))
Presented by Nick Eckstein and Sophie Loy-Wilson, both of the History Department at the University of Sydney, HWIR? asks why historians do what they do. What makes someone study modern China, colonial Australia, renaissance Italy, the indigenous peoples of Canada, or freedom fighters in West Papua? Why do historians become obsessed by their subject, and can they ever really find out "how it really was" in the past? HWIR? asks how talking to the past changes the present, and how it transforms ...
…
continue reading
1
When a pandemic plague hit Florence in 1630, why were city health officers worried about smells?
30:56
When the pandemic plague hit, the first action taken by the government was to impose an emergency lockdown. It was known that the disease could pass from person to person, so movement and personal contact were strictly controlled. If you developed symptoms, if you had been in contact with someone who had symptoms, if you had been somewhere the dise…
…
continue reading
In geographical terms, the island of Papua New Guinea is one of Australia's closest neighbours. Yet most Australians know little about it, and we know even less about the island's western half, named West Papua. Why is West Papua not on our radar? Why do we - and for that matter, much of the world's population - not 'see' West Papua and its people?…
…
continue reading
Sometimes progressive politics and good intentions create unexpected consequences for the marginal groups they are supposed to help. In this HWIR Sydney historian, Miranda Johnson, talks with Nick and Sophie about indigenous identity in Canada, land rights, and stories that resonate powerfully with the experience of aboriginal people in Australia. …
…
continue reading
When she began Saturday-morning Chinese language classes as a 7-year-old, Minerva Inwald could hardly have imagined what she would be doing in far-off 2010. That year would find her in Beijing, entirely on her own, a doctoral candidate tracking down the rapidly vanishing material evidence of China's Cultural Revolution. Trawling markets for artisti…
…
continue reading
The DECIMA Project, based at the University of Toronto, is a mapping tool that allows 21st-century humans to explore the streets and piazzas of Florence as it was in the 16th century. Where did Florentine bakers live and work? What did a Florentine household look like? Did contemporary citizens worry about noise? Was there a red light district, or …
…
continue reading
In the first episode of HWIR, Dr Sophie Loy-Wilson talks about how people remember, and how nations forget. We learn how Sophie's own experience as a young girl in Beijing inspired a lifelong fascination with history, and how her interest in both China and Australia led to the rediscovery of a forgotten injustice. About Sophie Loy-Wilson - Sophie L…
…
continue reading
