History and Philosophy of the Social Sciences Network

About the HaPSS Network

The History and Philosophy of the Social Sciences (HaPSS) Network is a UWA research cluster. Its primary goal is to facilitate and encourage the development of research in the history and philosophy of the social sciences.  

It is a cross-disciplinary group with membership from the following disciplines at UWA: Accounting, History, Finance, Anthropology and Sociology, Archaeology, Asian Studies, Economics, Media and Communication, Political Science and International Relations, Philosophy, and Science Communications. Members and international associates of the Network are actively engaged with scholars of the history and philosophy of the social sciences across Australia and globally. The international associates of the Network are drawn from a range of universities including: The London School of Economics, UK; the University of Salento, Italy; the Federal University of Espirito Santo, Brazil; the University of Auckland, New Zealand; the University of Cambridge, UK and the University Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, France.

Amongst other things, the work of the Network also informs the development of teaching, including in relation to historical and philosophical aspects of the Bachelor of Philosophy, Politics and Economics, the Bachelor and Master of Economics and the Master of Public Policy.

The Network also aims to nurture the development of new researchers wishing to investigate intellectual history, and to provide curriculum advice in relation to the study of intellectual history at UWA at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Events

Seminars

Join us at these upcoming seminars and conferences:

 

Catch up by watching the recordings of these past seminars:

 

Conferences

More information to follow.

 

Past events

  • Thursday 10 November 2022: WA Economic History Summit 2022
  • Friday 6 May 2022: Patrick Baert (University of Cambridge), Positioning Theory and the Study of the History of Social and Political Thought.
  • Friday 1 April 2022: Mary Morgan (London School of Economics and Political Science), The Functions that Narratives Play for Scientists.
  • Thursday 9 September 2021, 4–5pm: Frances An (UWA), A cognitive-historical exploration of market research.
  • Thursday 27 May 2021: Riko Stevens (UWA Economics), Speculation, Institutions, and Welfare: A Case Study in the Marshallian Tradition of Economic Thought.
  • Thursday 6 May 2021: Reto Hofmann (UWA Asian Studies), Japan and Neoliberal Culturalism.

 

Related past events

Current projects

We are working on two major projects:

  1. The History of Economic Thought: broad and ongoing historical investigating of economic thinking advanced through the strong association of a number of members of the HaPSS Network with the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia. Members are particularly active in undertaking research into the Lausanne economic tradition, the Cambridge economic tradition and the history of economic thinking in relation to the Welfare State. 
  2. The History of Archaeology in the Pacific: with particular reference to the hidden contribution of women in the early days of the discipline.

 

Our people


Organisational Committee

Co-convenor: Michael McLure
Michael McLure is a Professor in the Economics Department at UWA.    His research activity has focused on the history of economic thought in Italy, including the co-editing of the English translation of Pareto’s Manual of Political Economy: A Critical and Variorum Edition (Oxford University Press, 2014, 2020) and authoring The Paretian School and Italian Fiscal Sociology (Palgrave-Macmillan 2007). Michael’s research also considers A. C. Pigou and the Cambridge School and he co-edited the History of Economics Review from 2007 to 2011. In October 2020 he was awarded the Premio Galileo Galilei (Galileo Galilei Prize) by the Fondazione Premio Internazionale Galileo Galilei dei Rotary Club Italiani. Michael’s historical research has been published in the History of Political Economy, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, History of Economic Review, Pensiero Economico Italiano, History of Economic Thought and Policy, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Scandinavian Journal of Economics and Economic Record. 
Co-convenor: David Gilchrist
In his work as an economic and business historian, Professor David Gilchrist focuses on nineteenth- and twentieth-century colonial and state socialism in Britain and Australia. This work includes a strong and enduring interest in the history of economic thought as it relates to the Welfare State, co-operatives, friendly societies, charities and the role of government in meeting social needs. He has authored, edited or contributed to eight books of which Imperial Theory, Colonial Pragmatism (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015) examines the thought and development of agricultural co-operation in Western Australia.

