Jacqueline Van Gent

I am a historian interested in gender, religion and colonial encounters. My work spans both the early modern and the late colonial periods. My research has included a rethinking of European magical practices, early modern ideas of self and embodiment and the dynamics of religious change in a colonised world.

Much of my work is interdicsciplinary and includes anthropological perspectives, the role of historical empotions in social dynamics and the consequences of understanding the historical past in terms of changing power relations and historical materiality. 

I am currently working on a number of research projects exploring (i) Indigenous responses to European missions in a trans-Atlantic space; (ii) global movements of objects and collecting networks in the early modern and late colonial world and (iii) gendered nature of objects and materiality.

My work has attracted several national and international competitive grants, including several Australian Research Council Discovery Projects, Fritz Thyssen Fellowship and a Visiting Fellowship in Sweden. I was a Chief Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence of the the History of Emotions (2014-2017). 

Current undergraduate units include:

HIST1003 Love, Belief and Death in Europe, 800-1800

HIST2013 Medieval and Early Modern Women

HIST3012 Rights, Rule and Power

HIST3014 Intimate Strangers 

Recent public outreach activities include:

• Convenor of the Indigenous Knowledge and Emotions: Decolonising Curatorial and Performance Practice Workshop, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand, 10-11 July 2018

http://historyofemotions.org.au/media/259873/te-papa_updated-lowres.pdf

• The Huntingdon podcast ‘Protestant Global Missions and the Emotions’ [Dec 2017]

https://soundcloud.com/thehuntington/12_jacqueline_van_gent

• Emotions and the Zest Festival

https://vimeo.com/206531899