Writing the History of Gender and Sexuality in Australia: An Interview with History Honours Students

Queer history is a relatively new field of historical research that offers loads of untapped sources and stories. In this video, three History Honours students, Meghan Grech, Danielle Scrimshaw and Harriet Steele, talk about their research on Australia’s LGBTQI history from the 1840s to the 1990s. They reflect on:

• where they find meaning in their work as historians;
• what they plan to do with their historical training;
• the stresses and the rewards of carrying out independent archival research; and
• the experience of producing the inaugural issue of the undergraduate History student journal, Chariot, launched in 2018.

This video was produced through the SHAPS Engagement committee with generous support from SHAPS.

Special thanks to:

University of Melbourne Archives

Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives

Kat Ellinghaus, Una McIlvenna, Fallon Mody, Jenny Spinks, and Mary Tomsic.

Creativa video production agency

And extra special thanks to Meghan, Dani and Hattie for sharing their work and their stories!

You can read more about their work in the online projects that Meghan and Dani produced for their third-year History capstone assignments in 2018:

Meghan Grech, Out at a Conference: The First National Homosexual Conference. A Study of the 1975 National Homosexual Conference at the University of Melbourne.

Dani Scrimshaw, Out and Proud Melbourne: A Short History of Queer Spaces in 1970s Melbourne.

Finally: prospective gender history students, take note! in 2020, we are launching a new Gender History pathway as part of the History major at the University of Melbourne, including an exciting new first-year subject, ‘Cleopatra to Clinton: Women in Leadership’, from Semester Two, 2020. Details coming soon!