Newsletter – 1 June 2026

Welcome to our fortnightly newsletter. If you have things you’d like to share with the CCH community, please email Scott over the coming fortnight. We will also share news and updates on LinkedIn. Please tag us in the news you post on LinkedIn so we can share it!

News from Members and Associates

David Lowe and David Hundt recently hosted a very successful seminar at Deakin Downtown. Attended by 40 participants, including CCH members Bart Ziino, Andrea Witcomb, Andrew Singleton, Danielle Chubb, and Joan Beaumont, ‘Australia, Korea, and the Korean War’ explored how and why the Korean War is remembered so differently in Australia and the Republic of Korea. Congratulations to all involved!

David Lowe and David Hundt have also published an online exhibit, ‘What memories are made of: How do Koreans and Australians remember the Korean War?‘ The exhibit illustrates how these memories have evolved across multiple generations, and also how they can be creatively repurposed as an asset for the future of the bilateral relationship between the two countries. Great work, folks!

Carolyn Holbrook has had some (more) success with the ARC, this time securing a linkage grant – led by the University of Melbourne – for work on the history of cancer and its control in Australia, 1925–2025. The project will allow us to better understand cancer as a lived experience, uncover social inequities, interrogate cultural representations, analyse policy and power, and understand advocacy and education. It aims to explore the national response to cancer as a population health and individual challenge by working with industry to examine the history of the national effort across science and medicine; surveillance, screening and education; policy and law; advocacy and education; and as manifested in Australian cultural life. The results should significantly inform improved future practice and health outcomes. Carolyn adds: “I will be working with Cancer Councils around Australia, the Union for International Cancer Control and other public organisations to draw attention to the methods by which corporate predators resist government regulation and seek to build and maintain the ‘social licence’ that allows them to peddle their harmful products to the public. I will also work with colleagues to expand the Deakin-funded Australian Health & History digital archive.” Fantastic!

Mia Martin Hobbs has been named Director of the Australian Policy and History Network, and Geraldine Fela the new Deputy Director. This signals a new chapter for the APH, which will include new initiatives to lead public conversations about the history of ongoing crises, understand how the past is being used and abused in the present moment, and foster dialogue between historians, activists, policymakers, and the public. There’s a new website, and all! Congratulations, and good luck, Mia and Geraldine!

Deborah Lee-Talbot has published a new article – ‘Surveys, Maps, and Local Intermediaries in the Colonial Knowing of British New Guinea, 1884–1901‘ – in the Journal of Pacific History. The article focusses on materials compiled about selected areas along the southeast coastline and in parts of the western interior of British New Guinea from 1884 to 1901, and considers moments of encounter with places or inhabitants and charts traces of Indigenous presence in maps or related texts. Deb argues that colonial explorers, with limited linguistic knowledge, relied on Pacific Islander and Papuan intermediaries to forge and document mutually productive local connections. The result is a layered series of sketch maps and topographic drawings representing the slow accrual of colonial knowledge about landscapes and social groups. Great work, Deb – sounds terrific!

Sarah Pinto has published an essay in Life Writing about her experience of reading through grief, after the loss of her friend (and our former School of Education colleague) Julie Rowlands in 2021. An important reflection, I’m sure CCH members will agree.

David Lowe will be on recreation and long-service leave from 30 May through to mid-September. Cassandra Atherton will remain Director of CCH up until 8 July, after which she transitions to her new role as Associate Dean, Research for the Faculty (and, on that note, congratulations, Cass!). We will advise who will hold CCH reins after 8 July. Enjoy your leave, David!

Seminar Series

Thank you to all who attended our end-of-trimester seminar at Deakin Downtown, where we had the pleasure of hearing exceptionally strong presentations from doctoral candidates Kate Davis, Catherine Stuart, and Tonia Sellers!

We will be back for our first seminar after the break, on 8 July, and a more fleshed out schedule will be included in the next newsletter. Said schedule is about full up for Trimester 2, but if you would like to present to the group please do get in touch with Scott. Space could free up, or we could look further ahead, to 2027.

