Jessica Urwin wins international prize
It was a welcome recognition that Australian topics have a place in global conversations about environmental history and Indigenous politics.
Recent PhD graduate from the School of History at ANU, Dr Jessica Urwin has won the American Society of Environmental History’s (ASEH) Rachel Carson Prize for Best Dissertation.
Her thesis, “sought to chart the first history of ‘nuclear colonialism’ in Australia, exploring the entwined histories of three nuclear processes—radium and uranium mining, nuclear testing, and radioactive waste disposal—and their relationship to Aboriginal communities and their politics over the 20th century. It demonstrated that Australian nuclear processes have been historically pursued in the name of national development, geopolitics, and imperial power, facilitated through existent and adaptive colonial mechanisms, and shaped powerfully by Aboriginal peoples and their politics.”
Urwin says, “It was a great honour to receive the ASEH’s Rachel Carson Prize for Best Dissertation, a prize named after one of the most influential figures in global environmental history. I was lucky enough to accept the prize at ASEH24 in Denver, Colorado, which provided me with the opportunity to discuss my research alongside leaders in the field and connect with scholars from around the world. It was a welcome recognition that Australian topics have a place in global conversations about environmental history and Indigenous politics.”
This award has never before recognised a thesis on an Australian topic.
“While Australia has been a hotbed for fantastic environmental history for many decades now, global environmental history has largely skewed towards North America, not least due to the sheer number of scholars practising environmental history there. However, the field is slowly incorporating any number of geographical-focuses as we are increasingly encouraged to consider the relationship between environmental degradation and social inequity the world over. My hope has been to demonstrate that focusing on or including Australia in global conversations of this nature offers unique insight into the role of colonialism in creating historical environmental injustices. On the flip side of that, I also hope to encourage Australian environmental historians to engage more deeply with environmental justice frameworks as a way of understanding how our environmental history has been shaped and has shaped colonial relationships in Australia.”
And there’s much to be done in this area. Jess comments, “When prompted to think about global nuclear history, we often jump to nuclear weapons: their development, testing and continued proliferation. But there is a need to move away from the exceptionalism of weapons. For example, there is a lot more to be done to understand the role of uranium mining in both global and Australian nuclear history. While I explored this in my thesis, it also forms the basis of my new research into the routes—be they political, economic, environmental, colonial, or imperial—forged by Australian uranium across the globe. Considering the future of mining or nuclear energy in Australia requires us to reckon with our past. I hope to contribute to much-needed considerations of mining as a pursuit underpinned and propped up by settler colonial ambition and national development.”
Jess reflects upon the support of the ANU School of History, “The intellectual community of the ANU School of History has been integral to the development of my research. My supervisors, colleagues, and peers have—over many years now—provided unwavering support, consistent feedback, and endless encouragement. I had a fantastic supervisory panel chaired by Professor Angela Woollacott, who has been a vital contributor to my research development.”
Urwin also received the School of History’s Minoru Hokari Memorial Scholarship to undertake fieldwork for her thesis. “Without which my research would have been undoubtedly less fruitful,” she reflects.
The judges praised how Jessica's work, “problematizes and expands the concept of “nuclear colonialism” by showing how it was experienced and resisted through her exploration of nuclear processes, including radium and uranium extraction, nuclear weapons testing, and radioactive waste disposal.' The award committee was 'particularly impressed with how Urwin’s thesis charts the progression of Aboriginal nuclear survivors from individuals erased, dispossessed, displaced, and silenced by the state to active citizens exercising agency, working for recognition and compensation through a growing transnational Indigenous movement.”
