2017 Ernest Scott Prize Winner Announced
We are delighted to announce that the winner of the 2017 Ernest Scott Prize is Tom Griffiths, for his book The Art of Time Travel: Historians and Their Craft (Black Inc. 2016).
Tom Griffiths' daughter Kate accepted the prize on his behalf.
The Ernest Scott Prize is awarded annually for the most distinguished contribution to the history of Australia or New Zealand, or the history of colonisation. The prize is proudly supported by the History Program in the Faculty of Arts' School of Historical and Philosophical Studies.
This year's judges, Professor Fiona Paisley (Griffith University) and Professor Judith Bennett (University of Otago) found Tom Griffiths' book to be a 'wonderful meditation for historians… a beautifully written homage to the craft of writing history as a discipline and a passion … a journey that tells us much about Australian historians and their craft'.
Tom Griffiths' daughter Kate (pictured) accepted the prize on his behalf, at a reception following the 2017 Kathleen Fitzpatrick History lecture on 4 April (delivered this year by the University of Glasgow's Professor Lynn Abrams). This evening event, held in the Arts Faculty's new flagship Arts West building, was well attended by both historians and members of the history-reading public. As winner, Tom Griffiths will deliver the annual Ernest Scott lecture in autumn 2017.
This year's shortlist for the prize also included: Barbara Brooke, A History of New Zealand Women (Bridget Williams Books 2016); Penelope Edmonds, Settler Colonialism and (Re)conciliation: Frontier Violence, Affective Performances, and Imaginative Refoundings (Palgrave Macmillan 2016); and Hannah Robert, Paved with Good Intentions: Terra Nullius, Aboriginal Land Rights and Settler-Colonial Law (Halstead Press 2016). This outstanding line-up is testimony to the vibrant state of historical research in and on our region. Congratulations to all the short-listed authors!