Fellows & Friends of History
The SHAPS Fellows and Friends of History Group started in 2005, when a group of retired academics, historians, classicists and archaeologists met monthly to discuss their current research. We all continue our research work, publishing books, book chapters, journal articles and book reviews, as well as in various online journals and other forums.
We are an organisation of Fellows of the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, and of other historians and people engaged in history. We are dedicated to collegial and scholarly engagement who seek to involve, through our activities, others of like mind in the university and the broader community of historians. We emphasis community inclusiveness and welcome participation by independent historians and other scholars, and we encourage research within and beyond the University of Melbourne.
Many of our members also participate in other historical associations and groups, including SHAPS Brown Bag seminars, Royal History Society of Victoria, the Professional Historians Association and community history associations.
How We Operate
Our group is an unincorporated non-profit voluntary association with two key organisation elements:
- Members, who can vote on decisions at monthly meetings, and participate and vote on decisions at the Annual General Meeting.
- Committee Convenors, who coordinate activities.
We encourage participation from anyone in the community interested in historical research. The only activities restricted to formal members are voting on organisational and financial matters.
We operate under the auspices of and in consultation with the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne.
Our Events and Initiatives
Our three major activities are:
- Monthly seminars
- Annual Research Day Conference (from which, in 2019, we published the anthology, 1919: The Year Things Fell Apart?)
- Supporting new historical research, in particular, through raising funds for the annual Fellows Essay Prize. This Prize (currently $2,000), is awarded to the outstanding article published in the previous year by a graduate student in history in SHAPS.
Upcoming events and activities are publicised on the SHAPS Friends of History Facebook page.
You can read more about our events and activities in other articles on Forum.
Contact Us
Chair: Tony Ward
Communications Coordinator: Greg Burgess