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

Congratulations to Deborah Lee-Talbot, who’s article, ‘Phyllis Mander-Jones, Australian-Pacific historians, and the curation of the Australian Joint Copying Project Miscellaneous Series, 1954-1966,’ was published online with Archives & Manuscripts. This is an open access article> link.

Congratulations to members David Lowe, Victoria Stead, Jon Ritchie and Anna Kent who successfully facilitated a special Australia Awards PNG Short Course in Canberra involving PNG students studying in Australia and Australian students. Amy Nethery, Luke James, Keimelo Gima (UPNG) and a number of other colleagues from across institutions also delivered seminars and lectures across the week. The initiative was the brainchild of PM Marape and PM Albanese, and involved a week of seminars, discussion and activities discussing the shared history, present and future of Australia and PNG. We were excited to have a large contingent of Deakin students join us for the event, many of whom were supported with bursaries provided by the DVCR&I.

Seminar Series

Our Trimester 2 Seminar Series kicks off on the 9th July with Geoff Robinson –Liberal politics and liberal history: David Kemp’s histories of Australian liberalism. David Lowe will be the following week (16th July) with a seminar about his new book – The Colombo Plan – Development Internationalism in Cold War Asia. On the 23rd July our seminar will be at the very special time of 12 midday – and will feature Geraldine Fela discussing Howard’s war on the waterfront

Call for Papers

2025 Labour History Conference
The Spirit of 1975: Transformations in Australian Labour History

In 2025, the Melbourne Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH) will host the Society’s 19th Biennial Conference. The venue is the beautifully renovated Trades Hall Council building.
The conference will be held from 26 to 28 November 2025 and commemorates the 50th anniversary of the International Women’s Year, the dismissal of the Whitlam Government, and the end of the American War in Vietnam.

The Spirit of 1975: Transformations in Australian Labour History invites historians and activists to take up this theme, as well as addressing wider issues and developments epitomised by that year. We welcome a wide range of papers considering the significance of the events of the 1970s in politics, protests, ideas, and cultural and social movements in Australia and abroad.For abstract submissions and panel proposals, go to this link. Abstracts are due by 1 August 2025.
Hosted by the Victorian Trades Hall, The Spirit of 1975: Transformations in Australian Labour History is held under the general auspices of the Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Events

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, apply for a research grant now!

It is important that you read the 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

Deakin University Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (DUPRF) Scheme

2026 Deakin University Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (DUPRF) scheme is now open for applications. Applications close11:55pm (AEST) on Sunday 10 August 2025.

Applicants must have been awarded a PhD on or after 1 January 2022 or, together with allowable career interruptions, have an award of PhD date that would be commensurate with a PhD Award Date of 1 January 2022. The Fellowship provides up to 3 years of salary support from a Level A, Step 6 up to the top a Level B classification, commensurate with experience. Successful fellows also receive a once-off research support grant of $15,000, to be used throughout the Fellowship. Applicants must ensure that their proposed supervisor has agreed to host their Fellowship prior to submitting their application. Applicants are required to obtain a supervisor support statement confirming their agreement to host the fellowship and attach to the application. You can find the guidelines 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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