SHAPS Digest (September 2024)

Matthew Champion (History) delivered a talk, ‘Turning Over Material Histories of the Sandglass’, as part of the Material Histories: Objects of Time series hosted by Old Treasury Building in partnership with Deakin University and Australian Catholic University.

In the early fourteenth century, the sandglass made its debut as the most precise technology of time measurement in Europe to date. Almost immediately its impact was felt: cooks and courtiers, rabbis and scientists, accountants and artisans, began to use sandglasses to time their activities, their lives, and to make their livings. Yet for an instrument of such importance, the sandglass’s origins and its histories remain startlingly unclear. This paper sets out some first thoughts towards a material history of the sandglass and its importance to the history of temporalities. What can we learn from surviving objects and evidence of their use in multiple spaces, genres, and media?

Mark Edele (Hansen Chair in History) reviewed Sergei Radchenko’s new history of the Soviet Cold War, To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power (Cambridge University Press), for Inside Story.

Samara Greenwood (PhD candidate, HPS) and her work producing the HPS Podcast was featured in the public philosophy magazine Sagacity.

Winter Greet (BA Hons (History) 2022, now a Masters of Arts and Cultural Management student) delivered a talk to the University of Alberta’s Kule Folklore Centre about her research on Ukrainian embroidery and its uses during the war as a symbol of Ukrainian culture and identity and a tool for building solidarity.

James Hogg (PhD candidate, History) was interviewed on 3CR’s ‘Yeah Nah Pasaran!’ about his research into migrant anti-fascism in Melbourne during the 1960s and ’70s.

The HPS Podcast team published an interview with Simon Schaffer (University of Cambridge) on his celebrated work, Levaithan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle and Experimental Life, co-authored with Steven Shapin in the early 1980s. This month’s episodes also featured a conversation between Carmelina Contarino and Samara Greenwood on studying science through the lens of the humanities.

Tamara Lewit (Honorary Fellow, Classics & Archaeology) published an article in Pursuit on the archaeology of olive oil in the ancient world.

Janet McCalman (Professorial Fellow, History), published an article in the Conversation on the importance of Victoria’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry. (The state government subsequently announced that it had abandoned the plans for partial privatisation of the registry).

Kate McGregor‘s (History) research project ‘Submerged Histories: Memory Activism in Indonesia and the Netherlands’ was featured on Surabaya website Penelehhistory.com.

Pete Millwood (History) discussed the Korean War on ABC Radio‘s ‘Nightlife’ program.

Konstantine Panegyres (McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Classics & Archaeology) published an article in Pursuit on teen angst and existential crises in the ancient world; and an article in the Conversation on love in the ancient world.

Iryna Skubii (Mykola Zerov Fellow in Ukrainian Studies) published an article in Griffith Review, ‘Animals in Wartime: In Search of Safety’, reflecting on the impact war has on animals, through the story of Iryna’s cat, Tyhra, and Tyhra’s journey from Ukraine to Australia.

Iryna Skubii is part of the team for the new Ukrainian History Global Initiative. Led by Timothy Snyder (Yale University), the project is aimed at exploring Ukraine’s history from the deep longue durée and global perspectives. Dr Skubii is one of the invited researchers, together with 90 international and Ukrainian authors. She is a participant in the capsule on social history of the famine of 1932–1933 in Ukraine, Holodomor (together with Daria Mattingly (University of Chichester) and Artem Kharchenko (I.P. Kotliarevsky Kharkiv National University of Arts).

Robyn Sloggett (Cultural Materials Conservation) was featured in the Arts Faculty’s Research Spotlight Series, delivering a talk on ‘Culture Legacy and the Right to Know’.

Following the recent fire at the 1856 See Yup Temple in South Melbourne in February 2024, the Grimwade Centre’s Nicole Tse has been working with the temple community, Heritage Victoria and Dr Sophie Couchman on the recovery, reconstruction and conservation of the temple collections. As part of the subject ‘Sustainable Collections’, Masters of Cultural Materials Conservation students first documented the fire-affected items, with ongoing internships and minor thesis research. A group of students were recently awarded a Willem Snoek Award to support the See Yup Temple and collection recovery in preparation for Chinese New Year 2025.

