Biography
Helen Gardner began her academic career at the University of Otago, New Zealand, in 2001. In 2002 she was appointed to Deakin University as a lecturer in World History and Pacific History.
She is currently working with the Institute in the Contemporary History Group where she leads research into contemporary and historical Pacific issues. In 2012 she became the external editor of the Journal of Pacific History and is a former secretary of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies.
Helen's most recent publication, co-authored with anthropologist Patrick McConvell, explores the conception and writing of a nineteenth century book of Australian anthropology Kamilaroi and Kurnai (1880). Their book Southern Anthropology - a History of Fison and Howitt's Kamilaroi and Kurnai is based on archival sources and argues for a reapprasial of Fison and Howitt's influence on global theories of human variety in the late nineteenth century.
She is also co-editing an affiliated special issue on the history of Australian anthropology to be published in Oceania in 2016.
Helen other major project is on the spread of the Boasian culture concept into the Pacific via the theological colleges, and the influence of these ideas on the decolonisation of the region. See her co-edited special issue for The Journal of Pacific History titled ' Decolonisation Melanesia' (2013).
Helen has led a number of research projects including Missions and modernity; the History of anthropology; Decolonisation in Melanesia.
In 2015 she will present at the Waigani seminar in Papua New Guinea and undertake a research fellowship at the University of Cambridge.
She is interested in translocal histories and is available for HDR supervision in the following areas:
History of Anthropology - nineteenth and twentieth centuries
History of Christian Mission in Oceania - nineteenth and twentieth centuries
History of Science in Oceania - nineteenth century
Read more on Helen's profileResearch interests
Helen's first book, 'Gathering for God: George Brown in Oceania' was published in 2006 by the University of Otago Press, and was shortlisted for the Ernest Scott History Prize in 2007.
Helen is currently working on two major research projects. The first is a book on nineteenth century anthropology in Oceania with a particular focus on the early study of kinship in the region published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2015: Southern Anthropology - A History of Fison and Howitt's Kamilaroi and Kurnai
http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/southern-anthropology-the-history-of-fison-and-howitts-kamilaroi-and-kurnai-helen-gardner/?K=9781137463807.
The second is a collaborative study on the decolonisation of Melanesia and the role of the churches in the politics of the Pacific.
Teaching interests
Bachelor of Arts (Honours)
Units taught
The World After the War 1945-1990
Race, Science and Religion in Australasia, 1860-1920
The Decolonisation of Papua New Guinea
Knowledge areas
Pacific History - History of Christian Missions; Colonisation and Decolonisation in the Pacific - local, national and global perspectives; Church and State in the Pacific; Nation building in the Pacific Islands, historical and contemporary perspectives.
History of Anthropology: The history of anthropology in Oceania. Missionary anthropology in Oceania in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The field and the metropole in the spread of anthropological theories. The culture concept in twentieth century Pacific history.
Conferences
2014: The Pacific History Association Converence Taiwan
Lorimer Fison and 'Land Tenure in Fiji'
2013: The Australian History Association Conference, Wollongong, Australia
Theology and the Culture Concept in the Pacific
2012: Pacific History Association Conference, Wellington, New Zealand
Theologies of Nation in the decolonisation of the Pacific.
2010: American Anthropology Association Meeting, New Orleans, U.S.A.
James Unaipon's kinship;
The descent of kinship in Australia: Lorimer Fison and A. W. Howitt
Research groups
Internationalism in the Pacific: Associate Professor Fiona Paisley, Associate Professor Christopher Waters, Dr Jonathan Ritchie, Dr Geoff Gray, Dr Helen Gardner.
Decolonisation in Melanesia: Associate Professor Christopher Waters, Professor Clive Moore, Professor Judith Bennett, Dr Anne Dixon Waiko, Dr Jonathan Ritchie, Dr Helen Gardner.
Before the Field, Anthropology in Oceania: Dr Robert Kenny, Dr Martin Thomas, Dr Samuel Furphy, Dr Bronwen Douglas, Professor Jane Lydon, Associate Professor Peggy Brock.
Publications
No publications found
Funded Projects at Deakin
Australian Competitive Grants
Howitt & Fison's anthropology: using new methods to reveal hidden riches
A/Prof Helen Gardner, Dr Rachel Hendery, Dr Patrick McConvell, Dr Stephen Morey, Dr Timothy Pilbrow, Mr Paul Paton, Dr Christina Eira, Phillip Batty, Ms Mary Morris, Dr Jason Gibson
ARC Linkage - Projects
- 2021: $18,181
- 2019: $75,765
- 2018: $145,564
- 2017: $150,193
- 2016: $61,528
Other Public Sector Funding
Howitt & Fison's anthropology: using new methods to reveal hidden riches
A/Prof Helen Gardner, Dr Rachel Hendery, Dr Patrick McConvell, Dr Stephen Morey, Dr Timothy Pilbrow, Mr Paul Paton, Dr Christina Eira, Phillip Batty, Ms Mary Morris, Dr Jason Gibson
Museum Victoria
- 2019: $10,000
- 2018: $10,000
- 2017: $10,000
Supervisions
Brad Underhill
Thesis entitled: The New Deal on the ground in Papua New Guinea
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Amanda Lourie
Thesis entitled: From Paddock to Page: Ethnological engagement in 1850s-1860s colonial Victoria
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
Benjamin Russell Hall
Thesis entitled: The rise of the anglican orthodox church in solomon islands
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
John Keating
Thesis entitled: The Neon Cross - Moore Memorial Church Shanghai
Doctor of Philosophy, School of History, Heritage and Society
Susan Lizabeth Blackwood
Thesis entitled: Jungle, Desert, Ice: Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, Victorian Branch
Doctor of Philosophy, School of History, Heritage and Society