VIDA Commissioning Editor and PhD candidate Michael Stockwell launches a new blog series that reflects on topics seen as vulnerable to a systematic reversal of social justice gains amid today’s global political climate.
The year 2026 has become a year marked by political uncertainty, growing social tension and renewed debate surrounding issues many once considered settled. Across public discussion, questions relating to gender, sexuality, reproductive rights, education, environmental protection, public memory and social justice have increasingly re-emerged within political and cultural debate. In many respects, the present moment reflects the continuing relevance of feminist history, queer history, and the importance of historical perspective in understanding contemporary change.
The warning that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it continues to resonate because progress has never been linear or guaranteed. Rights can be expanded and later challenged. Public attitudes can shift. Earlier forms of exclusion, regulation and backlash can return in new forms, particularly during periods of broader social and political instability.
For historians, these moments are often recognisable precisely because similar tensions, anxieties and debates have appeared before.
This new series for VIDA: The Blog of the Australian Women’s History Network invites former and current VIDA editors, editorial assistants, and authors to reflect on the historical issues they see as increasingly precarious in the present moment. Contributors are invited to examine how earlier struggles continue to shape contemporary life, particularly where historical questions surrounding gender, sexuality, inequality, labour, race, identity, citizenship and social justice remain unresolved or vulnerable to renewed contestation.
At its centre, the series reflects VIDA’s longstanding commitment to intersectional feminist history, queer history, public scholarship and critical engagement with the relationship between the past and the present. Contributors are invited to examine how historical issues connected to gender, sexuality, inequality and social justice continue to shape contemporary life, particularly where earlier forms of exclusion, regulation or backlash appear vulnerable to re-emerging within current political and cultural debate.
The series welcomes a broad range of historical perspectives and approaches. Possible themes may include women’s health, reproductive rights, voting rights, criminal justice, labour, disability advocacy, environmental justice, LGBTQIA+ rights, migration, media representation, colonialism, public morality and First Nations histories. Contributions may engage with moments from the past that continue to influence the present, or consider how historical struggles once thought resolved have again become subjects of uncertainty and debate.
Call for Proposals
The VIDA editorial team welcomes pitches from former and current VIDA editors, editorial assistants, and authors for short blog contributions connected to the themes of historical memory, feminist history, queer history and the fragility of social progress.
We welcome correspondence from contributors interested in participating in the series. Please contact Michael Stockwell or a member of the VIDA editorial team to discuss your proposal.
Michael Stockwell is a PhD candidate with the Centre for Heritage and Culture, and the School of Law and Justice at the University of Southern Queensland. He has a background in hospitality, classical music, education and law and works in the law and IAS departments at the University of Southern Queensland. His doctoral research investigates the prosecution, persecution and vilification of homosexual men in Queensland during the Bjelke Petersen era and how the experiences in their formative years affect their willingness to engage with legal and administrative systems later in life. Michael has an internship for 2024 with the Australian Women’s History Network where he works with Managing Editors Dr Ana Stevenson and Dr Paige Donaghty on the VIDA blog.
Copyright remains with individual authors, who grant VIDA a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive licence to use, distribute, reproduce and promote submitted content. For permission to republish any VIDA blog post, in whole or in part, please contact the managing editors at auswhn@gmail.com.au