A/Prof Grace Karskens

Overview

My research areas include urban/environmental history, Australian colonial history and cross-cultural history, and I'm interested in promoting historical understandings and awareness to wide audiences. At present I am a Trustee of the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales and the online Dictionary of Sydney project. In 2012 I will at the Rachel Carson Center in Munich as a Carson Fellow.

Research Summary

My research is in colonial Australian history, cross-cultural history, urban history, environmental history, heritage, museums and material culture.

Teaching

HIST/AUST3103 Urban Legends: The History of Sydney
HIST3904 Going Public: Public History and the Historian
ARTS1190 Australian Legends: Introducing Australian Studies

Consultation Times
By appointment.

Publications

Books
The Colony: A History of Early Sydney, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 2009.

Inside the Rocks : The Archaeology of a Neighbourhood, Sydney, Hale & Iremonger, 1999.

The Rocks : Life in Early Sydney, Melbourne University Press, 1997 (reprinted in paperback 1998).

Holroyd : A Social History of Western Sydney, Sydney, University of New South Wales Press, 1990.

Four Essays About the Great North Road, Convict Trail Project Occasional Monographs, Kulnura NSW 1998.


Edited Volumes
Historical Archaeology - Journal of the Society for Historical Archaeology, vol. 37, no 1, co-edited with Susan Lawrence, University of Nevada, Reno, 2003.

Editor, with Melita Rogowsky. Histories of Green Square : Waterloo, Alexandria, Zetland, Beaconsfield, Rosebery. [Sydney]: School of History, University of New South Wales, 2004.

Refereed Papers

‘The myth of Sydney’s Foundational Orgy’, Dictionary of Sydney, March 21012, http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org.entry/the_myth_of_sydneys_foundational_orgy.

‘Red coats, blue jackets, black skin: Aboriginal men and clothing in the early colonial New South Wales’, Aboriginal History, Vol. 35, 2011, 1-36.

‘“Property is too sacred to be taken away”: property, liberty, tyranny and the ‘Rum Rebellion’ (with Richard Waterhouse), Journal of Australian Colonial History, vol. 12, 2010, 1-22.

‘The Rocks’, Sydney Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, June 2009, 117-123.

‘Can Environmental History Save the World?', History Australia, Vol. 5, Issue 1, April 2008, 3.1-3.32 (with Sarah Brown, Jodi Frawley, Steve Dovers, Andrea Gaynor, Heather Goodall and Steve Mullins).

‘Water dreams, earthen histories: Exploring urban environmental history at Penrith Lakes and Castlereagh’, Environment and History, Vol. 13, No 2, May 2007, 115-54.

‘Nefarious Geographies: Convicts and the Early Sydney Environment’, Desolate Howling Wilderness: Environmental History in Tasmania and Beyond, Tasmanian Historical Studies, Vol. 11, 2006, 15-27.

‘Resurrecting Chapman’, Journal of the Australian Jewish Historical Society, Vol. XVIII, Part 1, June 2006, 8-21.

'This Spirit of Emigration: the nature and meaning of escape in early New South Wales', Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol. 7 2005, 1-34.

'Tourists and Pilgrims: (Re)visiting the Rocks', Journal of Australian Studies, January 2003 29-38.

'Raising the Dead: attitudes to European human remains in the Sydney region c1840-2000', in Islands of Vanishment -Historic Environment, vol. 17 no 1, 2003, 42-8.

‘Revisiting the World View: The Archaeology of Convict Households in Sydney's Rocks Neighbourhood’, in Historical Archaeology - Journal of the Society of Historical Archaeology, vol. 37, no 1, University of Nevada, Reno, 2003, 34-55.

'Engaging Artefacts: Archaeology, Museums and the Origins of Sydney', Humanities Research: Museums of the Future, the Future of Museums, vol. IX, no. 1, 2002, 36-56.

'Tales of Sydney and the telling of Sydney history', in Journal of Urban History, Vol. 28 No 6 September 2002, 778-92.

