The meritocratic moment in West Germany, Singapore, and Japan. This project aims to investigate the history of meritocratic ideas in West Germany, Singapore and Japan. The project will generate new knowledge on the ways in which democratic societies built political legitimacy after World War II by analysing the history of education reforms. Expected outcomes include a deeper understanding of the historical conditions which promote social cohesion in modern societies. This project should provide ....The meritocratic moment in West Germany, Singapore, and Japan. This project aims to investigate the history of meritocratic ideas in West Germany, Singapore and Japan. The project will generate new knowledge on the ways in which democratic societies built political legitimacy after World War II by analysing the history of education reforms. Expected outcomes include a deeper understanding of the historical conditions which promote social cohesion in modern societies. This project should provide significant benefits by fostering social and educational policy-making which enhances the political legitimacy and stability of parliamentarian democracies in Australia and around the world.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120100474
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Perilous embassies: diplomatic encounters between Europe and Asia, 1600-1800. This project examines a series of European embassies dispatched to the most powerful states in Asia and uses them to reassess the nature of the global encounter between Europe and Asia in the early modern period.
Disaster, human suffering and Colonial photography. This project aims to investigate how photography shaped modern understandings of disaster. During the period modern European empires were at their most expansive, they became increasingly interventionist in indigenous environments and societies. The project will use rich but largely neglected sources from colonial Indonesia (c.1840-1950) to study how images of human suffering in different disaster contexts evolved since the invention of photogr ....Disaster, human suffering and Colonial photography. This project aims to investigate how photography shaped modern understandings of disaster. During the period modern European empires were at their most expansive, they became increasingly interventionist in indigenous environments and societies. The project will use rich but largely neglected sources from colonial Indonesia (c.1840-1950) to study how images of human suffering in different disaster contexts evolved since the invention of photography. Understanding how and why European expansion shaped modern ideas about disasters, and how photography has developed to communicate human suffering, is expected to benefit community and scholarly awareness of environmental disaster, war and their effects.Read moreRead less
Claiming possession: Asia, Europe and empire. This project aims to reassess the nature of claims to possession across the early modern world. Claiming created the borders we take for granted and its legal artefacts are everywhere evident. Claiming was never only a European enterprise, and Asia was and remains an active site for claiming. The project will examine how Europeans claimed possession over people, lands and resources in the shadow of powerful Asian states and charts the emergence of lo ....Claiming possession: Asia, Europe and empire. This project aims to reassess the nature of claims to possession across the early modern world. Claiming created the borders we take for granted and its legal artefacts are everywhere evident. Claiming was never only a European enterprise, and Asia was and remains an active site for claiming. The project will examine how Europeans claimed possession over people, lands and resources in the shadow of powerful Asian states and charts the emergence of local counterclaims and processes of legal resistance. The research will also analyse Asian polities’ historical claiming practices across borderland areas. This project could show how practices developed in the early modern period influence current sovereignty disputes in the South and East China Seas.Read moreRead less
Submerged Histories: Memory Activism in Indonesia and the Netherlands. This project aims to investigate the recent emergence of joint Indonesian and Dutch activism to demand recognition of submerged and marginalised cases of historical violence, economic exploitation and racism. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the interdisciplinary field of memory studies by discovering the motivations, strategies and future plans of these unique forms of collaboration. Expected outcomes of thi ....Submerged Histories: Memory Activism in Indonesia and the Netherlands. This project aims to investigate the recent emergence of joint Indonesian and Dutch activism to demand recognition of submerged and marginalised cases of historical violence, economic exploitation and racism. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the interdisciplinary field of memory studies by discovering the motivations, strategies and future plans of these unique forms of collaboration. Expected outcomes of this project include new insights into how these activists are affecting change in public institutions such as museums and setting trends in global social movements. This should provide significant benefits for understanding how memory activism is changing complex multi-ethnic societies.Read moreRead less
Romantic India and Indian Romantics: British Romanticism and colonial modernity in India, 1780-1840. This project turns to British Romanticism and to Anglophone texts of early-19th century Bengal to arrive at a deeper understanding of the complex intertwining of literature with the histories of colonialism, of Indian modernity, and an emergent Indian nationalism. In giving Romantic literature an Indian dimension, the project also rethinks the Englishness of Romanticism in a new context. Texts to ....Romantic India and Indian Romantics: British Romanticism and colonial modernity in India, 1780-1840. This project turns to British Romanticism and to Anglophone texts of early-19th century Bengal to arrive at a deeper understanding of the complex intertwining of literature with the histories of colonialism, of Indian modernity, and an emergent Indian nationalism. In giving Romantic literature an Indian dimension, the project also rethinks the Englishness of Romanticism in a new context. Texts to be highlighted are those which traverse national borders in imaginative acts of sympathy and dialogue, including exchanges between the Christian West and the Muslim/Hindu East. Outcomes will include a higher profile for Indian studies through innovative scholarship and public engagement.Read moreRead less
Islam, Europe and modernity: the French Revolution and the Muslim world, 1789-1799. This project challenges ideas about radical differences between Islam and the West by returning to the historical roots of the modern world. It shows that Muslims too had a share in the global experience of the French Revolution, by drawing on new historical evidence from archives in France, Europe and the Arab world.
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL200100144
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,801,473.00
Summary
Population policy in modern world history: Challenges from the Asia Pacific. As the planet approaches 8 billion, international debate on population will be ignited again. This project aims to capitalise on Australia’s place in the global South, to lead a distinctively regional perspective on how population policies emerged, and what their present legacies are. Comparing Australia, Japan, India and China, the project intends to analyse highly diverse polities, challenging Europe-outward theses on ....Population policy in modern world history: Challenges from the Asia Pacific. As the planet approaches 8 billion, international debate on population will be ignited again. This project aims to capitalise on Australia’s place in the global South, to lead a distinctively regional perspective on how population policies emerged, and what their present legacies are. Comparing Australia, Japan, India and China, the project intends to analyse highly diverse polities, challenging Europe-outward theses on modernisation and development. This promises a much-improved historical model with which we might better assess the enduring population-environment-economy nexus well into the 21st century. The project should energise a new form of world history writing, boosting Australia's reputation as a leader in big-idea histories.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120102132
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Australia-Japan relations between 1945 and 1957: the Japanese perspective. This project reassesses Australia-Japan relations by analysing the Japanese perspective during the period of normalisation of bilateral relations between 1945 and 1957. It sheds new light on the history of Australia-Japan relations and enriches understanding of the nature and scope of Australian-Japanese relations.
Asia-Pacific philanthropies: transnational diaspora networks, anti-colonial nationalism, and the emergence of modern Chinese philanthropy, 1850-1949. China's philanthropy sector now boasts the highest rate of growth in the world. China's leaders are searching for appropriate models to ensure donations get to the people who need them most. What can Australians contribute to this discussion? This project shows how early Chinese-Australian pioneers helped to shape modern philanthropy in China.