SHAPS Digest (March 2022)
Margaret Cameron, Klaus Jahn, Ed Jeremiah and Tim Parkin took part in an ancient Greek philosophical performance in the city over the course of a Saturday this month. Ed was Socrates, Klaus took the part of Plato, Margaret played Aristotle, and Tim was a wealthy ancient Athenian with a curiosity about what philosophers could possibly do for him. All four of these ancient people were magically transported two-and-a-half millennia into the future to be in Melbourne for the day. Their discussion ranged widely (and sometimes wildly) over many topics, including the meaning of life, love, death, dictators and democrats, and the good life, and was followed by a lovely question and answer session. The final conclusion agreed to by the over 100 people present was that ancient philosophy is still very relevant and necessary in the twenty-first century – the questions Greek philosophy raises still matter and we are still looking for the right answers.
Matthew Champion (History) was interviewed about his work on the history of time and the sand-glass in medieval times, by ABC Radio Melbourne (from around 2:07:00 via the link).
Charles A Coppel (Principal Fellow, History) published an essay (co-authored with John R Maxwell), ‘Arief Budiman and His Family: Cultural Politics under Guided Democracy’, in the International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter. Arief Budiman was appointed as the Foundation Professor of Indonesian Studies at the University of Melbourne in 1997, holding the Chair until his retirement in 2008. This essay provides an overview of him and his family in the political and cultural context of what Sukarno, Indonesia’s first President, called Demokrasi Terpimpin (Guided Democracy).
Nicole Davis (PhD candidate, History) was interviewed for a story on the opening of the Sydney Arcade in the Daily Telegraph (paywalled). Nicole is in the final stages of writing a thesis on the history and heritage of Australia’s nineteenth-century arcades, including those in Sydney and Melbourne.
The DIDAR exhibition, currently on display in the Arts West gallery, was featured on the Faculty of Arts website. The exhibition, a curated selection of some of the University of Melbourne’s extraordinary Middle Eastern manuscript collection, is co-curated by Sophie Lewincamp (PhD Candidate, Grimwade Centre), Leila Alhagh, and Sadra Zekrgoo (both Grimwade Centre PhD graduates).
Mark Edele (Hansen Chair in History) published two articles about Russia’s war in Ukraine: ‘Inside Vladimir Putin’s Paranoia‘, and ‘How the War in Ukraine Will End‘, in the Saturday Paper (behind paywall). He also discussed the war on the 7am podcast.
Mark Edele was interviewed about his book Debates on Stalinism (Manchester University Press, 2020).
Julie Fedor (History) was interviewed about the Putin regime’s use of history as a tool in connection with Russia’s war on Ukraine, for the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) Journal Radio podcast.
Julie Fedor also presented an online talk on the topic ‘Mythmaking around the Figure of the Russian Volunteer Combatant in the Donbas (2014 to the Present)’ as part of the Arctic University of Norway’s Memory Politics of the North lecture series. A videorecording of the talk is available online.
Cat Gay (Hansen PhD scholar, History) wrote about her work on needlework and nineteenth-century girlhood for the Museums Victoria blog.
Peter McPhee commented on the forthcoming French presidential election, for the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
Caroline Tully (Honorary, Classics & Archaeology) was interviewed on ABC Radio National about ancient religion and contemporary paganism.
Academic Publications
Joy Damousi (History) co-edited, with Trevor Burnard and Alan Lester, a collection of essays, Humanitarianism, Empire and Transnationalism, 1760–1995: Selective Humanity in the Anglophone World (Manchester University Press, 2022).
This is the first book to examine the shifting relationship between humanitarianism and the expansion, consolidation and postcolonial transformation of the Anglophone world across three centuries, from the antislavery campaign of the late eighteenth century to the role of NGOs balancing humanitarianism and human rights in the late twentieth century. Contributors explore the trade-offs between humane concern and the altered context of colonial and postcolonial realpolitik. They also showcase an array of methodologies and sources with which to explore the relationship between humanitarianism and colonialism. These range from the biography of material objects to interviews as well as more conventional archival enquiry. They also include work with and for Indigenous people whose family histories have been defined in large part by ‘humanitarian’ interventions.
Howard Sankey (Philosophy) published an article entitled ‘Objective Facts‘, in the journal Metaphysica. The article comprises a brief exploration of the notion of an objective fact. The form of objectivity at issue is distinct from epistemic objectivity or objectivity about truth. It is an ontological form of objectivity. Objective facts may obtain whether or not we know, believe or are aware of them. They depend upon objects, for example, on the properties that objects have or the relationships into which objects enter. Setting scepticism to one side, there is a perfectly mundane sense in which we may come to have knowledge or fail to have knowledge of such facts. We must perceive objective facts from a perspective, but this does not enter into the facts. Nor does the fact that we must describe facts using language mean that facts are language-dependent.
