Masculinity shortlisted in NSW

Two ANU historians have been shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s History Awards, with books that look at sexuality and masculinity in different forms. Both books are ground breaking as they have been billed as the first of their type in Australia.

Shino Konishi’s book The Aboriginal Male in the Enlightenment World is the first historical study of indigenous Australian masculinity. Konishi studied the reactions of eighteenth-century western explorers to indigenous encounters in depth. She looked at the ways that they described ‘savagery’, sexuality, language and conflict. She found that encounters between the two groups of men might not have been as negative as has been thought.

Frank Bongiorno is also shortlisted in the same category for his book The Sex Lives of Australians: A History. The book is the first to explore the history of sexuality in Australia from the arrival of British settlers in 1788 to the present, including some periods in particular where there has been a great gender imbalance in Australian society.

The total prize pool for the NSW Premier’s History Awards in 2013 is to $75,000 and the winners will be announced on 12 September.

Both ANU authors on this year’s shortlist are from the College of Arts and Social Sciences.