UWA members

Greg Acciaioli
Greg Acciaioli is a Senior Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia, where he taught in Anthropology and Sociology, Asian Studies and International Development for 29 years. He has published on the history of social anthropology in Australia and of ethnographic film globally. His current research foci include the interface of the indigenous peoples’ movement with resource contestations in Sulawesi and Borneo, farmer innovation from below in the context of new agricultural regulatory regimes in Indonesia, and the adaptation of Bajau identities under the impact of conservation and securitization initiatives in Sabah. 
Heather Bray
Heather Bray is a scholar in the field of Science Communication and is currently the co-coordinator of the Science Communication major within the Bachelor of Science, and the Masters of Science Communication. Her research explores community understandings of, and attitudes to, the role of science and technology in food production, especially in reference to genetically modified crops and food; and farm animal welfare. Heather's primary aim for her work is to improve communication and build trust between different stakeholders in the agri-food system. 
Alexander E. Davis
Alexander E. Davis is a lecturer in International Relations at The University of Western Australia. He has an MA in History from the University of Tasmania, and a PhD in International Studies from the University of Adelaide. Alex's research looks at international relations from historical, critical and postcolonial perspectives, particularly in the former British empire, the Himalaya and the Indian Ocean. He has recently published on the history of the international relations discipline in Review of International Studies, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies and Millennium: Journal of International Studies. He is also lead author of a disciplinary history of IR in the settler colonies and India, titled, The Imperial Discipline: Race and the Founding of International Relations (Pluto Press, 2020). 
Emilie Dotte
Emilie Dotte is a Research Fellow in Archaeology and is currently working on a DECRA research project at UWA, which further develops her work on the history of archaeology in the Pacific with particular reference to the hidden contribution of women in the early days of the discipline.   She is currently supervising PhD student Sylvie Brassard in the History of archaeology, who works across the disciplines of Archaeology (Social Sciences) and History (Humanities). Emilie has been working on the history of archaeology and supervising other PhD students for the past 5 years, as part of a preceding postdoctoral fellowship under Professor Spriggs’ ARC Laureate ‘The Collective Biography of Archaeology in the Pacific’ at the Australian National University. An output of this research has recently been published with an edited volume in French, and its English version currently in press.
Thomas Emery
Thomas Emery is currently a Research Fellow in the Not-For-Profits UWA Research Group, undertaking research related to the NFP human services sector, public policy and broader public finance areas including in relation to taxation policy and economic history. His other research areas of interest are focused on Western Australia’s economic history and the use of novel econometrics methods, such as synthetic controls, to understand better the long-term determinants of growth and the role of good governance and policy. Thomas also has a keen interest in the history of the welfare state and the philosophies of governance and taxation. 
Sam Han
Sam Han is an interdisciplinary social scientist, working primarily in the areas of social/cultural/critical theory, new media and religion (as well as their various overlaps and nodal points). He is currently Senior Lecturer of Anthropology and Sociology and Deputy Director of the Korea Research Centre of Western Australia at the University of Western Australia. He is the author of several books, most recently (Inter)Facing Death: Life in Global Uncertainty (Routledge, 2020), Technologies of Religion: Spheres of the Sacred in a Post-Secular Modernity (Routledge, 2016) and Digital Culture and Religion in Asia (Routledge, 2015, with Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir). He holds a BA in Sociology (High Honors) and English from Wesleyan University and PhD in Sociology from The Graduate Center, City University of New York.  
Remco Heesen
Remco Heesen is a philosopher of social science mainly interested in the social structure of science. His recent research has focused on two themes. First, the reward structure of science (also known as the “credit economy”) and how it influences the behaviour of (social) scientists and the epistemic success of their work. Second, the role of peer review in the (social) sciences and how this might be improved. Within philosophy, Heesen’s areas of specialization are (formal and social) epistemology, decision and game theory, and logic. Interdisciplinary interests include the sociology of scientific knowledge and probability and statistics. Heesen received his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University in 2016 and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Cambridge until 2019. From 2019 until 2023, he combines his position at the University of Western Australia with a postdoctoral position at the University of Groningen.
Frank Liu
Zhangxin (Frank) Liu is currently a Senior Lecturer of Finance at the UWA Business School and a Fellow of the Centre for Business Data Analytics. He works in the areas of asset pricing, corporate finance, blockchain technology and economic history. His research in economic history focuses on understanding dynamics of bond pricing and underpricing in equity issuances in Australia in the 20th century. He has published in the Economic History Review, among other international finance and economics journals. He received his BFin (Hons) from the Australian National university, and PhD from the University of Queensland.
Martin Porr
Martin Porr is Associate Professor of Archaeology and a member of the Centre for Rock Art Research + Management at The University of Western Australia (UWA). He received his PhD from the University of Southampton in 2002. He was employed at the Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte (Halle/Saale, Germany) and was Museum Director of the Städtische Museen Quedlinburg (Germany). He currently is Discipline Lead and coordinator of the honours program for Archaeology at UWA. He teaches archaeology at undergraduate and honours level and supervises postgraduate research students. He has published widely on Palaeolithic art and archaeology as well as general theoretical aspects of archaeological and rock art research. Recently, he is co-editor of the recent volumes Southern Asia, Australia, and the Search for Human Origins (with R. Dennell; Cambridge University Press, 2014) and Interrogating Human Origins. Decolonisation and the Deep Human Past (with Jacqueline M. Matthews; Routledge, 2020). 
Rob Wilson
Rob Wilson is professor of philosophy at the University of Western Australia, having taught at La Trobe University (2017-2019), the University of Alberta (2000-2017), the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1996-2001), and Queen’s University (1992-1996). He has a B.A. with first class honours in philosophy from UWA and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. Rob's philosophical interests are various and areas he has published in include the philosophy of mind and cognition, of biology, and of social science. His most recent research has been focused on kinship and the philosophy of anthropology; on eugenics, dehumanisation, and disability; and on collective intentionality and group minds. Representative books: The Eugenic Mind Project (MIT Press, 2018); Boundaries of the Mind: The Individual and the Fragile Sciences: Cognition (Cambridge UP, 2004); Genes and the Agents of Life: The Individual and the Fragile Sciences: Biology (Cambridge UP, 2005); The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (MIT Press, 1999).
Samina Yasmeen
Samina Yasmeen is Director of the Centre for Muslim States and Societies, and teaches Political Science & International Relations at the School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia in Perth. She focuses on political and strategic developments in South Asia (particularly Pakistan), the role of Islam in world politics, and citizenship among immigrant women. She is the author of Jihad and Dawah: Evolving Narratives of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat ud Dawah (2017) and Understanding Muslim Identities: From Perceived Relative Exclusion to Inclusion (2008), as well as articles and book chapters on Muslim identities in a globalised world.
Helen Fordham
Helen Fordham is an Associate Professor in the discipline of Media and Communications and is interested in the history of ideas and the recovery of subordinated meanings that offer reinterpretations of the present. Within this broad project she has a number of interests including the impact of technology on political communications, cultural narratives that galvanise social action, and global journalism. Associate Professor Fordham has published in the areas of Indigenous memoir, cultural memory and public intellectualism, and last year she authored George Seldes' War for the Public Good: Weaponising a Free Press (Palgrave Macmillan 2019), a social history of investigative journalism and its role in the United States political processes.

