Key Information
Where
James Cook University, Bebegu Yumba Campus, Townsville
Cost
Various pricing
Audience
Alumni; Current Students; Public and Community; Research and Industry; Staff
Contact
AHA2025@jcu.edu.au
James Cook University and Central Queensland University are proud to be hosting the annual conference of the Australian Historical Association in 2025, to be held from 30 June to 4 July.
The local organising committee of historians from JCU’s College of Arts, Society and Education, and CQU’s School of Education and the Arts are excited to welcome historians from around Australia and the world to Townsville on Bindal and Wulgurukaba Country to share their new research and engage one another on the pressing questions facing our discipline and our communities.
Call for Papers and Key Dates
Historians engage in many forms of looking up. The popular image of a historian is a person with their head down in the depths of an archive or library looking up books and documents. However, historians are at their most impactful when they also look up at the world around them and connect their work to contemporary issues. The first historians and custodians of what is now Australia literally looked up to the stars that served as calendars and markers of the passage of time. From ancient times to the present, historians have looked up at the power structures that shape society.
In Australia, the phrase “looking up” also has a significant geographical dimension. Most of Australia’s population (and most of its historians) work in the southeast corner of the continent, even while nearly half the continent lies in the tropics. Periodically policy makers have looked up to northern Australia and the nations of the ‘near north’ and seen both threats and opportunities. In 2025 the AHA offers historians an opportunity to engage with the scale and place of the Australian continent and its history.
The Australian Historical Association invites historians to come to Townsville for its annual conference to be held between 30 June and 4 July 2025. Co-hosted by James Cook University and Central Queensland University, the organisers welcome proposals for papers and panels on any aspect of history. Participants can identify conference streams relevant to their work, and all abstracts will be considered. Participants are encouraged to relate their work to the conference theme of looking up and applying the historian's toolkit to make a meaningful contribution to contemporary debate.
Abstract submissions are now closed. We aim to release a draft program by 18 April and finalise the program by 23 May.
Early bird registrations are available until 21 March 2025, with regular pricing after this date.
Please note that all speakers must register for the conference by 23 May to remain on the program and must also be members of the Australian Historical Association.
Conference Information
Professor Henry Reynolds
Professor Henry Reynolds is one of Australia’s most distinguished historians. In 1965 he accepted a lectureship at James Cook University in Townsville, which sparked an interest in the history of relations between settlers and Aboriginal people. His pioneering scholarly work, especially The Other Side of the Frontier (1981), was critical in changing understandings of the Australian frontier. He has published 20 books, including Why Weren’t We Told? and North of Capricorn, and has won major literary prizes such as the Prime-Ministers Prize for non-fiction and the Ernest Scott Prize (twice). In 2000 he took up a professorial fellowship at the University of Tasmania; his work continues to be widely used as source material and inspiration for poets, film makers, song writers, painters, novelists and dramatists.
Margaret Reynolds AC
Margaret Reynolds was politicized by her experience of campaigning against conscription and the Vietnam War in Townsville in the 1960s. She has continued working in the global peace movement and is currently National President of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Margaret joined the Australian Labor Party in support of Gough Whitlam’s Government 1972-75 and is currently Ambassador to the Whitlam Institute at University of Western Sydney. She continues working with non-government organizations and local communities to promote a better understanding of politics and international law.
Dr Lyndon Megarrity
Historian and author Dr Lyndon Megarrity is an adjunct lecturer at the College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University. He has published widely on Queensland political history, overseas student policy and Northern Australia. He won the 2019 Chief Minister’s Northern Territory History Book Award for his book Northern Dreams: The Politics of Northern Development in Australia. His latest book is Rex Patterson: A Voice for the North (2024).
Professor Andrea Gaynor
Andrea Gaynor is a Professor of History and ARC Future Fellow at The University of Western Australia. As an environmental historian, she seeks to research and tell historical stories that can spark ideas, conversations and action toward more just and sustainable societies. Her ongoing research and activism have focused on nature in urban modernity, conservation, community-led land management, agriculture, fisheries, and trees.
