Autumn/Winter 2009 Seminar Series

Thursday 19 March 2009

Recording Everyday Life and 'Writing for History': Mass Observation in Britain and Australia

How have pioneering approaches to recording everyday lives generated innovative and influential public histories? Dorothy Sheridan (Mass Observation Archive Development Director & Honorary Professor at Sussex University) will discuss the British Mass Observation project www.massobs.org.uk/index.htm and consider issues it raises in the digital age. Kate Darian-Smith (Professor of Australian Studies & History, University of Melbourne) will respond, reflecting on Australian equivalents to MO.

Thursday 30 April 2009

Remembering Australia's Great War

How and why is the history and memory of the Australian experience of the Great War changing? A panel of expert authors will explore continuity and change in the ways we represent and remember the war that created an Anzac legend. Chaired by Alistair Thomson (Anzac Memories, OUP, 1994); with Marina Larsson (Shattered Anzacs: Living with the Scars of War, UNSW Press, 2009); Bart Ziino (A Distant Grief: Australians, War Graves and the Great War, UWA Press 2007) and Ross McMullin (biographer of Pompey Elliot, 2002, and Will Dyson: Australia's radical genius 2006, both published by Scribe).

Thursday 4 June 2009

Water Histories – Lessons for Australia in a Changing Climate

What can we learn from Australian history that might help us deal with our water crisis and climate change today? Michael Cathcart (Australia Centre at the University of Melbourne) will draw lessons from his new book, Water Dreamers: How Water and Silence Made Australia (Text, 2009). Paul Sinclair (Healthy Ecosystems Program Manager at the Australian Conservation Foundation) will draw lessons from his current work and previous research on the Murray River and its people.

For bookings see www.eventbrite.com/event/282439785

Thursday 23 July 2009

Making Migrant Histories

What are the approaches and issues in making migrant community histories? Over the past ten years, the Community Gallery at Victoria's Immigration Museum has worked with over 54 groups to record, create and display their community's migration history, whether they came to Victoria 5 years or 150 years ago. Padmini Sebastian (Manager, Immigration Museum) will talk about approaches adopted and issues encountered when working with diverse communities to develop and present their exhibitions; public historian Peg Fraser will discuss some of the challenges she encountered when working with community members to shape stories for exhibition; and representatives of community groups who have presented exhibitions in the Community Gallery (including Patricia Kimtia from the Mauritian community) will reflect on the value and challenges of their experience working with the Museum.

For bookings see www.eventbrite.com/event/282440788

Wednesday 26 August

In Conversation with … Alessandro Portelli

Alessandro Portelli is one of the most influential and exciting oral historians in the world. His prize-winning books on oral history and popular memory include The Order Has Already Been Carried Out: History, Memory and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and The Death of Luigi Trastulli: Form and Meaning in Oral History (State University of New York Press, 1991).

From 2002 to 2008 he served as historical advisor to the mayor of Rome, and he is currently co-manager of Rome's House of History and Memory and Professor of American literature at the University of Rome 'La Sapienza'. Sandro Portelli will discuss his life and work as an oral historian 'in conversation' with leading Australian oral historians Paula Hamilton (University of Technology Sydney, co-author of Oral History and Public Memories, 2008) and Alistair Thomson (Monash University, author of Anzac Memories, 1994 and co-editor of The Oral History Reader, 2006).

For bookings see www.eventbrite.com/event/292353437 and Download flyer [pdf 85kb]

Alessandro Portelli is in Melbourne for the conference 'The Talk About Town: Urban History and Oral Sources'.