Everything has a history, and our history is an important part of our identity: as individuals, as communities, as institutions, as nations. The way we understand our histories shapes the way we imagine our futures.
Jillian Beard, PhD Candidate. Read Jillian's story
Courses in the History Major share a common interest in finding out about the history of issues, debates and questions important in our present day. We ask how has the world changed over time and what social, cultural and political ideas and ideologies have been articulated in the process? Whether at the local level or from a world perspective, what kinds of subjects, societies and cultures have come into being and why; and how has conflict and/or exchange played out in different places and times? What do we know about the histories of bodies and medicine over past centuries, of landscape and aesthetics, or of political movements?
In History, we study major questions that continue to challenge us today, including how individuals and communities have negotiated the dynamic ebbs and flows of world history such as colonisation; histories of violence and warfare; Indigenous perspectives and knowledges; histories of contact between cultures and civilizations in the global past; the history of ideas about progress, humanity, ‘race’ or gender and their impact on our understanding of the world today; and how new histories of Australia and the world reflect the interests and perspectives of historians today.
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