Karen Downing

Thinking of applying for the Allan Martin Award, Kay Daniels Award, Serle Award, or the Hancock Prize? EOIs close next Tuesday, so make sure you reach out in time! Find all the information here: theaha.org.au/awards-and-p...

Issue 22(3) of History Australia is out now! www.tandfonline.com/toc/raha20/c... #openaccess

Please share widely!

"These are just highly talented and idealistic young people... These are the kind of people the country needs, now and in the future."

Shoes of ANU

ANU cuts are impacting an innumerable amount of people. Here are just some of their stories. www.shoesofanu.com

The Wild Australia Show <p>The Wild Australia Show was a troupe of 27 Aboriginal performers recruited from northern Queensland in the 1890s for a world tour that would culminate at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago...

The Wild Australia Show, now out as a free download! Congratulations to the authors! doi.org/10.22459/WAS... doi.org/10.22459/WAS...

James Watson’s new article in 22(2) is available open access
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#historyaustralia

The world is going troppo: and things in universities are not looking up. This week I went to a *really* good conference with the theme 'Looking Up'. But I was alarmed at the experience of those currently working in universities, many of whom are not able to look up rn.

With a million thanks to @stplbrk.bsky.social for the best collegiality ever, I had two incredible days but a bazillion heartbreaking conversations in North Queensland hannahforsyth.substack.com/p/the-world-...

Message from the Vice-Chancellor [republished] In Australia, massive cuts to staff are underway at Macquarie, Western Sydney, University of Wollongong, University of Technology Sydney and the Australian National University.

Re-posting this message in solidarity with university staff facing job cuts. You, our students and our society and economy deserve better than what university “leadership” is giving.

hannahforsyth.substack.com/p/message-fr...

HDRs and ECRs! Coming to Townsville for the 2025 AHA Conference? Clear your Monday afternoon: explore the city and make friends with the inaugural AHA scavenger hunt! Register at the link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Thank you for sharing this, Jayne. It’s haunting.

#openaccess from the Editors: Laura Rademaker, Yves Rees and Alecia Simmonds share the focus of the new issue 22(2) of History Australia www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

"i asked grok" "i asked chagpt" yeah well I asked a rare books librarian and they found things I didn’t even know I was looking for, while answering questions about provenance

Haven't registered for the 2025 AHA Conference ?? Get moving, today's the last day you can! Follow the link to secure your place and join us in sunny (and warm) Townsville! www.eventbrite.com.au/e/looking-up...

Screenshot of journal article: "Patriarchal Dividends and the Creation of Political Elites in Colonial New South Wales". Author: Karen Downing, ANU. Abstract: Across the 19th-century industrialising world, expectations of access to power became based on expertise and economic role rather than birth. In the early White settler Australian colonies—where no non-Indigenous hereditary aristocracy or political institutions existed—the men who pursued status and influence and designed the political institutions of self-government justified their ambitions on the basis of their “independence”, a long-held marker of masculinity. In this article, I consider the gendered rhetoric of debates about the meaning of independence in colonial New South Wales through the lens of Raewyn Connell’s concept of the “patriarchal dividend” to argue that elites are a reconfiguration of patriarchal power in capitalist democracies. Because the criteria for rights to vote and stand for election were debated in terms of the character and conduct of men rather than their family lineage, political power accommodated more men but continued to make winners of particular men and losers of other men, as well as women.

First up in 49.2, ‪@drink-an-ocean.bsky.social‬ applies Connell's idea of "patriarchal dividends" colonial NSW to show how elites are a reconfiguration of patriarchal power in capitalist democracies.

#OzStudies #masculinity #SettlerColonialism #auspol

tinyurl.com/2a2ehw7k

Thinking anew about the possible application of Raewyn Connell's work on masculinities to the history of the nineteenth century. Congratulations, Karen @drink-an-ocean.bsky.social

Congratulations to @chriswallace.bsky.social & @sybiln.bsky.social for pulling together this terrific collection of articles. I'm very pleased to be part of it and grateful for the opportunity to consider lines of enquiry that I might not have thought through without the focus of this special issue.

Here at the Australia Institute, we're working toward a fairer, better Australia

But we can't do it without your help!

If you like what we do, please support our end of financial year appeal! ❤️
👉 theaus.in/greg_eofy_rally

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#auspol @grogsgamut.bsky.social

I'm one of 12,000 or so people who have signed this petition, but @australiainstitute.org.au needs to deliver as many signatures as possible to show just how many of us reject new gas and coal projects. Please sign!

In 1974 I had responsibility for design of the Whitlam policy on child care building on the 1972 Child Care ACT. 1976- 1982 I ran the Liberal government child care program. Commonwealth funding of child care was exclusivel to local government & not for profits. No scandals

The world needs more of this and less of most other things

‘Workin’ 9 to 9, 24/7’: political humour about Australian politicians and ministerial staffers during the Rudd-Gillard era In the decade before Kate Jenkins’ landmark Set the Standard report into parliamentary workplaces, small screen political humour in Australia challenged the sustainability of industriousness in gov...

An insightful & sharp new article from Ana Stevenson

‘The Rudd-Gillard era’s political humour not only indicated the perverse limits of industriousness in the twenty-first century but also foretold the future’

doi.org/10.1080/1449...

Elective spending at Australian universities - The Australia Institute Universities spend vast sums on consultants, advertising, and travel. Reducing these expenses could have prevented the deep cuts that some of these same universities have made to their staff and cours...

ESSENTIAL reading for anyone involved in Oz unis. *Especially voting parents* ACU, ANU and UOW case studies. Appalling stats but they are ‘typical not extraordinary’: go get em @joshuablackjb.bsky.social @australiainstitute.org.au australiainstitute.org.au/report/elect...

Perfect index for a book titled Burn Book (by Kara Swisher) 👏

‘Productivity consciousness’: constructing and contesting the neoliberal work ethic in the Australian context Under the pressure of economic recession, and with the threat of long-term unemployment, Australia experienced a short-lived productivity upswing in the mid-1990s. More enduring, perhaps, was the e...

“The ‘productivity success story’ may be just a story indeed, but stories are powerful, maybe even dangerous”

An insightful new article from @joshuablackjb.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1080/1449...

How the discourse on boys’ alienation is fuelled by anti-feminist agendas The idea that boys are turning to the manosphere because masculinity is under attack is misleading and a strategic, ideological narrative.

The idea that boys are turning to the manosphere because masculinity is under attack is misleading and a strategic, ideological narrative.

Looking forward to getting your applications!

Nuclear Australia: an on-again, off-again history • Jessica Urwin Is Peter Dutton’s energy plan going the way of a succession of nuclear pushes?

Historian Jessica Irwin gets to the heart of the matter: "Understanding the history of nuclear power in Australia thus raises the question: if not then, why now?"

The Australian Historical Association's statement of solidarity with colleagues in the US. Thank you @michellearrow.bsky.social, @kfullagar.bsky.social and all the other members of the AHA Committee for articulating what we are all feeling.

The AHA expresses its disappointment that recent policy changes at the National Library of Australia have introduced increased restrictions to Trove. It urges the NLA to reverse these policy changes and restore Trove's status as a hallmark of digital accessibility.