Associate Professor J. Charles Schencking
Associate Professor of Japanese History
- Telephone:
- (+61 3) 8344 5976
- Email:
- j.schencking@unimelb.edu.au
- Fax:
- (+61 3) 8344 7894
- Location:
- Room 309
Sydney Myer Asia Centre
The University of Melbourne VIC 3010
Biography
Charles Schencking (on leave until 2013) is an Associate Professor in the School of Historical Studies and the Asia Institute where he has taught Japanese history with flair and passion since 2000. Charles brings a truly international background to his subjects, having studied and taught at universities in Britain, Japan, and America.
Charles has published widely on the political, social, and environmental history of Japan. His current research revolves around the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake that destroyed Tokyo and the culture of catastrophe and reconstruction in Japan from 1923 to 1930. In 2007, Charles was awarded a Universitas 21 Fellowship for 2008 to collaborate with scholars of natural disasters and interdisciplinary teaching at the National University of Singapore, Hong Kong University, University of British Columbia, and Western Washington University.
Charles' teaching stresses the importance of learning as an active and holistic process of discovery. Through interactive lectures, innovative tutorial exercises, and targeted, integrated assessment he fosters the development of the core skills of inquiry, research, and persuasive expression. Reflecting his commitment to research-led teaching, Charles subjects demonstrate how the historical study of natural disasters, catastrophes, and wars in Asia and the Pacific have critical relevance to understanding the world today. In all of his teaching endeavors, he emboldens students to think critically and creatively about the past in the hope that this will challenge the way they see the present and, as global citizens, perhaps even shape the future.
Charles has worked with numerous programs geared to assisting international students and those from equity groups succeed in tertiary education at the University of Melbourne. He has also participated in university-wide training workshops for new tutors and staff that focus on the challenges and rewards of teaching in a multi-cultural, international classroom. In 2007, Charles served on the selection committee for the inaugural round of the Kwong Lee Dow Young Scholars Program.
In April 2006, Charles Schencking was awarded the Barbara Falk Teaching Award. He was selected as the teacher of the year within the Arts, Education, Law, and Music faculties at the University of Melbourne.
In November 2006, Charles Schencking was awarded one of twenty-six Carrick Awards for Australian University Teaching. This is the highest award one can win for teaching in Australian Higher Education. He was selected in the Early Career Category.
- Download pdf of Charles' teaching philosophy (220kb pdf)
Current Research Project
Title: The Great Kanto Earthquake and the Culture of Catastrophe and Reconstruction in 1920s Japan.
My project aims to transform our understanding of one of the most destructive, deadly, and costly natural disasters of the 20th century: The Great Kanto Earthquake and Conflagration of 1923. This catastrophe resulted in the destruction of 45% of Tokyo's built environment and over 90% of Yokohama's urban landscape. In less than a week, this disaster destroyed an estimated 6.5 billion yen in assets (a figure four times larger than Japan's 1923 national budget), rendered over 2 million people homeless, and killed nearly 120,000 people. In the words of moral philosopher Shimamoto Ainosuke, the 1923 calamity "overturned Japan's culture from its very foundation."
A primary aim of my research is to examine the 1923 disaster not only as an event of unprecedented death, destruction and dislocation, but also to use the catastrophe and the relief and reconstruction efforts that followed as a multifaceted interdisciplinary lens on interwar Japan. Specifically, this project will explore how numerous commentators and bureaucratic elites interpreted and constructed the 1923 disaster as an act of divine warning and punishment to admonish Japan's subjects for leading what many elites believed were immoral, self-centred, and extravagant lifestyles. My project will also investigate how and why many bureaucrats and organizations attempted to use the reconstruction process: first, to reshape the built environment of Tokyo to enable better state-directed social management initiatives; and second, to further a complex project of national spiritual reconstruction of Japan's subjects on an ideological, physical, and political level.
