Jane Lydon

Jane Lydon’s research centres upon Australia’s colonial past and its legacies in the present. She is interested in the ways that popular and especially visual culture has shaped ideas and debates about race, identity and culture that persist today. In particular, she is concerned with the history of Australia’s engagement with anti-slavery, humanitarianism, and ultimately human rights. Her work has contributed to decolonizing heritage and academic practice, with a strong impact on debates regarding colonialism and Australian legacies of imperialism and slavery. Her analysis of issues such as Australian citizenship through visual culture has enabled communication with a very wide audience.

‘Everyday Heritage and Difficult Legacies’ Conference, Masterclass and Heritage Workshop, Perth, 28-29 November 2024. To find out more about the concept of ‘everyday heritage’ see our new open access article here!

People Australia, ‘Legacies of Slavery project’. This project aims to add biographies of people who had links to British slavery to People Australia. It forms part of a research program aiming to examine the importance of the legacies of British slavery for the colonisation of Australia.

Exhibition, Chains of Empire, The Australian National Maritime Museum. The exhibition explores Australia's historical connections to the Atlantic slave trade and examines the enduring impact of British slavery on the nation's development. Developed in collaboration with Edith Cowan University, the University of Melbourne, and UNSW, and with guidance from First Nations communities, Chains of Empire reveals the complex legacies of British slavery across Australia. The exhibition is based on the research produced by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project, ‘Western Australian Legacies of British Slavery’.

History Podcast, ‘Anti-Slavery and Australia’, New Books Network.

‘Search for descendants of Aboriginal people who settled in Indonesia at least 150 years ago’, Erin Parke, ABC News, Sat 11 Feb 2023. 

**Indonesian version. 

Finalist, 2022, for Anti-slavery and Australia: No Slavery in a Free Land? in the 2022 Paul E. Lovejoy Prize ‘for excellence and originality in a major work on any theme related to global slavery’. 

Coordinator : 

• Looking for Australia (HIST2015)

• Who do we think we are? Doing Family History (HIST2021)

• From Slavery to Settler Colonialism: Labour, Land and Profit (HIST4102)

Cultural history of human rights, humanitarianism and empire

Australian Legacies of British Slavery

Australian colonial visual cultures

Heritage: the colonial past in the present

CURRENT

(CI) ‘Australian Legacies of British Slavery: Capital, Land and Labour.’ (with Laidlaw, Z., Hall, C., McClelland, K., Lester, A., Smith, E., Lindsey, K., Shiell, A.) (DP240101389)

(CI) ‘From Abolition to Settler Colonization: The Papers of Henry George Grey and John George Lambton’. Research Collaboration Award with the University of Melbourne and Durham University, Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections.

(CI) Everyday Heritage (with Ireland, T., Sherratt, T., Lydon, J., & Bagnall, K.) (LP200301446)

Australian Studies Research Network – convenor. This research network brings together scholars across UWA Schools who investigate Australian questions and identities from diverse perspectives; the Australian Studies network fosters research activities and outcomes in publications, HDR training, collaboration, grant income, community engagement and social impact, and scholarly symposia.

Advisory Board: Two Centuries of Chinese Heritage in Western Australia. The project is led by A/Prof Yu Tao and Prof Ben Smith and will showcase Chinese heritage in Western Australia through a digital portal, podcast, illustrated collection of stories and touring exhibition. 

History Council of Western Australia, Committee 2024-2027

Western Australian Working Party, Australian Dictionary of Biography

Editorial Board, Journal of Australian Studies

Editorial Board, Labour History

Editorial Board, History of Photography

Editorial Board, The New Zealand Journal of History 

Editorial Board, Australasian Historical Archaeology

Editorial Board, Journal of the Anthropological Society of South Australia