Sarah Walsh (Hansen Lecturer in Global History) co-edited, with Sebastián Gil-Riaño, a special section on Race Science in the Latin World in the History of Science journal. It includes an introductory essay outlining the various analytical frameworks related to the history of race science that contribute to a ‘Latin’ intellectual culture and tradition. In addition to defining Latinity as applied to the history of science, this essay examines the troubled relationship between Latin American history and histories of science characterised as global. Similarly, it explores intellectual linkages across the Global South regarding racial mixture and the legacy of colonialism. It concludes by considering how a Latin perspective can illuminate the continued hegemony of ideas and scientific practices originating in North America and northern Europe.
Sarah Walsh also contributed an article, ‘The Executioner’s Shadow: Coerced Sterilization and the Creation of “Latin” Eugenics in Chile’. Scholars such as Nancy Leys Stepan, Alexandra Minna Stern, Marius Turda and Aaron Gillette have all argued that the rejection of coerced sterilisation was a defining feature of ‘Latin’ eugenic theory and practice. These studies highlight the influence of neo-Lamarckism in this development not only in Latin America but also in parts of Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. This article builds upon this historiographical framework to examine an often-neglected site of Latin American eugenic knowledge production: Chile.
By focusing on Chilean eugenicists’ understandings of environment and coerced sterilisation, this article argues that there was no uniquely Latin objection to the practice initially. In fact, Chilean eugenicists echoed concerns of eugenicists from a variety of locations, both ‘mainstream’ and Latin, who felt that sterilisation was not the most effective way to ensure the eugenic improvement of national populations. Instead, the article contends that it was not until the implementation of the 1933 German racial purity laws, which included coerced sterilisation legislation, that Chilean eugenicists began to define their objections to the practice as explicitly Latin. Using a variety of medical texts which appeared in popular periodicals as well as professional journals, this article reveals the complexity of eugenic thought and practice in Chile in the early twentieth century.
Awards & Scholarships
Cancy Chu (Grimwade Centre PhD candidate) has been awarded the inaugural Fulbright-National Archives Heritage Science Fellowship 2022–23. Cancy will be working with a team of heritage scientists at the Heritage Science Research and Testing Laboratory of the National Archives and Records Administration in Maryland, USA, to conduct research on the conservation of synthetic papers in cultural collections.
This award builds on her ongoing PhD study which is examining the conservation of plastics in paper-based collections. Through this fellowship, Cancy aims to identify a stable and reversible tear repair technique for synthetic papers found in book covers. Conventional materials used in conservation treatments are incompatible with synthetic papers due to differences in physical, chemical, and visual properties. This project focuses on the optimisation of repair materials and techniques by applying artificial ageing and standardised testing in a comparative study. This multi-disciplinary project bridges the fields of plastics conservation, materials testing, and book and paper heritage.
This project is positioned to make a timely contribution to the conservation of archive and library materials. As materials generally enter archives after 20 to 30 years, synthetic papers may soon become significant components of paper-based collections. The potential research impact is particularly relevant to the Australian heritage context, as a recent survey showed that over 90 per cent of Australian archives contain plastic book bindings.
Cancy has expressed her gratitude to her colleagues and mentors from the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, the University of Melbourne and the wider community of Australian conservators for their continued excellence and collaboration that supports this exchange with the National Archives in Maryland.
Similarly we are very proud of Cancy, and in being successful for this prestigious award and look forward to her sharing her knowledge on her return.
Cancy is a PhD student on Dr Petronella Nel‘s ARC plastics project which partners with collecting institutions and universities across the country and has been an immense success in terms of student-focused outcomes. It demonstrates Petronella’s outstanding research leadership as well as Cancy’s dedication to her study.
Sadra Zekrgoo (PhD in Cultural Materials Conservation, 2018) has been awarded the Mary Lugton Postdoctoral fellowship for 2022–23.
The fellowship will support Sadra’s reconstruction of a range of traditional Persian black and coloured inks using tenth- to nineteenth-century recipes extracted from treatises left behind by Persian master calligraphers.
Sadra will also be using non-invasive analysis techniques to differentiate inks used in Middle Eastern Manuscripts Special Collection housed at the Baillieu Library, using the reconstructed inks as control samples. The fellowship will also support the publication of Sadra’s book, Tradition and Science of Persian Ink Making: Recipes, Re-Construction, and Analysis.
Professor Robyn Sloggett remembers Mary Lugton as a very supportive member of the University’s first conservation committee. Sadra’s work on texts from the University Library is a fitting tribute to Mary Lugton’s deep commitment to conservation, to the Library and to the University.
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