Join us online or in person for a seminar with Dr Michael King, President of the Geelong Cricket Club.

Commissioning a History – behind the scenes of Line & Length.

After decades of lobbying, in the 1993-94 season Geelong Cricket Club (GCC) was finally admitted to Victorian Premier Cricket. It was a monumental development as GCC became the first non-metropolitan club to join the state’s elite-level pennant competition. To mark its 30th anniversary in Victorian Premier Cricket, GCC commissioned Deakin historians AsPr Tony Joel and Dr Mathew Turner to write the club’s history. As club president, Dr Michael King was chiefly responsible for establishing the project in 2021 and overseeing it through to completion when Line & Length was co-launched by GCC and the Centre for Contemporary Histories at GMHA Stadium in February 2024. In this presentation Michael will share with us the other perspective of being involved in such a venture, namely the experience of being a client paying for academics to research and write a commissioned history—and, in this case, one that did not necessarily end up resembling what he had first envisaged. For anybody interested in taking on the challenge of a commissioned history, Michael’s reflections will provide valuable insights into various questions such as: What can be motivation for commissioning a history and how does this shape the project? How might historians be identified as suitable and then recruited to the project? What’s involved with funding issues? What are the expectations as far as having input into a project’s design as well as being kept informed of progress along the way? After years of anticipation, how does it feel to receive, and disseminate, the final product?

11am, 1st May

Burwood: C2.05.01
Waurn Ponds: IC2.108
Zoom: Click here.

Dr Michael King, DBA, MBA, BA, FAICD, JP is an experienced company director and business leader. He is strategically focused and committed to good governance and outcomes. He has a strong community profile through being heavily involved and active in numerous community organisations – including welfare, sporting, education and public utility. Dr King is President of Geelong Cricket Club and his former board positions include Cricket Victoria and Chair of Barwon Water. He is a Deakin alumnus who has completed Bachelor of Arts, Master of Business Administration and Masters of Leadership at Deakin as well as Doctorate of Business Administration through RMIT.