The School of Humanities is strengthening ties internationally, with Griffith Historian and Political Theorist Associate Professor Bruce Buchan, recently being appointed to two distinguished visiting positions in Europe.
The University of Copenhagen and the National Museum at Greenwich in the United Kingdom recently selected Associate Professor Buchan for highly competitive visiting positions.
He has been appointed to the Distinguished Visiting Chair in Australian Studies at the University of Copenhagen, until January 2016.
The Australian Studies Centre is one of three supported by the Australian Government worldwide to promote the study of Australian culture and history.
Associate Professor Buchan says while in Copenhagen he will be teaching a course on the global and intellectual history of Australia’s initial colonisation.
“I will be convening a new Master level course which takes a fresh look at Australia’s early years of colonisation,” Associate Professor Buchan says.
“The course explores what European colonists sensed when they came ashore, how they interpreted the land and its Indigenous inhabitants, and how their views were shaped by ideas drawn from European traditions of thought and previous colonial experience.”
The course will also consider how those early years of colonisation reverberate in current debates on reconciliation, Indigenous sovereignty and security.
Associate Professor Buchan also won aCaird short term Research Fellowship at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich from February to April 2016.
This highly competitive fellowship will enable Associate Professor Buchan to conduct research at the Caird Library and access extensive British maritime archives held at the National Maritime Museum.
While at the National Maritime Museum Associate Professor Buchan will explore how contemporary descriptions of sound and noise conveyed judgments about civility and incivility in maritime contexts in the eighteenth century.
Associate Professor Buchan says both these opportunities will develop research projects supported by his previous Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship, and current ARC Discovery grant.
“These opportunities will further my research into the conceptual development of civility, savagery, security and war in European thought in the Early-Modern and Enlightenment periods, and the variable roles of empire and colonisation in prompting significantshifts in meaning.
“Winning these appointments builds on the excellent record of national and international awards won by historians at Griffith, and emphasises the global reach and recognition of our research.”