'Banished and reclaimed', Meanjin on Museums: Art or Mart, Vol. 60, no 4, 2001, pp. 26-34.

‘Engaging Artefacts: Archaeology, Museums and the Origins of Sydney’, in Historians and Museums: New Sites of Knowledge, Tasmanian Historical Studies, Vol. 7 No. 1, 2000, 38-64.

‘Historical Archaeology in Australia: Historical or Hysterical? Crisis or Creative Awakening?’, in Australasian Historical Archaeology, vol. 17, 1999 (with Richard Mackay)

'Death was in his Face: Dying, Burial and Remembrance in Early Sydney' in Labour History, No 74, May 1998, 21-39.

‘Crossing Over: Reflections of the Integration of History and Archaeology at the Cumberland/Gloucester Street Site, the Rocks 1994-1996', in Public History Review, Vol. 5/6, 1998

`The Dialogue of Townscape : The Rocks and Sydney 1788-1822', in Australian Historical Studies, No. 108, April 1997

`Declining Life : On the Rocks in Sydney', in Australian Cultural History, No. 14, 1995, pp. 63-75.

`Public History, Academic History : The Common Ground', in Public History Review, Vol. 1, 1992, pp. 14-25

`Archaeology and History in Sydney : Towards Integration and Interpretation', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol. 78, parts 3 & 4, 1992, pp. 52-75 (with Wendy Thorp).

`We Thought it was Fantastic! Concord, Sydney in the 1920s' in D. Bairstow (ed.), Archaeology of Colonisation: Australia in the World Context - Papers of the Australian Society for Historical Archaeology Conference 1987, Sydney, 1988, pp. 187-201

`Defiance, Deference and Diligence : Three Views of Convicts in N.S.W. Road Gangs', The Australian Journal of Historical Archaeology, Vol. 4, 1986, pp. 17-28.

`The Construction of the Great North Road N.S.W., 1826-1936', in Transactions of the Institution of Engineers - Multidisciplinary, Vol. G.E. 9, No. 2, October, 1985, pp. 102-111.

‘The Convict Road Station Site at Wisemans Ferry : An Historical and Archaeological Investigation', in The Australian Journal of Historical Archaeology, Vol. 2, October 1984, pp. 17-26.

‘As good as any in England - The background to the construction of the Great North Road, N.S.W., in Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol. 68, part 3, December 1982, pp. 192-204.

‘Property is too sacred to be taken away…merely at the will of a Governor’: property, liberty, tyranny and the ‘Rum Rebellion’ (with Richard Waterhouse), Australian Journal of Colonial History, forthcoming.

Chapters
‘Naked Possession: Building and the Politics of Legitimate Occupation in Early New South Wales, Australia’, in Carole Shammas (ed), Investing in the Early Modern Built Environment: Europeans, Asians, Settlers and Indigenous Societies, Leiden, Brill Academic Publishers, 2012, pp. 325-57.

‘Introduction: Old Sydney: Speaking to the heart’, in Paul Aston, Caroline Butler-Bowden, Anna
Cossu and Wayne Johnson (eds.) Painting the Rocks: The Loss of Old Sydney, Sydney, Historic Houses Trust, 2010, pp. 11-13.

'Making City Lives: Urban Archaeology and Australian Social, Cultural and Urban History', in Roger Leech and Adrian Green (eds), Cities in the World 1500-2000, London, Maney, 2006, pp. 269-79.


'The archaeology of cities: what is it we want to know?' with Susan Lawrence, in Tim Murray (ed.), Exploring the Modern City: Recent Approaches to Urban History and Archaeology, Sydney Museum of Sydney, 2003, pp.87-111

‘Small Things, Big Pictures: New Perspectives from the Archaeology of Sydney’s Rocks Neighbourhood’, in Alan Mayne and Tim Murray (eds), The Archaeology of Urban Landscapes: Explorations in Slumland, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp.69-85.

