Searching for Harold Holt
Seminar
My interest in Harold Holt, 17th Prime Minister of Australia, began in my childhood. I understood little about his politics but I was charmed by his smile and personality. After he died in December 1967, I had an intimation that he would somehow play a part in my life. And so it proved to be when I…
In Conversation with Kerrie Davies at Harry Hartog
Book launch
This event is hosted by Harry Hartog ANU in conjunction with the National Centre of BiographyOn 14 July Dr Kerrie Davies will be in conversation with Dr Michelle Staff on Davies' new book, Miles Franklin Undercover: The little-known years when she created her own brilliant career (Allen…
‘Reading biographies to overcome loneliness’: Reflections of an accidental biographer
Seminar
Frank Moorhouse (1938–2022) is best known as a writer of literary fiction. All of his fiction is connected, with his many books sharing characters and experiences, including across generations, and covering much of the 20th century: one of the most sustained feats of the imagination in Australia’s…
Women at the edge of the world: human extinction discourse history and historiography
Seminar
The concept of human extinction in European discourse simultaneously invokes a universal 'we' while delineating exclusive 'others'—notably dying races, languages, and tribes—exposing a paradox rooted in Enlightenment thought, colonialism, and scientific rationalism. This presentation critically…
‘Serious and Seemingly Inherent Obstacles to Successful Judicial Biography’ in Writing Sir Gerard Brennan: The Law’s Good Servant
Seminar
Twelve years before I commenced work on a ‘judicial biography’, the US jurist Richard Posner warned that in addition to ‘all the problems of general biography’ the writer of a such a biography also faces other ‘serious and seemingly inherent obstacles,’ including:the impossibility of reliably…
From Thesis to Published Book: An Aboriginal historian’s multi-generational family history research and what it revealed about the impact of colonisation on Aboriginal people
Seminar
Shauna Bostock’s insatiable curiosity about her family history developed over time to become the focus of her academic research. She traced her four Aboriginal grandparents’ family lines to as far back as she could go in the written historic record, which was during the encroachment of white…
Dan Jacobson and the Story of a South African Family: A Collaborative Memoir
Lecture/seminar
Many of the published works of South African-born writer Dan Jacobson were autobiographical in nature and explored the theme of family. For example, Heshel’s Kingdom (1998) concerned the life and legacy of Dan’s maternal grandfather Heshel Melamed – a rabbi in the small Lithuanian town of…