Friends of History at Melbourne

02/06/2026

Join us to celebrate the launch of a new volume, edited by Tyne Daile Sumner, Nat Cutter, and Rachel Fensham:

Cultural Data: The Intimate Analytics of Digital Collections (Routledge, 2026)

The book will be launched on 26 June 2026 at 4pm in the Clyde Hotel in Carlton, by Distinguished Professor Lisa Given, Director of the Centre for Human-AI Information Environments and the Social Change Enabling Impact Platform, RMIT University

This volume presents a timely and original study of the meaning, uses, and impact of cultural data today. Working across critical and creative strands of inquiry, the book situates cultural data in the context of contemporary social, environmental, and political challenges such as the future of the arts and climate change.

Drawing on fields ranging from sociology and art history through to computer science and digital heritage, Cultural Data expands the possibilities for the study of arts and culture using computational methods at a critical moment for both national and global discussions about the future of digitisation and cultural data. Combining computer-assisted quantitative research with and qualitative and theoretical approaches, this book examines historical trends, demographic politics, and data cultures alongside experimental data visualisations that build distinctive narratives for the arts and creative industries. Through using and manipulating the open-source interoperability of arts and cultural data, the book presents new approaches, both theoretical and empirical, for telling stories about individual artistic careers, events, organisations, and networks. It also explores the unspoken, often hidden or obscured, content of cultural data: its murky histories, gaps, inconsistencies, silences, and bias.

This volume will be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners in fields including cultural heritage studies, creative and performing arts, archival science, cultural policy, gender studies, art history, and cultural theory. It will also be of interest to the growing community of digital humanities laboratories and centres around the globe who operate at the intersection of humanities research, data science, and creative practice.

https://www.routledge.com/Cultural-Data-The-Intimate-Analytics-of-Digital-Collections/Sumner-Cutter-Fensham/p/book/9781032492933

29/05/2026

Coming up on the evening of Thursday 25 June

To be launched by The Honourable Chief Justice Debra Mortimer, Federal Court of Australia

27/05/2026

Local historians, archivists & heritage enthusiasts: this one's for you!

The Association of Eastern Historical Societies presents their 2026 Conference:
Local History: Thinking Outside the Archival Box

Saturday 18 July 2026 | 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Yarra Ranges Civic Centre, Lilydale
$45 per person | Lunch and snacks included

This conference brings together some of Australia's leading historians, archivists, and heritage professionals for a full day of fresh ideas and practical insights.

Join an outstanding lineup of speakers including keynote Professor Sarah Baker (Griffith University), plus experts from Deakin University, the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, AMaGA Victoria, and more, covering oral histories, community collections, exhibitions, succession planning, and beyond.

Register now at trybooking.com/DLLAE
Full program: aehs.org.au/index.php/2026conference/

26/05/2026

Image via Canberra Museum and Gallery: Noel Butlin Archives (behind the scenes)The Canberra Region Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH) and the ANU Australian Studies Institute (AuSI) are co-sponsors of the Eric Fry Labour History Research Grant. We invite stude...

26/05/2026

Obsessed with Ancient Rome?

We’re giving one alum a double pass to Museums Victoria Courses: ROME - an after-hours learning experience at Melbourne Museum.

Inspired by the exhibition ROME: Empire, Power, People, this course explores the ambition, artistry and everyday life of ancient Rome across four immersive evenings this June.

Hear from leading experts, including University of Melbourne lecturers and researchers, alongside a program of guest speakers, curator insights, guided exhibition experiences, and object-focused learning.

You’ll also gain exclusive access to more than 180 remarkable objects from the Museo Nazionale Romano and Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze.

📍 Melbourne Museum
📅 Tuesdays: 2, 9, 16 & 23 June 2026
🕕 6pm–9pm

Enter by Thursday 27 May at 5pm: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/wr72

Missed out? To enrol and view the full speaker line-up click here. → https://go.unimelb.edu.au/cr72

This program has been made possible thanks to the generous support of the Italian Australian Foundation.

