Work: Past and Present

Work: Past and Present is a monthly seminar investigating Australian and international labour history through the contemporary moment. It is a new series organised by myself, Sarah Gregson (University of New South Wales) and Frances Flanagan (United Voice/University of Sydney).

The sessions will discuss issues including: worker’s struggles and organising; technology and labour; paid and unpaid work; and, the practice of labour—including how it is grounded in the lived experience of gender, race and difference.
We approach the history of work as both social history (we are interested in lived experience) and public history (it is made by and interpreted by the public). The seminars bring together historians, researchers from other disciplines, and those involved in the labour movement. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Seminars are held at UTS, Building 10 in Jones Street, Level 14, Room 201. All welcome. Seminars are from 5.30-7pm on the first Thursday of the month in March, April, May, June, August, September and October (no seminars in July, November or December).

The first session is this week — 8 March, 5.30-7pm — The Past and Present of Organising Works. The speakers are: Tim Lyons, Research Fellow at Per Capita & Former Assistant Secretary of the ACTU; Alison Barnes, Macquarie University; and Jeane Wells, NTEU.

5 April, 5.30-7pm — The Past and Present of The Accord
Elizabeth Humphrys, UTS / Centre for Future Work
Ian Hampson, UNSW

3 May, 5.30-7pm — The Past and Present of Technological Change
Jesse Adams Stein, UTS
Frances Flanagan, United Voice / University of Sydney

7 June, 5.30-7pm — Indigenous Australians and Work in the Past and Present
Kara Keys, National Campaign Coordinator, First Nations Workers Alliance, ACTU
Victoria Haskins, Newcastle University
Eve Vincent, Macquarie University

2 August, 5.30-7pm — The Past and Present of Memorials: Creation and Destruction
Sarah Gregson, UNSW
Bronwyn Carlson, Macquarie University

6 September, 5.30-7pm — Book Launch:  The Origins of Worker Mobilization, Australia 1788-1850 (by Michael Quinlan, Routledge)
Michael Quinlan, UNSW
Terry Irving, University of Wollongong
Chaired by Sarah Gregson, UNSW

4 October, 5.30-7pm — The Past and Present of the Professions
Hannah Forsyth, ACU
Anna Yeatman, Western Sydney University
Tamson Pietsch, UTS