Sound & Vision

A monthly roundup of media commentary, publications and projects, and other news from across the School community.

A monthly roundup of media commentary, publications and projects, and other news from across the School community.

Bona (1494–1557) was the Sforza heir to the throne of Milan and became the Queen of Poland. She was a key figure in the politics and economic life of early modern Europe, an economic innovator and reformer, art and architectural patron. Significant extant source base about Bona's activities allows for investigation into, and interpretation of, her actions as an agent …

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Julia Hurst as Lecturer in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History. Dr Hurst's appointment will open up new opportunities for our students to take subjects in Indigenous history. To welcome Dr Hurst and to introduce her research to the School community, we invited Dr Henry Reese to record an interview for …

In 1901 a new flag was chosen to represent a new nation, and the central emblem was a constellation of the southern sky. By this time, the symbolism of the Southern Cross had been entrenched; almost all previous Australian flag designs had included this device. The meanings of the Cross and the southern stars were, however, diverse and changing across …

The 2020 Ernest Scott Lecture was delivered by Professor Michelle Arrow (Macquarie University). In a rich and thought-provoking lecture, Professor Arrow explored the 1970s as the era when the ‘personal became political’. You can watch a recording of the lecture below; listen to an audio-recording via ABC Radio National; or read a transcript, published on Inside Story. Abstract In Australian history, the …

A monthly roundup of media commentary, publications and projects, and other news from across the School community.

Sandglasses were part of the variegated ecology of time measurement in the premodern world. This was a world attentive to time, where knowledge of the temporal rhythms of the environment reached from the movements of the stars to the fall of granules of lead. Among human-made instruments for time measurement, the sandglass was one of the most useful and accurate. …

A monthly roundup of media commentary, publications and projects, and other news from across the School community.

Famed as the home of the dreaded Barbary pirates, the 'scourge of Christendom', for many early modern Europeans and Britons, the Maghreb was a distant and terrifying place. Some, however, saw the corsairing states as legitimate military rivals, potential trading partners or allies, and even attractive places for migration and personal advancement. Recently, History PhD student Nat Cutter presented for …

By 1700 tailors no longer dominated England’s garment marketplace, as stay-makers, mantua-makers and seamstresses began to produce key items of female dress previously made by tailors. The demise of the tailoring monopoly was a complex process that involved many factors. On 3 September, our McKenzie Fellow, Sarah Bendall, presented the weekly Brown Bag talk, which examined one overlooked aspect of this …

Recently, HPS Alumna Dr Zoë Loh featured on the ABC documentary Fight for Planet A in relation to her role as a senior research scientist at CSIRO. In this interview, Zoë spoke with Samara Greenwood about her love for History and Philosophy of Science and how it has contributed not only to her career, but to building the skills needed …

We are social creatures and the current lockdown isolation is hard on all of us – whether extrovert or introvert. So we thought you might enjoy meeting some of our wonderful students. Philosophy is currently one of the fastest growing majors in the Arts Faculty. These self-made mini videos will give you a glimpse of why this is so, and …

Francis Xavier Gsell is famous for his work among the Tiwi people, from whom he purchased the marriage rights to young women as part of a broad evangelisation strategy. A mythic figure in popular histories of the Northern Territory, Gsell is often remembered as the apocryphal ‘Bishop with 150 Wives’. But Gsell’s complex legacy has rarely received thorough academic scrutiny. …

During the sixteenth century the bodies of Europe's elites began to change in size and form as men and women adopted wide starched ruffs and collars, ballooning sleeves, stiffened or bombast upper garments and puffy lower garments. Such a structured silhouette set the tone for centuries of fashion and was the result of changing artistic aesthetics. The refinement of tailoring …

A monthly round-up of media commentary, publications and projects, and other news from across the School community.

In June 2020, Dr Sarah Walsh joined the History Program as our new Hansen Lecturer in Global History. In this new podcast, in conversation with History PhD candidate Amy Hodgson, Dr Walsh discusses her research, and her approach to teaching. The interview traverses a wide range of topics, including the challenges posed by online teaching, especially when it comes to …

A monthly round-up of media commentary, publications and projects, and other news from across the School community.

Societies have always used statues and other monuments as ways of recognising power and eminence. In Australia, as in many other places, there is currently public debate over whether some statues should be removed, who should make the decision, and what should be the fate of the statues themselves. Should they be displayed with explanatory plaques, taken away to be …

Each year in the third week of May, Australia celebrates National Archaeology Week. This year, our postgraduate community took a leading role in taking National Archaeology Week online, coming up with creative ways of promoting archaeology in a time of pandemic-related disruption. Larissa Tittl gives us a run-down on the week’s events and activities. National Archaeology Week seeks to increase …

The catastrophic defeat Hannibal inflicted on Rome at Cannae in 216 BCE forced the Republic to drastically change how it would fight the Second Punic War. A strategy of direct military confrontation had to be abandoned in favour of a war of attrition. This strategic shift necessitated a series of additional changes in how Rome mobilised, led, and supported its …

This month's digest of SHAPS research in the media offers a rich selection across a range of topics and genres, from podcasts on Bronze Age pandemics, and on the relationship between logic and belief; online conversations about the ethics of conducting sustainable research, and about cinematic representations of Stalinism; radio interviews on new books in Australian political history; and through …

Sean Scalmer, Professor of History in SHAPS, has just published a new book on the nineteenth-century Australian political figure, Premier of Victoria, Graham Berry. Democratic Adventurer: Graham Berry and the Making of Australian Politics tells the story of Berry's 'remarkable rise from linen-draper and grocer to adored popular leader', and his role in shaping Australian democracy. History PhD candidate Jimmy …

This episode of our podcast, Disaster & Change, is intended to help us think through our current situation during the global coronavirus pandemic. The focus is on understanding the phenomenon of change or, more specifically, how we understand the causes of change. This is a philosophical discussion, although it has been prepared in a way that presumes its listeners, namely …

Does an unplanned and large-scale calamity – a war, say, or a global economic crisis – lead to lasting social, cultural, and political change? This podcast explores this question with regard to the Soviet Union and World War II. The calamity of the war had a devastating impact on Soviet society, on the Soviet economy, and on the Soviet population. …

The need for expert knowledge and analysis has been brought into sharp relief as we struggle to understand and respond to the COVID-19 emergency. In this digest, we bring together samples of commentary produced by SHAPS staff and students, and media coverage of our research, in recent months.  Melbourne History Workshop's (led by Professor Andrew May) Journal of the Plague Year: …

We are excited to announce the launch of the SHAPS Podcast Series, with this inaugural episode, presented by Professor Janet McCalman, Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor in the Melbourne School of Population Health, and introduced by Professor Margaret Cameron, Head of SHAPS. Since 2015, our annual themed public lecture series has been a flagship event on the SHAPS calendar. This year, in …

Emeritus Professor Greg Dening (1931–2008) occupies an important place in the history of the History program at the University of Melbourne. As Tom Griffiths put it: "Greg was not only a wonderful historian but also a gifted teacher, and he believed that immersion scholarship could be transformative — of oneself, and also of the world ... In his hands, history …

Reunion (2018) is a short animation by VCA Animation students Jackson Cook and Jenn Tran, in collaboration with History PhD candidate Anh Nguyen.