Research strengths
Research strengths
Classics and Archaeology
Research aspirations
Classics and Archaeology lie at the heart of the humanities and are positioned at the nexus between the arts and the sciences. Whereas it would be possible to live in a world without the humanities and, in turn, Classics and Archaeology, what a meaningless world it would be - bereft of memory, imagination, creativity, or any understanding of the cultural environment that has shaped all our lives. This is the programs simply stated relevance to contemporary life.
The ongoing core mission of the program is to explore what it is to be human. Its driving aspirations are threefold:
(a) To be relevant to the contemporary world
(b) To achieve excellence in research, teaching and learning
(c) To inspire the next generation of intellectual academic and global leaders and the community at large
Classics and Archaeology places great weight on research and in communicating the results to a range of audiences, including national and international networks of scholars as well as the general public. In driving research and in disseminating ideas, the course embraces both traditional means (lectures, publications and exhibitions) and new forms of technologies.
Every staff member who teaches this course cares deeply about the discipline. The academic staff of the program are eager to share their passion with others: sharing their knowledge with people who understand that humanities skills are skills for life and for the benefit of society as a whole. Their qualities as teachers and scholars are well attested. With enthusiasm, they continue to influence world leaders as well as scores of professionals and researchers, business and community leaders. This is a worthy goal that the program seeks to develop in the years ahead. We hope you can join us.
Conservation
For more information please see the Grimwade Centre Research strengths web page.
History
The History program's collective research examines the histories and transformations of society, religion, politics and culture in Australia, Asia, North America, North Africa, the Middle East and Europe, from the medieval period to today, utilizing disciplinary and interdisciplinary frameworks.
The program has well-established expertise in key areas including Australian History and Australian Studies; European History (in particular Italy, Germany, Russia, Irish Studies); Asian History (in particular China, India, Indonesia); American History; and histories of North Africa, the British West Indies, the British Empire and the Atlantic World. There is also established expertise in approaches to the study of the past that cut across geographical and national boundaries, including transnational and international histories, historical memory and commemoration, cultural heritage, the histories of media and popular culture, and studies of war, diplomacy, social movements and Indigenous and human rights.
History research priorities
- The history of Australia and Australia in the World
- The National, International and Transnational History of Australasia, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle-East
- Ideas, emotions, memory, violence, media: expressive histories
- Space, place and things in time: empires and colonies, cities and regions, heritage and material culture
History and Philosophy of Science
Research orientations
History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) at the University of Melbourne is oriented towards an integrated approach that aims to link historical, philosophical, and sociological methods in the study of science, technology and medicine. It is thus by nature interdisciplinary, linking to various other disciplines within the faculty, in other faculties and outside the university.
The program combines the traditional broad approach to research in HPS with methodologies developed in historical and social epistemology aiming to explore links and correspondences between the different research areas. These research areas include:
- the use of technology in domestic environments
- scientific naturalism
- historical demography
- the history and philosophy of 20th century physics
- the history of early modern experimental natural philosophy
- practical mathematics
Jewish Culture and Society
Jewish Culture and Society research strengths
Contemporary Hebrew fiction, second generation Holocaust writing, Hebrew language instruction and pedagogy, reconciliation and interfaith initiatives between Jews and Muslims and Palestinians and Israelis, Jewish literature, Jewish feminist writings, Israeli society and politics, Israeli ethnic studies, religious movements and streams in Judaism.
Philosophy
Philosophy research strengths
Research in Philosophy at the University of Melbourne covers the two discipline areas of 'Philosophy' and 'Applied Ethics'.
We have strengths in all research areas mentioned below, with particular international renown in:
- Logic, metaphysics, and philosophy of language
- Ethics, moral psychology, and metaethics
- Applied ethics and political philosophy
Research in the two disciplinary clusters ranges across the entire spectrum, from pure basic research to applied research. Pure basic research in Philosophy spans the core areas of theoretical philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, philosophical logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, phenomenology, philosophy of science), practical philosophy (ethics, political philosophy, moral psychology, metaethics, aesthetics), and history of philosophy (Ancient philosophy, Asian philosophy, history of modern philosophy, history of 19th and 20th century European philosophy, and history of early analytic philosophy).
We also engage in strategic basic research aimed at richer theoretical understandings of important social problems including the morality of terrorism, social justice and poverty both global and national, bioethics, and reasoning under uncertainty in the context of climate change debate. In addition, our applied research targets topics such as taxation and distributive justice, climate change justice, the ethics of food production and consumption, ownership of indigenous knowledge, and social organisation in multi-faith societies.
Research aspirations
Philosophy would like to build extra capacity in the fields of political philosophy, Asian philosophy, philosophy of cognitive science, and history of philosophy.