This conference, generously sponsored by the Research School of Humanities and the Research School of the Social Sciences at The Australian National University, the National Library of Australia and the University of Tasmania, was held at the National Library of Australia on 29-30 August 2008, and attracted a large audience of approximately 125 people.
It was devised 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.
Convened by Professor Bain Attwood, School of Historical Studies, Monash University, and the Research School of Humanities, The Australian National University, and Professor Tom Griffiths, History Program, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, the conference had two approaches. First, there were papers by Alan Atkinson (University of New England), Dipesh Chakrabarty (University of Chicago) and Mark McKenna (University of Sydney) that explored the nature and significance of Reynolds’ intellectual, literary and political work, while Henry Reynolds himself reflected on his career as a historian and a writer; and, second, there were papers by Warwick Anderson (University of Sydney), Larissa Behrendt (University of Technology Sydney), James Boyce (University of Tasmania), Ann Curthoys (Australian National University), Elizabeth Elbourne (McGill University), Lisa Ford (Macquarie University), Miranda Johnson (University of Michigan), Rani Kerin (University of Otago), Marilyn Lake (La Trobe University), Russell McGregor (James Cook University), Daniel Richter (University of Pennsylvania), and Tim Rowse (Australian National University) that addressed in new ways historical questions and historiographical problems which Reynolds has tackled in his work, such as the nature of the colonial encounter, racism, humanitarianism, sovereignty, property rights and the law.
The conference was deemed to be a considerable success. The quality of the papers, discussion and debate in the sessions was high; and the audience’s response was a warm and engaged one throughout. The historian Lyndall Ryan has penned a fine report of the conference for the journal Labour History. See < http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lab/95/ryan.html>. The conference was superbly administered by Leena Messina.
A collection of essays arising from the papers presented at this conference will be published by Australian Scholarly Publishing in the spring of 2009. |
