Economic Rationalism and University Course Pricing 1989-2020

Economic Rationalism and University Course Pricing 1989-2020

The Morrison government recently announced plans to overhaul the pricing structure for university courses (Duffy 2020). The government’s proposal can be understood as operating at four levels: first, the ideological level where abstraction hides the personal significance and social impact of the proposed changes; secondly, the level of the political-economic theory that provides the basis […]
Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin: A Q&A with the author, Liam Byrne.

Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin: A Q&A with the author, Liam Byrne.

Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin  is available through Melbourne University Publishing.  Your new book chronicles and analyses the early political development of two important figures in the twentieth century Australian Labor Party (ALP). Why did you decide upon a joint biography of Curtin and Scullin’s formative years? Curtin and Scullin are both well-known as […]
Why is the Confederate flag so offensive?

Why is the Confederate flag so offensive?

Clare Corbould, Deakin University Most Australians — aside from a few groups dedicated to reenacting American Civil War battles and history buffs including Bob Carr and Kim Beazley — were not familiar until recently with the charged history of the flag of the Confederate States of America. Now the flag is in the Australian news […]
What Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods gets wrong about veterans returning to Vietnam

What Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods gets wrong about veterans returning to Vietnam

  Netflix Mia Martin Hobbs, University of Melbourne Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, out now on Netflix, tells the story of five Black US veterans who return to Vietnam to hunt for gold and recover the remains of their lost squad leader. Beginning with the reunion of five old “Bloods”, and peppered with flashbacks to […]
Vaccine, Cure and Trust: COVID-19 and Those People in White Coats

Vaccine, Cure and Trust: COVID-19 and Those People in White Coats

‘Why sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’ The White Queen in Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871).   I write as confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus in Victoria have risen sharply, dashing the hopes of the more optimistic that the epidemic had peaked in Australia.  […]
To Preserve and Protect: Policing Colonial Brisbane: A Q & A with Anastasia Dukova

To Preserve and Protect: Policing Colonial Brisbane: A Q & A with Anastasia Dukova

Lyndon Megarrity interviews Anastasia Dukova about her recent book To preserve and protect: Policing colonial Brisbane.  Thank you for writing this book, which is a great contribution to our understanding of Queensland colonial history. Can I begin by asking you how you developed your interest and expertise in crime and policing history? Thank you! I […]
When black lives really did not matter

When black lives really did not matter

Edward Colston had some estimable virtues, as his philanthropic gifts to making Bristol a better town suggests. But those virtues were based on a vice we no longer find bearable. He got his money from participating in the slave trade. It is right that his statue has been torn down. The commentary about him, however, […]
The fury in US cities is rooted in a long history of racist policing, violence and inequality

The fury in US cities is rooted in a long history of racist policing, violence and inequality

  Omer Messinger/Sipa USA Clare Corbould, Deakin University The protests that have engulfed American cities in the past week are rooted in decades of frustrations. Racist policing, legal and extra-legal discrimination, exclusion from the major avenues of wealth creation and vicious stereotyping have long histories and endure today. African Americans have protested against these injustices […]
Ever-present possibilities and the status quo.

Ever-present possibilities and the status quo.

This piece is part of the Urgent Histories forum which has been organised by the Australian Historical Association. Klaus Neumann has written an engaging response to the articles in this forum, which can be found in History Australia. Humankind needs to tackle climate change. Urgently. Historians may want to reconsider their professional practices in light of this […]
Urgent histories and making decisions.

Urgent histories and making decisions.

This piece is part of the Urgent Histories forum which has been organised by the Australian Historical Association. David Lowe and James Walter have responded thoughtfully to the articles in this forum, which can be found in History Australia. Together, these essays make a powerful case for historians helping our publics think about temporal argument. […]
Contemporary Histories Research Group Award in History and Policy Announcement

Contemporary Histories Research Group Award in History and Policy Announcement

APH and the Contemporary Histories Research Group are excited to announce the recipients of the inaugural Contemporary Histories Research Group Award in History and Policy.  This award provides $10,000 each to two early career researchers to undertake research in an area of history that relates to a significant issue of contemporary Australian public policy. Congratulations […]
The Singapore Bureau: lessons from Asia’s first early warning system for epidemic diseases

The Singapore Bureau: lessons from Asia’s first early warning system for epidemic diseases

This piece, written by Dr Stefen Hell, was originally published on the New Mandala website and is republished with the permission of the author and New Mandala. International arrangements to collect and distribute information on epidemic diseases are crucial in times of pandemics, because pathogens ignore borders, political order and economic status. Today states have […]