The 2025 conference will host a range of streams of affiliated networks and important thematic areas. The following streams are confirmed:
- War & Conflict, sponsored by the Australian Army History Unit
- Maritime History
- Economic History
- Northern and Regional Australia History
- AANZEHN Green Stream
- First Nations History
- History of Violence
- Oral History
- Intellectual History
- Australian Women’s History Network
- Australian Migration History Network
- History of Capitalism
- Law and History
Early bird registrations are now available until 21 March 2025. You can purchase registration tickets on Eventbrite here or via the 'register now' link above.
Please note that all speakers must register for the conference by 23 May to remain on the program and must also be members of the Australian Historical Association.
| Full Rate | Student/Concession Rate | |
|---|---|---|
|
early bird, In person, full: $390 full price, in person, full: $415 (after 21 March) |
early bird, in person, full: $190 full price, in person, full: $200 (after 21 March) | |
In person, single day: $190 | In person, single day: $95 | |
| Virtual,* full: $200 | Virtual,* full: $100 |
*Please note that the conference will have some hybrid and some in-person only streams.
Conference dinner tickets are also available for $100 (full rate) or $75 (student/concession rate)
The Australian Historical Association offers and manages several award and bursary schemes, including:
- AHA Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Conference Awards
- 6 x Postgraduate and ECR Conference Awards, including 2 Ken and Amirah Inglis Conference Grants valued at $1,000
- Patrick Wolfe Early Career Researcher Conference Bursary
- 2 x successful applicants have their AHA conference registration and conference dinner cost covered
Follow the links to the AHA’s website for further details about the application processes. Applications open in January 2025 with the deadline for these schemes 31 March 2025.
The Australian Army History Unit (AAHU) is offering offering to sponsor one HDR student and one ECR Historian to attend the 2025 AHA Conference. Sponsorship will include return travel within Australia, accommodation, AHA conference entry and dinner, meals and incidentals allowance.
Applications close 2 May 2025. Please download the attachment here for details on eligibility and how to apply.
Further enquiries can be directed to ahu.enquiries@defence.gov.au
The Northern Australia Fellowship is also sponsored by the AHA 2025 Conference Committee to support two Northern Australia Fellows to undertake archival research at the JCU Library Special Collections and present at the AHA 2025 Conference in Townsville. Each fellowship is worth $1,000 with conference registration and conference dinner additionally covered. The fellowships for 2025 have been awarded to:
- Adele Zubrzycka (University of Queensland) for the project entitled Hidden Voices: Exploring South Sea Islander narratives in the James Cook University Special Collections;
- Julia Russoniello (University of Sydney) for the project entitled Music in the Tropics: Investigating Networks of Cultural and Musical Exchange.
Two candidates were additional awarded a Highly Commended for their projects: Lauren Samuelsson and Deborah Lee-Talbot.
The annual conference of the Australian Historical Association in 2025 will be held on Bindal and Wulgurukaba Country in Townsville, North Queensland, primarily on the Bebegu Yumba Campus at James Cook University in Douglas.
The 2025 AHA Committee has put together an accommodation and transport guide to help you with navigating your way to the conference venues and in deciding where in Townsville to stay. You can download the pdf guide at the link here.
There will also be a number of post-conference events and excursions, including a visit to the Billabong Sanctuary, historical walking tour of Townsville CBD, and bird watching with Russell McGregor. More details coming soon!
Please get in touch with the Organising Committee if you have any questions.
The local organising committee of historians from JCU’s College of Arts, Society and Education, and CQU’s School of Education and the Arts include:
- Dr. Benjamin Jones (CQU);
- Dr. Claire Brennan (JCU);
- Dr. Darren Swanson (CQU);
- Dr. Joe Collins (CQU);
- Prof. Koen Stapelbroek (JCU);
- Dr. Lyndon Megarrity (JCU);
- Dr. Michael Danaher (CQU);
- Dr. Rohan Lloyd (JCU);
- Dr. Tianna Killoran (JCU).