News Story Archives
Our 15 most recent posts can be found below. For older stories, scroll to the bottom and select stories by month in the dropdown.
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SHAPS Digest (November 2024)
A monthly roundup of media commentary, publications, projects and other news from across the School community.
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Silver Medal for Philosophy Students in Tertiary Ethics Olympiad
In October 2024 two teams of students from the University of Melbourne participated in the Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics (AAPAE) Tertiary Ethics Olympiad. These ethics athletes, or ‘eth-letes’, as they are known in the competition, went up against universities from across Australia. They were supported by coach Dr Alex Cain (Teaching Associate, Philosophy), who reports here […]
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Introducing Hansen PhD Scholar Patrick Gigacz
The Hansen Trust, established to advance the study of History at University of Melbourne, includes an annual PhD scholarship for the doctoral program in History in SHAPS. In 2024 the scholarship was awarded to Patrick Gigacz, who is researching the cultural history of electricity in Melbourne. Fellow PhD candidate Jesse Seeberg-Gordon sat down with Patrick for a conversation […]
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SHAPS Digest (October 2024)
A monthly roundup of media commentary, publications, projects and other news from across the School community.
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Remembering June Factor (1936–2024)
Dr June Factor AM was a distinguished social historian who pioneered the study of children’s folklore in Australia and played an active role in public life, including as president of the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty Victoria), Friends of the ABC and the Australian Jewish Democratic Society. June’s work was an important influence […]
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Jewish Women in Nineteenth-Century France
A new book by Dr Helen M. Davies (Honorary Fellow, History) explores the lives of two remarkable Jewish women in nineteenth-century France. The book sheds light on gender, family, and Jewish experiences in France, from the Napoleonic period through to the Dreyfus Affair. This adapted excerpt introduces the book’s main themes. My book, Herminie and […]
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SHAPS Digest (September 2024)
A monthly roundup of media commentary, publications, projects and other news from across the School community.
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Computer ‘Reconstructions’ of Ancient Faces – How Reliable are They?
In recent times, the use of modern technology to reconstruct ancient faces has become increasingly popular. But can we rely on the accuracy of such reconstructions? Dr Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow in Classics & Archaeology, investigates in this article republished from The Conversation. When we read about the lives of people from the ancient […]
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Does History Have Lessons for the Future?
Roman Krznaric looks to the past to discover the rules for radical hope in his new book, History for Tomorrow. In his review of the book from The Conversation, Emeritus Professor Peter McPhee reflects on Krznaric’s work and on whether the past can provide answers to present and future questions. Answers to the question about the […]
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SHAPS Digest (August 2024)
A monthly roundup of media commentary, publications, projects and other news from across the School community.
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Rabati Dig Report
In June 2024 the GAIA (Georgian-Australian Investigations in Archaeology) team, comprising staff and students from Classics & Archaeology, colleagues from the Georgian National Museum, and other experts and volunteers from around the globe, returned to Rabati in Georgia for the sixth year of excavations. In this report on the 2024 dig, Associate Professor Andrew Jamieson […]
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Preparing for the Ancient Olympics: Bull Wrestling, Meat-only Diets and Sex Bans
How did athletes in the Greek and Roman eras prepared in the hope of winning victory at the ancient Olympics. Some of these ways might be recognisable to modern athletes, while others could be very different. In his second article about the ancient Olympics, republished from The Conversation, Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow in Classics […]
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Shaping Australian Art & Identity: The Lindsays
Most Australians have heard of Norman Lindsay’s fantastical children’s book The Magic Pudding (1918). Norman was one of ten talented siblings, many of whom became internationally renowned artists and writers during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Lindsays were one of most culturally influential middle-class families in Australian history. SHAPS PhD Candidates Cat […]
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Sweet Home, Chicago: The Democratic Convention 1968
In this new article, republished from The Conversation prior to the Chicago Democratic Convention on 19-22 August, Liam Byrne (Honorary in History), together with Emma Shortis, RMIT University, reflected on this event in the context of its past, particularly the “traumatic” one of 1968, held in the same city. Democratic Party delegates from across the […]
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The Decameron: Medieval Lockdown Project or “Wine-Soaked Sex Romp”?
Boccaccio’s fourteenth-century masterpiece, now a Netflix series, shows the universality of human responses to a pandemic (along with some sex). SHAPS’s Catherine Kovesi (History) explores The Decameron in this article, first published on Pursuit. For anyone versed in medieval European history, the new Netflix adaptation of a 700-year-old story about a group of noble youths seems […]