Department of History Research Strengths and Projects

The Department of History has internationally recognised scholars researching and publishing in the areas of Asian history, Australian history, Medieval, Early Modern and Modern European history and United States history.

In 2005-2006, staff from the Department published ten books, three in Australian history, two in American history, one in British history, one in French history, one in New Zealand history and one in Transnational history. Details

In 2008, members of the Department are involved in sixteen projects supported by Australian Research Council Grants.

Projects Currently Supported by Australian Research Council Grants

• Province, Nation, Empire: France, 1871-1940 (2006-08)
  (Professor Robert Aldrich)
• Reproductive Frontiers: The Twentieth-Century Sciences of Human Hybridity (2008-10)
  (Professor Warwick Anderson)
• Thomas Griffith Taylor (1880-1963): Visions of 'Man and Nature' in the Twentieth Century (2006-08)
  (Associate Professor Alison Bashford with Carolyn Strange and Tina Loo)
• Assimilation and Empire (2006-08)
  (Dr Saliha Belmessous)
• Australia's Black Past: the shared history of transatlantic slave trading and convict transportation to Africa and Australia (2006-08)
  (Dr Emma Christopher)
• Sierra Leone and Australia: a case of the vanishing twin (2008-10)
  (Dr Emma Christopher) (with Dr MS Delofski and Prof PE Lovejoy)
• The Anatomy and Physiology of Renaissance Florence: the Dynamics of Social Change in the Fifteenth Century (2008-10)
  (Dr Nick Eckstein)
• Understanding the concept and meaning of freedom in Western history (2007-09)
  (Dr Andrew Fitzmaurice)
• Complex Words: Literary Judgments in the British Commonwealth, 1920-1970 (2007-09)
  (Dr Chris Hilliard)
• Scientific voyages in the Antipodes: Thomas Huxley, John McGillivray and the Darwinian Revolution (2007-09)
  (Professor Iain McCalman)
• A New History of 1968: Feminism and Student Revolt in the Colonels' Greece (1967-1974) (2007-09)
  (Dr Margaret Poulos)
• The Construction of Race and Racial Identity at the Antipodes of Empire (2006-08)
  (Professor Cassandra Pybus with Professor Marcus Rediker, (Pittsburgh) Professor Peter Hulme (Essex) Dr Anna Johnston (Tasmania) Dr Anthony Page (Tasmania))
• Recovered Lives as Windows on the Anglo Colonial World, 1750-1850 (2007-11)
  (Professor Cassandra Pybus)
• Private Eyes and Ears: Covert Surveillance in American Life, 1865-1941 (2008-10)
  (Dr Stephen Robertson)
• A cultural history of Australian motor travel overseas (2006-08)
  (Mr Richard White)
• The Making of Black Manhattan (2006-10)
  (Professor Shane White)

Other Projects

• At the Border: Health, Immigration Restriction and the Imagining of Australia, 1901-2001
  (Associate Professor Alison Bashford)
• World Health: the intellectual history of a twentieth century idea
  (Associate Professor Alison Bashford)
• Becoming African Americans, 1919-1936
  (Dr Clare Corbould)
• Ophelia Settle Egypt: Social science research, race and gender in the United States, 1930-1950
  (Dr Clare Corbould)
• Beyond the Neighbourhood: The Urban Histories of Sociability and Community in Renaissance Florence, 1400-1500.
  (Dr Nicholas Eckstein)
• A history of terra nullius
  (Dr Andrew Fitzmaurice)
• State formation and European expansion
  (Dr Andrew Fitzmaurice)
• The Public University in Australasia (1850-1918)
  (Dr Julia Horne and Professor Geoffrey Sherington)
• Spectacle and Multimedia in late eighteenth-century Europe: A Programme of Written and Multi-Media Histories: The life and work of Philippe de Loutherbourg
  (Professor Iain McCalman)
• Moral Panics and the Law in Eighteenth-Century England
  (Dr Cindy McCreery, with Associate Professor DF Lemmings and Dr CI Walker, University of Newcastle)
• Beyond Borders: Indians, French and Métis and the Making and Unmaking of the Atlantic World
  (Dr Michael McDonnell)
• Manning Clark: A Public Life
  (Associate Professor Mark McKenna)
• Status and Empire: Opportunists and Impostors in the British Imperial World, c. 1700 – 1850
  (Dr Kirsten McKenzie)
• Changing models of social status and political power at the Cape of Good Hope: the cross-colonial connections of William Edwards/Alexander Lockaye
  (Dr Kirsten Mckenzie)
• "The Racial Century, 1850-1950: Biopolitics and Genocide in Germany and Australia"
  (Dr Dirk Moses)
• The Early Middle Ages: The Birth of Europe
  (Dr Lynette Olson)
• The Age of the Drvomwn: the Byzantine navy ca 500-1204
  (Associate Professor John Pryor)
• Soldiers of fortune in the fleets of Charles I of Anjou, ca. 1266-1285
  (Associate Professor John Pryor)
• A view from the sea: Sea Power and the First Crusade
  (Associate Professor John Pryor)
• Arctic Romance: Lady Franklin and the Lost Polar Expedition
  (Associate Professor Penny Russell)
• Savagery and Civility: A History of Manners in Colonial Australia
  (Associate Professor Penny Russell)
• La Bella Liberta: Women, Freedom and the History of Italy c 1800-1940
  (Professor Glenda Sluga, Professor Barbara Caine and Professor Ros Pesman)
• Nation, Race, Rights and the New World Order: 1945-1966
  (Professor Glenda Sluga)
• Biographical study of R. H. Mathews (1841-1918), surveyor and ethnologist.
  (Dr Martin Thomas)
• Sounding the Landscape: Representations of Aboriginal culture in Australian audio archives, 1900-1975
  (Dr Martin Thomas)
• European Land and Australian Culture, 1788-2005
  (Professor Richard Waterhouse)
• Cooee: its rise and fall
  (Mr Richard White)
• Driving to Australia: overland journeys between Europe and Australia 1888-1972
  (Mr Richard White)
• Black Metropolis: Harlem, 1915-1930
  (Professor Shane White, Professor Stephen Garton, Dr Graham White and Dr Stephen Robertson)