Newsletter - 27th May 2024 - Centre for Contemporary History (CCH)

If you have any information to share in the Newsletter please send it through to Anna, the newsletter will be published every fortnight. You can read all our news here, but don’t forget we regularly put out information by our social media channels including Facebook. We also now have a presence on LinkedIn.

News from Members and Associates

We were very sad to hear of the recent death of Dr Julie Suares. Julie graduated with a PhD in History from Deakin in 2015. Her PhD was published with Melbourne University Publishing in 2019 – JB Chifley: An Ardent Internationalist.

AHS Special Issue – Wan Solwara – New Histories of Australia and Papua New Guinea

We are very excited that a new special issue of AHS was published online this weekend, with three CCH guest editors – Helen Gardner, Jon Ritchie and Brad Underhill. Written by both Papua New Guinean and Australian scholars, the issue “recovers PNG as a component of the history of the Australian nation and Australia as integral to PNG history.” You can see the issue here. Included are the following articles by CCH Members:

‘The Moat of Oblivion’: Australia and the Forgetting of Papua New Guinea by Helen Gardner, Jon Ritchie and Brad Underhill.
Domestic, Expatriate, International, Overseas? Australian Government’s Categorisation of Students from the Territory of Papua and New Guinea by Anna Kent
The Seventh State and the Barnes Dance: Deciding the Future for the Territory of Papua and New Guinea by Helen Gardner and Brad Underhill.
There are also articles by friends of CCH Keimelo Gima and Joycelyn Pipike-Kama.

New Members

We are delighted to welcome two new members to CCH!

Associate Professor Jessamy Gleeson is the acting Director of the NIKERI Institute at Deakin University. She is a First Nations woman who was raised on Wiradjuri Country, and she has published across the areas of feminist activism in online and offline spaces, Indigenous curriculum development, and researcher experience within trauma-based research. Jessamy leads a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff at Deakin.
Dr Luke James is a Lecturer in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies. Luke has a worked as a lawyer, a heritage advisor and a public servant. Luke completed his PhD at Deakin in 2020.

Welcome Luke and Jess.

Seminar Series

We are now booking in presenters for seminars in Trimester 2. If you have an idea or some research you’d like to share, or you would like to make a recommendation for a presenter we should approach, please get in touch with Anna.

APH News

The Australian Policy and History Network is currently seeking EOIs for book reviewers. APH invites reviewers from all career stages and welcomes EOIs from HDRs who may be new to book review writing and the editorial process. EOIs, which contain a brief summary of interests or a specific book to be reviewed, can be emailed to APH’s books editor Lyndon Megarrity: drlyndon@bigpond.net.au

Events

Making Public Histories: Energy Transitions: Historicising Australia’s Nuclear Debate
30th May, 5pm (webinar)
Australia is in the midst of an energy transition, but specific policies and decisions around the shift to more renewable forms of energy production, storage and use have become the subject of heated debate. Historians have an important role to play in this debate, shedding light on the historical factors that shape ideas and attitudes in the present. How have Australians thought about nuclear energy, and the extractive processes that underpin it, over the last seventy years? What cultural attitudes have developed around coal and coal mining in Australia, and how do they shape attitudes and policy today? And how have we transitioned between energy regimes in the past? In this seminar, three leading scholars consider how Australia’s past shapes debates about the nation’s contested energy transition today. Booking and more information can be found on the History Council of Victoria website.

Wilson History Oration – Out of the Straight-jacket: The art of anti-colonial history
13th June 2024, 6pm – 7pm (online)
The Professional Historians Australia invites you to the Wilson History Oration, to be given by Dr Rachel Buchanan. From swamp to chateau to the House of Lords, as Dr Rachel Buchanan researched the wild, globetrotting journey of five magnificent 17th century carvings made by ancestors in Taranaki, she also received an education in the art of anti-colonial history. Through wānanga and discussions with the Hon. Mahara Okeroa and other mentors, Rachel learned how to escape the straightjacket of historical facts and write a story that is closer to the truth of ongoing tino rangatiratanga – or sovereignty – for Taranaki. More details can be found here.

CCH Research Grants

Don’t forget that CCH Research Grants are still available. If you have plans for research at the end of T2, get your application in now! Funds are limited.

You can still apply for CCH Research Grants in 2024. We have changed the grant guidelines, so it is important that you read the new guidelines before you apply for a grant. Check out the guidelines and the application forms in our hub site.

CCH Shut Up and Write

every Monday, 9am-1.30pm, via Zoom.

Start the week strong with a Shut Up and Write! We will run 4 x 50 minute blocks of writing/focus, with breaks in between to chat, grab coffees, etc. All CCH colleagues welcome, especially ECRs, HDRs, and those who work remotely. Feel free to join at any time – it doesn’t matter if you can’t make it to every session, or every block in a session, just come when you can.

The zoom link is here. (Meeting ID: 822 0730 8335, Password: 65182364)
If you would like a recurring invite in your calendar, or you have any trouble joining, email Mia at mia.martinhobbs@deakin.edu.au

Opportunities

**RESCHEDULED** Statistics Workshop
Foundations of Social Statistics: A Beginner’s Workshop
7 August, 10am-2pm
Deakin Downtown/Zoom

In an increasingly data-driven academic landscape, grasping the basics of statistical analysis is invaluable. We are repeating our half-day workshop on social statistics, this time with an added focus on applying the methods to individual researchers’ data. Led by Professor Andrew Singleton, during this workshop, we will cover:

Discovering the Relevance: Understand why statistics are helpful in your social research pursuits.
Core Concepts: Gain familiarity with key statistical ideas, from sampling to data collection.
ABS Data and Excel: Learn to access and summarise ABS data effectively using Excel.
Visualising and Interpreting Data: Acquire skills to read and present data using tables, graphs and charts.
Real-world Impact: Explore how statistics contribute to addressing societal issues and shaping policies.

No prior statistical knowledge is required, but participants are encouraged to bring their own data to work with. Participants who attended the previous session in December may want to join for the after-lunch applied session.

The workshop will be held at Deakin Downtown and via Zoom. Please email mia.martinhobbs@deakin.edu.au if you would like to attend, indicating whether you intend to attend in-person (along with any dietary requirements) or via Zoom, by 31^st July.

2025 National Library Scholarships and Asia Study Grants

Applications are now open for the 2025 Scholarships offered by the National Library of Australia. There are several new Scholarships on offer this year thanks to new generous donors, including a Scholarship in Asian Studies, a new First Nations Scholarship, and a new Scholarship for research on any subject. There is also the Carol Moya Mills Scholarship for a scholar from regional or rural Australia. There are a total of nine funded NLA Scholarships and five Asia Study Grants to distribute for 2025.

You can find out more information about the Scholarships here. Applications will close on 24th June.

National Library Campaign

The National Library is raising funds to support the digitisation of their collection of election ephemera. Among the huge array of items in the material are a “how to vote” card for Edmund Barton in 1901, an election poster for pioneering suffragist Vida Goldstein in 1917, all the way to hats, stickers and corflutes from our most recent federal elections. You can find out more information here.

CCH Hub Site

We now have a Sharepoint site (for Deakin staff and students only). This is where you can find CCH templates and logos, and importantly – new grant application forms. CCH members should have access, but you will need to use your Deakin login.