Australia recognizes the State of Palestine

The list of countries that are confirmed to be set to recognize the State of Palestine on Sunday and Monday, September 21st and 22nd. The United Kingdom France Canada (conditional, gradual) Australia Belgium (gradual) Portugal Luxembourg Malta Andorra San Marino

Journal of Pacific History Vol 60, Issue 3 is out now! Over the coming weeks we'll share direct links to the various reviews, forums, and articles in this issue. For those of you who can't wait to read the latest Pacific History research, head to www.tandfonline.com/journals/cjp...

Every single brain fart here is horrendous theconversation.com/bill-shorten...

'50 years without coups or dictators: how PNG built a durable democracy based on dignity and fairness', Brad Underhill and Helen Gardner write for The Conversation (Australia). theconversation.com/50-years-wit....

'Papua New Guinea has played an important role in Australian history – it’s time we acknowledged that', Geoff Keating writes for The Conversation (Australia) theconversation.com/papua-new-gu....

A reminder that this PhD scholarship to research imperialism in the Pacific region is still open. Includes an international student fee waiver. www.flinders.edu.au/scholarships...

My forthcoming book on the #history of #authoritarianism and #dictatorships in modern #Germany now has a cover. Sadly, it seems to have a very timely relevance. It will be out on 22 January 2026 for the very affordable price (at least for an academic book) of £20.

Almost 30 staff at ANU humanities school stop work after health and safety report warns of ‘serious harm’

so many dead canaries and we just keep on mining

One of my favourite parts of being an academic historian is reviewing an outstanding journal article at the cutting edge of research - and waiting with baited breath to find out who wrote it! 🔥 #lovereviewing #blindreview #peereviewing #history #newewsearch

BREAKING | ANU staff in the College of Arts and Social Sciences have received a Cease Work Order due to dangerous working conditions. Under the WHS Act staff will be paid while this order is in place. The order seeks to protect lives and wellbeing.

If there's anything weirder than having your PM whipping around the Pacific trying to hoover up protection treaties like a bad re-run of 1880s Africa, it's watching it all fall over. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Queen

there is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men

ICYMI - Brad Underhill and Helen Gardner had a piece in @aunz.theconversation.com celebrating 50 years of PNG independence! "50 years without coups or dictators: how PNG built a durable democracy based on dignity and fairness". Republished on APH here: aph.org.au/2025/09/50-y... #PNG #independence

Genevieve Bell’s resignation as ANU vice-chancellor is a microcosm of the governance crisis at Australian universities www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/12/g...

Look at this pitiful reporting in Der Spiegel. Claiming wriggle room where the UN presents none.

“We’ve normalised horror” in #Gaza, our JulietteTouma tells @newhumanitarian.bsky.social “There's been impunity – and that has been going on for a long, long, long time… This carte blanche has got us, all of us, where we are right now.” This must stop.

And those sending arms are complicit in genocide. www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

2026 HCSA Fellowship applications are open: it's a fantastic opportunity for those passionate about history and cultural studies. The applications deadline is the 14th of November. For more information and to submit your application, visit our website at buff.ly/kJf8bz3

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

#PNG at 50! This symposium asks: what lessons from the past will shape the next 50 years? Hear from diplomats, leaders, and academics as they confront challenges and chart a path toward PNG’s centenary. #PNG50 #Pacific @anubellschool.bsky.social @anu-asiapacific.bsky.social

This is overdue good news. I wonder if it will offer pause for thought for VCs at other institutions who deliberately ignore the public good purpose of their universities in a cynical dash to recast them as profit machines? I doubt it. www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

AJP Taylor - not a referencing guy

😲

Still open! Come and work with me on Asterix, the greatest comic book series ever written: careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo...

If I wanted to rename a national department to make it terrifying and violent and redolent of the worst periods of the 20thC I’d call it something like ‘Whitehall’ or ‘Quai d’Orsay’

Meanjin has (had 😭) two - TWO - part time staff members. I'd be willing to bet my dinner that the cost of supporting Meanjin is less than what a single top 15 executive at Uni Melb makes in a year

"This reinforces my sense that universities are no longer spaces that support or nurture literature or the arts in this country." - Sophie Cunningham

A powerfully written reckoning with German arguments derived from 'Staatsraison' and German memory culture, delivered via a return to the insights of the Frankfurt School. blnreview.de/en/ausgaben/...

Today I spent my lunch hour trying to figure out what naval sttion could possibly be meant by this sentence from the 1909 Jaluit Gesellschaft annual report. Surely it can only mean China?

Don't hold your breath for meaningful reform that shifts houses from an asset class for the wealthy to a secure and affordable necessity accessible to all. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Author copies have arrived! The book is demonstrably real! Official publication date in about two weeks but I've heard it will already be available at ENIUGH next week. Check out the full info over at: lup.nl/publications...

Worth getting up to speed on the protests in Indonesia. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

I reckon this Andy Fleming bloke may have been on to something here. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

www.theguardian.com/environment/... Grim

If you have a Neo-Nazi leader (Tom Sewell) speaking at your rally, its a Neo-Nazi rally. This is not difficult.

All of these data science history projects where the protagonists claim to be the absolutely first person to try to study the past objectively reveal that they have some janky dataset that in no way stands up to these claims by the 15th paragraph.

Trying to recover from the fact that I inexplicably didn't photograph 50 pages from the Hamburg state archive that are now quite central to what I'm writing about.

Updated edition (August 2025) of the coverage table of the major bibliometric databases (millions of records). GS reindexing period

Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared

The daughters of Hermann Göring's aide - who refused for years to talk with art-theft investigators - put their home in Argentina up for sale, and GUESS WHAT.

The funny thing is animals actually can suffer and we slaughter them by the billions but sure let’s have an existential panic over whether a software program screams when we turn it off

Deleted last post on this, because it gave the impression that the parliamentary archive was the only archive. There is the National Archive at the Alele Museum. But it's still terrible to have lost the parliamentary archive. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Labor's go-slow on JRG hurts students, disproportionately the poorest students. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Worse and worse. Guaranteeing in advance that you'll fight in a hypothetical war on another state's behalf is not what I'd call a path for the preservation of sovereignty. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...?

Check out this new documentary on the Indonesian National Revolution (1945-49). Al Jazeera released it last weekend to coincide with the 80th anniversary of Indonesia’s declaration of independence on 17 August 1945. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRVk...