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On the ‘right to be bigots’: the dehistoricisation of racism
By Jess Hope What happens when policy ignores history? This week, Australia’s conservative government announced proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act (1975) and its amendment the Racial Hatred Act (1995), which was established in response to an increase in verbal and physical racial violence in Australia. The changes would see the repeal of Section 18C, which presently…
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Why We Need an Ethics of History Writing
By Dom Birch The writing of history, we are told, is a political occupation—all historians have a political lens through which they work, or view the past. This viewpoint has led to historians convincing themselves that their work can almost always be justified in political terms. Justifying history as politics is doomed from the start: academic…
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History, policy, and religion: a conversation
Tom Smith and Helen Sunderland (Doing History in Public) talk to Judd Birdsall, Managing Director of the Cambridge Institute on Religion & International Studies based at Clare College, Cambridge Doing History in Public: Hi Judd. Could you tell us a bit more about CIRIS and its work? Judd Birdsall (CIRIS): The Cambridge Institute on Religion &…
doinghistoryinpublic.org 