Australia’s convicts are the subject of enduring fascination. Their lives, among the best documented of people of their class in history, have piqued the interest of academic, local and family historians alike for generations. How we research and understand these lives is undergoing a profound transformation. Digitised records, online databases, innovative archaeological techniques and methods of digital history, DNA and AI technology and more are all contributing to this change.

This one-day symposium explores what it means to research the lives and biographies of Australia’s convicts, and how this might change in the future. The day will be led by experts in the field, Janet McCalman, Kristyn Harman, Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, David Roberts, Monika Schwarz and Richard Tuffin. Presentations by these speakers will accompany lively working groups that will discuss all manner of issues concerning the present and the future of researching convict lives.

Participants of all research interests and experience are welcome.

Janet McCalman is an Emeritus Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of four multi-award-winning social histories: Struggletown (1984), Journeyings (1993), Sex and Suffering (1998) and most recently Vandemonians: The Repressed History of Colonial Victoria (2021). In 2020 she co-edited with Emma Dawson What Happens Next: Reconstructing Australia after COVID-19. Since 1998 she has taught and researched interdisciplinary history and built a series of longitudinal prosopographical datasets. In 2018 she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia.

Hamish Maxwell-Stewart is a professor of heritage and digital humanities at UNE. He is particularly interested in the use of digital data to explore the history of crime, health and social protest. He is the author of a number of books including Unfree Workers: Insubordination and Resistance in Convict Australia 1788–1860 (Palgrave, 2002; co-written with Michael Quinlan).

David Andrew Roberts is Associate Professor and head of the Department of Archaeology, Classics and History at UNE. He teaches a variety of history subjects and administers a large postgraduate program that specialises in the study of early Australia. He is the editor (since 2003) of the Journal of Australian Colonial History and formerly co-editor of Australian Historical Studies (2017–21). His research ranges across a variety of concerns but he is best known for his work on the history and legacy of Australia’s convict past. His current research is funded by an ARC Discovery Project grant titled ‘Enquiring into Empire: Remaking the British Empire after 1815’.

Please note that parts of the symposium will be filmed to record speaker presentations and produce general footage of the day. Attendees may at times appear in the background of this footage but will never be the main focus unless contacted beforehand. Please feel free to contact the organisers for more information.

For further details, please contact Matthew Cunneen or Malcolm Allbrook.