Professor Ann McGrath heading to Princeton

Professor Ann McGrath has been accepted as a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, for their academic year 2013-14. She will be based at the School of Social Sciences and, along with a group of twenty international scholars, will participate in its annual theme - 'The Environmental Turn and the Human Sciences'. This will be led by the ground-breaking historian, Joan Wallach Scott and the anthropologist and sociologist Didier Fassin.

Ann McGrath's research project is to write a book on the topic of 'Lady Mungo and the Re-enchantment of Deep Time'. Adopting a trans-temporal approach, her work will juxtapose the story of a woman who lived in Australia at least 40,000 years ago with the story of her 'afterlife', that is, the many happenings since her remains were found in the dried salt lakes of the Willandra Lakes District of New South Wales, Australia, in 1968.

Building upon research from her ARC funded project, she will consider how historians, scientists and Aboriginal Australians have created 'kinship' relations that connect them with people of the past. By reflecting upon the 'inspirited landscape' of Lake Mungo, her book will examine how cross-cultural and transdisciplinary approaches might open up new ways of understanding a history of deep time.]

Professor Ann McGrath OAM, FASSA, is Director of the Australian Centre for Indigenous History based in the School of History. She has published widely on the history of gender and colonialism in Australia and North America, and currently holds three ARC funded projects. She is researching two projects on Australia's deep past, including a large digital history project that aims to develop new ways of researching and delivering histories in World Heritage areas. She holds an Honorary Doctorate at Linneaus University in Sweden, has advised various government enquiries and has served as an expert witness. her most recent book was with Ann Curthoys, entitled, 'How to write history that people want to read' (Palgrave, New York, 2011).