Research Interests
His principal interest is modern Japanese history, particularly the inter-relationship between state and society in the Meiji and Taishô periods (1868-1926). He has published widely on the politics of the Great Kanto Earthquake which destroyed much of Tokyo in 1923 and the subsequent reconstruction of Japans capital (four articles in ARC-ranked A or A* journals: including Journal of Japanese Studies (2008); Modern Asian Studies (2006); Japanese Studies (2009); and Education About Asia (2007). Before that, Charles published widely on the Imperial Japanese Navy, (two journal articles, five chapters in edited volumes) and a book published by Stanford University Press (2005) entitled: Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, and the Emergence of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922. ISBN# 0-8047-4977-9.
Recent Publications
Sole Authored Book
- J. Charles Schencking. Making Waves: Politics, Propaganda, and the Emergence of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1868-1922. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005). 283 pages, x. ISBN # 0-8047-4977-9.
Published Book Reviews of Making Waves
- Roger Dingman (University of Southern California). The Journal of Military History 70:1 (January 2006): 249-250.
- Michael Lewis (Michigan State University), Monumenta Nipponica, 60:3 (Autumn 2005): 412-414
- Steven Bullard (Australian War Memorial) Asian Studies Review 29 (December 2005): 427-428
- Bruce Reynolds (San Jose State University), Japanese Studies, 25:3 (December 2005): 301-302
- Fred Dickinson (University of Pennsylvania), Pacific Affairs, 78:4 (Winter 2005-06): 662-664
- S.C.M. Paine (United States Naval War College), Naval War College Review, 59:3 (Summer 2006): 155-156
- Nicholas Sarantakes (US Army General Command and Army Staff College) Intelligence and National Security 21:4 (August 2006):634-635
- William McBride (US Naval Academy) Technology and Culture 47:4 (October 2006): 833-834
- Andrew Lambert (Kings College, London) International Journal of Maritime History 18:2 (December 2006): 606-607
- Michael Barnhart (State University of New York) Journal of Japanese Studies 33:1 (Winter 2007): 199-201
- Takashi Nishiyama (State University of New York, Brockport). East Asian Science, Technology, and Society: An International Journal 2:1 (2008): 147-150.
Articles in Refereed Journals (sole-authored)
- J. Charles Schencking. "1923 Tokyo as a Devastated War and Occupation Zone: The Catastrophe One Confronted in Post Earthquake Japan," Japanese Studies 29:1 (May 2009): 111-129. (9551 words excluding footnotes) ARC Ranked "A" Journal.
- J. Charles Schencking. "The Great Kantō Earthquake and the Culture of Catastrophe and Reconstruction in 1920s Japan." Journal of Japanese Studies 34:2 (Summer 2008): 295-331. (15,786 words excluding footnotes) ARC Ranked A* Journal.
- J. Charles Schencking. "The Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 and the Japanese Nation: Responding to an Urban Calamity of an Unprecedented Nature," Education About Asia 12:2 (Fall 2007): 20-25. (4,673 words excluding endnotes). **Special issue on Natural Disasters in Asia** Not Ranked by ARC.
- J. Charles Schencking. "Catastrophe, Opportunism, Contestation: The Fractured Politics of Reconstructing Tokyo following the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923," Modern Asian Studies, 40:4 (October 2006): 833-874. (13,972 words excluding footnotes). ARC Ranked A* Journal.
- J. Charles Schencking. "The Imperial Japanese Navy and the Constructed Consciousness of a South Seas Destiny, 1872-1921," Modern Asian Studies 33:4 (October 1999): 769-796. (12,876 words excluding footnotes). ARC Ranked A* Journal.
- J. Charles Schencking. "Bureaucratic Politics, Military Budgets, and Japa's Southern Advance: The Imperial Navys Seizure of German Micronesia in World War I," War in History 5:3 (July 1998): 308-326. (7,987 words excluding footnotes). ARC Ranked A Journal.
