iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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James Cook University @jcuofficial.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The King’s Birthday long weekend in Queensland will bring a literary treat, with top authors discussing conservation at the North Australian Festival of Arts in Townsville before an intensive writing workshop gets under way on scenic Yunbenun/Magnetic Island. Full story: shorturl.at/TdZnq

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David Pretel @davidpretel.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

📢 Call for Papers 📢 2026 Commodities of Empire workshop: “Locating Knowledge: Science and Technology in Commodity Frontiers.” 📍 Madrid, 2–3 September 2026 ⏳ Submission deadline: 14 February 2026 👉 CFP: commoditiesofempire.org.uk/events/ @davidedgerton.bsky.social @samuelcoghe.bsky.social

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johnfleckeross.bsky.social @johnfleckeross.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Between 2020-2024, bachelor’s degree take-up by low-SES Australians fell 10%, compared to 2% in mid and high-SES, particularly declining in fields with highest tuition fees - 18% in law, business and commerce and 21% in other HASS fields. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/disadva...

timeshighereducation.com

Disadvantaged students ‘worst hit’ by humanities fee hike

Former administration’s tuition fee reforms undermining Albanese government mission to promote equitable enrolments

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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 11/12/2025

What does Gen AI mean for the work of the historian and the value of historical experience, skills and craft? 'The Historian in the Age of AI' by @chriscampbell1.bsky.social. New Comment article now available in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' bit.ly/4atErTB #Skystorians 1/2

Front page of 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' Comment article, title 'The Historian in the Age of AI', by Chris Campbell. Full abstract: "This comment interrogates the methods and conclusions of Working with AI, a recent report conducted under the auspices of Microsoft, which identified historians as the profession with
the second-highest ‘AI applicability’. It finds that the authors’ conclusions are based on an erroneous simplification and misrepresentation of a historian’s typical professional tasks, which have been publicly amplified by extensive media coverage. This comment then offers a
wider provocation about the report’s conception of a professional historian, and whether it is related to the public application of ‘historian’ to a number of different practitioners with varied training and qualifications. In particular, it seeks to highlight a paradox which the report exposes: that we cannot defend the specialist training and expertise of professional historians against the encroachment of AI without also separating the academic skills and qualifications
of historians from those engaged in more popular forms of historical writing and communication. The comment questions how we might grapple with this paradox without reverting to academic elitism."

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

'Australia’s major research universities have warned that declining support for the humanities could threaten the country’s ability to operate in its region.' 1/3

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Koen Stapelbroek @stplbrk.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Our 9th 'Studies in North Queensland History' retrospective @jcucase.bsky.social @jcuofficial.bsky.social is Mary Carroll on "An Institution of Help and Education" and the history of Free Public Library Services in Townsville 1866-1981, by Richard Sayers jculibrarynews.blogspot.com/2025/10/an-i...

jculibrarynews.blogspot.com

"An Institution of Help and Education"

In 2025, James Cook University celebrates its proud legacy in historical research, writing and publishing through the Studies in North Quee...

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Australian Journal of International Affairs @austjia.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

🚨Delighted to announce the winner of the Boyer Prize for best article published in the AJIA in 2024. Warm congrats to @liammoore.bsky.social for this paper analysing the complexity of 🇦🇺relations with Pacific states. #OpenAccess www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.... #AcademicPublishing

ABSTRACT
I argue the instrumental, paternalistic strategic culture often adopted in Australian foreign policy circles is counter-productive, preventing Australia from having productive and sustainable relationships with Pacific states. If Australian officials want to follow through on rhetorical commitments to enhance Australia's relationships in the Pacific, Australia must actively recognise the agency Pacific states have and place itself within this community of actors. Australia often positions itself as part of the 'Pacific family, but to be a collaborative member of this family it must go beyond headline commitments and fundamentally reconsider the evolving agency of small Pacific states and how this shapes Australia's interactions with them. We can understand this through the lens of normative communities.
Revisiting
constructivist International Relations theory, I reexamine who is included and excluded in the communities of actors that norms apply to. This has particularly significant implications around norms of climate change action and mitigation. Australia has historically tried to water down agreements and slow-role actions in this space. The ongoing bid to host COP31 perhaps offers an opportunity to both show leadership on climate-related issues and to reconfigure assumptions around Pacific agency and address the effects this has on Australia's relationships in the Pacific.

