Higher Degree by Research Application Portal

 The School of Humanities at the University of Western Australia is seeking applications from prospective domestic and international PhD candidates to join a multi-disciplinary research project investigating the Australian legacies of British slavery. A PhD scholarship is offered for research that will generate new knowledge of the links between Britain’s abolition of slavery in 1833 and the invasion and occupation of Indigenous land. The larger project to which the PhD candidate will contribute is the ARC-funded project, ‘Australian Legacies of British Slavery: Capital, Land, and Labour’. Focusing on the two colonial settlements established simultaneously in the immediate aftermath of abolition, South Australia and the Port Phillip District, the larger project asks

1.        How important was the legacy of British slavery for colonisation, why has it been overlooked, and how can it inform new histories of Australia?

2.        After emancipation in the 1830s, what routes did people and capital involved in slavery follow to South Australia and the Port Phillip District? How did these two colonies differ and what did they share? How did principles and practices drawn from Britain’s system of slavery – especially relating to land commodification, mercantilism, labour and the treatment of colonised peoples – shape the new settlements?

PhD candidates may propose to work on a discrete topic within, or intersecting with, these larger aims. Working under the supervision of Jane Lydon and Zoe Laidlaw, the successful candidate will make a central contribution to the wider project in keeping with their research background and ambitions, and in conversation with the project themes, including the gendered, classed and/or raced aspects of these processes; family histories and life stories; the history of land property administration; the memory and heritage of this topic, and more. Candidates may discuss potential topics with Professor Lydon. 

Wesfarmers Chair of Australian History Research Fund 

Stipend Scholarship value: $35,000 per year for 3.5 years 

Professor Jane Lydon Jane.lydon@uwa.edu.au 

https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/jane-lydon

The PhD position presents a unique opportunity to produce important new knowledge in an overlooked and highly topical field of research, and includes substantial financial support and access to a lively academic network. The project team comprises scholars of history and heritage, offering the successful candidate mentoring and supervision in line with the project focus. The doctoral candidate will be based at the School of Humanities at UWA in an engaging intellectual environment. Preference will be given to graduates of history, or cognate disciplines experienced in working with archival and historical source material.

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is a program of independent, supervised research that is assessed solely on the basis of a thesis, sometimes including a creative work component, that is examined externally. The work presented for a PhD must be a substantial and original contribution to scholarship, demonstrating mastery of the subject of interest as well as an advance in that field of knowledge. 

Visit the course webpage for full details of this course including admission requirements, course rules and the relevant CRICOS code/s.