A new review in Journal of British Studies. "Williamson is less concerned with virtue as a personal category of analysis and more with virtue as a political idea. This is a preference heartily welcomed in eighteenth-century British studies, which has not taken late twentieth-century debates about civic humanism nearly far enough out of their home … Continue reading Orienting Virtue
Here's a short commissioned piece for the North American Conference for British Studies - a group of us were asked to respond to this piece about the crisis of British Studies in North America. Australian humanities scholars have experienced and analysed crises in their fields for somewhat longer than others, so I was pleased to … Continue reading British Studies and the Humanities in Australia
Australia Day comes round again, with the same debates about the significance of 26 Jan. 1788. I wrote about this fateful summer in my latest book. The relevant part is here, if you care to read a narrative, told in reverse, of the three key groups meeting each other then (the Yiyura, the French, and … Continue reading The summer of 1788
In October 2023, I had the great honour of delivering the Annual Greg Dening Memorial Lecture in Melbourne. It does talk about my new book a bit but also talks about Greg Dening, his influence on me, and my growth as a historian (and also contemporary ACU shenanigans, which are ongoing). It's one of the … Continue reading Greg, Arthur, Bennelong, and Me
It's been a wild month here; just as my new book was released, my employer ACU suddenly announced a change plan that saw me and 40 other academics be 'disestablished.' I don't know what the future holds, but in the meantime I carry on with my writings. Here is a book review that I was … Continue reading Western Civilisation and its Discontents
Been speaking to some folks about my new book, Bennelong & Phillip (mostly audio, some written): A chat on Biographers in Conversation, released May 2025. Here is me with Phillip Adams on Late Night Live, aired 11 October 2023. Here also is me with Dallas Rogers on the CityRoadPod, aired 4 October 2023. A chat … Continue reading Discussions with others: Bennelong & Phillip
Pacific history is back in vogue for some reason; I was asked to chat to Phil Clark on ABC's Nightlife in their 'history segment'. Who was Tupaia and what was his relationship to James Cook? For more, click on through here:) [The image here one of Tupaia's own, sketched in April-May 1770 of Kamaygal fishermen … Continue reading Tupaia on the ABC
Just saw that Latrobe Youtube broadcasted this talk I gave them in 2021 (I found it because I had to do a search for Kate Fullager, wrong spelling, to find something else attributed to this name). It was about an article I'd just published in Australian Historical Studies. Good on Latrobe History to have their … Continue reading Remembering Cook, Again
I was only one of a few talking heads in this podcast, but it has become special to me because it was the last time I engaged with Keith Vincent Smith. His voice is included here - we recorded it just before the pandemic in early 2020. He died in 2022, a dogged and generous … Continue reading Bennelong Revealed Podcast
The painting has finally been bought back from its "foreign" buyer from 2001, by both the UK's National Portrait Gallery and the Getty in Los Angeles. It will now reside 50/50 in UK and USA. I'm still frustrated by the framing of the whole thing, which has been quite ludicrous since its sale to John … Continue reading On Reynolds’ Mai Portrait (again)
Kate Fullagar 