Overview
FoR21 is concentrated in the Faculties of Arts and Social & Behavioural Sciences,
and also includes staff in the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit
(ATSISU). UQ is very strong in 2101 and 2103, but not active in 2102 or 2199.
Archaeology and Historical Studies share a well-developed Australasian and IndoPacific focus; archaeologists and historians are collaborating on a major ARC
Linkage-supported Historical Atlas of Queensland.
Staff include:
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6 Academy of Humanities Fellows: Bryce, Creese, Elson, Moorhead, StuartFox, Whitehorn;
2 Academy of Social Sciences Fellows: Saunders, Spearritt;
3 Members of Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies: Lilley, Ross, Ulm;
2 Society of Antiquaries of London Fellows: Weisler and Lilley;
Moore awarded Cross of the Solomon Islands (2005) for his scholarship.
Archaeology (2101)
Outputs
High-ranking outlets include Nature, PNAS and Science (73% in A*/A); books and
book chapters have been published by leading scholarly and specifically
archaeological presses, such as Blackwell and AltaMira: this was achieved by a staff
dominated by ECRs.
Research Strengths
UQ Archaeology addresses 2 main themes, Archaeological Science and Cultural
Heritage, with a global practice and Australasian/Indo-Pacific focus. Archaeological
Science projects include: analyses of stone-tool geochemistry to track ancient
migration and trade; reconstruction of past vegetation patterns and human plant-use;
studies of ancient stone-tool technology; and refinement of dating methods. Heritage
research seeks to understand and balance interests of descendent (especially
indigenous) communities with those of science, government and industry. Staff are
active in applied research and play key roles in major national and international
professional bodies (Lilley is Secretary-General of ICOMOS International Committee
for Archaeological Heritage Management and incoming Secretary-General of IndoPacific Prehistory Association, the peak body in Asia-Pacific; Ulm is Editor of the
principal national refereed journal Australian Archaeology).
Capacity & Environment
Between 2006-8, Archaeology had 9 staff in the School of Social Science and 2 in the
ATSISU. 6 were ECRs, indicating UQ’s strong support for junior staff. There was
generational change through the census period: 3 staff left and 5 arrived. This enabled
significant strengthening of Archaeological Science, with 1 Level D (now E), 3 Level
B and 2 PDF appointments, supported by major archaeology lab-refurbishments partfunded by $300k in competitive UQ infrastructure and equipment grants. The grants
reflect UQ’s strong investment in building capacity in archaeology. In fact, 3 PDFs
were appointed: 1 ARC APD; 1 UQ Fellowship; and 1 who held sequential
Cambridge, UQ and ARC Fellowships before winning one of the Level B T&R jobs
listed above. All staff including ECRs are research-active and highly successful in
ARC Discovery and other competitive national/international schemes. All staff are
active in RHD supervision, with 6 PhD and 1 MPhil completions: 3 of these PhDs
won prizes or high commendations; Haslam received a highly-commended PhD with
publications in high-impact international journals and won a Cambridge PDF (later
moved to Oxford).+
Collaboration
UQ staff work widely across disciplines at UQ and with researchers in Australia and
overseas. At UQ, there are strong links with Earth Sciences (papers in Science and
other top journals; ARC ~$225K), History (ARC ~$600K) and Architecture (ARC
~$365K; also involving UQ Social Anthropology as well as Griffith Earth Science,
Melbourne Linguistics and UNSW Human Biology). Major external joint projects
include ARC, British Academy, Canadian SSHRC, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
and French CNRS networks and ~$4.7M in grants. Other externally-funded
collaborations (Nature, Science, PNAS, refereed books) link UQ researchers with
Berkeley, Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford, UCL, Uppsala and many other institutions.
ECRs are very active in national/international joint research, individually and with
senior UQ staff.
Type
UQ archaeology encompasses basic and applied research, emphasising links between
them. Archaeology generally – and especially Archaeological Science – is mostly
basic research, but staff also do applied research in connection with Cultural Heritage
projects. Similarly, much Cultural Heritage research is basic but staff do applied
research (or have their results applied by others) in practical management contexts
(Lilley’s assessments of UNESCO World Heritage nominations for ICOMOS, Paris).