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Matt Fitzpatrick @kilderbenhauser.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

"...the un-versities are busy hollowing out the humanities, key contributors to our developing culture." insidestory.org.au/from-deserts...

insidestory.org.au

From deserts the profits come • Jim Davidson

Universities and the assault on cultural infrastructure

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jcuCASE.bsky.social @jcucase.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Congratulations to Dr Elizabeth Smyth, a writer and researcher at JCU’s Roderick Centre for Australian Literature and Creative Writing in Cairns. She is off to the USA after securing a prestigious Queensland-Smithsonian Fellowship to examine rare manuscripts written by rainforest travellers.

tinyurl.com

USA Fellowship to help understand rainforest stories

A James Cook University researcher is off to the USA after securing a prestigious Queensland-Smithsonian Fellowship to examine rare manuscripts written by rainforest travellers up to 125 years ago.

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James Cook University @jcuofficial.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

A James Cook University researcher is off to the USA after securing a prestigious Queensland-Smithsonian Fellowship to examine rare manuscripts written by rainforest travellers up to 125 years ago. Full story: shorturl.at/hFB2d

shorturl.at

USA Fellowship to help understand rainforest stories

A James Cook University researcher is off to the USA after securing a prestigious Queensland-Smithsonian Fellowship to examine rare manuscripts written by rainforest travellers up to 125 years ago.

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Matt Fitzpatrick @kilderbenhauser.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Don't forget that this history PhD scholarship, including an international student fee waiver, is now open for applications. It's linked to my team's current project on comparative imperialism in the Pacific region. www.flinders.edu.au/scholarships...

flinders.edu.au

PhD Scholarship: Pacific Powers - Flinders University

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Koen Stapelbroek @stplbrk.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Yes, this, and a lot more: skills taught in the humanities are highly valuable across the board, should be included in STEM and health degrees, do what GenAI can't do, and can help recover social licence of Australian higher education. Time to get off the backfoot! (first vision, then redo policies)

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Matt Fitzpatrick @kilderbenhauser.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Announcing a PhD scholarship for a history project on imperialism and great power projection in the Pacific. Supervised by Prudence Flowers and I here at Flinders, Adelaide. It includes an international fee waiver and stipend. Start Jan 2026. www.flinders.edu.au/scholarships...

flinders.edu.au

PhD Scholarship: Pacific Powers - Flinders University

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Jennifer Ashby @jenniferashby.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Tell me you don't understand the purpose of humanities research without telling me you don't understand the purpose of humanities research @economist.com @eui-history.bsky.social www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

"Soon after its founding, however, it became apparent that the EUI’s splendid digs might be distracting its scholars. As one insider explained to Charlemagne: “Left to their own devices, the academics began producing studies of the wool trade in 15th-century Flanders and suchlike.” He was joking—up to a point. A search for recent articles on the EUI’s database produced a list headed by “Silk consumption and dressing practices in late-medieval Catalonia”. In 1993 the university set up a new division, the Robert Schuman Centre, to keep things forward-looking and relevant, but with mixed success. In 2017 a School of Transnational Governance was founded in the hope that this would finally do the trick."

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AHA (Australia) @austhistassoc.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

All the links relating to the current campaign to repeal Job-Ready Graduates are housed here. Please feel free to share widely! We'd especially love people to sign the petition. Thank you for your support! linktr.ee/aushistorica...

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Michelle Arrow @michellearrow.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

More than 100 high-profile and distinguished Australians -and BA graduates- have signed the @austhistassoc.bsky.social open letter calling for the repeal of Job-Ready Graduates: a policy that punishes humanities students with life-changing debts: www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

theguardian.com

Tim Winton among 100 high-profile Australians calling for university fees that don’t ‘punish’ arts students

Open letter urges Labor to reverse JRG scheme, introduced by Coalition in 2021, as cost of humanities degrees reaches more than $50,000

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Matt Ryan @mattdjryan.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

@hannahforsyth.bsky.social's *Virtue Capitalists*, “the sort of book that changes how you see the world”. (Me, quoting @adamtooze.bsky.social, quoting Claire EF Wright). Class, settler-colonialism, global history - it's good! My review out now in @jas-jozstudies.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1080/1444...

doi.org

Virtue Capitalists: The Rise and Fall of the Professional Class in the Anglophone World, 1870–2008

Published in Journal of Australian Studies (Ahead of Print, 2025)

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AHA (Australia) @austhistassoc.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Congratulations to our 2025 Prize Winners, announced last week at the AHA conference in Townsville!

