About
Why is the French Revolution still relevant today, 230 years after the fall of the Bastille? The Living Revolution symposium will explore this question.
About the symposium
Celebrating the career of the great revolutionary historian, Emeritus Professor Peter McPhee AM, the symposium takes its name from a key dimension of his work - the experience of ordinary people living through extraordinary times, from rural peasants to Maximilien Robespierre. More than a dozen leading experts from around the world - one of the largest gatherings of revolutionary historians ever in Australia - will trace McPhee's legacy across a range of current topics in historical scholarship, from emotions, war and the "Terror", to global networks and environmental degradation. This symposium will offer an unparalleled opportunity to gain an up-to-the-minute picture of one of history's most dramatic events, and to learn more about one of Australia's great historians.
Download the Symposium Program
About Emeritus Professor Peter McPhee AM
Peter McPhee completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne under the supervision of Alison Patrick. After teaching at La Trobe University, Melbourne, and Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, he returned to a lectureship at Melbourne in 1987 and was appointed to a Personal Chair in History in 1993. He was Head of Department in 1996-99. He was appointed to the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) in 2003 before becoming the University's first Provost in 2007-09, with particular responsibility for the design and implementation of the University's new curriculum structures, the ‘Melbourne Model’. He is a Fellow of both the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of Social Sciences. He became a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012. Peter has published widely on the history of modern France, most recently Robespierre: a Revolutionary Life (Yale University Press, 2012); and Liberty or Death: the French Revolution (Yale University Press, 2016). He also wrote a biography of a Chancellor of the University, R.D. ('Pansy') Wright. Although formally retired, Peter continues to teach history to undergraduates, and a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).
Contact
For more information about the symposium please contact:
Ellie Clay, Public Programs and Events Coordinator
Email: ellie.clay@unimelb.edu.au