Daniel May
Position: Graduated PhD Student
School and/or Centres: School of History
Email: daniel.may@anu.edu.au
Phone: (02) 612 52357
Location: Level 5, Room 5.26, Desk A, 146 Ellery Cres
Qualification:
Bachelor of Arts and Social Sciences, Honours, First Class (University of New South Wales) Bachelor of Science (University of New South Wales) Bachelor of Arts (University of New South Wales)
Thesis title: Taking Fire: The Historical And Contemporary Politics Of Indigenous Burning In Australia And The Western United States
Daniel May is a PhD Candidate and environmental historian in the School of History. His thesis investigates the political and cultural history of Indigenous burning and fire management policy in Australia and the Western United States. His work has taken him to the Top End, to Perth, across Victoria, and for four months in 2018, all over the United States through an Endeavour Research Fellowship. He has participated in prescribed burns, worked with Indigenous fire practitioners, and presented to policymakers through bodies including the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre and the Australian Policy and History Network. Daniel has published on bushfire history, the politics of land management, and the integration of predictive modelling into decision-making.
Environmental history, Australian history, History & Philosophy of Science, Indigenous history, History of the American West, policy history, intellectual history
Publications (Peer-reviewed)
2020 (with Timothy Neale), ‘Fuzzy boundaries: simulation and the cultural dimensions of expertise in bushfire prediction’, Social Studies of Science (Online early access) https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0306312720906869
2017 (with Timothy Neale), ‘Bushfire simulators and analysis in Australia: insights into an emerging sociotechnical practice’, Environmental Hazards, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 200-218 https://doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2017.1410462
Publications (Other)
2020 ‘Shallow Fire Literacy Hinders Robust Fire Policy: Black Saturday and Prescribed Burning Debates’. In Disasters in Australia and New Zealand: Historical Approaches to Understanding Catastrophe, eds. Scott McKinnon and Margaret Cook (Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore), pp. 139-158.
2020 ‘To burn or not to burn is not the question’, Inside Story, https://insidestory.org.au/to-burn-or-not-to-burn-is-not-the-question/> (Republished in multiple magazines including Fire Australia No. 2 2020)
2019 “Daniel May reviews 'Black Saturday: Not the end of the story' by Peg Fraser”, Australian Book Review 412 (June-July 2019), https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/251-june-july-2019-no-412/5493-daniel-may-reviews-black-saturday-not-the-end-of-the-story-by-peg-fraser
2018 ‘Why Australian retailers should respect the past and rename their ‘Black Friday’ sales’, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/why-australian-retailers-should-respect-the-past-and-rename-their-black-friday-sales-107015> (16,800 readers as of 2/12/18)
2018 ‘Fire in Northern California’, Stories from the field, ANU Centre for Environmental History, https://ceh.environmentalhistory-au-nz.org/stories-from-the-field/fire-in-northern-california/>
2017 ‘Fire in the Environment’, Stories from the field, ANU Centre for Environmental History, http://ceh.environmentalhistory-au-nz.org/stories-from-the-field/fire-in-the-environment/>
2017 ‘Black Friday Bushfires and the Beginning of the Stretton Royal Commission’, This Month In History, ANU School of History, http://history.cass.anu.edu.au/monthinhistory/black-friday-bushfires-and-beginning-stretton-royal-commission-january-1939>
2018 ‘Fire in Northern California’, Stories from the field, ANU Centre for Environmental History, https://ceh.environmentalhistory-au-nz.org/stories-from-the-field/fire-in-northern-california/>
2017 (with Timothy Neale), ‘Bushfire simulators and analysis in Australia: insights into an emerging sociotechnical practice’, Environmental Hazards, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 200-218 https://doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2017.1410462
2017 “Matthew J. Colloff , Flooded Forest and Desert Creek: Ecology and History of the River Red Gum, Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing, 2014, 325 pp., ISBN 9 7806 4310 9193, A$69.95” [Book Review], Queensland Review, 24 (2), 325-326. https://doi.org/10.1017/qre.2017.44