CCH Support for Research Projects

Events

History Council of Victoria Book + Author Seminar – Jessica Urwin’s Contaminated Country

Date: 25 June 2026
Time: 6–7pm
Location: Bard’s Apothecary, Melbourne CBD

During the twentieth century Australia was embroiled in the military and civilian nuclear programs of numerous global powers. From uranium extraction to weapons testing, Australia’s lands became sites of imperial exploitation under the guise of national development and was subject to rampant nuclear colonialism. Aboriginal communities, bearing the brunt of these processes, persistently resisted, reclaiming their rights to Country and demanding reparations.

As Jessica Urwin shows, extraction, testing and waste disposal have caused incalculable physical, spiritual, and cultural harm to Aboriginal communities and lands. Tracking the colonial mechanisms Australia used to pursue nuclear industry, Urwin simultaneously highlights how Aboriginal peoples rejected and reshaped those same mechanisms. Contaminated Country reveals how Australia’s nuclear past has been entangled with colonialism locally, nationally, and internationally.

Find out more, and get your tickets, here!

CCH Shut Up and Write

Every Monday, 9am-12pm, on Zoom. 

Start the week strong with a Shut Up and Write! We run 3 x 50 minute blocks of writing/focus, with breaks in between to chat and grab coffee. All CCH colleagues welcome, especially ECRs, HDRs, and those who work remotely. Feel free to join at any time.

The zoom link is here (Meeting ID: 879 3895 9029, Password: 97747034). If you would like a recurring invite in your calendar, or you have any trouble joining, email Mia at mia.martinhobbs@deakin.edu.au

Calls for Papers

SHAFR in the Asia Pacific network

The Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations has established a network for historians in the Asia Pacific. The network will run small workshops with SHAFR scholars to develop works-in-progress, online seminars, and provide networking opportunities.

If your research explores any aspect of American foreign policy and you are interested in joining, visit the SHAFR website for further information. Or, reach out to our own Mia Martin Hobbs with questions!

Publish in the Australian Policy and History Network

This is an open invitation for CCH members to contribute opinion pieces, policy briefs, and book reviews for publication inAustralian Policy and History. Drafts will be workshopped with APH editors, so if you have an idea but are unsure if it fits, please do get in touch!

Email australianpolicyandhistory@gmail.com with pitches, book requests, or questions.

Call for applications – Journal of Pacific History Publication Incentive Grants

The Journal of Pacific History Inc. invites qualified persons to apply for a Publication Incentive grant. These competitive grants are offered to help support early career Pacific historians to prepare manuscripts for submission to the Journal of Pacific History for peer review. See here for the journal’s aims and scope, journal information, and instructions for authors. Applicants must follow the instructions scrupulously in preparing their manuscript.

Prospective applicants should note that the journal is ‘dedicated to historical research concerning the Pacific Islands, their peoples, and their pasts. Its core geographical focus includes all of New Guinea and adjacent islands. Its chronological remit is broad: from prehistory to the present. It publishes articles in social, cultural, religious, political, economic, geographical, and environmental history and the history of science’. Where difficult choices have to be made in the selection process, historical projects with such a focus are likely to be preferred.

Qualifications:
Anyone who has completed a PhD or thesis-based MA relevant to Pacific history, or who is currently enrolled for a doctorate in a relevant field, can apply for a grant of AU$3,000 to prepare a manuscript for submission to peer review by the Journal of Pacific History. In the case of co-authored proposals, all cited authors must meet these guidelines. For multiple authors, the total grant will be AU$4,000, divided equally.

Successful applicants will receive their grants in three tranches:

• AU$500 upfront;
• AU$1,000 if and when the Journal’s Editors decide to send a submitted manuscript for peer review. Manuscripts must be submitted through the Journal of Pacific History Taylor & Francis web portal before 15 December 2027. It will be the Editors’ decision whether to send them directly for peer review; to request revisions before they are sent for peer review; or to reject them. In the latter case, no further grant payments will be made.
• AU$1,500 when an accepted final article is sent for production by the publishers ofthe Journal of Pacific History.

Application process:
Candidates should submit a recent CV, letters of support from two referees, and a proposal of up to 1,000 words by 30 September 2026 to the Secretary of JPH Inc (bronwen.douglas@anu.edu.au). It is not acceptable to use generative AI tools to prepare a proposal.

Article proposals should include the following:
Title and 200-word abstract
Outline: rationale of the topic and a brief historiography demonstrating the candidate’s familiarity with relevant historical literature, including primary materials
Timeline: to submission via the JPH online portal before 15 December 2027.

