‘My handsome, kind, gentle, treasure of a son - and yours too’: Anne Deveson, motherhood and mental health advocacy in late twentieth century Australia
Seminar
Released in 1991, Anne Deveson’s powerful memoir Tell Me I’m Here remains a landmark examination of the experience of mental illness in Australia. Deveson offered a candid account of her eldest son Jonathan's experience with schizophrenia, her family’s attempts to weather the storms of his illness…
Asia-Pacific Lives exhibition
Exhibition
In collaboration with the School of Culture, History & Language (CHL), the National Centre of Biography presents the free exhibition Asia-Pacific Lives as part of CHL's annual flagship multicultural festival and showcase program, Immersia. Drawing on the many volumes…
Shanghai Demimondaine: From Sex Worker to Society Matron
Seminar
In this Biography Workshop Nick Hordern explores the hitherto unknown life of Australian woman Lorraine Murray (1910–2000). Arriving in Shanghai in 1933, Lorraine found herself in the sex industry. In 1936 she quit the industry, but struggled to find a new path, until the American author…
Calling All Historians! History Honours Info Session
Other
Do you wish to undertake independent research in history with some of Australia’s finest scholars? Do you wish to learn how to blitz through dense texts and compose flowing argumentative prose? Want to improve your presentation and speaking skills and improve your critical thinking? Then,…
Unmuting the Past: Sound-led Creative Practice and the Colonial Legacy of the Silent Expeditionary Film
Seminar
Between the birth of cinema and the post WWII era, expedition (or ‘travel’) films made in the Australian colonies were shot silent and are missing an important dimension and voice. Many of these films reflect a colonial gaze, laying claim to place through their visual construction, and exhibited to…
Welsh Poetry and English Politics: Edward IV and William Herbert (d. 1469)
Seminar
Why is Wales important to historians of medieval England? Through a case study of the Welsh Marcher lord, Sir William Herbert, first Earl of Pembroke, this paper aims to show that the political history of England cannot be fully understood without a consideration of power relations in Wales and the…
EP Thompson at 100: History, Law, Politics
Seminar
EP Thompson (1924-1993) was one of the great British historians of the past century. His work reshaped our thinking about the relationship between law and society. His classic texts, such as The Making of the English Working Class and Whigs and Hunters not only transformed eighteenth- and…