Biography
Joanna Cruickshank came to Deakin in 2009. Her PhD research, undertaken at the University of Melbourne, examined the way that eighteenth-century British people made sense of their experiences of suffering through the practice of writing and singing hymns. This research involved a particular focus on questions of gender.
Since coming to Deakin, Joanna has worked primarily on the history of religion and race in Australia and the British Empire, with a continuing focus on women's experience. Her research on women and Aboriginal missions has examined the way that religious belief shaped white women's attitudes to race and gender as well as their relationships with Aboriginal women. She is currently part of an ARC Discovery Indigenous Project which examines Aboriginal leadership in the conduct of lawful relations in Victorian history.
Joanna's research on these topics informs and is shaped by the experience of developing and teaching units on gender and colonial history.
Read more on Joanna's profileResearch interests
History of religion in Britain and Australia
Gender and religion
History of Christian missions
Empire and religion
Race and Christianity
Teaching interests
AIH 305 (Sex, Gender, Race: Empires, 1750-1950); AIH 288 (Colonial Encounters); AIX494 (Research Communication)
Professional activities
Editorial Board, Wesley and Methodist Studies (Penn State University Publishing)
Editorial Board, Studies in Christian Mission (Brill Publishing)
Academic Committee, School of Indigenous Studies, University of Divinity
Research groups
Centre for Contemporary Histories
Awards
Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence (2019)
Outstanding Dissertation Award, Wesleyan Theological Society (US). (2008)
Ian Robertson Travel Prize (2005)
University Medal, University of Queensland (1996)
Projects
Joanna is involved in a number of research projects which examine the role of religion in colonial Australia and the British Empire. These include studies of missionary women involved in Aboriginal missions and research on the relationship between church and state in Australian settler colonialism. She is also part of a team conducting research into how Australians understand history and its uses.
From 2018, Joanna has been a Chief Investigator on an ARC Discovery (Indigenous) Project which examines the leadership of Aboriginal people in conducting lawful relations with the settler government in Victoria.
From 2011-2016, Joanna was part of a team awarded an ARC Linkage Grant for the "Minutes of Evidence" project, which examines the ways in which colonial and postcolonial societies have responded to injustice. At the heart of the project is a theatre performance, Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country, which consists entirely of the voices of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people who testified at the 1881 Parliamentary inquiry into Coranderrk Aboriginal station. Joanna's research within this project examined the religious convictions of the non-Aboriginal people who testified at the inquiry, particularly their understandings of justice.
Publications
Missionaries, Peacemaking and the 'Meeting of Laws' in Australia
Joanna Cruickshank, Bronwyn Shepherd
(2023), Vol. 58, pp. 174-198, Pacifying Missions: Christianity, Violence and Empire in the Nineteenth Century, Leiden, The Netherlands, B1
Australia's Stolen Generations, 1914-2021
Joanna Cruickshank, Crystal McKinnon
(2023), pp. 93-117, The Cambridge World History of Genocide: Genocide in the Contemporary Era, 1914-2020, Cambridge, Eng., B1
Australia's Stolen Generations, 1914-2021
Joanna Cruickshank, Crystal McKinnon
(2023), Vol. 3, pp. 93-117, The Cambridge World History of Genocide: Volume 3: Genocide in the Contemporary Era, 1914–2020, Cambridge, Eng., B1
Thinking with Sovereignty in Australia
Joanna Cruickshank, Julie Evans, Ann Genovese, Crystal McKinnon, Shaun McVeigh
(2022), pp. 123-146, Sovereignty: A Global Perspective, Oxford, Eng., B1
Religious freedom in 'the most godless place under Heaven': making policy for religion in Australia
J Cruickshank
(2021), pp. 45-52, History Australia, Abingdon, Eng., C1
Lawful conduct, Aboriginal protection and land in Victoria, 1859-1869
Joanna Cruickshank, Mark McMillan
(2020), pp. 194-211, Aboriginal protection and its intermediaries in Britain's antipodean colonies, New York, N.Y., B1
White women, Aboriginal missions and Australian settler governments: maternal contradictions
Joanna Cruickshank, Patricia Grimshaw
(2019), Leiden, The Netherlands, A1
Colonial contexts and global dissent
J Cruickshank
(2017), Vol. 3, pp. 296-315, The oxford history of protestant dissenting traditions - the nineteenth century, Oxford, Eng., B1
