Theatre and autocracy in Ancient Greece. This project aims to study the relations between theatre and autocratic power in antiquity. Theatre, from the start, appealed just as much to autocrats as to democrats and throve in autocratic states for half a millennium after the extinction of the Classical democracies. While many studies trace ancient Greek theatre’s links to democracy, none explore its links to specific tyrants, monarchs or emperors. This project will examine how autocrats moulded the ....Theatre and autocracy in Ancient Greece. This project aims to study the relations between theatre and autocratic power in antiquity. Theatre, from the start, appealed just as much to autocrats as to democrats and throve in autocratic states for half a millennium after the extinction of the Classical democracies. While many studies trace ancient Greek theatre’s links to democracy, none explore its links to specific tyrants, monarchs or emperors. This project will examine how autocrats moulded the world’s first mass medium of communication to consolidate their power, and how competing interests used the theatre to share, limit or challenge that power.Read moreRead less
The Vandal Renaissance: Latin Literature in Post-Roman Africa (435-534CE). The project aims to investigate the Latin literature of the Vandal kingdom of North Africa. It expects to identify a vibrant literary culture that celebrated multicultural diversity, embraced the Classical tradition, and contributed to Christian theology, while helping form a distinct Vandal identity. Expected outcomes include a more detailed understanding of the intellectual influences on Vandal African authors, the mech ....The Vandal Renaissance: Latin Literature in Post-Roman Africa (435-534CE). The project aims to investigate the Latin literature of the Vandal kingdom of North Africa. It expects to identify a vibrant literary culture that celebrated multicultural diversity, embraced the Classical tradition, and contributed to Christian theology, while helping form a distinct Vandal identity. Expected outcomes include a more detailed understanding of the intellectual influences on Vandal African authors, the mechanics of Vandal court patronage, and the breadth of these authors' contribution to the history of Latin literature. The project will benefit Australian culture by providing a detailed historical example of the benefits and challenges of a multicultural society.Read moreRead less
From Where the Fine Warships Come: Democratic Athens at War . This project aims to transform our understanding of classical Athens. This Greek state is famous for developing democracy to an extremely high level and for being the leading cultural innovator of classical Greece. Less well known is the dark side of this success story. Athens revolutionised warfare, killing tens of thousands of combatants and civilians. There is a good case that democracy itself sustained this military record. But th ....From Where the Fine Warships Come: Democratic Athens at War . This project aims to transform our understanding of classical Athens. This Greek state is famous for developing democracy to an extremely high level and for being the leading cultural innovator of classical Greece. Less well known is the dark side of this success story. Athens revolutionised warfare, killing tens of thousands of combatants and civilians. There is a good case that democracy itself sustained this military record. But this case has hardly ever been studied. By filling this big gap in our knowledge this project will be highly significant. It will massively increase capacities in research training and international collaboration. The benefits will include new ideas for better understanding the wars that democracies wage today. Read moreRead less
The Elephant in the Study: Working Latin Literature for the Enslaved. Roman histories, speeches, and plays are conventionally regarded as the works of individual elite male authors such as Cicero, Vergil, and Livy. This project aims to transform our understanding of Roman literature by showing that it was actually written in collaboration with enslaved workers, generating new insights into the creative processes that shaped the Classical literary canon. Expected outcomes include a new approach f ....The Elephant in the Study: Working Latin Literature for the Enslaved. Roman histories, speeches, and plays are conventionally regarded as the works of individual elite male authors such as Cicero, Vergil, and Livy. This project aims to transform our understanding of Roman literature by showing that it was actually written in collaboration with enslaved workers, generating new insights into the creative processes that shaped the Classical literary canon. Expected outcomes include a new approach for understanding how authors work and the discovery of untold stories about the enslaved population of Rome. This should lead to significant benefits for communities, including improved education outcomes and better-informed public debate. Read moreRead less
Document loss in pre-modern Europe. This project aims to map out the social and cultural effects of paper’s introduction to Europe from 1200-1800. After centuries of writing on parchment, Europeans began to use paper in the late Middle Ages. Paper proved both a gift and a curse to Europeans. Important documents could easily be destroyed or lost. This project will investigate loss as a cultural problem in history. It will trace both unintentional losses (fires, rot, vermin) and intentional ones ( ....Document loss in pre-modern Europe. This project aims to map out the social and cultural effects of paper’s introduction to Europe from 1200-1800. After centuries of writing on parchment, Europeans began to use paper in the late Middle Ages. Paper proved both a gift and a curse to Europeans. Important documents could easily be destroyed or lost. This project will investigate loss as a cultural problem in history. It will trace both unintentional losses (fires, rot, vermin) and intentional ones (censorship, document suppression, prohibitions). The project expects to uncover how obliteration led to both opened repression and blank-slate reinvention, a powerful form of cultural creativity.Read moreRead less