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J. Charles Schencking. "The Politics of War Termination between Japan and the United States in 1945," in Crossroads of the Pacific, 4:2 (May 1992): 25-39. (3,974 words excluding footnotes). Not ARC Ranked.
Chapters in Refereed Edited Volumes (sole-authored)
- J. Charles Schencking. "Admiral Tōgō: The Commander Who Destroyed the Russian Fleet," in Jeremy Black, ed., Great Military Leaders and their Campaigns (London: Thames & Hudson, 2008): 234-237 (2,127 words)
- J. Charles Schencking. "Introduction" in Ryoko Adachi and Andrew McKay, eds., Echos of War: Australians Voice their Feeling about Japan. (Tokyo: Mirai Publishers, 2008): 3-7.
- J. Charles Schencking "Interservice Rivalry and Politics in Post-War Japan," in John Steinberg et. al., The Russo-Japanese War in a Global Perspective: World War Zero, (London: Brill, 2005): 565-580. (11,108 words).
- J. Charles Schencking. "Navalism, Naval Expansion, and War: The Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the Japanese Navy, 1902-1922," in Philips OBrien, ed., The Anglo-Japanese Alliance, (London: Routledge, 2004): 122-139. (8,807 words).
- J. Charles Schencking. "The Politics of Pragmatism and Pageantry: Selling the Navy at the Elite and Local Level in Japan, 1890-1913," in Sandra Wilson, ed., Nation and Nationalism in Japan, (London: Routledge/Curzon, 2002): 21-37. (9,172 words).
- J. Charles Schencking. "From Micro History to Macro History: Drawing on Japanese Soldiers Experiences in the Second World War," in Peter Bastian and Roger Bell, eds., Through Depression and War: The United States and Australia. (Sydney: Australia-American Fulbright Commission, 2002): 118-128. (4,923 words).
Refereed Encyclopedia Entries (sole-authored)
- J. Charles Schencking. "National Great Power Navies: Japan 1867-1945," in John Hattendorf, ed., Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History, 4 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 2:717-722. (4,195 words).
- J. Charles Schencking. "Tokyo," in Peter Stearns, ed., Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World. 8 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). 7: 269-270. (1,301 words).
- J. Charles Schencking. "Military Organization in Japan, 1750 to Present," in Peter Stearns, ed., Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World. 8 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). 5: 210-212. (1,598 words).
- J. Charles Schencking. "Arms, Armaments, and the Armaments Industry: East Asia, 1750 to the Present," in Peter Stearns, ed., Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World. 8 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). 1: 233-234. (1,273 words).
Select Book Reviews and Review Articles
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Richard Smethurst, From Foot Soldier to Finance Minister, Takahashi Korekiyo: Japans Keynes (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007). Japanese Studies 28:3 (December 2008): 413-415.
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Asada Sadao, From Mahan to Pearl Harbor: The Imperial Japanese Navy and the United States (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2006). Pacific Historical Review 77:2 (May 2008): 357-358.
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Mark Metzler, Lever of Empire: The International Gold Standard and the Crisis of Liberalism in Prewar Japan, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006). Japanese Studies 27:2 (September 2007): 212-215.
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Gregory Clancey, Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, 1868-1930, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006). Monumenta Nipponica 62:2 (Summer 2007): 5-8.
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Euan Graham, Japans Sea Lane Security, 1940–2004: A Matter of Life and Death?, (London: Routledge, 2006). Japanese Studies 26:3 (December 2006):391-392.
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Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman and the Surrender of Japan (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005). Pacific Affairs 78:4 (Winter 2005/2006): 660-662.
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"Behind Singapores Fall," review article. 29 October 2005, The Age, p. 4. Review included Peter Thompson, The Battle for Singapore (London: Platkus, 2005), and Colin Smith, Singapore Burning, (London: Viking, 2005).
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Andre Sorensen, The Making of Urban Japan, (London: Routledge, 2002, 2004 for paperback edition). Japanese Studies 25:1 (May 2005):97-98
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Paul Ham, Kokoda, (New York: HarperCollins, 2004). The Age, 27 November 2004.
