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Last week, the Australian Historical Association hosted their annual conference, titled From Boom to Bust, which ran from Monday 4 July to Friday 8 July. At a dinner on Thursday 7 July, the AHA were delighted to announce the winners of this year’s AHA Awards and Prize.

The Allan Martin Award is a research fellowship to assist early career historians further their research in Australian history.

  • The winner is Ruth Morgan, ‘Australindia: Australia, India and the Ecologies of Empire, 1788–1901’
  • The judges commended Kirstie Close-Barry, ‘Intersecting Indigenous Histories: Aboriginal and Pacific Islander Connections in Australia’s Northern Territory’

The Jill Roe Prize is awarded annually for the best unpublished article-length work of historical research in any area of historical enquiry, produced by a postgraduate student enrolled for a History degree at an Australian university.

  • The winner is James H. Dunk, ‘The Liability of Colonial Madness: Jonathan Burke Hugo in Port Dalrymple, Sydney and Calcutta, 1812′

The Kay Daniels Award recognises outstanding original research with a bearing on Australian convict history and heritage including in its international context, published in 2014 or 2015.

  • The winner is Sue Castrique, Under the Colony’s Eye: Gentlemen and Convicts on Cockatoo Island 1839–1869 (Anchor Books Australia, 2014)

The Magarey Medal for Biography is awarded biennially to the female person who has published the work judged to be the best biographical writing on an Australian subject. It is jointly administered by the Australian Historical Association and the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL).

  • The winner is Libby Connors, Warrior: A Legendary Leaders Dramatic Life and Violent Death on the Colonial Frontier (Allen & Unwin, 2015)

The Serle Award is given biennially to the best postgraduate thesis in Australian History awarded during the previous two years.

  • The winner is Laura Rademaker, ‘Language and the Mission: Talking and Translating on Groote Eylandt, 1943–1973’

The W.K. Hancock Prize recognises and encourages an Australian scholar who has published a first book in any field of history in 2014 or 2015.

  • The winner is Adam Clulow, The Company and The Shogun: The Dutch Encounter with Tokugawa Japan (Columbia University Press, 2014)
  • The judges highly commended Ruth Morgan, Running Out? Water in Western Australia (UWA Publishing, 2015)

For more information, visit the AHA website.

The feature image is from the History Council roundtable discussion that took place on the Thursday. “History Councils Roundtable” included representatives of the History Councils of NSW, South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia, who shared their experiences of, and ambitions for, public and professional history in Australia. Image courtesy Margaret Birtley, Executive Officer of the History Council of Victoria, 2016.

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