Awards, Appointments, Promotions

Kate McGregor (History) has won the General History Prize in the 2024 NSW Premier’s History Awards, for her book, Systemic Silencing: Activism, Memory and Sexual Violence in Indonesia (University of Wisconsin Press). This achievement was featured in the University of Melbourne News.

Beth Marsden is the recipient of a McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowship, commencing in History in 2025. This project will be the first that draws together First Nations people’s historical experiences of schooling across the continent, from 1872-1968. The project aims to advance foundational historical knowledge of Australian schooling systems as central to both settler colonialism and Indigenous self-determination and place these in a broader global historiography. 

Eliza O’Donnell has been awarded a Mary Lugton Postdoctoral Fellowship. Commencing in the Grimwade Centre in January 2025, Eliza’s fellowship project, Material Mapping Indonesian Art, aims to develop a secure framework for documenting Indonesian artist materials and techniques in partnership with living artists, to reduce the risk of fraudulent art practices in the region. By addressing knowledge gaps in technical artist records and material documentation, the project aims to make technical material knowledge accessible through an online open-access platform to inform studies of art attribution and conservation decision-making. It responds to an urgent need for interdisciplinary collaboration and dialogue to address the economic, social and cultural challenges posed by art fraud and will extend Eliza’s doctoral research which examined issues surrounding painting authenticity in the Indonesian context, from a conservation perspective. 

Iryna Skubii (Mykola Zerov Fellow in Ukrainian Studies) has been awarded the Department of History PhD Dissertation Prize at Queen’s University for 2023-2024.

Iryna Skubii is also the leader of a team that has been awarded a Ukrainian Studies Support Fund grant for the project Oral History of the Ukrainian Community in Australia Through the Memory of the Descendants. The project aims to preserve the oral history of the Ukrainian community in Victoria and document the memory of the Australian descendants of Holodomor survivors and the displaced persons (DPs) after the Second World War. The project will run from January 2025 to January 2027. The team comprises Iryna Skubii, Marko Pavlyshyn (Monash University), Olha Shmihelska-Kozuliak, and Yana Ostapenko (Association of Ukrainians in Victoria Archive).

Amy Crutchfield (former Classics student) won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry.

Congratulations to SHAPS staff on their recent promotions:

• Paula Dredge (Cultural Materials Conservation) has been promoted to Lecturer
• Rob Lazarus (Cultural Materials Conservation) has been promoted to Senior Lecturer
• Andrew Turner (Classics & Archaeology) has been promoted to Lecturer

Academic Publications

Oleg Beyda (Hansen Lecturer in Russian History), For Russia with Hitler: White Russian Emigres and the German-Soviet War (University of Toronto Press, 2024)

The Bolshevik takeover of Russia created an alternative Russia in exile that never laid down its arms. For two decades, expelled White Russians sought ways to retaliate against the Soviet Union and return home. Their irreconcilability was galvanized by a superstructure, the dominant military organization, the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS). Eventually, militant anti-Bolshevism led the exiled Russians into alliance with Nazi Germany, despite the latter’s anti-Slavic stance. For Russia with Hitler tells the story of how thousands of White Russian émigrés joined the German invasion of the Soviet Union as soldiers, translators, and civilian workers.

Oleg Beyda investigates and contextualizes émigré collaboration with National Socialist Germany, explaining how it was possible for Russians to fight against the Russians. The book reveals that the exiles, although united ideologically by Russian nationalism in a general sense, did not establish one single, clear-cut political solution for a future “liberated Russia.” Drawing on wide archival material, For Russia with Hitler details the background and ideological framework of the émigrés, how they rationalized their support for Nazism, and what they did on the Eastern Front, including their reactions to life in occupation, war crimes, and the Holocaust.

Tonia Eckfeld (Principal Fellow, Grimwade Centre), No One Knows Their Destiny. The Eckfeld Records: Inside the Dunera Story (Monash University Publishing). 

Popular culture has mythologised the Dunera Boys – but who were the real men who sailed on the infamous ship, and how did the voyage transform their lives? Art historian Tonia Eckfeld draws on a deeply personal history to tell the story of her father and her uncle, Jewish refugees whose lives were shaped indelibly by their wartime experiences and internment – each to very different outcomes.

