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A monthly roundup of media commentary, publications, projects and other news from across the School community.

In anticipation of the UK general election on Thursday July 5, SHAPS Honorary Liam Byrne considered Keir Starmer’s vision for the future and compared it to that of Tony Blair’s campaign nearly 30 years previously in this article, republished from The Conversation. When British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the UK general election outside 10 […]

Did people in Ancient Rome and Greece love the same way we do? Perhaps even more hopelessly. Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow in SHAPS, explores ancient love stories in this article, republished from The Conversation. Sometime around 100 AD, the Roman lawyer and aristocrat Pliny sent a letter to his third wife, Calpurnia – who was […]

Samara Greenwood is currently undertaking a PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science (HPS), in which she investigates the various ways in which changes in society can impact science. In this episode of The HPS Podcast, Samara discusses some of the controversies of drawing connections between social and political contexts and scientific change, including links between second wave feminism and […]

A monthly roundup of media commentary, publications, projects and other news from across the School community.

6 June 2024 marked the 80th anniversary of the Allied D-Day landings at Normandy. In this article History PhD candidate Felicity Hodgson shares some of her work on American women war correspondents who covered this and other campaigns of the Second World War. Through an examination of their newspaper reportage, Felicity shows how their insightful […]

Many people today worry about how to find time to keep fit and healthy in the midst of their busy lives. Believe it or not, but this was also a problem in ancient times. So, how did ancient people deal with it? In this article republished from the Conversation, SHAPS McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Konstantine Panegyres, […]

The Ukrainian Museum of Australia is an entirely volunteer-run community organisation housed at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in North Melbourne. The Museum holds a remarkable collection of objects, including rare books, folk and religious art, craft and textiles. The Museum’s large collection of traditional embroidered items poses special challenges when it comes to preservation and […]

Among the global protest movements of 1968, in the United States multiple events represented an inflection point in the country’s history. These included the assassinations of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Robert F Kennedy, mass protests in support of the Civil Rights Movement and against the Vietnam War, and a Presidential election. In this […]

Dr Konstantine Panegyres is a SHAPS McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, whose work explores the histories of health in antiquity. In this article, republished from The Conversation, he delves into the ancient history of representations of cancer and the origins of our word for the disease. One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from […]

A monthly roundup of media commentary, publications, projects and other news from across the School community.

Undergraduate enrolments in ancient languages are soaring at the University of Melbourne, with the number of students signing up for beginners’ level Ancient Greek, Ancient Egyptian, and Latin undergoing a dramatic rise in 2023 and 2024. Ancient World Studies PhD student Noah Wellington reflects on the reasons behind this. Scholars have studied the ancient world […]

In this article republished from The Conversation, SHAPS’s Dr Julia Hurst, together with Dr Laura Rademaker (Australian National University) and Professor Jakelin Troy, (University of Sydney), discuss eugenics policy directed at the reproductive rights of First Nations Australians in the second half of the twentieth century, a period often celebrated as a time of increasing […]

A monthly roundup of media commentary, publications, projects and other news from across the School community.

The Hansen Trust, established to advance the study of History at University of Melbourne, includes an annual PhD scholarship to the doctoral program in History in SHAPS. In 2023 the scholarship was awarded to Seth McKellar, who is investigating the history of transness and gender deviance. Tell us about your PhD project My research lies at the intersection […]

Archives are an incomplete but important record of dance and theatre, and the history and artistry of University of Melbourne students is being revisited through these ‘remains’. Arabella Frahn-Starkie, student in the Masters of Cultural Conservation, explores these questions in this new article, republished from Pursuit. My journey to working with archives has been an […]