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Carola Hein, Jeffry M. Diefendorf, and Ishida Yorifusa, eds., Rebuilding Urban Japan After 1945, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). Japanese Studies 24:3 (December 2004): 353-354.
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Anthony Best, British Intelligence and the Japanese Challenge in Asia, 1914-1941, (New York: Palgrave, 2003). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 13:3 (July 2003): 234-436.
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David Lu, Agony of Choice: Matsuoka Yōsuke and the Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1880-1946, (New York: Palgrave, 2003). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 13:3 (November 2003): 295-297.
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Ozaki Yukio, The Autobiography of Ozaki Yukio: The Struggle for Constitutional Government in Japan, translated by Fujiko Hara, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001). Japanese Studies 22:1 (May 2002): 94-95.
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Stewart Lone, Army Empire, and Politics in Meiji Japan, (London: Macmillan, 2001). Japanese Studies 21:2 (September 2001): 220-222.
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Ger Teitler and Kurt Radtke, eds., A Dutch Spy in China: Reports on the First Phase of the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1939) (Leiden: Brill, 1999). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 11:1 (April 2001): 117-118.
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Louise Young, Japans Total Empire, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998). Modern Asian Studies 35:1, (2001): 245-247.
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James L. McClain, John M. Merriman, and Ugawa Kaoru, eds., Edo and Paris: Urban Life and the State in the Early Modern Era, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997). Journal of World History 2:2 (Fall 2000): 394-396.
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Frederick R. Dickinson, War and National Reinvention: Japan in the Great War, 1914-1919, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 10:2 (July 2000): 295-297.
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Gordon H. Chang, Morning Glory, Evening Shadow: Yamato Ichihashi and His Internment Writings, 1942-1945, (Stanford University Press, 1997). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 9:3 (April 2000).
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Stephen Vlastos, ed., Mirror of Modernity, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 9:2 (July 1999): 64-67.
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Paul Kratoska, The Japanese Occupation of Malaya, (London: Hurst & Company, 1998). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 9:2 (July 1999): 61-63.
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Edward Drea, In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 9:1 (April 1999): 66-67.
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Christopher Howe, The Origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy, (London: Hurst & Company, 1996). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 9:1 (April 1999): 67-68.
- Mark R. Peattie and David C. Evans, Kaigun. (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1997). Journal of World History. (Spring 1999) 10:1.
Teaching
Teaching Award: National
November 2006: The Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Australian Higher Education. Award for Australian University Teaching Excellence, Early Career Category.
Teaching Awards: University
April 2006: Awarded the Barbara Falk Teaching Award. Selected as the teacher of the year within the Arts, Education, Law, and Music faculties at the University of Melbourne.
May 2005: Awarded the Arts Faculty Teacher of the Year Award.
Subjects/Classes Taught
Supervision
PhD Completions
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Brett Holman (2009). The Next War in the Air: Civilian Fears of Strategic Bombardment in Britain, 1908-1941. Thesis accepted without need for revision.
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Christopher Mullis (2008). Shockwaves and Reverberations: The Great Kantô Earthquake of 1923 and the Japanese Diaspora in Hawaii and the Continental United States. Primary Supervisor. Thesis accepted without need for revision.
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Jonathan Spear (2007). Embedded: The Australian Red Cross in the Second World War. Associate supervisor with Kate Darian-Smith.
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Augustine Meaher (2008). The Road to Singapore: Australian Interwar Defence and Foreign Policies, 1919-1941. Co-primary supervisor with John Lack.
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Richard Trembath (2003). Remembering the Forgotten War: Australia’s Role in the Korean War. Co-primary supervisor with John Lack.
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Rosalind Hearder (2003). Careers in Captivity: Australian Prisoner-of-War Medical Officers in Japanese Captivity During World War II. Co-primary supervisor with John Lack.
