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June 2018

Welcome to an update on the recent activities and achievements of the Centre for 21st Century Humanities (C21CH). 

Indigenous languages research makes a global impact

Research conducted by the Centre's historical linguist, Associate Professor Mark Harvey in conjuction with the Western Sydney University's Associate Professor Robert Mailhammer has had a major national and global impact reaching more than 150 million people.

The pair's unprecedented finding is the first time the theory that all Australian languages derive from one language, Proto-Australian, has been proven.

The research has created a wave of national and global interest with more than 120 individual media stories around the world.

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Dr Gillian Arrighi has been awarded the Robert Gould Shaw Fellowship for the Harvard Theatre Collection

Senior Lecturer in the School of Creative Industries and a researcher in the Centre for 21st Century Humanities, Dr Gillian Arrighi has been awarded the Robert Gould Shaw Fellowship for the Harvard Theatre Collection at Harvard’s Houghton Library for 2018-2019. She was selected as one of just 27 out of 144 applications for this award.

Gillian will take up her Visiting Fellowship at Harvard University where she will undertake research at the Harvard Theatre Collection in support of her current book project. Titled Pinafores, Prodigies and Precocities: child actors on trans-national stages, the book brings to light the extraordinary contribution of child performers to global theatrical circuits at the turn of the twentieth century.

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Blacksmith Repair Day to foster a culture of reuse

The inaugural Blacksmith Repair Day will be on Saturday June 16 9am - 4pm at Branxton. Hosted by local blacksmith artist and sculptor, Will Maguire, and supported by the Centre for 21st Century Humanities, the community is invited to bring in their old metal items and have them repaired.

Mr Maguire says the day will be not only about fixing damaged items but also about bringing the community together through a celebration of practical skills that are often overlooked into today’s modern world.

“Through this event we can combat some of the excesses of consumer culture by reducing waste and breathing life back into items of worth. I’m also keen to build a sense of community by helping out our neighbours in the process,” Mr Maguire said.

Mr Maguire first pitched the idea for the repair day at the Centre for 21st Century Humanities Start Up Workshop held in June last year.

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New book tells the untold story of Australian POWs in Turkey

Member of the Centre for 21st Century Humanities, historian Dr Kate Ariotti has released a new book which tells the untold story of Australian POWs in Turkey.

Captive Anzacs: Australian POWs of the Ottomans during the First World War is a comprehensive, nuanced account of the experiences of 198 Australians who were taken as prisoners of war (POWs) by the Ottoman Army during World War One.

Dr Ariotti wanted to understand how these Australians negotiated the difficulties they faced in captivity, as well as how their capture and imprisonment resonated at home.

“The ripple effects of their captivity were felt much wider than just the 198 men who were imprisoned. People from across Australia, and around the world, worked to deal with the challenges of this unprecedented wartime situation and provide assistance and support to the men in the prison camps,’ Dr Ariotti said.

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Puppet theatre start up wins funding boost

One of the Centre's humanities start ups, Frank's Fantastic Fairy Tale Theatre, has been successful in applying for an Australian Cultural Fund boost. This is a crowdfunding program managed by Creative Partnerships Australia where if $2000 is raised by the 30th June, they will match this amount. 

Helen Hopcroft and the team behind Frank's theatre are fundraising to convert an old horse float into a portable puppet theatre so they can take the theatre on the road.

The theatre was awarded seed funding at the Centre's Humanities start up workshop last year. Donate to their cause here

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