Ann Curthoys
The University of Sydney, History, Faculty Member
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Research Interests: Art History and Art
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J.K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter novels are an important part of contemporary popular culture and consciousness. Historians have reason to welcome the popularity of Rowling's novels, given their sense of the importance of the... more
J.K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter novels are an important part of contemporary popular culture and consciousness. Historians have reason to welcome the popularity of Rowling's novels, given their sense of the importance of the archive and of critical historical knowledge.
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In a new and updated edition, Writing Histories: Imagination and Narration is a book for anyone wanting to write histories that capture the imagination and challenge the intellect. It aims to show that historical narrative and imagination... more
In a new and updated edition, Writing Histories: Imagination and Narration is a book for anyone wanting to write histories that capture the imagination and challenge the intellect. It aims to show that historical narrative and imagination can work together to produce works of history that are a pleasure to read. Nine historians reflect on their work as writers, exploring some of the most difficult and interesting questions any history-writer faces: how to get started, how to find a 'voice', how to enliven a description or a narration, and how to find a worthwhile structure. Contributors also suggest how historians can convey multiple perspectives, 'show' rather than tell, foreground the research process, find inspiration from music, painting and landscape, and use literary techniques such as metaphor. The book will be a useful text for teachers and students in history-writing classes and informal groups. There are suggestions for group exercises, and advice on how to...
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In 1965 a group of students went on a 'freedom ride' in country NSW to combat racism against Aboriginal people. In an excerpt from her first-hand account of the Freedom Ride, Ann Curthoys recalls the visit to Walgett and discusses... more
In 1965 a group of students went on a 'freedom ride' in country NSW to combat racism against Aboriginal people. In an excerpt from her first-hand account of the Freedom Ride, Ann Curthoys recalls the visit to Walgett and discusses the town's difficult history.
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When the British government abolished slavery in the Caribbean and compensated the slave-owners, some of the beneficiaries and/or their children and grandchildren went to Australia to make a new life and if possible a new fortune. This... more
When the British government abolished slavery in the Caribbean and compensated the slave-owners, some of the beneficiaries and/or their children and grandchildren went to Australia to make a new life and if possible a new fortune. This essay traces the history of one such family, the Shiells of Montserrat, alongside two other contemporaneous histories – that of Yorkshire radical and convict, John Burkinshaw, and his family, into which one of the Shiells married, and that of the several Indigenous communities these families encountered. Through the experiences of these disparate and intersecting family groups, we can gain insight into both the lived experience and the wider imperial context of the expansion of Australian settler colonialism.
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Research Interests: Art and Visual Arts
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Australian studies centres overseas have usually found, however, that student interest in their courses has been modest. With its small population, relatively healthy economy, and fairly quiet politics, Australia for most of the world... more
Australian studies centres overseas have usually found, however, that student interest in their courses has been modest. With its small population, relatively healthy economy, and fairly quiet politics, Australia for most of the world does not present significant economic or strategic threats or opportunities. It is not surprising, then, that the study of Australia has not been significant outside Australia itself. Despite the praiseworthy efforts of the proponents of Australian studies in Asia, Europe, and North America, international understanding of Australian culture and society is still extremely limited. In this context, the growth of study abroad programs of various kinds has presented an exciting development for Australian studies.
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History is filled with people doing things. These may be ordinary everyday activities or the unusual actions which precipitate major political events, wars and revolutions. For any historian, it’s important to portray the people of the... more
History is filled with people doing things. These may be ordinary everyday activities or the unusual actions which precipitate major political events, wars and revolutions. For any historian, it’s important to portray the people of the past so that they, and what they thought and did, matter to the reader. This is especially true in the many forms of life-writing, including biography, that prosper today, but it’s also true in history more generally. This chapter considers questions such as: How can we write about the individual people of the past? How much can we understand, and what can we never know? How can we make our historical actors come alive on the page? What did the people of the past feel and believe? What did the world look like to them, and how did they look to each other? Can and should we make moral judgments about them or their actions?
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Review(s) of: Republicanism and responsible government: The shaping of democracy in Australia and Canada, by Benjamin T. Jones, McGill-Queens University Press, Montreal and Kingston, 2014, pbk, ISBN 978 0 7735 4362 1, x + 299 pp, $34.95.
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This comprehensive reference work traces the history of women’s engagement with the production of history from antiquity to the present. It contains interpretative essays from almost 60 contributors and surveys the full range of... more
This comprehensive reference work traces the history of women’s engagement with the production of history from antiquity to the present. It contains interpretative essays from almost 60 contributors and surveys the full range of historical writings in which women have engaged, including biographical and autobiographical writings, stories of women worthies, historical fictions, letter-writing and travelogue as well as a range of more conventional kinds of history. It also assesses women’s contribution to national historiographies and includes biographical entries on women historians. In challenging the traditional narrow definition of ’history’, the Companion explores the way in which women writers have negotiated and changed this ostensibly masculinist genre, and explores the relationship between feminism and the development of ’women’s history’. "The Companion to Women’s Historical Writing" is a reference tool and an introduction to women’s historical literature
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In conversation with Lorenzo Veracini, Ann Curthoys and John Docker discuss some of the issues at stake for Australian Aboriginal history in current international debates about the definitions of genocide. ...
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This book is a biographical history of Rottnest Island, a small carceral island offshore from Western Australia. Rottnest is also known as Wadjemup, or "the place across the water where the spirits are", by Noongar, the... more
This book is a biographical history of Rottnest Island, a small carceral island offshore from Western Australia. Rottnest is also known as Wadjemup, or "the place across the water where the spirits are", by Noongar, the Indigenous people of south-western Australia. Through a series of biographical case studies of the diverse individuals connected to the island, the book argues that their particular histories lend Rottnest Island a unique heritage in which Indigenous, maritime, imperial, colonial, penal, and military histories intersect with histories of leisure and recreation. Tracing the way in which Wadjemup/Rottnest Island has been continually re-imagined and re-purposed throughout its history, the text explores the island’s carceral history, which has left behind it a painful community memory. Today it is best known as a beach holiday destination, a reputation bolstered by the "quokka selfie" trend, the online posting of photographs taken with the island’s cute native marsupial. This book will appeal to academic readers with an interest in Australian history, Aboriginal history, and the history of the British Empire, especially those interested in the burgeoning scholarship on the concept of "carceral archipelagos" and island prisons.