Making Public Histories seminar series

Making Public Histories is a seminar/webinar series offered jointly by the Monash University History Program, the History Council of Victoria and the Old Treasury Building. Each event aims to explore issues and approaches in making public histories. The seminars/webinars are open to anyone interested in the creation and impact of history in contemporary society.

2025 events

2025 will be the eighteenth year for the Making Public Histories series. The program will be delivered as webinars via Zoom.

NOW OPEN FOR BOOKINGS
Spies and Cold War Australia, Thursday 29 May

While the idea of Cold War-era spies often evokes cliched images of James Bond or John La Carré, the reality of spies and surveillance in Cold War Australia was far stranger and far more interesting than any spy novel. Historians working with restricted or highly redacted material have increasingly shed light on these real life spy stories, from installing bugs in apartment ceilings to rendezvous in cemeteries and draining a beer at the pub opposite the Soviet embassy. In this seminar, two of Australia’s foremost intelligence historians will discuss espionage and counter-espionage in Australia during the Cold War, share some of the fascinating stories they’ve encountered in their research, and reflect on the unique challenges of creating history based on intelligence records.

Dr Ebony Nilsson is a lecturer in History at the Australian Catholic University. She is a social historian whose work specialises in migrant communities’ experiences of politics and surveillance during the Cold War. Her first book, Displaced Comrades: Politics and Surveillance in the Lives of Soviet Refugees in the West (Bloomsbury, 2023) explores the transnational lives and experiences of Soviet ‘Displaced Persons’ who were resettled in Australia from Europe and China during the early Cold War and drew the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation with their political engagement. Elsewhere, she has published on the Sydney Russian community, migrants who returned to the Soviet Union, and the surveillance of migrants in relation to the Petrov Affair.

NEW SPEAKER ANNOUNCED:

Dr David Schaefer is a Lecturer at the ANU National Security College. He received his PhD at King's College London and has worked at the Kings Centre for the Study of Intelligence (KCSI), the University of Melbourne, and Asialink Diplomacy. His work focuses on the role of intelligence in Australian history and intelligence studies more broadly, and he is co-author, with the late Michael Herman, of Intelligence Power in Practice (Edinburgh University Press, 2022).

Book now: https://www.historycouncilvic.org.au/mph_may_2025_spies

COMING UP
Hearing the news: how ballad singers, pampheteers and orators took the news to the people in the pre-modern world, Thursday 24 May

In an age when we are, literally, bombarded with news from multiple forms of ‘mass media’, it is hard to imagine a time when news was scarce. Before newspapers were published, how did the people find out what was happening in their world? In this seminar we explore the fascinating world of the pre-modern newshound — the ballad singer, the pamphleteer and the public orator. Were there limits to ‘free speech’, and how were they overcome? Historians Una McIlvenna and Ruby Lowe combine analysis and performance as they explore this fascinating topic.

Registration will open soon!

Past events

You can check out all of our past seminars on YouTube.

The Glass Ceiling: Shattered, cracked or subbornly intact? Thursday 27 March

As women joined the paid workforce in increasing numbers in the twentieth century they battled long-established discrimination. Low pay, exclusion from jobs defined as ‘men’s work’, and forced ‘retirement’ on marriage were just a few of the barriers in place. In the 1970s feminists identified a less-visible form of discrimination — the ‘glass ceiling’, the invisible, but equally-powerful set of assumptions that blocked women from promotion and from appointment to senior management. Many companies now promote their commitment to gender equity, but how real is it? Have women really shattered the glass ceiling, or does it continue to block women’s progress?

WATCH: https://youtu.be/M22GGrXx4I0?si=Vos88XUll0M1OWqm

Histories of Australian Childhood, with Isobelle Barrett Meyering (Macquarie), Catherine Gay (Melbourne) and Emily Gallagher (ANU).

WATCH: https://youtu.be/fgtnPGZg1LA

Oral History, Migration, Generations, with Francesco Ricatti (ANU), Tanya Evans (Macquarie), Alexandra Dellios (ANU).

WATCH: https://youtu.be/gaH4kJdgVkM

History in Film, with Peter McPhee (Chair, HCV) and James Findlay (Sydney).

Watch: https://youtu.be/zMl2M1dDtbs?si=2yuhQKeB1StvyxvS

Energy Transitions: Historicising Australia's Nuclear Debate

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttpiMQh1WN0&t=18s

Australia's Housing Crisis

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv35Dy3C-us

2023 events

Behind the Scenes: Making History Exhibitions

Culture in Overseas Embassies: Buildings that Evoke Australia

Australia's Broken Years? Joan Beaumont & Alastair Thomson

2022 events

Refugee Lives, Memories and Communities, November 2022

Doing Environmental History in Urgent Times, September 2022

Making Australian History, July 2022

Historians on Australian Politics, May 2022

Unpicking the gendered body: new research in the history and material culture of clothes, March 2022

2021 events

Child Labour and Slavery - Thursday 25 November at 5pm

Women's Lives, Women's Bodies - Thursday 23 September at 5pm

Australia's Marine Environment: The History and Politics of Exploitation and Conservation on Thursday 22 July from 5pm - 6.30pm

Populism, Democracy and Covid-19 on Thursday 27 May, 2021 from 5pm - 6:30pm

Infectious Disease and Public Health: Lessons from History on Thursday 22 April, 2021 from 5pm - 6:30pm

Teasing Women's Stories from the Archives on Thursday March 04, 2021 from 5pm - 6:30pm

Admission is free of charge but we ask you to RSVP to register your participation. For the webinars, a Zoom link will be sent by email to all who register.

