Public Engagement: Challenging myths of empire

Project title:

Public Engagement: Challenging myths of empire

“This project is not only about education, but also about challenging long-standing myths about empire.”

Researcher:

Project proposal:

In an age of decolonizing research and the curriculum (at all levels) it is important to question the increasing glorification of empire in recent years. Using public engagement tools, the Australian ‘working man’s paradise’ narrative and the continuing belief that convicts transported to Australia in the nineteenth century were ‘better off’, can be challenged. Academic research (which has already been carried out) will be disseminated in an informal and engaging way, and promoted to family historians, crime history enthusiasts, as well as students and academics. This will be done through the creation of bi-monthly life-narratives of convicts who were transported to Australia and died as paupers. This will be published on a WordPress blog and will accrue no cost. To accompany those blogs, podcasts will be created, which will be funded. The podcast will extend beyond the life-narrative to engage with the social and economic aspects of the colony (Australia) and issues surrounding the criminalisation of poverty, vagrancy and stigmatisation. These issues remain today and contemporary links will be made. Individual convicts will be utilised to introduce more complex historical influences and issues, to a lay audience. This is not only about education, but also about challenging long standing myths about empire.

Photo from Wikipedia

Themes: