AHA Conference 2021: ‘Unfinished Business’

29 November-2 December 2021, UNSW Sydney and State Library of NSW

The Australian Historical Association is delighted to be holding the 39th AHA Conference at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. The AHA 2021 Conference will bring together scholars from across the disciplines with a shared interest in history. The conference is open to academics, students and community members wishing to share their research and hear about the latest developments in history studies. The conference will be held at and sponsored by UNSW Sydney and the State Library of NSW, and the theme for 2021 is Unfinished Business.  

The Uluru Statement, Black Lives Matter protests, toppled statues and the Whitlam Dismissal are just a few examples of history’s unfinished business in the contemporary world. On the eve of its 40th anniversary, the Australian Historical Association Conference returns to the University of New South Wales where it held its first conference in 1982 and invites papers exploring the unfinished business of history. To what extent are the questions that historians posed forty years ago still unanswered? Which areas are most in need of further historical attention? In what ways have historians intervened in and shaped contemporary debates about politics and national identity in Australia and elsewhere, and how can they continue to do so? How have historians contributed to historical silences, and how can they write and promote more inclusive historical narratives? What new historical methods and approaches have been, or should be, advanced? How have views about historical evidence changed in the last forty years, and can historians continue to expand ‘the archive’? In posing such questions, contributors are invited to consider how their own specific fields have evolved and to chart their future directions. The conference also invites reflection on other ways of doing history, less tethered to disciplinary constraints and as a result, perhaps better placed to confront the unfinished business of the past. Proposal submissions are now open for individual papers, panel sessions and roundtable discussions that explore conference themes.