National and international associates

Rogério Arthmar
Rogério Arthmar is a Full Professor at the Economics Department of the Federal University of Espirito Santo, Brazil. He graduated in Economic Science at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in 1983 and obtained his Doctorate Degree in Economic Theory at São Paulo University in 1997. Professor Arthmar was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1994-95 and at the University of Western Australia in 2014-15, being currently a researcher in the field of the History of Economic Thought for the Brazilian National Council of Scientific and Technological Development, CNPq. He is a member of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, the History of Economics Society, the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia, and the Latin American Association for the History of Economic Thought.
Antoinette Baujard
Antoinette Baujard is Professor of Economics at the University Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne (France). She has taught in the universities of Saint-Etienne, Lyon, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Rennes and Caen. She is member of the French Association of Philosophy and History of Economics, the European Society of the History of Economic Thought, the Society for Social Choice and Welfare. She works on the philosophy and methodology of normative issues and the history of welfare economics. She has notably published papers in the European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, the Journal of Economic Methodology, and is co-editor of Welfare Theory, Public Action and Ethical Values: revisiting the history of welfare economics (CUP forthcoming). She has also undertaken extensive work on voting experiments and social choice theory. 
Patrick Baert
Patrick Baert is Professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Cambridge. He did his graduate work at the University of Oxford, working on social theory under the supervision of Rom Harré. His recent research in the sociology of intellectuals has been funded by various bodies, including the British Academy, The European Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust. His writings have been translated into more than 10 languages. Professor Baert is the chief editor of the International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society (Springer) and he also holds editorial positions at the European Journal of Social Theory, the Journal of Classical Sociology, Currently Sociology, and Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory. He has held visiting positions across the world, including the University of Cape Town, l'Université de Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne, the Humboldt University Berlin, Brown University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Concepcion in Chile, the LSE and Sciences Po.
Reto Hofmann
Reto Hofmann is Senior Lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Western Australia, Perth. He specializes in modern Japanese and international history. His first monograph, The Fascist Effect: Japan and Italy, 1915-1952 (Cornell University Press, 2015), explores the cultural and intellectual relations between Japan and Italy in the interwar period. His research has focused on question of empire, nationalism and, more recently, conservatism. He has published in the Journal of Contemporary History, Journal of Global History, Japan Forum, and Journal of Asian Studies. An intellectual history of Japanese neoliberalism is forthcoming in Slobodian and Plehwe, eds. Market Prophets from the Margins. Before joining UWA in 2019, Hofmann taught and researched at Columbia University, Monash University, and Waseda University. He received his BA (Hons) from UWA and MA, MPhil and PhD from Columbia University. 
Mary S. Morgan
Mary S. Morgan is the Albert O. Hirschman Professor of History and Philosophy of Economics at the London School of Economics; she is an elected Fellow of the British Academy, and an Overseas Fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her past research has focused on practical aspects of economic science (questions about models, measurements, observation, experiments) and on broader topics in history and philosophy of the social sciences (such as the role of case studies, and use of factual knowledge), with most recent books: The World in the Model (CUP 2012) and How Well Do Facts Travel? (CUP 2011). She is currently leading a project on Narrative Science (funded by the European Research Council), investigating the many functions that narratives play within the natural, human and social sciences. She has a long-standing interest in the ways that economic and social science numbers both open windows onto our world, and at the same time are used to effect change in the world.
Manuela Mosca
Manuela Mosca is Professor in the Economics Department at the University of Salento (Lecce, Italy). She is an accomplished historian of Italian economic thought, especially the works of Antonio De Viti de Marco, Maffeo Pantaleoni, Vilfredo Pareto and Enrico Barone, and was awarded the History of Economics Society’s ‘J.J. Spengler Prize’ in 2019 for her book Monopoly Power and Competition. The Italian Marginalist Perspective (Edward Elgar). Her research extends to ‘women in economics’, the ‘history of industrial organization’, and ‘archives of Italian economists’. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the History of Economic Thought, the European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, the History of Economic Ideas, OEconomia and the History of Economic Thought and Policy. She is Treasurer of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, member of the Executive Committee of the Associazione italiana per la storia del pensiero economico, and a member of the History of Economics Society. 
Keith Tribe
Keith Tribe is currently Senior Research Fellow in History, University of Tartu, and also teaches the Year 3 undergraduate HET course at the University of Birmingham with Roger Backhouse. His graduate work at the University of Cambridge combined a reconstruction of eighteenth-century English agricultural production with an appraisal of Ricardian and Marxian rent theory, published as Land, Labour and Economic Discourse (1978) and Genealogies of Capitalism (1981). He was appointed to the Keele University Sociology Department in 1976, and moved to the Economics Department in 1985; he took early retirement in 2002, since when he has worked as a professional translator. He has recently published The Economy of the Word (OUP 2015), a new translation of Max Weber’s Economy and Society (HUP 2019), and has recently completed Constructing Economic Science. The Invention of a Discipline 1850-1950 (OUP 2021).  His current work involves a return to early modern economies and economic discourse, represented by “Moral Economy and Moral Order” (Critical Historical Studies 2021).
Gary Wickham
Gary Wickham is Emeritus Professor at Murdoch University.  His research spans the intersection of law, society, politics, and culture has, among other things, considered the best ways in which the thinking of Michel Foucault might be employed, particularly with regard to social research methods. More recently he has investigated the way in which each of law, society, politics, state, sovereignty, and culture (along with other elements, such as morality, reason, and religion) has been, and continues to be, understood within the social sciences and humanities academy. This latter line of inquiry has seen him develop a special interest in a number of early modern thinkers, especially Thomas Hobbes.  He is the author or co-author of 5 books, many scholarly article in journals such as British Journal of Sociology, Journal of Classical Sociology, Journal of Sociology and Economy and Society, and numerous book chapters. 