KGB Empire: State Security Archives in the former Eastern Bloc. A generation has passed since the fall of Soviet communism, and yet our knowledge about the functioning of the institution at the heart of that system—the chekist state security apparatus—remains highly fragmentary and incomplete. This project will shed light on its history and ongoing legacy through a comparative study of state security archives across a range of East European countries. The project has a double focus, comprising h ....KGB Empire: State Security Archives in the former Eastern Bloc. A generation has passed since the fall of Soviet communism, and yet our knowledge about the functioning of the institution at the heart of that system—the chekist state security apparatus—remains highly fragmentary and incomplete. This project will shed light on its history and ongoing legacy through a comparative study of state security archives across a range of East European countries. The project has a double focus, comprising historical work in the archives—using archival documents to advance our understanding of how the security apparatus operated during the late socialist period; and historical work on the archives—investigating how these archives are being used and misused in the region today.Read moreRead less
Artisan mobility, innovation and the eighteenth-century Republic of Things. This project aims to examine how movement across borders in eighteenth-century Europe and encounters between artisans from different backgrounds promoted technical innovation in the cities. Mobility to and from Paris suggests that the cosmopolitan city’s society and culture were as important as markets and institutions. The project will study male and female artisans, producers of manufactured goods in the eighteenth cen ....Artisan mobility, innovation and the eighteenth-century Republic of Things. This project aims to examine how movement across borders in eighteenth-century Europe and encounters between artisans from different backgrounds promoted technical innovation in the cities. Mobility to and from Paris suggests that the cosmopolitan city’s society and culture were as important as markets and institutions. The project will study male and female artisans, producers of manufactured goods in the eighteenth century, who played a vital but largely forgotten role in transferring applied knowledge between European centres. This project aims to provide a historical grounding for debates on links between cosmopolitanism, culture, and technical innovation in a globalising world.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190101106
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$362,116.00
Summary
Reforming the Roman Republic. This project aims to generate new knowledge of institutional reform in the late Roman republic and the relevance of reform as a concept in ancient Rome. By analysing how Romans spoke and wrote about reform and examining a variety of particular reform efforts, the project seeks evidence of a Roman reform discourse and reform processes capable of producing structural change. Expected outcomes include fresh understanding of republican governance and an alternative to t ....Reforming the Roman Republic. This project aims to generate new knowledge of institutional reform in the late Roman republic and the relevance of reform as a concept in ancient Rome. By analysing how Romans spoke and wrote about reform and examining a variety of particular reform efforts, the project seeks evidence of a Roman reform discourse and reform processes capable of producing structural change. Expected outcomes include fresh understanding of republican governance and an alternative to the conventional view that the republic fell because of its inability to reform itself. This project should benefit the study of Roman history and foster dialogue with interdisciplinary scholarship which has questioned the reformability of ancient societies; it thus also informs the understanding of reform in contemporary societies.Read moreRead less
Augustus and the Roman Triumph: A Study in Creeping Authoritarianism. This proposal aims to produce novel comparative insights into the genesis of despotism in sophisticated republics and democracies. To this end, it focuses on the transformation of the public victory ritual of the triumph from a shared aristocratic privilege into a lasting imperial monopoly by Augustus, Rome’s first emperor. Enhancing our knowledge of the rise and inner workings of Augustus’ New Order will provide modern politi ....Augustus and the Roman Triumph: A Study in Creeping Authoritarianism. This proposal aims to produce novel comparative insights into the genesis of despotism in sophisticated republics and democracies. To this end, it focuses on the transformation of the public victory ritual of the triumph from a shared aristocratic privilege into a lasting imperial monopoly by Augustus, Rome’s first emperor. Enhancing our knowledge of the rise and inner workings of Augustus’ New Order will provide modern political science with a new archetype of creeping authoritarianism, readily applicable to some of the most notorious tyrannies of the modern era and contemporary variants. The proposal will, therefore, substantially inform the field, theorists and practitioners of government, and Australia’s secondary school curriculum.Read moreRead less
Protest and Terror: Political Violence in Western Europe after 1968. This project aims to explore how the protest era of the 1960s in Western Europe transformed into a decade of political violence and terror in the 1970s. By undertaking an unprecedented transnational analysis of the history of political violence in France, Italy and West Germany after 1968, the project intends to generate a new understanding of the origins of home-grown terrorism in Europe and the precariousness of democratic st ....Protest and Terror: Political Violence in Western Europe after 1968. This project aims to explore how the protest era of the 1960s in Western Europe transformed into a decade of political violence and terror in the 1970s. By undertaking an unprecedented transnational analysis of the history of political violence in France, Italy and West Germany after 1968, the project intends to generate a new understanding of the origins of home-grown terrorism in Europe and the precariousness of democratic stability. The project aims to place the rise and fall of political terror in a new perspective, via an analysis of a wide variety of forms of violence by individuals, political groups, social movements and states, with significant benefits to understanding similar challenges in the contemporary world.Read moreRead less