In 1939, Reinhold and Waldemar Eckfeld fled Hitler’s Austria to Churchill’s United Kingdom. There they were unjustly arrested and transported on the Dunera to Tatura prison camp, where it took many months to gain their freedom. Their experiences of internment were often harrowing, riven with violence, deprivation and frustration. Waldemar, who was beaten by British guards aboard the Dunera, found himself entangled in court martial proceedings – the records of which were reportedly destroyed by the British government to hush up a human-rights scandal. Reinhold, classified as an ‘enemy alien’, joined the Australian Army after release and served the country that would not legally recognise him for so long.

Drawing on a trove of historical artefacts – including previously unseen artworks, photographs and official documents – Tonia Eckfeld takes the reader inside these events as they unfold. Gripping and illuminating, this book asks us to reconsider the conventional narrative of the Dunera Boys, unearthing new perspectives on the impact of war, trauma and legacy on family relationships.

Oleg Beyda (Hansen Lecturer in Russian History) and Mark Edele (Hansen Chair in History) contributed (in Russian) to a themed issue of the Russian journal Neprikosnovennyi zapas, ‘The Second World War: Practices of Normalisation, Forgetting and Re-Interpretation’.

Oleg Beyda‘s article, co-authored with Igor Petrov, ‘Blood and Soil: Two Lives of Doctor Beutelsbacher’, investigates the fate of Nazi war criminal Dr Hans Beutelspacher, in an extended version of Oleg’s 2021 Pursuit piece on this topic.

Mark Edele‘s essay, ‘”Soviet Second World War Veterans“: Twenty Years On’, recounts the making of Soviet Veterans of the Second World War, a 2008 book recently translated into Russian and published by one of Russia’s premier liberal academic presses in 2023. Part memoir, part historiography, the essay explains to a Russian audience how and why a foreigner came to be interested in the fate of Soviet war veterans, how he went about researching this history, and how the resulting book fits into a wider debate on Soviet post-war history.

Tim Parkin (Classics & Archaeology) is co-editor (with Eleanor Cowan) of a special issue of the Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, ‘Domestic Violence and Vulnerability in the Roman World‘. The issue includes an introductory essay by Tim Parkin, co-authored with Eleanor Cowan, ‘Domestic Violence and Vulnerability in the Roman World: Setting the Scene’, and contributions by Ash Finn and Tim Parkin.

Ash Finn (PhD in Classics & Archaeology 2023), ‘Why doesn’t she just leave?‘ Roman Divorce as a Deterrent to Intimate Partner Violence

A number of scholars have in recent years suggested that the ease of divorce in Roman law and the legal provisions for the return of the dowry would have acted as an effective deterrent to intimate partner violence (IPV). This argument rests on two main assumptions. The first is that Roman divorce was quick, easy, and financially damaging for the husband. The second is that IPV was a legitimate reason for divorce and was widely condemned in Roman society. This paper argues against these assumptions and instead suggests that in cases involving IPV, divorce was unlikely to have been quick and easy but rather was a lengthy process, with women often asked to return to marriages and adapt their own behaviour to try to mollify their abusive husbands. In some cases, women will never have left. For deterrents to be effective they must be applied regularly and consistently. Accordingly, Roman divorce cannot be considered an effective deterrent to IPV.

Tim Parkin, ‘The Abuse of Aged Parents in the Ancient Roman World‘

This article focuses on the limited evidence that exists for domestic abuse and violence against older individuals in the Roman world, in particular directed against parents by their offspring. Literary and legal testimony is considered, along with some discussion of skeletal evidence, and particular instances from Roman Egypt are also presented. The article considers questions of gender in this context, and also discusses the way that the evidence typically presents only one side of the picture, a side that may be distorted intentionally or mistakenly by the alleged victim.

Research Higher Degree Completions

Nicole Elleana Nomikos (MA in Philosophy), Being and Knowing in Plato and Leibniz

The philosophies of Plato and Gottfried Leibniz share various metaphysical parallels, many of which underlie their approaches in how knowledge about the world is obtained. These parallels are noteworthy, underscoring a direct Platonic influence on Leibniz’s philosophy. Despite Leibniz’s divergence in many places, influenced by the era in which he wrote and the eclectic nature of his philosophical inspirations, the presence of these parallels remains significant.