HETSA Members who are also Members of the HaPPS Network

Tony Aspromourgos
Tony Aspromourgos, Emeritus Professor of Economics in the University of Sydney, is the author of On the Origins of Classical Economics (1996) and The Science of Wealth: Adam Smith and the Framing of Political Economy (2009). He has published widely in all the history of economics journals, as well as other journals, including Contributions to Political Economy, the Cambridge Journal of Economics, the Economic Record, the European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, History of Political Economy, the Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Metroeconomica, Oxford Economic Papers and the Review of Political Economy. He is a former editor of History of Economics Review and serves on the Editorial Boards of the European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, History of Economics Review and the Journal of the History of Economic Thought. Professor Aspromourgos is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. 
Miriam Bankovsky
Miriam Bankovsky is a Senior Lecturer in politics (political theory) at La Trobe University, where she has convened the Politics, Philosophy, and Economics degree (PPE) for the past four years. She has also just completed an interesting three-year term as elected staff member to her university’s Council (or Senate). Miriam’s research lies at the intersection of political philosophy, history of ideas, and economics. Thanks to an Australian Research Council DECRA fellowship (completed in 2019), she has a new book forthcoming entitled The Family, Economics, and Ethics: A New History for an Imagined Future (Cambridge University Press, book series: “Historical Perspectives on Modern Economics,” 2023). Beyond HET scholarship, Miriam received the Australasian Association of Philosophy’s Annette Baier Prize in 2017. In philosophy, informed by both analytic and continental resources, Miriam’s work contributes to debates about economic marginalisation, unlawfulness, and justice. 
Harry Bloch
Harry Bloch is currently John Curtin Distinguished Emeritus Professor at Curtin University, having previously been Professor of Economics (1997 to 2012) and Dean for Research and Development (2012) in the Curtin Business School as well as founding director of the Centre for Research in Applied Economics (2006 to 2009). Prior to joining Curtin, he held academic positions at the University of Tasmania, University of Denver, University of Manitoba, University of British Columbia and Illinois Institute of Technology. He has a BA from the University of Michigan, MA and PhD from the University of Chicago. He has been co-editor and editor of the Economic Record (2000 to 2006) and is on editorial boards of several international journals. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and an Honorary Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia. His recent research focusses on the history of price theory in general and the development of evolutionary price theory in particular with the publication of Schumpeter’s Price Theory (Routledge 2017).
Anthony M. Endres
Anthony M. Endres is Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is a founding member of the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia 1981 and has published four books on the history of Austrian economics, the history of economic thought on international economic policy, and the history of ideas on international financial integration. He has contributed over 100 scholarly articles and book chapters in the several interconnected fields including history of economic thought and methodology; Australasian economic thought and the economic history of Australia and NZ, Austrian economics with specific reference to the history of capital theory and the ontology of economics. His articles have appeared in numerous journals, including the Cambridge Journal of Economics, History of Political Economy, Journal of Economic Issues, Journal of European Economic History, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Money Credit and Banking, Small Business Economics, and Scottish Journal of Political Economy. 
Co-convenor: David Gilchrist
In his work as an economic and business historian, Professor David Gilchrist focuses on nineteenth- and twentieth-century colonial and state socialism in Britain and Australia. This work includes a strong and enduring interest in the history of economic thought as it relates to the Welfare State, co-operatives, friendly societies, charities and the role of government in meeting social needs. He has authored, edited or contributed to eight books of which Imperial Theory, Colonial Pragmatism (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015) examines the thought and development of agricultural co-operation in Western Australia.
John Hawkins
John Hawkins is a senior lecturer in the Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society at the University of Canberra. He holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and a PhD from the Australian National University. He was formerly a senior economist at the Bank for International Settlements and served as secretary to the Senate Economics Committee. He is a frequent media commentator and contributor to The Conversation website. His research interests include monetary policy; Australian economic and political history; and the history of economic thought and policy.
