Professor Erik Eklund
Professor of History
| Phone: | +61 3 990 26575 or +61 3 512 26575 | |
| Fax: | +61 3 990 26359 or +61 3 512 26359 | |
| Office: | 1E 220, Gippsland Campus | |
| Email: | erik.eklund@monash.edu |
Biography
Erik grew up in Wollongong and studied at the University of Sydney. He was appointed to the University of Newcastle in 1994, where, among other things, he was involved in a project to locate the convict coal mines which lay beneath the city.
In 2001 Erik was a recipient of the Australian Academy of Humanities Travelling Fellowship to support the writing of Steel Town: the making and breaking of Port Kembla (MUP, 2002). That same year he held a visiting appointment at Georgetown University in Washington DC teaching Australian Studies.
In 2003 Steel Town was awarded the NSW Premier’s History Prize. In 2005 Erik was a Visiting Fellow at the Humanities Research Centre, ANU, before joining Monash in 2008.
In 2008 he was elected Treasurer of the Australian History Association and re-elected to this post in 2010. (see http://www.theaha.org.au/) He is on the editorial board of the journals, History Australia, and Labour History, and is one of the Book Review Editors for Labour History.
Research interests
Erik is an historian with an interest in all aspects of Australian social, labour and political history. His research focuses on places and people who are, or are seen to be, on the geographical and social margins of Australian society. He is especially interested in the historical interaction of people and place.
Current research projects
Erik is currently completing a monograph history on selected mining and industrial towns in Australia. This project is funded by an ARC grant. He is also working on various aspects of Australian local and regional history, as well as heritage studies.
Recent publications
Books
The Living History of Fort Scratchley (with Julie McIntyre), University of Newcastle/Newcastle City Council, Newcastle, 2008. ISBN 978190701901
Book chapters
- ‘The Margin as a Centre: memory, identity and belonging in Broken Hill and Mount Isa’ in Alan Mayne (ed), Outside Country: history of inland Australia, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2011
- ‘The hidden proletarian past of Canberra’ in Bobbie Oliver (ed) Labour History for the New Century, Black Swan Press/Curtin University, Perth, 2009, pp.103– 110 (with Robert Bollard)
- ‘The Premiers’ Plan and the Great Depression: High Politics and everyday life in an economic crisis’ in Martin Crotty & David Roberts (eds), Turning Points in Australian History, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2009, pp. 115-128
Refereed articles
- ‘Representing Militancy: Photographs of the Broken Hill industrial disputes, 1908-1920', Labour History (50% with Paul Adams. Forthcoming, 2011)
- Reeves, K., Eklund, E., Reeves, A., Peel, V., & Scates, B., "Rethinking the international significance of the material culture and intangible heritage of the Australian labour movement" International Journal of Heritage Studies. Vol. 17, No. 4, July 2011, pp. 301-317
- ‘Interview Techniques in Three Different Research Scenarios’, The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2009, pp. 1-10. (with Elena Caprioni and Manuela Deiana)
- “Do you Love the Town you Live in?”: Narratives of Place from Australian Mining Towns, The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Vol. 3, No. 7, 2008, pp. 53-57. (with Antoinette Eklund)
- ‘Official and Vernacular Public History: historical anniversaries and commemorations in Newcastle, NSW’, Public History Review, vol 14, 2007, pp. 128-152
- ‘Retail Co-operatives as a Transnational Phenomenon: exploring the composition of Australian society and culture’, Journal of Colonial Australian History (9), 2007: pp. 67-99
Teaching
Erik teaches in the area of Australian History and Politics for both on campus and off-campus students.
Expert media commentary
Erik is available for radio interviews covering current topics in Australian history including new books, contemporary issues, and controversies. Click here for a recent example.
Postgraduate supervision
He currently supervises higher degree students in the fields of regional history, labour history and environmental history. He’d welcome proposals from prospective students in these and related fields.
Grants
- ARC Discovery Grant, Frontiers of Labour: A History of Industrial and Mining Towns in Australia (2005-2008)