Dr Alison Holland, Lecturer
BA (Hons), University of Sydney
Diploma of Museum Studies, University of Sydney
PhD, University of New South Wales
| Office: | W6A 417 |
| Phone: | +61 2 9850 8829 |
| Fax: | +61 2 9850 6594 |
| Email: | aholland@hmn.mq.edu.au |
Alison graduated with a PhD in history from the University of New South Wales in 1999. Titled ' Saving the Race'. The White Woman's Crusade. A Study of Gender, Race and the Australian Frontier, 1920s-1960s , the thesis explored a white female humanitarian discourse throughout the twentieth century concerning the rights of Indigenous people. She has since published widely on issues in Aboriginal and feminist history and contributed to books on related topics. Her current interest in the history of rights and citizenship in Australia , particularly questions of Indigenous citizenship, is developed from and extends the research originally undertaken for her PhD.
She has been teaching nineteenth and twentieth century Aboriginal history courses in the Department of Modern History at Macquarie since 2000. She also teaches a first year Australian Studies unit and a postgraduate course on citizenship. Before undertaking academic work, Alison was a curator in the Justice and Police Museum in Sydney , following the completion of a Diploma of Museum Studies at Sydney University .
She is on the editorial board of Labour History , a founding member of the Centre for Cultural History at Macquarie University and an associate member of the Centre for Comparative Law, History and Governance in the Department of Law, Macquarie University .
Research Interests and areas of supervision:
Alison's research interests include: Australian Indigenous/settler relations and Colonialism; Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Indigenous History; Australian Studies; Australian Women's History; Rights and Citizenship in Australian History.
Current Research Projects
- White Women and the 'Native Question'. Essays on Gender and the Politics of 'Race' in Twentieth Century Australia .
This is a revision of my Phd thesis for publication. The thesis explored white women's intervention in the politics of race, more specifically, the politics around what was coined 'the Aboriginal question' throughout the twentieth century. Recent research in the area of citizenship and human rights has greatly augmented the approach I developed in the thesis. It has broadened the scope of the monograph, allowing me to reconfigure this story in a wider history of rights based discourse, citizenship and internationalism.
- Under the Black Flag. Claiming Indigenous Citizenship in Twentieth Century Australia.
Funded by a Macquarie University New Staff grant, this project aims to historise and analyse the changing discourses of Indigenous citizenship and human rights, as Indigenous people have articulated them, across the twentieth century. Essentially a history of ideas, I intend to produce a history of Indigenous political thought by drawing on a range of Indigenous sources including art, literature and oral histories, as well as key documentary collections. This work builds on and extends interests and themes first developed in my PhD.
- Divergent Encounters, Racializing Moments.
This project is related to a one-day symposium held at Macquarie University in February 2007 titled Global Convergences: European Encounters and Cultural Interactions' . This brought together historians from Australia and New Zealand working in fields of feminist, transnational and Indigenous history . I presented a paper at the symposium, titled, The Yurtookee Club 1940s, Adelaide : A Moment in Global Context , which explored transnational feminist mobilisations for the rescue and protection of Indigenous women in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I have since joined an editorial team (along with Professor Barbara Brookes from Otago University and Dr Adrian Carton from Macquarie ) to produce a book from the symposium, titled, Divergent Encounters, Racializing Moments . We are currently working on a proposal with a view to publication in late 2008.
- From Migrant to Citizen: testing language, testing culture
This is an interdisciplinary project which aims to contribute to debate and inform policy on the introduction of citizenship tests in Australia . My contribution is to provide an historical overview of citizenship testing and values in Australian social, political and cultural history. I am currently writing a book chapter titled, Citizenship Testing in Australia . Historical Perspectives which will be part of a book, From Migrants to Citizens: testing language, testing culture , to be published later this year.
The project is funded by a Macquarie University Research Innovation Fund grant.
Journal Articles
- " 'To Eliminate Colour Prejudice'. The WCTU and Decolonisation in Australia ", Religion and Empire - Special Issue of The Journal of Religious History , June, 2008.
- "Compelling Evidence. Marriage, Colonialism and the Question of Indigenous Rights", Women's History Review , November, 2008.
- "Disentangling Native Title. History and Process", Teaching History , vol.41, no.1, March 2007, pp.42-47.
- "Wives and Mothers Like Ourselves: Exploring White Women's Intervention in the Politics of Race, 1920s-1940s", Australian Historical Studies , vol.32, no.117, 2001, pp.292-310
- "The Campaign for Women Protectors: Gender, Race and Frontier between the Wars", Australian Feminist Studies , vol.16, no.34, 2001, pp.27-42.
- "Mary Bennett and the Feminists: A Response", Australian Historical Studies , no.120, October, 2002, pp.398-400.