John King
John King is Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University. His principal research interests are in the history of heterodox economic thought, especially Marxian political economy and Post Keynesian economics. Recent publications include The Distribution of Wealth (2016; with Michael Schneider and Mike Pottenger), A History of American Economic Thought (2018; with Samuel Barbour and James Cicarelli) and The Alternative Austrian Economics (2019), dealing with socialist economic thought in Austria between 1900 and the present day. 
John Lodewijks
Professor John Lodewijks is currently Vice President, Academic, of the S P Jain School of Global Management and was previously Head of the Department of Economics at UNSW and Head of the School of Economics and Finance at Western Sydney University. He is also a former Director of the UNSW Centre for South Pacific Studies and past Editor of the History of Economics Review. His publications in the history of economics include co-editing History and Political Economy: Essays in Honour of P. D. Groenewegen (Routledge, 2004) and numerous oral interviews with leading economists appearing in international journals such as Econometric Theory and local outlets such as The Economic Record. His historically oriented papers on macroeconomic policy include “The Great Inflation of the 1970s” (with Robert Leeson) in American Power and Policy (Palgrave Macmillan) and ‘Automatic and Discretionary Stabilizers’ in Milton Friedman: Nobel Monetary Economist (ISLE). 
Brendan Long
Over 30 years as a public policy professional in government, as a senior political adviser to four Shadow Cabinet/Cabinet Ministers, national leadership roles in the not-for-profit sector, CEO of NSW Right to Life and President of Right to Life Australia. In 2004 he completed a dissertation on Adam Smith and Adam’s Sin at the University of Cambridge and, since then, has published widely on economics, philosophy and theology. Brendan’s most recent scholarly work is the book Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand of God (Routledge, 2022).
Michael McLure
Michael McLure is a Professor in the Economics Department at UWA. His research activity has focused on the history of economic thought in Italy, including the co-editing of the English translation of Pareto’s Manual of Political Economy: A Critical and Variorum Edition (Oxford University Press, 2014, 2020) and authoring The Paretian School and Italian Fiscal Sociology (Palgrave-Macmillan 2007). Michael’s research also considers A. C. Pigou and the Cambridge School and he co-edited the History of Economics Review from 2007 to 2011. In October 2020 he was awarded the Premio Galileo Galilei (Galileo Galilei Prize) by the Fondazione Premio Internazionale Galileo Galilei dei Rotary Club Italiani. Michael’s historical research has been published in the History of Political Economy, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, History of Economic Review, Pensiero Economico Italiano, History of Economic Thought and Policy, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Scandinavian Journal of Economics and Economic Record. 
Alex Millmow
Alex Millmow was an Associate Professor in economics at Federation University Australia. He is now an honorary research fellow at Federation University and an honorary research fellow at the School of History, Australian National University.  Alex's research interests include the making of the Australian economic profession and the role of economic ideas in steering public policy. In 2004 he completed his doctorate at the Australian National University on 'The Power of Economic Ideas: The Rise of Macroeconomic Management in Australia’ which was subsequently published. Alex has also published over 50 articles in journal, including the Economic Record, Economic Papers, Economic Analysis and Policy and the History of Economics Review.  He is the current President of the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia (HETSA). In 2017 he published A History of Australasian Economic Thought (Routledge: London). He is about to have published a biography of the Anglo Australian economist Colin Clark.
Gregory Moore
Gregory Moore recently retired as Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame Australia and took up the post of adjunct professorial fellow.  His research has been published in History of Political Economy, Journal of Economic Surveys, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Journal of Economic Methodology, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, and History of Economics Review. He was also co-editor of the History of Economics Review from 2007 to 2011. He is the recipient of the WEG Salter undergraduate prize (UWA), the HETSA PhD Prize and the Groenewegen ‘best article’ Prize for the History of Economics Review. He taught at Duke University in 2001 as a visiting fellow. Professor Moore’s research interests include the history of economic thought. Since 2010 he has hosted an annual conference for undergraduates studying economics and finance entitled ‘Freedom to Choose’ (FTC). 
