Harriet Mercer

At ANU’s School of History I was encouraged to see Australian history as a global and not simply a national story.

At ANU’s School of History I was encouraged to see Australian history as a global and not simply a national story. I gained an understanding of the profound influence of the movement of peoples, goods and ideas on Australia. I also learned of the global movements of Australian peoples, good and ideas and the impact these movements have had on other regions. These realisations gave me the confidence to pursue my passion for history around the world. To date, this has taken me to Denver, Warsaw, Florence, Copenhagen and Oxford as well as many places in Australia where I’ve researched in archives, presented papers and worked on research projects. In all these interactions, my goal has been to show the global relevance of Australasian stories. This is also one of the ambitions of my current PhD project at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Global History. For my PhD I am writing a history of climate knowledge production in Australia in the long nineteenth century. Through my research, I am also seeking to address the broader question of how the Anthropocene is changing the way historians write and research history.

Harriet Mercer
Bachelor of Philosophy (1st Class Honours) 2013

Updated:  1 May 2019/Responsible Officer:  Head of School/Page Contact:  CASS Marketing & Communications