History Seminars

The History Council of Victoria runs a series of free seminars at the State Library to showcase new historical scholarship. The events are open to all interested members of the public.

The Making Public Histories Seminar Series is offered jointly by the Monash University Institute for Public History, the History Council of Victoria and the State Library of Victoria.

Time: 5.30-7pm
Venue: Village Roadshow Theatrette, Entry 3, Latrobe Street, Melbourne
Bookings: Phone 03 8664 7099, email bookings@slv.vic.gov.au or book online through What's On
Cost: Entry is free

In conversation with Alessandro Portelli

Wed 26 August
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 and The Death of Luigi Trastulli: Form and Meaning in Oral History. Alessandro will discuss his life and work as an oral historian in conversation with leading Australian oral historians Paula Hamilton (University of Technology Sydney) and Alistair Thomson (Monash University).

Making History Online

Thurs 8 October
How is history being made and contested online? Using a sample of websites and discussion forums, Megan Blair (lecturer in International Studies at Monash University) will explore the example of the current state of American Civil War history online, and how historians use the internet to engage with the past, and with each other. Megan Sheehy (a public historian with heritage production house SHP) will discuss the use of Web 2.0 technologies for public history.

Thurs 12 November
Mike O'Brien was a Major General in the Australian infantry who left full-time service in 2001 and has written a history of his battalion in Vietnam. He arranged the reburial of five World War I Australian soldiers found in Belgium in 2007, and more recently oversaw the exhumation, identification and reburial of the remains of several hundred Australian soldiers at Fromelles, France. He will outline the origins, process and outcomes of the Fromelles exhumation. Bruce Scates, Professor of History and Australian Studies and Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University, served on the committee that confirmed the existence of mass graves at Fromelles. He will reflect on the event's significance for Australian history.

For more information about History Council events visit the History Council of Victoria's website. Future seminar suggestions to alistair.thomson@arts.monash.edu.au or 03 9905 9785.