2017 ‘Fire in the Environment’, Stories from the field, ANU Centre for Environmental History, http://ceh.environmentalhistory-au-nz.org/stories-from-the-field/fire-in-the-environment/>
2017 ‘Black Friday Bushfires and the Beginning of the Stretton Royal Commission’, This Month In History, ANU School of History, http://history.cass.anu.edu.au/monthinhistory/black-friday-bushfires-and-beginning-stretton-royal-commission-january-1939>
2016 ‘Taking Fire: Understandings of Indigenous Burning and Environmental Politics in Australia and the United States, 1910-2015’, Australian Policy and History, December 2016, http://aph.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Daniel-May_Policy-and-History-Publication_APH-WorkshopFINAL.pdf>
Ptojects
2020: Research Assistant and co-author, Pyrosecurity: understanding and managing bushfires in a changing climate, Deakin University (with Tim Neale)
2018: Developer and coordinator, online workshop #Twitterstorians101 via twitter (with Will Scates-Frances)
2018: Committee Member, Australian Historical Association Annual Conference Committee
2017-2018: Student Researcher, Hazards, culture and Indigenous communities (Bushfire & Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre)
2016 – 2018: Postgraduate Representative, Australian Historical Association (with Annemarie McLaren and Melanie Burkett)
Grants
2021 AHA-Copyright Agency Travel and Writing Bursary (Deferred to 2021)
2020 Travel and Accommodation Grant, AusSTS Interdisciplinary Workshop (C. COVID-19)
2019 Australian Policy and History Travel Grant, School of History, Australian National University
2019 Centre for the Study of the Inland Travel Grant, La Trobe University
2018 Endeavour Research Fellowship Travel Grant, Commonwealth of Australia
2016 Annual History Colloquium Travel Grant, Centre for Environmental History, Australian National University
2016 Taking Australian Knowledge Society Seriously Travel Grant, University of Wollongong
2015 Annual History Colloquium Travel Grant, Centre for Environmental History, Australian National University
2015 Visualising the Environmental Humanities Travel Grant, Sydney Environment Institute
Awards
2016 Moran Award for History of Science Research, Australian Academy of Science
2015 Ian Langham Prize, Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science (Best Postgraduate Paper)
2013 Dean’s List, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, University of New South Wales
Fellowships & Scholarships
2018 Endeavour Research Fellowship, Commonwealth of Australia
2018 Visiting Scholar at Geography and Planning Department, California State University (Chico)
2015 Australian Postgraduate Award/Australian Government Research Training Program Stipend Scholarship, Australian National University
Australian Postgraduate Award, Australian National University (2015-2018)
2018 Endeavour Research Fellowship, Australia Awards
2018 Visiting Scholar, Geography and Planning Department, California State University (Chico)
2016 Annual History Colloquium Travel Grant, Centre for Environmental History (ANU)
2016 Moran Award for History of Science Research, Australian Academy of Science
2015 Annual History Colloquium Travel Grant, Centre for Environmental History (ANU)
2015 Ian Langham Prize, Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science (Best Postgraduate Paper)
2015-2018 Australian Postgraduate Award/Australian Government Research Training Program Stipend Scholarship
American Society for Environmental History
Bushfire & Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre
Australian Historical Association (Postgraduate Representative 2016-2018, Executive Officer 2020)
Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science
Australian Forest History Society
Centre for Environmental History, ANU
Forest History Society (USA)
HIST2136 World at War (Sessional Tutor & Contributing Lecturer) (2020)
Guest lecturer, HIST1214 Empires in Global History (2020)
Guest lecturer, ENVS1001 Environment and Society: Geography and Sustainability (2019, 2020)
Writing Coach, ANU Academic Skills & Learning Centre (2019)
HIST2136 World at War (Sessional Tutor & Contributing Lecturer) (2018)
HIST2136 World at War (Sessional Tutor) (2017)
HIST1214 Clash of Empires (Sessional Tutor) (2016)