Nobuhiko Nakazawa
Nobuhiko Nakazawa is Professor of the History of Economic Thought at Kansai University, Osaka, Japan, where he has taught since 1998. His research interests lie in the fields of the history of economic thought and methodology, particularly issues relating to Edmund Burke, Thomas Robert Malthus, and British conservatism. He is former president of the Japanese Society of Malthus (2009–2011). He has published papers in History of Economics Review and Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, among other journals.
Rod O'Donnell
Rod O’Donnell has undergraduate degrees in philosophy, economics and engineering from Australian universities, and a doctorate in economics from Cambridge University. He became Professor of Economics at Macquarie University (1995-2007) and then at the University of Technology Sydney (2008-17). He continues to be highly research-active as a Business School Honorary Professor at the University of Technology Sydney, and as an Honorary Affiliate of the School of the History and Philosophy of Science at Sydney University.  Extending across three domains, his research encompasses economics, philosophy, and the history of economic thought, including the links between the philosophy, economics and politics of J.M. Keynes, issues arising in decision-making under uncertainty, the conceptual foundations of different schools of economic thought, the overlap between the economic frameworks of Adam Smith and Keynes, and various methodological matters in social science such as the soundness of general theorising and the clash between realism and idealism. He has two books on Keynes, and many journal articles and book chapters across the three domains.
Paul Oslington
Paul Oslington is Professor of Economics and Theology at Alphacrucis College in Sydney. Prior to this he was Professor of Economics at Australian Catholic University and Associate Professor of Economics at UNSW.  He has held visiting fellowships at University of Oxford and Princeton. His PhD in Economics and Master of Economics/Econometrics with Honours were completed at the University of Sydney, and Bachelor of Divinity and Doctor of Theology through University of Divinity, Melbourne. His books include The Theory of International Trade and Unemployment (Edward Elgar), Adam Smith as Theologian (Routledge), Oxford Handbook of Economics and Christianity (OUP), Political Economy as Natural Theology: Smith Malthus and their Followers (Routledge) and is currently working on a monograph commissioned by Harvard University Press God and Economic Order. His work in the history of economics has been published in the leading journals of the field History of Political Economy, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, and European Journal of the History of Economic Thought.  
Riko Stevens
Riko Stevens is currently a PhD Candidate in Economics at The University of Western Australia and has a Sessional Academic appointment at the University of Notre Dame Australia.  His main research interest is the history of economic thought with a particular focus on the intersection of economics and finance, and his current research examines the treatment of speculation in the Marshallian tradition of economic thought.  Riko has also lectured on subjects including the History of Economic Ideas, the History of Austrian Economics, and the Economics of Financial Crises. Prior to moving to Perth, he completed B.Com (Hons) and M.Com degrees in Economics at the University of Auckland. His M.Com thesis, titled 'The Theory of Speculation in the History of Economic Thought: The Contributions of Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Alfred Marshall Revisited', was awarded the 2017 History of Economic Thought Society of Australia (HETSA) Prize for Best Master's Thesis.
Ryan Walter
Ryan Walter is Associate Professor in Political Economy at the University of Queensland. His research is focused on the emergence of the political economist as a distinctive intellectual persona, focusing on Adam Smith, Thomas Robert Malthus, and David Ricardo. A major result has been to clarify the nature of the opposition that greeted the first economists. In short, 'theorising' had not been established as a prestigious activity; the presumption of intellectuals to reform their societies on the basis of 'theory' was perceived as an instance of philosophical enthusiasm, an intellectual pathology thought to underlie the French Revolution. Political economists responded to this opposition in divergent ways, producing fractiousness within their own ranks. The long-range hypothesis to test in future work is that these teething issues were never resolved, with the result that the office of the economist in relation to government has never been stabilised. The key statement of the initial stage of this research is Before Method and Models (Oxford, 2021). A series of subsidiary findings are published in Modern Intellectual History, Journal of the History of Ideas, Historical Journal, and Intellectual History Review.

