Race, nation, history seeks to honour the work of
Henry Reynolds, one of Australia’s finest historians and
one of its leading public intellectuals, on the occasion of
his seventieth year. A prodigious author, a renowned commentator
and a controversial advocate, Reynolds’ work has profoundly
influenced two or more generations of scholarship in history
and other fields, and has had a considerable impact in legal
and political spheres. He has been likened to the famous English
historian E.P. Thompson.
This conference shall have two approaches.
First, it will comprise papers that explore the nature and significance
of Reynolds’ intellectual, literary and political legacy
by critically assessing his work as a historian of race and
nation in both a national and an international context during
a period of enormous social and cultural change from the 1960s
to the present day. Second, it will comprise papers which are
informed by the latest research and which address anew historical
questions and historiographical problems regarding the consideration
of subjects which Reynolds helped to pioneer, such as the colonial
frontier, settler racism, and sovereignty, property and the
law.
The conference is being sponsored by the Research
School of the Humanities and the Research School of the Social
Sciences at The Australian National University, the National
Library of Australia and the University of Tasmania, and it
will take place over two days on 29-30 August 2008 at the National
Library of Australia. It is being convened by Professor Bain
Attwood, School of Historical Studies, Monash University, and
the Research School of Humanities, CASS, The Australian National
University; and Professor Tom Griffiths, History Program, Research
School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University.
The speakers will be Warwick Anderson (University
of Sydney), Alan Atkinson (University of New England), Larissa
Behrendt (University of Technology Sydney), James Boyce (University
of Tasmania), Dipesh Chakrabarty (University of Chicago), Ann
Curthoys (Australian National University), Elizabeth Elbourne
(McGill University), Lisa Ford (Macquarie University), Miranda
Johnson (University of Chicago), Rani Kerin (University of Otago),
Marilyn Lake (La Trobe University), Russell McGregor (James
Cook University), Mark McKenna (University of Sydney), Henry
Reynolds (University of Tasmania), Daniel Richter (University
of Pennsylvania), and Tim Rowse (Australian National University).
