Forum Podcast SHAPS @ Melbourne

Dr. Matthew Champion, appointed to a Senior Lectureship in History in 2022, is a historian of medieval and early modern Europe, with a particular focus on the experience of time and temporality during periods of intense change. In this interview for the SHAPS Forum podcast, Dr Henry Reese talks with Matthew about his research, including his latest project, The Sounds of Time.

This podcast was produced by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which our University operates - lands of the Kulin peoples, which includes the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung Wathaurong, Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung peoples, as well as the Yorta Yorta nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty to these lands was never ceded.

Henry Reese speaks with Dr Roslynne Bell, a classicist and art historian, about the methods used by Emperor Augustus to control his public image in Ancient Rome.

This episode marks the first instalment in the 2021 theme of ‘Control’. Each year, SHAPS adopts a special theme, which we explore from the perspectives of scholars working within different disciplines within the School and beyond. In 2020, we explored the theme of ‘Disaster & Change’ from a number of different angles. In our last episode, Professor Mike Arnold helped us wrap up this series by thinking about the past, present and future of death, mourning and the disposal of the dead. In 2021, our focus will be on the topic of Control in all its facets.

The notion of control is something that has been turning up increasingly often in all kinds of different contexts in recent years. From the Brexit campaign with its call to ‘take back control’ to cultural fashions like the Marie Kondo phenomenon, through to criminological and sociological theories on self-control and socialisation, or political discourses around borders and immigration – everywhere we look, we find evidence of an intense preoccupation with ‘control’. A desire for and a drive to control can be identified as a factor common to some of the most important processes underway in the world today.

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised a number of issues around control with new urgency, highlighting tensions between personal liberty and control of public health, for example. In 2021, we will look at the new forms of control that are arising in the 21st century, from Shoshana Zuboff’s concept of ‘surveillance capitalism’, to ‘mindfulness’, which Ronald E. Purser has critiqued as a technique for social control and self-pacification. We’ll be listening to philosophers on the subject of government welfare and the drive to control the unemployed; we’ll be listening to historians on how ideas about control have been applied in the spheres of medicine and psychiatry. We’ll be tracing the long history of ideas, regimes and practices related to control.

So what better place to start than by looking right back to the ancient world and exploring an iconic historical figure and his quest to control his public image. And we have an exceptionally well qualified guide to introduce us to this topic: Dr Roz Bell, welcome to the podcast.

Disaster & Change is a podcast produced by SHAPS, the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

This podcast was produced by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which our University operates – lands of the Kulin peoples, which includes the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung Wathaurong, Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung peoples, as well as the Yorta Yorta nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty to these lands was never ceded.

The final episode of our 'Disaster & Change' series tackles a topic that has pervaded every other discussion: death. Dr. Henry Reese speaks with Mike Arnold, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science in SHAPS, the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. Prof. Arnold is part of the DeathTech research group, and their conversation touches on the history, present and future of the death industry. 

This podcast was produced by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which our University operates – lands of the Kulin peoples, which includes the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung, Wathaurong, Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung peoples, as well as the Yorta Yorta nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty to these lands was never ceded.

Content warning: this episode contains discussions of sexual violence and genocide.

Dr Henry Reese speaks with Dr Annabelle Baldwin, the newly appointed Lecturer in Gender History in SHAPS, the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. Their conversation touches on the new Gender Pathway in the History programme at the University, as well as Dr. Baldwin's extensive experience researching gendered violence and the Holocaust. 

This podcast was produced by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which our University operates – lands of the Kulin peoples, which includes the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung, Wathaurong, Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung peoples, as well as the Yorta Yorta nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty to these lands was never ceded.

Isabel Hollingdale is an undergraduate student in History at SHAPS. She recently produced a song as part of the third year capstone course 'Making History.' Henry Reese spoke to Isabel about her motivations, creative process, and the relationship between imagination and history research. The episode contains Isabel's song, 'The Western Prince,' in full.

This podcast was produced by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which our University operates – lands of the Kulin peoples, which includes the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung, Wathaurong, Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung peoples, as well as the Yorta Yorta nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty to these lands was never ceded.

Dr Henry Reese had the opportunity to talk to Dr Julia Hurst, newly appointed lecturer in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History at the University of Melbourne.

Dr Hurst’s appointment reflects the strong desire in the History program to offer students the opportunity to study subjects in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history taught by an Indigenous historian, to diversify the approaches and methodologies taught and used by historians in the History program and to better reflect the history of our region. Dr Hurst will commence teaching indigenous history next year in the existing subject Global Histories of Indigenous Activism and the new subject Introduction to Indigenous History.

This podcast was produced by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which our University operates – lands of the Kulin peoples, which includes the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung, Wathaurong, Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung peoples, as well as the Yorta Yorta nation. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty to these lands was never ceded.