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. 

Preference will be given to graduates of history, or cognate disciplines experienced in working with archival and historical source material.

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

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

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