Inner Eurasia: A World History of Eurasia's Heartlands. Inner Eurasia has played a distinctive and significant role in world history, particularly in the twentieth century when it was the heartland of world communism. Australia's history has been shaped profoundly by the political, military, cultural and commercial impact of the region's great empires. This project will expand Australian understanding of the region, and raise Australia's international visibility and competitiveness in both Inner ....Inner Eurasia: A World History of Eurasia's Heartlands. Inner Eurasia has played a distinctive and significant role in world history, particularly in the twentieth century when it was the heartland of world communism. Australia's history has been shaped profoundly by the political, military, cultural and commercial impact of the region's great empires. This project will expand Australian understanding of the region, and raise Australia's international visibility and competitiveness in both Inner Eurasian and World history. It will attract undergraduate and graduate students and international scholars. Its world history approach will augment Macquarie's significant contributions to the Australian National History Curriculum.Read moreRead less
Genocide: Critical History of an Idea. Australians have been accused of genocide against Indigenous peoples. Australian troops are sent abroad to participate in humanitarian interventions based on the occurrence of genocide. Yet its meaning is bitterly contested. By explaining the origins of the genocide concept, how and why it has changed since its codification after World War II, as well as how it is used today, I will clarify knowledge of genocide's meanings in international law, politics and ....Genocide: Critical History of an Idea. Australians have been accused of genocide against Indigenous peoples. Australian troops are sent abroad to participate in humanitarian interventions based on the occurrence of genocide. Yet its meaning is bitterly contested. By explaining the origins of the genocide concept, how and why it has changed since its codification after World War II, as well as how it is used today, I will clarify knowledge of genocide's meanings in international law, politics and diplomacy. Australia's status and role in the international community is based in part on its stance against genocide. It is imperative, therefore, that its meanings are accurately understood.Read moreRead less
Medicine and Culture: Bioethics in Historical Perspective, 1850 to the present. Australia has long been looked to as an example for legislative and community responses to new medical technologies and as a leader in debates about medical ethics. The project will contribute to the international profile of Australia as a leader in health policy issues, as well as sustaining a focus on informed community debate.
Xenologies: Discourses on aliens, foreigners and other races in transnational historical contexts. This project will identify and describe some of the ways in which Western societies have classified and characterised other societies. It will retrace the historical contexts under which such classifications have emerged and developed. A major example is the concept of race, which dates from the late-eighteenth century and developed in close association with the historical expansion of European ....Xenologies: Discourses on aliens, foreigners and other races in transnational historical contexts. This project will identify and describe some of the ways in which Western societies have classified and characterised other societies. It will retrace the historical contexts under which such classifications have emerged and developed. A major example is the concept of race, which dates from the late-eighteenth century and developed in close association with the historical expansion of European colonialism. The concept of race will be situated in the context of other Western discourses on aliens, foreigners, strangers and the like, a comparative procedure that will enhance scholarly understandings of the phenomena of race, racism and xenophobia.Read moreRead less
Completing the Gallipoli story: Researching Turkish Archives for a More Comprehensive History. Both Australia and Turkey see the Gallipoli Campaign as a defining event. Australian perceptions of the Campaign are based on C.E.W. Bean's Official History and a number of popular publications. Yet, despite the vast collection of material held in Turkish archives, existing accounts give scant attention to Turkish operations leaving the story incomplete. This project will rectify that imbalance by loca ....Completing the Gallipoli story: Researching Turkish Archives for a More Comprehensive History. Both Australia and Turkey see the Gallipoli Campaign as a defining event. Australian perceptions of the Campaign are based on C.E.W. Bean's Official History and a number of popular publications. Yet, despite the vast collection of material held in Turkish archives, existing accounts give scant attention to Turkish operations leaving the story incomplete. This project will rectify that imbalance by locating and translating key documents-battlefield reports and signals, War Ministry communications, records of prisoner interrogations, aircraft logs and diaries. The result will be a comprehensive history that will contribute to the deepening relationship between Australia and Turkey as we approach the centenary of the Campaign. Read moreRead less
The Eureka! Myth: Discourses of Discovery and Invention in Modern Societies. The advances in understanding made through this project will assist in reinterpreting the value of different institutional forms of provision for scientific work, will illuminate the process of commercialisation of research, and will help in assessing many unspoken assumptions behind intellectual property and patent law.
