Kadare post Communism: Albania, the Balkans and Europe in the Work of Ismail Kadare, 1990-2008. Albanians make up a small but important segment of multicultural Australia. Through the work of Albania's greatest writer and intellectual, Ismail Kadare, we can come to a better understanding of Albanians, their history and culture, and hence of Australia as a multicultural entity. Moreover traditionally Islamic Albania, with its Ottoman history and culture, is seeking inclusion into the European Uni ....Kadare post Communism: Albania, the Balkans and Europe in the Work of Ismail Kadare, 1990-2008. Albanians make up a small but important segment of multicultural Australia. Through the work of Albania's greatest writer and intellectual, Ismail Kadare, we can come to a better understanding of Albanians, their history and culture, and hence of Australia as a multicultural entity. Moreover traditionally Islamic Albania, with its Ottoman history and culture, is seeking inclusion into the European Union, Australia's major partner in trade, tourism, education and culture. Kadare's post-communist works on the subjects of Europe, Islam, Muslims and the West, and Balkan politics and history provide a valuable lesson on the interrelationships of politics, culture and patriotism in a global context for contemporary Australia.Read moreRead less
Beyond the Family: Fragmented Families and Household Strategies in England, 1400-1830. This project poses radical new questions to the history of families and domestic relations in England 1400-1830. We aim to provide the first systematic analysis of the extent, variety, and significance of non-nuclear family forms in this period, explore their affectual relationships, and locate them in European contexts. Using approaches from literary textual analysis to statistical demography, we will critiqu ....Beyond the Family: Fragmented Families and Household Strategies in England, 1400-1830. This project poses radical new questions to the history of families and domestic relations in England 1400-1830. We aim to provide the first systematic analysis of the extent, variety, and significance of non-nuclear family forms in this period, explore their affectual relationships, and locate them in European contexts. Using approaches from literary textual analysis to statistical demography, we will critique several areas of scholarship on family and household history, evoking new research on medieval and early modern non-nuclear family structures, and hopefully providing fresh perspectives on the historical context of the perceived 'breakdown' of nuclear families in modern western-type societies.Read moreRead less
Rome and its histories 1750-2000: an iconic city's past and its importance to the present. This study explores the many ways in which the past in Rome, the 'eternal city', has been debated and portrayed by historians but also by groups as diverse as Catholics, city planners, archaeologists and tourists. The outcome will be a novel account from which we can draw lessons regarding the multiple uses of history to better understand the impact of heritage on contemporary lives.
Living as a child: children's experiences in England c. 1400-1750. How we best nurture and socialize the next generation of Australians is currently a matter of critical debate. Yet modern Australian attitudes to childhood and practices of child-rearing were first formed in the crucible of pre-modern Europe. Our proposed history of children's experiences in England c. 1400-1750 will provide a rich understanding of the foundations of present-day theories and practices of child-rearing. It will e ....Living as a child: children's experiences in England c. 1400-1750. How we best nurture and socialize the next generation of Australians is currently a matter of critical debate. Yet modern Australian attitudes to childhood and practices of child-rearing were first formed in the crucible of pre-modern Europe. Our proposed history of children's experiences in England c. 1400-1750 will provide a rich understanding of the foundations of present-day theories and practices of child-rearing. It will enable us to distinguish universal features of child-rearing from those which change over time, and to maintain Australia's international reputation for top-class research and research training in pre-modern history and culture.Read moreRead less
"The Whole Map of the Balkans": Ethnicity, National Identity and Empire in the Work of Ismail Kadare. The Albanian intellectual, Ismail Kadare, foreshadowed the re-valorization of ethnic identity as a socio-political category under late 20th century communism. While Kadare's novels and essays deal primarily with his native Albania, they also represent the emergence more broadly of ethnicity as a factor in the literature of Eastern and South-Eastern European socialism. The project will explore in ...."The Whole Map of the Balkans": Ethnicity, National Identity and Empire in the Work of Ismail Kadare. The Albanian intellectual, Ismail Kadare, foreshadowed the re-valorization of ethnic identity as a socio-political category under late 20th century communism. While Kadare's novels and essays deal primarily with his native Albania, they also represent the emergence more broadly of ethnicity as a factor in the literature of Eastern and South-Eastern European socialism. The project will explore in depth the relationship between ethnicity, ideology and socialist literary culture that underpins Kadare's work, providing the first detailed analytical and critical study in English, and locating Kadare in the context of the major lines of contemporary European thought regarding ethnicity and ethnic identity.Read moreRead less
