PHA 2021 Conference

The historian’s job in the 21st century is richer than ever before. Technological advances have created new audiences with diverse needs, and allowed historians to chart and chronicle the past in ways that have never been conceived before. These developments in our profession have created new challenges and new learnings, which will be interrogated in this year’s Professional Historians Australia conference, hosted in Brisbane on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 September 2021.

This year’s conference features a diverse range of speakers, with keynote by Professor Melanie Nolan, Director of the National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University, and General Editor of the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB). In her presentation, Professor Nolan will review the ADB’s current cultural journey amid the transition to a digital environment, the matter of diversity and the rise of transnationalism.

On day two, Dr Ian Britain, honorary senior research fellow in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Melbourne, will deliver an extended presentation on the challenges of censorship and public attitudes towards sensitive issues. Other discussions on navigating multiple stories in historic narratives, providing space for multiple voices in history, and challenges of interpreting historical source material will feature in the rich conference program. Social activities will also enable conference participants to share learnings and current projects in a convivial atmosphere.oral history.

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