Both philosophers ardently advocate for an anti-materialist metaphysical worldview and a rationalist epistemology. Their compelling arguments, central to this commitment, not only merit thoughtful consideration but also lay the groundwork for a fresh defence of Platonism. Consequently, Leibniz’s ideas become a pivotal starting point, offering an opportunity to reframe and fortify classical Platonism. Beyond a mere analysis of their arguments, my thesis endeavours to synthesise several ideas from both philosophers with which to establish a comprehensive foundation for my own defence of a Platonist metaphysical perspective and its corresponding epistemology.

Supervisors: Prof. Margaret Cameron and Professor Howard Sankey

William Ridge (PhD in Philosophy), On the Evolution, Ontology, and Design of Retail Central Bank Digital Currencies

This thesis defends a novel ontology of money grounded in evolutionary functionalism. In particular, Richard Boyd’s notion of a homeostatic property cluster (HPC) is applied to make sense of money as an evolving cluster of functional roles. This view is supported by an extensive historical and conceptual analysis of monetary artefacts, ranging from ancient Mesopotamian clay debt tablets to modern internet-native crypto-currencies. Having established this conceptual scaffolding, normative principles regarding the design and implementation of a retail Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) are considered at length. It is argued that a good CBDC will be designed such that it can both fulfil the functional roles that comprise the monetary HPC, while also being constituted to outcompete rival monetary artefacts.

Supervisor: Dr Andrew Alexandra

Research Higher Degree Milestones

Lucyna Artymiuk (PhD completion seminar, History), The Polish Soldier Migrant Scheme (1947-48)

This PhD project explores a unique migration post-war migration program to Australia consisting of Polish military who fought under British command and were seeking a place for post-war settlement.

Between 1947 and 1948, Australian veterans of Tobruk helped sponsor the migration of these Polish soldiers to Australia when it became impossible for these men to return to their homeland, due to Soviet occupation. Over 1,500 former members of the Polish military based in the United Kingdom arrived in Australia aboard the “Asturias” and the “Strathnaver”. These men represented various military services including the Carpathian Brigade, the Air Force, Armoured Division and the Second Corps.

A sizeable number worked on the Hydro-Electric Scheme in Tasmania; but many were sent to various parts of Australia during the reconstruction period. These men were vital to the establishment of Polish community structures in the following decades. They also represented a significant prelude to the massive post-war Polish migration from the displaced persons camps scattered throughout Western Europe. This was the first organised group of non-British migrants, and the thesis explores how the Australian government implemented this program.

David Feeney (PhD completion seminar, Classics & Archaeology), The Expedition of Hamilcar Barca and the Carthaginian Hegemony in the Iberian Peninsula, 237-218 BC

Weakened by the First Punic War (264-241 BC) and the Mercenary War (240-237 BC), the republic of Carthage dispatched a military expedition to the Iberian Peninsula to undertake a war of conquest. This Carthaginian imperialist project was commanded by Hamilcar Barca until his death in 229, at which point command fell to his son-in-law Hasdrubal (229-221) and then later his eldest son Hannibal Barca (221-218?). In this period the Carthaginian state established an imperial territory in Iberia on Hellenistic lines and rebuilt its position as a first-rate Mediterranean power. Roman anxiety concerning Carthaginian success in Hispania would ultimately trigger the Second Punic War in 218 BC.

A reassessment of the literary sources together with analysis of the relevant archaeological and numismatic evidence is used to build an integrated, diachronic narrative of the Carthaginian conquest. This study examines the Punic presence in Iberia prior to 237 BC, the polities and societies encountered by Hamilcar Barca and his successors, the (re)organisation of subject territories, and related issues around urbanisation, settlement, immigration, Hellenization and ‘Punicisation’.

The Carthaginian expansion in Iberia was an undertaking of the state. Hamilcar Barca and his successors built a faction of kinsmen, aristocratic allies and supporters that dominated the politics of the Carthaginian republic. Through continuous expansion in Iberia the Barcids justified their retention of the city’s generalship and secured the wealth to rebuild the power of their city and sustain their political position in the republic.

Other happenings

SHAPS staff, fellows, students, alumni: if you have news items for the monthly SHAPS digest, email us the details.

Feature image: Content in the Field (CUMC90023), Day 1 at Museum Puri Lukisan, Ubud, Bali, with Nicole Tse, Saiful Bakhri, Madeleine Tripp, Phoebe Clarke, Mollie Liu, Aidan Carroll, Hayley James, Denis Chan, Isobel Fiechter, Danielle Winser, Satriyo Wibowo