UWA PhD students of intellectual history

Frances An

Frances An is currently a PhD Candidate at the University of Western Australia's School Of Psychological Sciences. Her research interests include the history and philosophy of marketing psychology and intellectual life under Communism. Her PhD explores the individual motivations, social norms and industrial structures that sustain the practice of 'curbstoning' (data falsification in market research). She writes regularly for 'Cha: An Asian Literary Journal' and has reviewed multiple books on Maoist Chinese culture. In 2019, Frances completed a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) degree with a University Medal For Outstanding Achievement. Her Honours thesis investigated the link between utilitarian vs. deontological frameworks and peoples' tendencies to hold exaggerated perceptions of moral self-righteousness.

Sylvie Brassard
Sylvie Brassard is undertaking a PhD under the Pacific Matilda project (2020-2024) with Emilie Dotte-Sarout. Originally from Quebec with a background in French History, Sylvie will be investigating the untold story of the team of voluntary assistants and students who worked behind the scenes with Marie-Charlotte (Manouka) Laroche  at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris during the formative years of the French School of Pacific Archaeology (from the end of the 1930s to the 1970s). She is working within the School of Humanities across History, French Studies and in collaboration with Archaeology within the School of Social Sciences. 
Alberto Guerrero Velazquez
Alberto Guerrero Velázquez is a PhD student in Philosophy under the supervision of Professor Rob Wilson. His current research explores the influence of the multimodal re-enactment and the contextual factors on episodic memory during autobiographical interviews. Alberto has a BA in Philosophy (Mexico), a specialisation in Social Sciences (Argentina), and an MA in Cognitive Sciences (Mexico). Some of his work in philosophy and social science has been published in journals and collective books from Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. His current research interests include the philosophy of memory, imagination, and the epistemology of testimony.

PhD opportunities

Absolutely friggen gorgeous library with people in it

Contact us

Professor Michael McLure, Economics Department, UWA Business School