Postgenomic perspectives on human nature. The rapid growth of biological knowledge and the need for societal reflection on this knowledge and its applications in Australia and overseas make it increasingly urgent that the humanities and social sciences draw on a biologically credible vision of human nature. We will study how non-scientists understand human nature and compare their ideas to those of scientists from a range of different disciplines. We will examine what current biology reveals abo ....Postgenomic perspectives on human nature. The rapid growth of biological knowledge and the need for societal reflection on this knowledge and its applications in Australia and overseas make it increasingly urgent that the humanities and social sciences draw on a biologically credible vision of human nature. We will study how non-scientists understand human nature and compare their ideas to those of scientists from a range of different disciplines. We will examine what current biology reveals about the biological basis of human characteristics and develop an account of human nature that is defensible in the light of that knowledge.Read moreRead less
Interdisciplinarity in the Sciences of Memory: cognition, culture, and complexity. Memory is studied in many disciplines, at a bewildering variety of levels. Is there any sense in which memory theorists - from neurobiologists to narrative psychologists - are studying the same phenomena? This project constructs a positive framework for understanding diverse research on memory in both cognitive and social sciences. We clarify the conceptual foundations of dynamical systems theory in the sciences o ....Interdisciplinarity in the Sciences of Memory: cognition, culture, and complexity. Memory is studied in many disciplines, at a bewildering variety of levels. Is there any sense in which memory theorists - from neurobiologists to narrative psychologists - are studying the same phenomena? This project constructs a positive framework for understanding diverse research on memory in both cognitive and social sciences. We clarify the conceptual foundations of dynamical systems theory in the sciences of memory. We develop methods for understanding complex interactions and collaborations between brain and environment; and we test naturalistic accounts of autobiographical memory, social memory, and external memory through case studies in cognitive psychology, history, and media theory.Read moreRead less
A Century of Drugs: Science, Medicine, and Industry in the Development of Pharmaceuticals. This project explores collaborations between life scientists, physicians, and industrialists in the discovery of six major new drugs, between the 1890s and 1990s. The aim is to develop a primary source-based history, and two books as well as other writings communicating findings, on the mutual influences between academic life science, medicine, and the drug industry that have flowed from such collaboration ....A Century of Drugs: Science, Medicine, and Industry in the Development of Pharmaceuticals. This project explores collaborations between life scientists, physicians, and industrialists in the discovery of six major new drugs, between the 1890s and 1990s. The aim is to develop a primary source-based history, and two books as well as other writings communicating findings, on the mutual influences between academic life science, medicine, and the drug industry that have flowed from such collaborations. This history will provide fundamental insights into the relationship between biological knowledge and medical practice, and the social and intellectual consequences of the pharmaceutical industry's involvement with both clinical research and biological science.Read moreRead less
Science, Knowledge and the Transmission of Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis has always wanted to be a science. From Sigmund Freud to Jacques Lacan, disputes in psychoanalysis have typically hinged on the question of whether the knowledge produced by psychoanalysis deserves the appellation scientific. If so, in what way? If not, why not? What sort of psychoanalytic institution would be adequate to psychoanalysis? scientific claims? This interdisciplinary project is a historical, critical and constr ....Science, Knowledge and the Transmission of Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis has always wanted to be a science. From Sigmund Freud to Jacques Lacan, disputes in psychoanalysis have typically hinged on the question of whether the knowledge produced by psychoanalysis deserves the appellation scientific. If so, in what way? If not, why not? What sort of psychoanalytic institution would be adequate to psychoanalysis? scientific claims? This interdisciplinary project is a historical, critical and constructive examination of psychoanalytic theory and practice, which re-examines key texts from the vantage point of the scientific question. Finally, the project will ask what psychoanalysis can contribute to the understanding of other scientific practices.Read moreRead less