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Department of Modern History

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Dr Mary L. Spongberg

Associate Professor Mary L. Spongberg, Head of Department

PhD (History) Unviersity of Sydney 1992
BA (Hons) History 1st Class, University of Sydney 1987

Office: W6A 407
Phone: +61 2 9850 8887
Fax: +61 2 9850 6594
Email: mspongbe@hmn.mq.edu.au

 

Mary Spongberg is a cultural historian who works primarily on the history women's historical writing and the history of the body and sexuality and the history of feminism in Europe and Australia . She is currently editor of Australian Feminist Studies . Her first book, Feminising Venereal Disease (New York University Press and Macmillan, 1997) was short-listed for the Premier's History Prize in 1998.

 

Research

Current Research Projects

My current area of research, "Romantic feminism", is in its early stages, two major strands of this research are underway. The first strand is a collaborative project with Clara Tuite (English, University of Melbourne ) that will make a provocative intervention in debates about the genre and practice of British historiography, effectively rewriting the history of British historiography, through a focus on female authored texts published between 1750 and 1900.

The second strand is my own project, focusing on the intersection between women's life writing and feminism in the early 19th-century Britain . While the Romantic canon has expanded exponentially with the inclusion of large numbers of women poets, the history of life writing and the history of feminism has yet to deal with the contribution of women writers to discourses about women's subjectivity and their relation to women's rights and duties as they were debated during this time, particularly in the period between the death of Mary Wollstonecraft and the death of Mary Shelley. This project will challenge such accounts, repositioning Wollstonecraft in the history of feminism, and rewriting the history of auto/biography.

Most historical accounts of British feminism treat this period as a time of conservative retreat following Wollstonecraft's death. The third strand of this project, "Writing/Rewriting Feminist History" is a collaboration with Gina Luria Walker ( New School , New York and Arianne Chernock ( Boston University ) that will building upon recent work on feminists such as Mary Hays, Mary Robinson, Elizabeth Hamilton, Jane Porter, Lady Morgan, Alexander Jardine and Thomas Starling Norgate.. We propose to trace in the works of these writers the emergence of distinctly feminist modes of writing history, and in so doing also rethink the history of British feminism.

Research

I am willing to supervise in the area of 18 th and 19 th century British history, the history of sexuality and the body, the history of women's writing, history of European feminism in the 18 th and 19 th centuries and the history of popular culture in the late twentieth century.

Research Funding and fellowships

Mary Spongberg has been the Principal Investigator on two ARC Discovery Grants (Making Women's History 2000-2002, with Ann Curthoys and Barbara Caine $140,000) and (Women Writers and the Production of British History 2006-2009 with Clara Tuite $185, 330) was an NMHRC Post-doctoral Fellow 1993-94. She has held fellowships at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine and has been a visiting scholar at the University of Sydney .

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Selected Publications

Monographs

  • Writing Women's History since the Renaissance ( London : Palgrave 2002) ISBN 0333726685 HB, xii +pp.308.
Writing Women's History since the Renaissance
  • Feminising Venereal Disease: The Body of the Prostitute in Nineteenth Century British Medical Discourse, New York University Press & Macmillan, New York & London, 1997, x + pp 231 [Shortlisted for the NSW Premier's History Prize]

Edited Books

Journal/ Special Issues & Guest Editing

Book Chapters

Refereed Articles

Review Essays

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Teaching

 

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Administration

Head, Department of Modern History

Editorship

Australian Feminist Studies 2005-

Departmental committees

2004-2006 Higher Degree Research Committee, Director of Higher Degree Research

Convenor conferences and Symposia

2005 Co-Convenor, History and Fiction Symposium, State Library, NSW

2004 Convenor, New Directions in Women's History, History, Macquarie

2004 Convenor, Festschrift for Jill Roe, History, Macquarie

2001 Committee Member, Australian Women's Studies Association Conference, Gender Studies, Macquarie University

1998 Co-Convenor, Australian Historical Association Conference, University of Sydney

1997 Convenor, Thirty-Something Conference, Women's Studies/History, Macquarie University

1995 Committee Member, Fifth Women and Labour Conference, Macquarie University

1994 Convenor, Women, Sexuality Development, Centre for Women's Studies, University of Sydney (250 participants)

1994 Co-Convenor Symposium on Medical History, Centre for Women Studies (80 participants)

1993 Co-Convenor Symposium on Feminism and Religion , Centre for Women's Studies, University of Sydney (100 participants)

1992 Co-Convenor Symposium of Reproductive Technology , Centre for Women's Studies, University of Sydney (100 participants)

1991 Convenor Histories of Australian Feminisms Conference, Centre for Women's Studies, University of Sydney (200 participants)

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