Welcome to our fortnightly newsletter. If you have things you’d like to share with the CCH community, please email Anna before the next fortnightly newsletter. We will also share news and updates on LinkedIn. Please do tag us in the news that you are posting on Linkedin so we can share it!

News from Members and Associates

• Anna Wilkinson was interviewed for SBS Japan about her research,and the article has been published in English. You can read it here.

Seminar Series

Details for our final two seminars of Trimester 1 are below.

• Wednesday 14th May – Jarrod Hodgson
• Wednesday 21st May – Toward a trauma-informed historical practice

Our Trimester 2 series is looking fantastic. We still have one spot left, so if you would like to share your research with the collegiate and engaged audience that the CCH offers, please do get in touch with Anna.

Events

Cold War Spies in Australia – HCV Making Public Histories event
29 May 2025, 5pm
Online

In this seminar, two of Australia’s foremost intelligence historians will discuss espionage and counter-espionage in Australia during the Cold War, share some of the fascinating stories they’ve encountered in their research, and reflect on the unique challenges of creating history based on intelligence records. With Dr Ebony Nilsson and Dr Rhys Crawley. More details here.

Walk for Truth from Portland to Parliament
25 May – 18 June

Yoorrook Justice Commission invites you to be part of the Walk for Truth from Portland to Parliament. Everyone is invited to join when Yoorrook Deputy Chair Commissioner Travis Lovett, Kerrupmara Gunditjmara, walks from Portland, where colonisation began, to Parliament, where we can transform the future. Starting on Sunday 25 May on Gunditjmara Country at Portland, the Walk will finish at Parliament House on Wednesday 18 June. There is a Geelong Community Event on Wednesday 11 June at 6pm, at the National Indigenous Knowledges Education Research Innovation Institute (NIKERII). This event will include an important discussion with Commissioner Travis Lovett, Peter Sharp – a great grandson of former Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, and others. You can find out more about the walk and other events on the route here.

2025 Wilson History Oration
5 June 2025, 7pm (AEST)
Online

Revisiting the Past: Researching Chinese History in Western Australia, an oration by Lucy Hair.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Dr Anne Atkinson amassed some 10,000 pages of research notes on the history of Chinese people in Western Australia. This extraordinary resource has been digitised by the University of Western Australia as part of the project ‘Two Centuries of Chinese Heritage in Western Australia‘. Join professional historian Lucy Hair as she uses this ambitious digital history project to explore the joys and challenges of sharing the work of a fellow historian three decades later, and re-examining the histories of the past from the perspective of the present. For more information and bookings use this link.

CCH/APH Policy Brief Workshop for PhD/ECRs
13 August 2025
Deakin Downtown
Are you a PhD candidate or ECR interested in learning how to write a policy brief? Join us at Deakin Downtown for a whole-day workshop to learn the ropes of policy writing and translate your expert knowledge into advice for policymakers.

The workshop will include an overview and examples of what a policy brief should entail, scenarios based on your area of research, free-writing a plan/draft a policy brief, feedback from peers and CCH mentors, and a reflective session for questions and concerns. Dr Sarah Pinto and A/Prof Carolyn Holbrook will offer advice from their experience teaching and writing policy briefs, and participants will be invited to submit their policy briefs for publication in Australian Policy and History. 

If you are interested in joining the workshop, please RSVP to mia.martinhobbs@deakin.edu.au by 15 July with the following information:

• Main research project
• Suggestions of potential policy issues related to your research
• Any dietary requirements

CCH Research Grants and other opportunities

If you have plans for research in 2025, you can apply for a 2025 research grant now!

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.

Keep an eye out for Researcher Development Academy workshops available over coming months. For full details of workshops ranging from recruiting graduate researchers to impact to grant writing support and running mostly just 1-2 hours in length, see this RDA page.

There are also research training opportunities available through Deakin eResearch for high-performance computing, MS Excel, programming, data management, cleaning, visualisation, exploration and more. More details are here.

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

2026 National Library Scholarship

PhD candidates are encouraged to apply for 8 philanthropically funded scholarships offered by the National Library in 2026 to further their postgraduate research. The amount of financial assistance has increased this year, with successful applicants each receiving $10,000. Applications close on 30 June 2025. You can find out more here.

Journal of Pacific History Publication Incentive Grant

The Journal of Pacific History Inc. invites qualified persons to apply for a Publication Incentive grant. These competitive grants are offered to help support early career Pacific historians to prepare manuscripts for submission to the Journal of Pacific History for peer review. Anyone who has completed a PhD or MA since 2019 in a field relevant to Pacific history, or who is currently enrolled for a doctorate in such a field, can apply for a grant of $3,000 to prepare a manuscript for submission to peer review. Applications are due by the 30 September 2025, and more details and instructions are available in this link.

The Pacific History Association Teresia Teaiwa Prize 2025

The Pacific History Association (PHA) established the Teresia Teaiwa Prize in 2018 to honour the profound legacy of Teresia Teaiwa, former President and Secretary of PHA. The inaugural prize was awarded at the PHA’s 2021 conference. The 2025 winner will be decided and announced at the PHA’s biennial conference to be held on 2-5 December 2025 at the National University of Samoa. The prize is for a conference presentation. Finalists will be shortlisted on the basis of an essay submitted prior to the conference. The 2025 winner will receive a prize of $1000. You can find further information and eligibility requirements here.

Gunson Essay Prize

A prize of AUD $1,000 will be awarded at the 2025 Pacific History Association Conference, for the winner of the Gunson Essay Prize Competition. Postgraduate or senior students from any country are invited to submit an essay in English between 5,000 and 8,000 words on any topic relating to the pasts of the Island Pacific and its peoples by 1 November 2025. For further details and eligibility requirements see this link.

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.

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