Reading for pleasure: Australian girls, intimate knowledge and print culture, 1970–2010
Lecture/seminar
A condom placed on a banana; a dated video explaining puberty to teenagers who had already experienced it; a teacher’s voice drowned out by awkward laughter: school-based sex education in the recent Australian past often left students confused, bored and uncomfortable. So how did Australian girls…
Towards Actually Existing Development: Project implementation in twentieth century international development
Lecture/seminar
International development formed a core plank of the twentieth-century international system. While we know a great deal about the politics and planning of development, historians have rarely pursued the grassroots dynamics of project implementation. In this paper, Professor SobocinskaI illustrates…
The making and shaping of an Australian icon: E.E. Dunlop’s heroic reputation
Lecture/seminar
At the time of Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop’s death in 1993, many asked: Why did Dunlop receive all the fame? Why did none of the other forty-three doctors, who were also prisoners of war on the Burma-Thailand railway, receive the same accolades as Dunlop? This pre-submission paper explores the…
Shining a Light: A Group Biography of the Women of Mackay, Queensland
Seminar
This book is about a group of thirty-seven women who made a significant contribution to the Mackay district from the 1860s to 2023. Their stories reflect the changing role of women in Australia from early settlement days to the present. These women came from all walks of life to make a mark on…
Agents of Maoism: Overseas Chinese, Communist Spies, and Radicalism in Cambodia’s Global Sixties
Lecture/seminar
There has been little scholarship on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence operations at home and abroad, and no extant study of the role that Chinese intelligence operations played in spreading Maoism globally. An important site where Maoism took root was Cambodia, where CCP intelligence and…
Book Launch: Playtime, by Emily Gallagher
Book launch
Please join us for the launch of Dr Emily Gallagher’s first book Playtime: A History of Australian Childhood (Black Inc). It will be launched by the renowned Australian actress, singer, author and children's television host, Justine Clarke.About The BookThis groundbreaking book is a history of…
Latin America faces the oil shock: South-South engagement during the 1970s Oil Shock
Lecture/seminar
This paper examines the relationship between three Global South actors during the 1970s — Mexico, Venezuela, and Australia — on questions of energy and technology. The paper will present the emergence, development and ultimate failure of a south-south relation during the 1970s, drawing on archival…