- "Feminism, Colonialism and Aboriginal Workers: An Anti-Slavery Crusade", Labour History , No.69, November 1995, pp.52-64
Book Chapters
- "Australian Aborigines", Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World , December 2008.
- "Colour not Civilisation" Contesting Boundaries of Citizenship and Rights in Inter-War Australia", Jane Carey et al (eds), Historicising Whiteness: Transnational Perspectives on the Construction of an Identity , RMIT and School of Historical Studies, University of Melbourne, 2007, pp.89-97. http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=832222435023749;res=E-LIBRARY>EISBN:?
- "Colour not Civilisation. Contesting Boundaries of Citizenship and Rights in Inter-war Australia", Leigh Boucher et al (eds) Historicizing Whiteness: Transnational Perspectives on the Construction of Identity , Rmit Press, 2007.
- "The Common Bond? Australian Citizenship", Martyn Lyons and Penny Russell, (eds), Australia 's History. Themes and Debates , UNSW Press, 2005, pp.152-171.
- "Saving the Race: Critics of Absorption Look For an Alternative", Tim Rowse, (ed), Contesting Assimilation , API Network, 2005, pp.85-99.
- 'Whatever her race, a woman is not a chattel': Mary Montgomery Bennett, Anna Cole et al (eds), Uncommon Ground. White Women in Aboriginal History , Aboriginal Studies Press, 2005, pp.129-152.
- "'Wives and Mothers Like Ourselves': Exploring White Women's Intervention in the Politics of Race, 1920s-1940s", Martin Crotty, John Germov and Grant Rodwell (eds), A Race for a Place : Eugenics, Darwinism and Social Thought and Practice in Australia: Proceedings of the History & Sociology of Eugenics Conference, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, University of Newcastle, 2001.
- "Post-war Women Reformers and Aboriginal Citizenship. Rehearsing an Old Campaign?", in J Damousi (ed), Citizenship, Women and Social Justice: International Historical Perspectives , The University of Melbourne, 1999.
- " A Question of Land and Labour: White Women, Co-operatives and Healing the Aboriginal Economy", Conference Proceedings, 5th Women and Labour Conference , Macquarie University , September, 1995
Exhibitions:
- Celebrating Aboriginal Rights? , Art Gallery , Macquarie University , August - September 2007. (Co-curated with Rhonda Davis)
- Mind, Body and Spirit. Celebrating Fifty Years of Student Life, UNSW, 1949-1999 , University of New South Wales , 1999
- Recollections - A History of the Police Museum , Justice and Police Museum , Historic Houses Trust, 1990
- Science Against Crime , Justice and Police Museum , Historic Houses Trust, 1990
- The Swann Sisters , Elizabeth Farm, Historic Houses Trust, 1991
Other:
- "Celebrating Aboriginal Rights?", in Celebrating Aboriginal Rights , 16 July - 7 September, 2007, Macquarie University , Sydney , 2007, pp.3-15.
- Response to Henry Reynolds, Macquarie Law Journal , vol 6, 2006, pp.17-18
- 'Indigenous Australians' , Encyclopedia of the Modern World , Oxford University Press, 2008.
- Alison Holland, Fiona Paisley, 'Fernando, Anthony Martin (1864 - 1949)', Australian Dictionary of Biography , Supplementary Volume, Melbourne University Press, 2005, pp 127-128.
- 'Jeffrey, Margaret Lilian (1896 - 1977)', Australian Dictionary of Biography , Volume 14, Melbourne University Press, 1996, pp 561-562.
- 'Joyce Vickery', Heather Radi (ed), 200 Australian Women. A Redress Anthology , Women's Redress Press, Inc, 1988.
Conference Paper
"Colour not Civilisation"Contesting Boundaries of Citizenship and Rights in Inter-War Australia
Podcasts
"On Citizenship" on 'Perspective', Radio National, 2 February, 2006.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/perspectgive/stories/2006/1559172.htm.
NB: Not a podcast but a transcript of interview.
Undergraduate Units
HIST 271/371 Indigenous-Settler Relations in Australia : Contact, Context and Shared Histories from 1750 http://online.mq.edu.au/pub/HIST271
AUST 100 Australian Perspectives 1: Maps, Dreams, History
http://online.mq. edu.au/ pub/AUST100
Postgraduate Units
MHPG 918 Rights and the Evolution of Australian Citizenship
MHPG 844 History, Culture and Museum Studies
Academic Advisor, Department of Modern History
Departmental Timetable Officer
Committees
Chair, Australian History Museum Management Committee
Chair of the Undergraduate Studies Committee
Divisional Representative, University Ethics Committee
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