Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

‘Too busy to have time for us’

Joan Beaumont reflects on Australian Studies at Harvard
The ABR Podcast 28 April 2022

‘Too busy to have time for us’

Joan Beaumont reflects on Australian Studies at Harvard
The ABR Podcast 28 April 2022

Brain Fog


The Gough Whitlam and Malcom Fraser Chair of Australian Studies was established at Harvard University in 1976 as a diplomatic gift marking the bicentenary of the American Revolution. It was also part of a global strategic initiative that saw Australian Studies visiting professorships spring up in places from Dublin and Copenhagen to Tokyo and Beijing. While not all such professorships have fared equally well, the Harvard Chair of Australian Studies has been bolstered by the financial largesse of its host institution as well as by its record of strong recruitment. In this episode of The ABR Podcast, Joan Beaumont reflects on the history of this unique institutional arrangement and what it might help us see about both the place of Australian studies in a global context and the future of collaborative research.

Joan Beaumont is Professor Emerita in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at ANU and author of Australia’s Great Depression.

Subscribe via iTunesGoogle, or Spotify, or your favourite podcast app.

You May Also Like

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.