfill their career ambitions. Training will be provided through
the Monash University Institute of Graduate Research (MIGR) and the
faculties to ensure candidates receive generic transferrable skills as well
as professional development relevant to their discipline.
H
Candidates will have access to a variety of training and coursework
options. Generic topics to enhance students’ employability include
communication skills, personal effectiveness, teamwork and networking,
career management, and financial management. Discipline-specific
topics are designed by academics with a thorough understanding of
their discipline and related industry, and cover technical, research and
academic skills.
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MIGR Director, Dr Charles Tustin, said the Monash PhD would differentiate
Monash from other Australian universities by preparing PhD candidates
for the ‘real world’.
“While the submission of a thesis will still be paramount, we recognise
that today’s PhD graduates also need to be better equipped for the range
of career pathways available to them,” Dr Tustin said.
Th
M
“The Monash PhD will deliver graduates who have the research and
professional skills required to become Australia’s next generation of
academic, government, industry and community leaders,” he added.
Fo
Dr
For more information about the Monash PhD visit the MIGR website.
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History at Monash University Newsletter
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Monash University Publishing Special Offer to Alumni
“Darrell Lewis addresses what he calls the greatest
mystery in Australian history...the disappearance of
the Leichhardt expedition somewhere is the vastness
of the inland...seven men, their animals and all their
equipment. He is an investigator worthy of the task.
With forensic flair and admirable energy he examines
all the clues, each scrap of evidence and follows
the paper trail through libraries and archives all over
Australia. In the end the mystery remains but in his
search for answers Lewis takes us on an exhilarating
journey which maintains the suspence until the last
pages.”
— Henry Reynolds
ww
Monash University Publishing is offering Monash
alumni a 30 per cent discount on its newest title:
Where is Dr Leichardt: The greatest mystery in
Australian history by Darrell Lewis
How to receive your discount
Visit the Monash University Publishing http://
ecommerce.lib.monash.edu.au/categories
asp?cID=92.
Enter the voucher code: S-MonALUM_30% to receive
your discount (the ecart will automatically deduct the
30 per cent discount from your order).
Postage will be added at the end of your transaction.
Humanities 21 The future of history, philosophy and literature
Whatever happened to the great debates? In the relentless quest for wealth, security and scientific understanding,
what role is left for history, literature and philosophy? How can we bring the knowledge of our leading humanities
experts to bear on today’s most important social issues?
Housed at the State Library of Victoria, Humanities 21 is an independent group formed out of concern for the
continuing decline in resources allocated to English, History, Classics and Philosophy across Australian schools
and universities, and the consistent under-valuing of humanities graduates in the business world.
By promoting public programs and events offered by universities, clubs and societies in Melbourne – and
seeking sponsorship for more – the group is working to bring humanities academics and research closer to
the community and to business. Its free monthly e-newsletter, Humanities in Melbourne, profiles humanities
graduates with diverse careers and contains a comprehensive list of public lectures, conferences, articles and
seminars in the humanities. The first issue will be released on June 14.
The Committee of Management for Humanities 21 includes Peter Acton, John Armstrong, Sue Hamilton, Jan
McGuinness, Ian Renard, Jeff Richardson and Harrison Young.
For information on how to subscribe, donate or contribute as an academic speaker, write to Executive Director
Dr Barbara Lemon at barbara@humanitiesmelbourne.com.
History at Monash University Newsletter
15
http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/history-studies/
... Lectures
... Conferences
... Seminars
... Book Launches
http://eepurl.com/v0QEP
@MonashCMRS
Centre For Medieval & Renaissance Studies (CMRS)
@DirCMRS
Assoc. Professor Peter Howard, Director of the CMRS
@Aust_gen
The Australian Generations Oral History Project
Contact Details
Editor: Romy Zwier
Institute for Public History, Monash University
Email: romy.zwier@monash.edu
Telephone: +61 3 9902 0116
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History at Monash University Newsletter