I’m pleased to be presenting on my book and current works in progress at the first Deakin Cultural Heritage seminar of the semester on 31 July 2019. The seminar title is “Ideal landscapes, planning and heritage in postwar British culture”, and the abstract as follows: While Britain’s postwar planned landscapes, including modernist urban redevelopments and … More Deakin Cultural Heritage seminar, 31 July 2019
I reviewed two excellent books for History Australia journal this summer and the review has just gone to print in the latest issue. Seamus O’Hanlon‘s City Life: The New Urban Australia (NewSouth, 2018) and Ben Schrader’s The Big Smoke: New Zealand Cities, 1840–1920 (Bridget Williams Books, 2016) were interesting to read in dialogue with each … More Review published: Urban histories of the nation and beyond in Australia and New Zealand
It was extremely exciting to be asked to write for the relaunched Tribune magazine, who have taken an especial interest in rethinking recent British political history, especially around urban policy. My article, “Come to Milton Keynes,” can be found here. It discusses the new, fascinating exhibition The Lie of the Land being held at the … More Article for Tribune: Come to Milton Keynes!
The University of Sydney’s Political Economy department are a fantastic team and I have previously mentioned how fascinating and enriching I found their 2018 Historical Materialism conference. Their blog Progress in Political Economy is one I always read with great interest, and so it was very exciting to be asked to write a guest post … More Guest post for Progress in Political Economy: Imagining England, Imagining the Centre
I’m excited to announce that my first book, Milton Keynes in British Culture: Imagining England, has been published by Routledge as part of their series Routledge Studies in Modern British History. The publisher page can be found here, and a free preview is available via Google Books. The publisher’s description can be found here: The … More New book: Milton Keynes in British Culture
This month I will be taking up a three-month Gilbert Early Career Postdoctoral Fellowship in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. This fellowship is designed to support the development of publications arising from PhD research by recent graduates of the department. I am pleased to have been offered one … More Gilbert Early Career Postdoctoral Fellowship
A special issue of the Australian ICOMOS journal, Historic Environment, which I guest-edited with Dr Elizabeth Taylor, has been published. Our editorial is available on the Historic Environment website here, and is freely accessible. The contributors’ articles will be available online in the coming months. It was fantastic to work with so many promising Australian … More Special issue of Historic Environment: Sites of Consumption on the Fringes of Urban Heritage
After being stuck in Sydney Airport for an extra day courtesy of bizarre weather, I’ve finally returned from the 2018 Historical Materialism Sydney conference. It was a fantastically invigorating conference, and a very refreshing opportunity to think through important questions with a diverse audience. My paper was entitled “Wars on Brutalism: concrete modernism and imperialist heritage … More Historical Materialism Sydney 2018
I’m very excited that my journal article ‘“We’re full”: Capacity, Finitude, and British Landscapes, 1945‐1979’ has been published today in the Australian Journal of Politics and History. This article synthesises ideas from two conference papers; one I presented at a collaborative symposium between the University of Melbourne, University of Glasgow, and University of Tianjin on … More New journal article: ‘“We’re full”: Capacity, Finitude, and British Landscapes, 1945‐1979’
My local polling place for elections in Melbourne is All Saints Parish Hall, which has an excellent charity shop. It’s become a tradition to spend some time going through their excellent book collection after I’ve voted. I’ve bought quite a few E.P. Thompson and Raymond Williams books from them over the years, and after voting … More Urban history ephemera: a London A-Z turns up in Westgarth
