Sound & Vision

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.