Shouyue Zhang reviews the recent Melbourne Feminist History Group Workshop in Melbourne in October 2024.
On 4 October 2024, I was privileged to present at the Melbourne Feminist History Group (MFHG) Workshop at the Australian Catholic University (ACU), Melbourne Campus. Convenors of this workshop were Susan Broomhall, Sarah Bendall, and Clare Davidson. The workshop brought together feminist historians from across Melbourne and Sydney. It facilitated academic communication among feminist and gender historians from local and global perspectives. This was my first time attending a gender history conference, and it was an instructive experience.
This workshop featured two keynote speakers. At the beginning of the morning session, Prof. Joy Damousi gave the first keynote speech titled “Feminist Histories and Gendered Futures: Challenges In the 21st Century”. This theoretical review traced feminist history scholarship from the 1970s to the present and the future. Prof. Damousi addressed the challenges, barriers, and what she called the ‘paradoxes’ of feminist knowledge and research. Damousi suggested that while feminist scholarship has become very successful, it has perhaps become too successful: the result being the proliferation of subfields that might mean it’s feminism is not as impactful or effective.
In the afternoon session, Dr. Mary Tomsic gave another keynote speech titled “Close to home: Histories of activism and cultural life in North Richmond’s public housing community from 1971 to today.” This research examines the struggles of residents in North Richmond for housing justice. The two keynote speeches covered historiographical to current issues, kicking off the following sessions.
In the morning session, ‘Historiography, Interdisciplinarity, Story Telling,’ Nell Musgrove presented quantitative research to reveal ‘The Lost Women’ in large cohort life-course research in the Victorian state records. Elizabeth Branagh introduced the definition of ‘archtivism’ by analyzing queer community archives. The subsequent two presentations focused on premodern English feminist history. Mary-Rose McLaren explored women’s words, actions, and silence in fifteenth-century London rolls. Paige Donaghy reexamined pregnancy and women’s sexuality in early modern England.
In the afternoon session, ‘Gender, Race, and the State,’ Deborah Jordan showcased a visualisation study to map women’s suffrage history in Queensland. Shouyue Zhang presented on American women of colour’s resilience to restore their citizenship in the early twentieth century. Karen Hughes highlighted an ‘intimate global history’ of research on Australian Aboriginal women’s Second World wartime marriages to American servicemen. Last but not least, Taylah Evans talked about her research on Australian women police in the nineteenth century. This session uncovered the intertwined relations between gender, race, and nation-building.
Several highlights of this workshop impressed me. First, it facilitated generational dialogue and network building for feminist historians in almost all career stages. Attendees included historians who were FAHA (Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities) as well as graduate students. Senior scholars had open minds to exchange ideas with junior scholars. Meanwhile, keynote speeches and presentations indicated paradigm shifts in feminist scholarship from the third-wave feminist movements to diversity and technology in the present.
As a Chinese male student, I felt warmly welcomed at this inclusive workshop. This feeling relieved my internal tension between self-identification and professional interests. I identify myself as a heterosexual male, but I have been asked why I, as a Chinese male historian, research US gender history. I was once confused about the relationship between historians’ identities and their areas of expertise. Is it weird for Chinese historians to study American history in Australia? However, in this workshop, attendees commented on presentations based on academic excellence. Many presentations from a global perspective also uncovered the unlimited potential of studying world history in Australia. This encouraged me to study what I am really interested in. I have been less concerned about what I ‘should’ study solely based on my self-identification.
Furthermore, this workshop also provided historical references to contemporary issues. Speakers actively responded to current social, political, or other problems. More and more feminist historians have spoken for women and LGBTQIA+ rights instead of staying in ivory towers. For example, Prof. Damousi pointed out that historians’ translation from rigorous academic knowledge into practice has not always been recognized. This provoked me to rethink tensions between male chauvinists and feminists in today’s East Asia. What can public historians do to provide the backbone of feminist knowledge to the public? This workshop enlightened me and made me think more about this topic.
Moreover, the vitality of the MFHG Workshop suggests a strong future for feminist history scholarship in Australia. ACU, as a leading institution of feminist history studies, has a strong faculty cohort in this field. They hosted this year’s MFHG workshop, contributing to more new members joining MFHG, especially graduate students. This workshop has built a network that connects with feminist historians in Melbourne metropolitan, even in Sydney.
I am looking forward to the next MFHG workshop. In addition to more dialogue between Melbourne and Sydney feminist historians, I encourage more communication between Australian and Asian scholars. MFHG workshop provided hybrid attendance, which was an excellent and inclusive endeavour. This excellent experience will benefit all attendees in their academic careers.
Shouyue Zhang is a PhD candidate in history at the University of Melbourne. His research interests are immigration and gender history in the 20th-century United States. His publications appear in the Journal of American Ethnic History and New York Archives. He received his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from Indiana University Bloomington and SUNY Albany. Follow Shouyue on X @salmon_zhang.
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