About us

Welcome to Australian Studies at UWA.

Research about Australian issues, identity and culture is a notable research strength at The University of Western Australia. The Australian Studies Research Network links multiple disciplines within the University where significant Australian Studies expertise exists. Indeed, our group includes some of the nation’s and the world’s experts in subject areas such as history, archaeology, anthropology, economics and commerce, sociology, political science, ethnomusicology, and art history. We also work with the University’s School of Indigenous Studies and the Berndt Museum.

Our aims

This Network provides a hub for UWA’s world-class research, teaching and industry engagement that is focused on the examination of Australia and Australian-ness in its many forms, in the past, present and future.

This initiative re-evaluates the analytical framework of Australian Studies, seeking to interrogate outdated, partial, or erroneous assumptions about history and culture. Our Australian Studies scholars ask how a perspective facing north and west, toward Asia, the Indo-Pacific, and ultimately the deep history of human movement across the globe to this continent, might contest narratives of origins in the south-east centred upon the arrival of the British in 1788.

In addition, this network seeks to re-orient our ideas of ‘Australia’ to centralise Indigenous histories of life from at least 50,000 years ago, centuries-old encounters with Asia and Europe, and a continuing, cosmopolitan exchange of goods, ideas and culture.  Often omitted from national histories and overviews, we suggest that a view from the Indian Ocean offers fresh insights into the very nature of Australian-ness.

Our Members

• Professor Jane Lydon (Director)
• Professor David Gilchrist (Convenor)

Scholars

• Dr Clarissa Ball
• Associate Professor Tanya Dalziell
• Associate Professor Andrea Gaynor
• Emeritus Professor Dennis Haskell
• Dr Kate Hislop
• Associate Professor Tony Hughes-d’Aeth
• Dr Darren Jorgenson
• Dr Shino Konishi
• Dr Jeremy Martens
• Professor Greg McCarthy
• Professor Michael McLure
• Associate Professor Ian Murray
• Dr Catherine Noske
• Dr Sven Ouzman
• Professor Alistair Paterson
• Dr Sarah Prout Quicke

Affiliates

Extended collaborating institutions and independent bodies:

• Professor Ann Curthoys
• Professor Lynette Russell (Monash University)