… in support of Adam Goodes by the Committee of PHA NSW & ACT Just a few days ago, members of the Professional Historians Association of NSW & ACT (PHA NSW & ACT) were warmly and generously welcomed to country by Sydney Indigenous woman Donna Ingram before we began our annual mid-winter awards and … Read more
The Public History Prize was established in 2008 to encourage students enrolled in undergraduate history courses to research, write and present accessible and engaging histories, and to consider a career as a professional historian operating in the public history field. The 2014 Public History Prize was awarded to Nathan Fallon (centre), for his essay: … Read more
Ian Hoskins reports on History in July… I suspect the dining room of 133 Macquarie Street, ‘History House’, saw rather more oysters than pearls during its years as the premises of the Reform Club hosting the colony’s Alpha Males (politicians, pastoralists and the occasional vice-regal type) – at least before the Club and probably … Read more
Professional historians who gathered at the annual History in July occasion in Sydney must have been heartened by the thoughtful words uttered in the second Peter Tyler Oration. Alan Atkinson, Emeritus Professor and literary prize winner, traced the origins – and rise and rise – of public history. He did so with rigour and … Read more
Ian Willis reports on the conference… The annual Australian Historical Association (AHA) conference has wound up for another year. This year it was held at the University of Sydney, with over 400 delegates attending from Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK, and South Africa. The classic architecture around the Quadrangle guided the sensibilities of delegates … Read more
Mark Dunn explains… For some time now, Laila Ellmoos and I have been talking up Sydney’s history on the radio. In fact we started doing this in June 2008 on Fbi 94.5 fm. It will be seven years this week since we first went on air, taking over the segment Scratching Sydney’s Surface when … Read more
…from a distant historian, Caroline Adams MPHA South Australia As an opening comment I just want to make it clear that I think that no-one has a monopoly on writing history, nor is it owned by any particular group. I do think trained historians are in a better position, be they inside or outside of … Read more
In this profile, the PHA NSW & ACT membership officer, Judith Godden (PhD Macq, BA(Hons) UNE, MPH (a.e.g.) USyd, Dip Ed. UNE, FACN(hon), MPHA) talks about her forays into medical history. What is your current position/area of historical interest: I’m into pain at the moment! I specialise in the history of medicine and my commissioned history, … Read more
One of my day jobs is teaching plain English to public servants. I encourage them to embrace accuracy, brevity and clarity and therefore to abandon tautologies. I’ve given up suggesting that you can’t have a new initiative and that, if you have to voice an opinion in government writing, it does not have to be personal. … Read more
Our Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, is taking history books to read at the beach. One is Michael Pembroke’s biography of NSW governor Arthur Phillip. Pembroke’s book was on the shortlist in the history category of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. It did not win the $80,000 prize, which was shared by Joan Beaumont for Broken … Read more