“I learned to live as if I were already dead”: The historic vilification and othering of women committed to mental hospitals

by Managing Editor Posted on December 31, 2025

In this blog, Dr Kate McAnelly discusses the historic institutionalisation of women at Aotearoa New Zealand’s Seacliff Lunatic Asylum/Mental Hospital. Earlier this year, I wrote a blog about the ways in which ‘refrigerator mother theory’ was weaponised to vilify the … Continue reading →

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Sunday School Teacher to Hillbilly Dictator: Lutheran Rural Fundamentalism and the Bjelke-Petersen Paradox

by Managing Editor Posted on December 9, 2025

In this blog, Michael Stockwell explores the intersection between the Lutheran Two-Kingdoms Paradox and Rural Fundamentalism and its impact on Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s approach to politics. “It must be admitted the Government have a responsibility to protect the people against … Continue reading →

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A Matter of Class? Higher Learning Opportunities for Women in Nineteenth-Century Britain

by Managing Editor Posted on December 2, 2025

In this blog, Kaitlin Mills explores the higher learning available to women in Britain during the nineteenth century and how these opportunities varied drastically between the classes. Higher learning, in the context of nineteenth-century Britain’s educational opportunities, was education completed … Continue reading →

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Gender and regenerative histories of landcare in Australia

by Managing Editor Posted on November 18, 2025

In this blog, Andrea Gaynor expands on the themes of her keynote at the 2025 Australian Historical Association Conference. As tree-planting season wound up in southern Australia and the pottiputkis were put away, the warming weather brought new growth and … Continue reading →

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Reflection: ‘Thinking Beyond Liberal Narratives of Progress’ Symposium

by Managing Editor Posted on October 29, 2025

In this blog, authors Eli Branagh and Taylah Evans discuss their experience hosting ‘Thinking Beyond Liberal Narratives of Progress’, a one-day symposium held in response to the recently published Personal Politics: The Remaking of Gender, Sexuality, and Citizenship (2024). In … Continue reading →

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Wise and Wonderful Women: A history of academic women in South Australia since the 1970s

by Managing Editor Posted on September 30, 2025

Margaret Allen reflects on an exhibition and research project exploring the academic working lives of women in South Australia since 1970. The Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender at the University of Adelaide has been researching the working lives … Continue reading →

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