Gender, power and identity in the early modern Nassau family. Our family identities shape our experiences of relationships, support structures, and interactions in broader communities around us but how do gender and power relationships affect expressions of family identities? Our project uses a case study of the early modern Nassau-Orange family, whose extensive and diverse sources include letters, art, architectural precincts, naming patterns, and even colonial endeavours. The word and colour o ....Gender, power and identity in the early modern Nassau family. Our family identities shape our experiences of relationships, support structures, and interactions in broader communities around us but how do gender and power relationships affect expressions of family identities? Our project uses a case study of the early modern Nassau-Orange family, whose extensive and diverse sources include letters, art, architectural precincts, naming patterns, and even colonial endeavours. The word and colour orange today symbolise Protestantism and the Dutch worldwide as a result of this pivotal family's self-presentation in the early modern period. We will produce monographs, PhD thesis, and research training in an international humanities team led by Australian researchers. Read moreRead less
ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. Emotions change over time; yet the long-term causes and consequences of changing emotional experiences and expressions remain largely unknown. This Centre will revolutionize research in the Humanities and Creative Arts by initiating innovative research collaborations across many disciplines to account for long-term changes and continuities in emotional regimes in Europe 1100-1800. For the first time we will fully analyse the social, cultural ....ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. Emotions change over time; yet the long-term causes and consequences of changing emotional experiences and expressions remain largely unknown. This Centre will revolutionize research in the Humanities and Creative Arts by initiating innovative research collaborations across many disciplines to account for long-term changes and continuities in emotional regimes in Europe 1100-1800. For the first time we will fully analyse the social, cultural and political effects of mass emotional events. Links with cultural industry partners in art, drama and music will enable reflective performance research on communication of emotions, and illuminate the Western cultural foundations of emotions in modern Australia.Read moreRead less
Voicing the Welfare State: Experiences of the Sixteenth-Century French Poor. This research enhances our historical understanding of poverty and its support mechanisms in Europe's past, through reconstruction of a comprehensive and detailed picture of the sixteenth-century French poor. New methodologies and techniques for recovery of formal and informal social networks will be developed. Historical models of such mechanisms provide context of the long history of Australia's welfare structure mode ....Voicing the Welfare State: Experiences of the Sixteenth-Century French Poor. This research enhances our historical understanding of poverty and its support mechanisms in Europe's past, through reconstruction of a comprehensive and detailed picture of the sixteenth-century French poor. New methodologies and techniques for recovery of formal and informal social networks will be developed. Historical models of such mechanisms provide context of the long history of Australia's welfare structure models, philosophy and participation strategies. The programme provides expert research training for early career researchers, in a collaborative Humanities team environment. Australian historians can thus continue to generate globally competitive and significant research.Read moreRead less
Medieval Irish law texts: scholarly, legal and social development. This interdisciplinary project focuses on a vast collection of Irish law texts. Those texts reflect developments in the Gaelic culture of Ireland over the entire medieval period. This project will bring a clearer understanding of the development of Celtic culture, which has been a strong factor in the creation of an Australian cultural identity.
A new history of Fascist Italy 1915-1945. I shall write a book, commissioned by Penguin in English and Mondadori in Italian, on the social history of the Fascist dictatorship. Utilising accumulated research and new material which shall be worked through from the archives in Rome, I shall show how ordinary Italians lived under a tyranny which purported to be totalitarian. Actually much long-term history survived in Mussolini's regime. The family, patron-client networks, localism, a special sor ....A new history of Fascist Italy 1915-1945. I shall write a book, commissioned by Penguin in English and Mondadori in Italian, on the social history of the Fascist dictatorship. Utilising accumulated research and new material which shall be worked through from the archives in Rome, I shall show how ordinary Italians lived under a tyranny which purported to be totalitarian. Actually much long-term history survived in Mussolini's regime. The family, patron-client networks, localism, a special sort of Catholicism, all conditioned life. Building on the international success of my ARC-funded biography of Mussolini, I shall again display the nuance and ambiguous humanity of Italian history.Read moreRead less