Women, authority and power on Ramahyuck Mission, Victoria, 1880-1910
J Cruickshank, P Grimshaw
(2015), pp. 165-182, Settler colonial governance in nineteenth-century Victoria, Canberra, A.C.T., B1
Indigenous land loss, justice and race: Anne Bon and the contradictions of settler humanitarianism
J Cruickshank, P Grimshaw
(2015), pp. 45-61, Indigenous communities and settler colonialism: land holding, loss and survival in an interconnected worlds, London, Eng., B1
I had gone to teach but stayed to learn: Geraldine MacKenzie at Aurukun Mission, 1925-1965
J Cruickshank, P Grimshaw
(2015), Vol. 39, pp. 54-65, Journal of Australian studies, London, Eng., C1
Converting Mrs Crouch: women, wonders and the formation of English methodism, 1738-1741
B Curtis Clark, J Cruickshank
(2014), Vol. 65, pp. 66-83, Journal of ecclesiastical history, Cambridge, England, C1
The sermon in the British colonies
J Cruickshank
(2012), pp. 513-529, The Oxford Handbook of the British Sermon 1689-1901, Oxford, England, B1
'Mother, teacher, adviser and missionary' : Matilda Ward in North Queensland, 1891-1917
J Cruickshank
(2011), pp. 27-45, Founders, firsts and feminists : women leaders in 20th-century Australia, Melbourne, Vic., B1
Blood, tears and race : Moravian missionaries and indigenous bodies in colonial Australia
J Cruickshank
(2011), Vol. 14, pp. 15-31, Interface : a forum for theology in the world, Hindmarsh, S. Aust., C1
J Cruickshank, P Grimshaw
(2010), pp. 151-165, Missionaries, indigenous peoples and cultural exchange, Great Britain, B1
Race, history, and the Australian faith missions
J Cruickshank
(2010), Vol. 34, pp. 39-52, Itinerario : international journal on the history of European expansion and global interaction, Cambridge, England, C1
Pain, passion and faith : revisiting the place of Charles Wesley in early Methodism
J Cruickshank
(2009), Lanham, Md., A1
J Cruickshank
(2009), pp. 85-102, Creating white Australia, Sydney, N.S.W., B1
'Friend of my soul' : constructing spiritual friendship in the autobiography of Mary Fletcher
J Cruickshank
(2009), Vol. 32, pp. 373-387, Journal for eighteenth-century studies, Oxford, England, C1
J Cruickshank
(2008), pp. 115-124, Evangelists of empire? : missionaries in colonial history, Melbourne, Vic., B1-1
J Cruickshank
(2007), pp. 245-263, Charles Wesley : life, literature and legacy, Peterborough, Vic., B1-1
J Cruickshank
(2006), Vol. 30, pp. 311-330, Journal of religious history, Carlton, Vic., C1-1
J Cruickshank
(2006), Vol. 88, pp. 81-100, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, Manchester, England, C1
Funded Projects at Deakin
Australian Competitive Grants
Minutes of Evidence project: Promoting new and collaborative ways of understanding Australia's past and engaging with structural justice
Dr Julie Evans, A/Prof Joanna Cruickshank, Prof Patricia Grimshaw
ARC Linkage - Projects Rnd 2
- 2013: $11,000
- 2012: $11,000
Indigenous leaders: Lawful relations from encounter to treaty
Prof Mark McMillan, A/Prof Joanna Cruickshank, A/Prof Ann Genovese, A/Prof Robert McVeigh, Dr Julie Evans
ARC Discovery Indigenous
- 2022: $138,389
- 2020: $1,611
- 2019: $31,716
- 2018: $16,716
Other Public Sector Funding
Geelong Ladies Reading Circle Research Project.
A/Prof Joanna Cruickshank, A/Prof Tiffany Shellam, Ms Jacquelyn Baker
Geelong Regional Library Corporation
- 2022: $9,000
Industry and Other Funding
History for Change
A/Prof Joanna Cruickshank
Pozible Pty Ltd
- 2016: $8,749
Supervisions
Jacquelyn Baker
Thesis entitled: Tracing the "Somewhere" of Women's Liberation in Melbourne: An Oral History, 1960s-Present
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Lauren Robinson
Thesis entitled: Places of Pleasure and Freedom: Victorian Women on the Land (1835-1901)
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Jennifer Louise Caligari
Thesis entitled: Bessie Harrison Lee (1860-1950) Evangelical, temperance and social reformer
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Bronwyn Shepherd
Thesis entitled: Making a mission space: Milingimbi Methodist Mission, 1923-1943
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Deborah Lee-Talbot
Thesis entitled: Kaleidoscopic archives: a history about London Missionary Society records, 1813-2022
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Lisa Couacaud
Thesis entitled: The Ideal America(n): Dwight Eisenhower's Elusive Search
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Kirstie Barry
Thesis entitled: A Mission Divided: Race and Culture in Fiji's Methodist Mission
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Mark Humphries
Thesis entitled: Understanding Euthanasia Debate: The Northern Territory Experience in Historical Context
Doctor of Philosophy, School of History, Heritage and Society