‘Sydney', entry (1500 words) in Graeme Davison, John Hirst and Stuart Macintyre (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian History, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1998

‘Spinning Yarns : An Oral History of Working Life at Bonds Cotton Spinning Mill, Pendle Hill, 1923-1988', in John Shields (ed.), All Our Labours : Oral Histories of Working Life in Twentieth Century Sydney, Sydney, University of New South Wales Press, 1992, pp. 10-46

‘The House on the Hill : The State Conservatorium and `First Class Music' in New South Wales', in Lenore Coltheart (ed.), Sites of Significance : Essays on Public Works in NSW, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger, 1989, pp. 121-41

‘Between City and Country : 1920's Concord', in Max Kelly (ed.), Sydney : City of Suburbs, Sydney, University of New South Wales Press, 1987, pp. 125-48

'The Great North Road: Historical Overview', in Lorraine Banks (ed.) Exploring the Great North Road: 1998 Forum Papers, Kulnura NSW, Convict Trail Project, 1998



Conference Proceedings
‘The Environmental City: Overview’, published online at http://www.griffith.edu.au/conference/soac2005/ forthcoming 2006.

The Environmental City: Summary of Proceedings’ published online at http://www.griffith.edu.au/conference/soac2005/ forthcoming 2006.

‘Water Dreams, earthen histories: people, country and urban environmental history at the Penrith Lakes Scheme and Castlereagh, Sydney, Australia’, published online 2005 at http://www.cishsydney2005.org/images/KarskensMT1a.doc

'Making City Lives: Urban Archaeology and Australian Social, Cultural and Urban history', in Roger Leech and Adrian Green (eds), Cities in the World: Proceedings of the Society for Post Medieval Archaeology Conference, 2002, Southampton, forthcoming, 2006.

'The Sydney Gazette and early Sydney: exploring the 'lived' town', in Rod Kirkpatrick (ed.), Papers from the Australian Newspaper Press Bicentenary Symposium, Australian Newspaper History Group and State Library of New South Wales, Middle Park Queensland, 2003, pp. 34-50.

'Crucial Fragments: Archives and Urban Social History', Proceedings of the Convergence: Joint National Conference of the Australian Society of Archivists and Records Management Association of Australia, Hobart, September 2001.

Other Publications
Shifting the shape of Australian history: convicts, the early colonial period and the making of Australia, 2012 Allan Martin Lecture, Canberra, Australian National University, 2012.

‘Voices from the Harbour’s Edge: Memory, Place and the Heritage of Modernity’ in The Central Coast Geographer, volume 8, 2000-2001, 39-47.

'The Sydney Morning Herald collection at UNSW Library: Should we keep it?', report prepared for the Social Science and Humanities Library Advisory Committee, UNSW, Sydney, November 2001.

'Heritage is also a place in the heart', Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 18 April 2001

Main Report – New Perspectives from the Rocks, volume 2 of Godden Mackay Logan and Grace Karskens, The Cumberland/Gloucester Streets Site, The Rocks: Archaeological Investigation Report, 6 vols, Sydney, Godden Mackay Logan, 1999

`Kirribilli House Bathing Pool and Early Harbourside Pools in Sydney : A Brief Overview', in Australian Society for Historical Archaeology Newsletter - Research Bulletin, No. 2, May, 1987.

Conservation and Architectural Guidelines for Residential Properties in Concord Municipality, Brochure, (with Perumal, Wrathall and Murphy) published by Concord Municipal Council, 1987.

History of the Australian House 1788 - c1950, Department of Continuing Education, University of Sydney, 1986.

Affiliations and Memberships

Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society
Historic Houses Trust
The Dictionary of Sydney

Other Information

The Colony: A History of early Sydney (Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 2009) won the 2010 Prime Minister’s Literary Award – Non-Fiction and the US Urban History Association's 2010 prize for Best Book (non-North American).

The Rocks: Life in Early Sydney (Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1997) won the 1998 Premier's Award for Community History and the 1998 National Christina Smith Award for Community History.