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Hannah Forsyth 🍉 @hannahforsyth.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Towering over Townsville in North Queensland is a stunning rock. Just before flying home I took a walk up there to watch the sunrise.

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Koen Stapelbroek @stplbrk.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

#AHA2025 @austhistassoc.bsky.social in Townsville officially complete with last minute salt water croc spotting on the Friday arvo. Thanks everyone for all the inspiration and see you next year at Macquarie!

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Australian Women's History Network @auswhn.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Many Australian Women's History Network members had a beautiful week in Townsville for the 2025 @austhistassoc.bsky.social Conference. Highlights included the fantastic presentations in the AWHN stream, a plenary panel cultivating solidarity against academic precarity and our feminist dance party 👯‍♀️

A photograph of downtown Townsville, Queensland, featuring Ross Creek and views of Flinders Street on Wulgurukaba country.

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Koen Stapelbroek @stplbrk.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Presentations finished, but #AHA2025 @austhistassoc.bsky.social still “Looking up”!! Birdwatching tour with Russell McGregor on town common

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jcuCASE.bsky.social @jcucase.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

This past week, educators and those interested in democratic and citizenship education came to Townsville for the SCEAA conference hosted at JCU. Attendees participated in two days of exciting discussions about the future of democratic and citizenship education across contexts.

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Deborah Lee-Talbot @colourfulhistories.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

The warmth of Townsville will forever be in my heart. 😜 Thanks. Starting to wonder why we booked Tassie, not Townsville. Oh yeah, fireside reading and snow. Dammit.

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Deborah Lee-Talbot @colourfulhistories.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Thanks to the organizers, attendees, and my copresenters at the #AHA2025 conference; its time for me to return to the south. This was an incredible opportunity. The community of support & their dedication to developing history research and teaching that I saw at JCU was truly inspiring Cheers 🥂

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Tom Ashbyトムアシュビー @tomaashby.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Do check out this new intellectual history podcast hosted by Selma Sondern @standrewsiih.bsky.social - the first episode features Richard Whatmore (@uniofstandrews.bsky.social) on why the Enlightenment, eighteenth-century republicanism, & the history of free states matter for global politics today

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Benjamin T. Jones @drbenjaminjones.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

A funny, insightful, and much to the delight of the audience, musical keynote from Lyndon Megarrity. His love for Townsville shines through. #AHA2025 #OzHA2025

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Koen Stapelbroek @stplbrk.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

This was before Lyndon broke into song…!!!

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Koen Stapelbroek @stplbrk.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Lyndon Megarrity’s keynote #AHA2025 on the history of Townsville is officially complete by mentioning the historic Magnetic island swim: www.towsa.com.au/magnetic-isl...

towsa.com.au

Magnetic Island to Townsville Swim | Magneticislandswim

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Koen Stapelbroek @stplbrk.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Everyone learns when Lyndon Megarrity speaks: our last keynote #AHA2025

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Benjamin T. Jones @drbenjaminjones.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

I've been struck by how heartfelt the introductions have been at this conference. Love to see such sincere collegiality. A beautiful tribute to our final keynote Lyndon Megarrity from Claire Brennan. #AHA2025 #OzHA2025

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Benjamin T. Jones @drbenjaminjones.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

A fascinating, funny, and thoughtful reflection on a life in politics and activism from the irrepressible Margaret Reynolds. #OzHA2025 #AHA2025

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Benjamin T. Jones @drbenjaminjones.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Pr Koen Stapelbroek launches the amazing, free, online, Studies in North Queensland History series. Look up and read up on the North. #AHA2025 #OzHA2025 jcu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/co...

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Benjamin T. Jones @drbenjaminjones.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Day 3 done and dusted 💪 #OzHA2025 #AHA2025

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Josh Freeman @historianjosh.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Very cool experience attending my first ever AHA Conference day today. Highlights for me included a great panel discussion on the use of AI and hearing about @stplbrk.bsky.social's planned book on the Dutch Free City of Riouw. #AHA2025 Back tomorrow!

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jcuCASE.bsky.social @jcucase.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

The 2025 annual conference of the Australian Historical Association is underway in Townsville, hosted by JCU and CQU. Among the many meanings of this year's theme, 'Looking Up' is also an invitation to look 'up North'. @jcuofficial.bsky.social @austhistassoc.bsky.social @stplbrk.bsky.social

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