26/05/2026

Melanie Brand, Blind Trust: Secrecy, Scandal, and Intelligence Accountability in Cold War Australia (Georgetown University Press, 2026)

A provocative exploration of the corrosive impact of secrecy on Australian intelligence organizations' effectiveness and operations.

Secrecy is central to popular understandings of intelligence and how intelligence services operate. Intelligence agencies generally resist oversight and transparency, arguing that decreases in secrecy come at the cost of intelligence efficacy.

In Blind Trust, Melanie Brand challenges this view. Using archival research examining the role, functions, and public perceptions of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), she shows that operating in secrecy did not ensure intelligence efficacy in Cold War Australia. With little oversight from the government, ASIO's products became increasingly irrelevant to policymakers, and politicians lost sight of ASIO's value. With no external guidance or requirement to be accountable for its actions, secrecy allowed ASIO's staff to break the law and become involved in overtly partisan affairs. Finally, excessive secrecy asks for society's blind trust in an intelligence service, and ASIO lost the public's trust during the Cold War because it was able, for a time, to cover up its mistakes and exceed its authority.

This groundbreaking history of Australia's domestic spy agency is relevant to the security experiences of other democratic nation-states. Blind Trust will inform students, scholars, and professionals in the fields of intelligence studies, international relations, security studies, and history.

"This fascinating study makes an impressive contribution to the literature on intelligence accountability. The rigorously researched book offers compelling insights into Australia's Cold War intelligence history, examining with great clarity the adverse impact of excessive secrecy on intelligence performance and public trust. Highly recommended for anyone interested in intelligence studies, Cold War history, or state secrecy."—Claudia Hillebrand, senior lecturer in international relations, Cardiff University

"Brand persuasively argues that excessive secrecy, a lack of accountability, and the insular nature of Australia's intelligence agency have led to inefficiencies, increased politicization, and a loss of public trust. Compelling and fluently written, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in the Cold War or Western intelligence agencies."—Phillip Deery, author, Spies and Sparrows: ASIO and the Cold War

"Melanie Brand's extensively researched volume on the excessive secrecy and limited accountability of Australia's domestic security intelligence agency, ASIO, is an instructive story of the erosion of public trust in the agency during its formative Cold War years. While Australia's intelligence community now has some very robust oversight mechanisms in place, Brand's book reminds us all how intelligence agencies need to navigate the excesses of secrecy if they are to retain public trust while also playing an effective role in managing public safety and, when necessary, preserving our increasingly fragile democratic institutions."—Patrick F. Walsh, professor of intelligence and security studies, Charles Sturt University, Australia

"Dr. Brand's exciting and innovative book lifts the lid on the dark corner of Australia's Cold War experience of intelligence, shining a light on its evolution, as told through the prism of accountability. An important historical book, but also one that asks us to reconsider contemporary notions of secrecy and transparency."—Michael Goodman, director, King's Centre for the Study of Intelligence, King's College London

"How do spies lose and then successfully regain public trust? Melanie Brand's surprising study of suspicion, secrecy, and skepticism is the first comprehensive analysis of ASIO's troubled experience with oversight, accountability, and public affairs. This is a must-read book with important lessons for all governments and their intelligence services everywhere."—Richard J. Aldrich, author, GCHQ: The Uncensored Story of Britain's Most Secret Intelligence Agency

Melanie Brand is a lecturer in intelligence studies at Macquarie University. She received a PhD in history from the University of Melbourne, and her research has been published in Cold War History, Intelligence and National Security, and Australian Historical Studies.

https://press.georgetown.edu/Book/Blind-Trust

25/05/2026

Prof. Mark Edele on what 'Eurasia' and 'the West' mean from an Australian viewpoint

How do the “West” and “Eurasia” look from Australia?

25/05/2026

Coming up on the evening of Friday 29 May

The Faculty of Fine Arts and Music proudly presents