“The articles in Humanities Australia have always, by their very nature, addressed topics of relevance to this country” said Academy Editor Emeritus Professor Graham Tulloch FAHA. “It so happens that a number of articles in this edition address issues that have been particularly prominent over the course of the year, either through considering contemporary events or through the lens of other places and times.”
The articles in this year’s edition cover a vast array of important topics, including explorations of how the authorities and the public handle restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia’s treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, and the destruction of the Indigenous heritage site of Juukan Gorge and police protection of the statue of James Cook in Hyde Park in the face of attacks.
In addition to articles by our Fellows, this edition also features edited versions of several our key lectures including the annual Academy Lecture, the Trendall Lecture and the Hancock lecture offering readers an accessible platform to engage with these addresses.
We hope that you enjoy reading the wonderful research and creative writing on display in this edition and that they can begin to convey the excitement we feel about research in the humanities and its potential to address important issues of the present both direly and through reflections on the past.
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Editor’s Introduction, by Graham Tulloch FAHA
Being Humane – A Contested History, The 50th Annual Academy Lecture, by Joy Damousi FASSA FAHA
Maya Waabiny: Mobilising Song Archives to Nourish and Endangered Language, The 9th Hancock Lecture, by Clint Bracknell
The Humanities in Service of Empire, by Dirk Baltzly FAHA
Multiple Modernities: An Art History of ‘The Asian Modern’, by John Clark FAHA
Legacies of East German Communism: Thoughts from Germany During the Covid-19 Pandemic, by Alison Lewis FAHA
The Clash of Ideologies, Classes and Personalities in Rome of the Second Century BCE, The 21st Trendall Lecture, J. Lea Beness and Tom Hillard
Monumental Discovery Narratives and Deep History, by Ann McGrath AM FASSA FAHA
Soldier Beauties and Sailor Sons in Republican China, by Louise Edwards FASSA FHKAH FAHA
About Sending Letters – an excerpt from Carpentaria, by Alexis Wright FAHA