Historical Studies (2103)
Outputs
Staff focus on monographs and book chapters, with a stable average 6 major
monographs pa, 2003-8. Just over half the 39 books were published by leading
international scholarly presses: 5 CUP, Cambridge Scholars, Edizioni Gonnelli, Peter
Lang, Het Spectrum, OUP, Palgrave Macmillan, 6 Routledge, Tauris, Sharpe, SUNY
Press, University of Hawaii Press. Another 7 books on Australian or regional subjects
were published by national scholarly presses: Asia Pacific Press, 3 UNSW Press, 2
UQP. Of the 114 chapters, ~38% were published by US or European scholarly
presses, ~13% by Asian university and academic publishers, reflecting research
strengths in Southeast and East Asian history, and ~25% with national scholarly
presses. The remaining ~25% were mostly on aspects of Queensland history too
specialised to secure national publication. There has been a clear trend towards
publication in journals of higher national/international standing since 2006.
Research Strengths
UQ is one of the strongest centres for Historical Studies nationally. Concentrated in
the School of History, Philosophy, Religion & Classics (HPRC), it is also practised in
other Schools in the Faculties of Arts, Social & Behavioural Sciences, and Health
Sciences. Strengths are in the ancient world and the 19th-21st centuries, with regional
foci on Australian, European (especially Britain and Germany), U.S., Asian (China,
Japan, Indonesia) and Pacific history. Research is organised around the themes of
Australian Social and Cultural History and International History of Governance and
Ideology (2 of the Faculty’s 5 areas of research excellence), with ancillary themes of
Cultural History (an emerging Faculty strength), Greek and Roman history and Sports
History (an emerging cross-faculty strength).
Capacity & Environment
HPRC’s ~23 historians have an outstanding competitive grants record. For example,
during 2006-7, 10 held ARC Discovery or Linkage grants. Major UQ institutional
investment includes $154K for library material on health and scientific history (2003),
and $106K for Muslim Southeast Asian and Russian history (2004). A specialist
librarian services historical research needs. There are new research cores in
Queensland history, and an innovative Cultural History research grouping. Eminent
professorial researchers (Elson, Spearritt) have respectively developed Indonesian and
Queensland studies. Staff are active as journal editors (Australian Journal of Politics
& History (Bonnell), Journal of Australian Studies (Crotty)), on international editorial
boards and national scholarly bodies (Moore was inaugural President (2006-10) of the
Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies). There has been
significant staff renewal with 6 new appointments since 2007 (1E, 1D, 4B).
ECRs are strongly supported by UQ start-up grants and mentoring with < $12K each
to develop ARC competitiveness. Historical Studies has a large RHD complement,
averaging c. 70 EFTSL p.a.; they receive research travel support, attend 6 History
seminars per semester and contribute to biannual “History in the Making”
conferences. Numerous RHD students have secured lectureships/postdoctoral
fellowships (for example at U of Virginia, U Northern Illinois, RMIT, U of Tasmania,
U of SA), a 2005 Fulbright, and work in industry (Rio Tinto), the Australian National
Library, and senior government positions (Afghanistan Government, Australian
Department of PM and Cabinet, Office of National Assessments).
Collaboration
There is little intensive internal research collaboration: most researchers are in
discrete fields requiring command of languages and specific cultural experience.
Externally, they engage extensively in national and international collaborations:
Pritchard works closely with historians of ancient Greece at Copenhagen, Stanford
and Yale; Moore collaborates with ANU and Australian/Pacific cultural institutions;
Low has organized conferences with Johns Hopkins scholars, resulting in joint A*
publications; Lai collaborates with the Chinese and Shanghai Academies of Social
Sciences; Spearritt’s research on urban culture and Queensland involves experts from
UQ, QUT and Griffith, government departments, Brisbane and regional city councils
and the State Library of Queensland; Elson and Moore are heavily engaged in the
ARC Asia-Pacific Research Network, which provides crucial support for networking
Asian and Pacific scholarship nationally/internationally.
Type
Research is generally basic, although it is frequently translated into popular and
practice forms: Spearritt and Ginn’s expertise in Queensland history has led to
research consultancies on museum practice and a $3.35m Qld Government-funded
project providing authoritative new digital resources on Queensland’s history and
government; Moore’s Solomons connections led to his editing Sir Peter Kenilorea’s
autobiography.