Applications will be assessed by the Prizes & Grants sub-committee of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pacific History. A mentor will be appointed to assist successful applicants, who are strongly encouraged to take regular advantage of their mentor.

Helen Gardner
Chair, Prizes and Grants sub-committee, JPH Inc.

Australian and New Zealand Legal History Society Seminar Series

The Australian and New Zealand Legal History Society are organising four seminar series that will be held from March to October 2026. These sessions will bring together a diverse group of scholars and members of the public to workshop a pre-circulated paper. Our definition of law is expansive and pluralistic; we encourage papers that focus on legal culture and laws beyond western courts as well as more traditional legal history. After brief remarks from the author and an assigned commentator, the discussion will be opened to the floor. All are encouraged to ask questions, provide feedback on the circulated essay, and discuss the topic at hand. Sessions are free and open to everyone.

If you would like to present a paper in either mid-March, mid-May, mid-August, or mid-October, please send an abstract and a list of possible commentators (they do not need to be from Australia or New Zealand).

Submissions due to alecia.simmonds@uts.edu.au

Opportunities

Applications Open: The 2026 Deakin Library Margaret Cameron Residency

Drawing on the trove of rare and unique materials held in Deakin University Archives and Deakin Library’s Special Collections, the Margaret Cameron Residency aims to share the rich stories captured within these collections, which document over a century of history, research and collecting at Deakin, along with its predecessor institutions and the regions in which the University has operated. The $10,000 grant is open to current Deakin research students at honours or postgraduate level and Deakin staff.

Learn more about the residency, and hear from last year’s inaugural resident, our own Anna Kent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0kYYMFe6CE.

Applications for the 2026 Deakin Library Margaret Cameron Residency are open until Monday 22 June: Apply here!

State Library of NSW Fellowships

Applications are now open for a suite of fellowships at the State Library of NSW, designed to support the study, writing, and teaching of Australian history and culture:

• Imago Fellowship: $50,000 for creative writing, fiction, or non-fiction across any genre, utilising the SLNSW collections

• Dr AM Hertzberg AO Fellowship: $30,000 for research into any aspect of the social, cultural, and political history of industry and manufacturing in Australia, from colonisation to today

• Nancy Keesing AM Fellowship: $25,000 for research into aspects of Australian life and culture, using the SLNSW resources

• Ian Stapleton Fellowship: $25,000 for research into any aspect of architecture and the built environment in Australia, from colonisation to today, drawing on the SLNSW resources

• Australian Religious History Fellowship: $20,000 for the study and research of any aspects of Australian religious history of any faith

• CH Currey Memorial Fellowship: $20,000 for writing Australian history, making use of the SLNSW original sources

• Merewether Fellowship: $12,000 for the research and writing of nineteenth-century NSW history, using the resources of the Mitchell Library

• David Scott Mitchell Memorial Fellowship: $12,000 for the research and writing of Australian history, using the resources of the Mitchell Library

• Ross Steele AM Fellowship: $12,000 for research into the SLNSW pictorial collections

Applications due 10 July 2026. Find out more!

PhD Scholarship, Race, Gender, and Violence in Western Militaries in the War on Terror

Dr Mia Martin Hobbs seeks a PhD candidate for her DECRA project ‘Race, Gender, and Violence in Western militaries in the War on Terror’. In the wake of 9/11, Western militaries agreed that force alone would not defeat global terrorism. The US, UK, and Australian militaries set forth new doctrine outlining the need to build trust with local populations, and a core element of this doctrine was the diversity of their armed forces. Leaders were explicit about the necessity of diversity among the ranks, while rhetorical justifications for the War on Terror framed it as defending values of pluralism and equality. Military recruitment materials heavily promoted diversity, tying the individual empowerment of the soldier to the ‘liberating’ mission of the War on Terror. Yet the War on Terror was characterised by the weaponisation of race and gender by Western militaries, and the soldiers who diversified Western forces faced widespread sexual violence and racism within military institutions.

The PhD candidate will conduct their own research on perceptions of gender and race in the wider ADF in the 21st century, or on a related issue, and coauthor comparative research with Mia.

For further information, please contact mia.martinhobbs@deakin.edu.au

Cover Photo

Cherry Parker, the first Japanese war bride to come to Australia, arrives in 1952.