We acknowledge our partners and the generous sponsorship provided by Old Treasury Building, the Monash University History Program and Monash University Publishing.

and the support offered by our event sponsors, Monash University Publishing.

Making Public Histories explores contemporary issues in historical research and production. The audience is diverse, ranging from professional, academic and community historians through to anyone interested in the creation, use and impact of history. The seminars respond to themes such as: new exhibitions or historical anniversaries; historical controversies; innovative ways of researching, producing and disseminating history; and history in different media. From time to time the seminars showcase visiting historians from overseas or interstate whose work will engage a Victorian audience.

Over time, Making Public Histories has explored a range of issues and approaches in the making of public histories. The program was initiated in 2008 by Monash University, State Library Victoria and the History Council of Victoria. From 2008 to 2016, the seminars were presented at State Library Victoria. Since 2017, the Old Treasury Building has been the venue for all face-to-face seminars.

To read about past programs, click the year: 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2018 / 2019 / 2020

To find out how to stay in touch with the three organisations that present these events, click HERE.

Panel ay S T Gill seminar

The chair, Alison Inglis, congratulates panellists
(L-R) Sasha Grishin, Jan Croggon and Andrew Lemon
at the conclusion of the ST Gill seminar
at State Library Victoria, 29 September 2015.
Photo credit: History Council of Victoria

About

The History Council of Victoria Incorporated (HCV) is the peak body for history in the Australian state of Victoria. Its vision is to connect Victorians with history and to inspire engagement with the past, their identity and the world today. The HCV champions the work of historians and the value of history. It recognises that history can be written about any place, any person, any period. The HCV advocates why history matters.

Events

Our calendar lists all upcoming public events arranged by the History Council of Victoria (HCV), plus events in Victoria, Australia, that are added by our Friends and Members.

If you are organising an event that relates to History, we encourage you to publicise it on our website.

Advocacy

As the peak body for history in Victoria, the History Council makes submissions on current issues. In doing this, the HCV Board is guided by its Advocacy Policy and by the Value of History, a statement developed co-operatively by the HCV and the History Councils of New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia.

Prizes

Since 2015, the HCV has been pleased to sponsor the Years 9 and 10 category of the Historical Fiction Competition organised by the History Teachers' Association of Victoria.

Support

Ways to support us:

Subscribe to our free newsletter: https://www.historycouncilvic.org.au/subscribe
Endorse the Value of History statement: https://www.historycouncilvic.org.au/endorse
Find us on socials: Twitter / Facebook / YouTube

Summary

The HCV was formed as an advisory body in 2001 and incorporated in 2003. It comprises representatives from cultural and educational institutions and heritage bodies; history teachers and curriculum advisors; academic and professional historians; and local, Indigenous, community and specialist history organisations.

As the peak body for history, the HCV has both ‘outward-looking’ roles (including advocacy and representation to government and the wider community, consultation, community education, and networking with allied interest groups) and ‘inward-looking’ roles (including member support, information dissemination, and networking between members).

Credits

The History Council of Victoria acknowledges the State Library of Victoria and the Public Record Office Victoria for supply of the archival images that appear on this website.

We acknowledge the National Film and Sound Archive for the right to use of the video footage on the home page, titled "Melbourne: Life in Australia (1966)".

Image credits

Italian sailors on ship at Port Melbourne 1938, Argus Newspaper Collection of Photographs, State Library of Victoria
Chinese procession in Collins near Elizabeth Street 1901, Harvie & Sutcliffe, photographers, State Library of Victoria
People’s homes, Aboriginal station Coranderrk 1878, Fred Kruger Photographer, State Library of Victoria
Chinese nurses at Children’s Hospital under scholarship 1947, Argus Newspaper Collection of Photographs, State Library of Victoria
Ladies physical culture class VRI Melbourne c1931, Public Record Office Victoria VPRS 12903/P0001, 011/02
Melbourne Cup, Derby and Oaks Day, Flemington Racecourse 1936, Public Record Office Victoria VPRS 12903/P0001/4802, 372/30
Flinders Street viaduct at foot of Market Street with advertisement for McRobertson’s Chocolate on bridge, Public Record Office Victoria VPRS 12800/P0003, ADV 1342