Master of Arts Completions
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Nicholas Gillard (2008). The McNamara Line: Efficiency, Force, and Folly. Primary Supervisor. Final Mark 91%.
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Janet Roberts (2007). The Yachties: Australian Volunteers in the Royal Navy 1940-45: A Study of Memory and Identity. Final Mark 78%. Co-supervisor with John Lack.
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Tom Dowling (2007). The Okinawan Teachers Association and the Flag Reversal Policy, 1945-1971. Primary Supervisor. Final mark: 78%.
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Jordan Winfield (2006). Impermanence and Insurrection in Burma: Buddhism and Anti-Colonial Resistance in 19th and 20th Century Burma. Primary Supervisor. Final Mark: 88%.
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Caroline Spencer (2005). The Great Kantō Earthquake and the Reconstruction of Yokohama. Primary Supervisor. Final Mark: 83%.
- Janet Borland (2003). Capitalizing on Catastrophe: Reinvigorating Subjects Through Education Following the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923. Primary supervisor. Final Mark: 90%.
Grants Received Since 2000
International and National Competitive Grants
- August 2009 to August 2011: Hong Kong Research Grants Council. General Research Fund Grant. "The Great Kantō Earthquake and the Political and Ideological Use of Catastrophe in Japan." $HKD 505,040.
- December 2001 (for funding 2002-2003): United States Department of Education. National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. Project Title: "Shattered City, Broken Dreams: The Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 and the Reconstruction of Tokyo." Award: US $ 40,000.
- December 2001 (for funding 2002-2003): Australian Research Council, Discovery Project. Project Title: "Shattered City, City Born: The Great Kantō Earthquake and the Reconstruction of Tokyo." Award: AUD $ 50,000. Tenure: 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2002.
University and Academic Citizenship
International
- 25-27 February 2007: Faculty Participant at the Education Without Borders Student Conference held in Abu Dhabi, The United Arab Emirates.
- 2005-2006: Melbourne University - Hwa Chong Institute (Singapore) Humanities and Social Sciences Programme. This program enabled top students from the Hwa Chong Institute (High School and Junior College) to develop a research project under the supervision of University of Melbourne staff. In February 2005 I represented the university on a visit to Singapore to establish this program and over the course of 2005 and 2006, I supervised five Hwa Chong students.
- 11 April 2005: "The Great Kantō Earthquake and the Culture of Catastrophe in 1920s Japan." Free public lecture delivered at Western Washington University.
- July-August 2004: I organized a Miegunyah Visiting Professorship for Dr. Stephen S. Large, University of Cambridge. This is one of the most distinguished visiting professorships in all of Australian higher education. Dr. Large's visit culminated with a free public lecture on 17 August entitled, "Emperor Hirohito and the Issue of War Responsibility in Post-war Japan."
- January 2004 to December 2012: Member of the editorial board of the Cambridge University Journal, Modern Asian Studies.
Nation Wide
- 28-29 May 2007: Participant and speaker in Carrick Foundation National Teaching Forum held at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
- 14 April to 27 October 2005: Melbourne University Japanese History Seminar Series. I organized and ran a Japanese history research seminar series which invited 9 academics and postgraduate students from universities around Australia to the University of Melbourne to present papers and conduct small group seminars.
University Wide
- December 2008: Appointed as Academic Representative to the Provost and Heads of Colleges University-Wide Committee.
- 21 January 2008: Speaker at the University of Melbourne New Generation Breadth Subject Showcase.
- October-December 2007: Selection Committee Member for the Kwong Lee Dow Young Scholars Awards.
- 13 July 2007: Arts Faculty Speaker and Participant for Access All Areas Program. This university-wide event is especially designed to help with student recruitment and to provide transition information for senior secondary students and their families.
- 19 June 2007: Speaker at the annual University Town and Gown Dinner. "Celebrating a Passion for Teaching and Learning."
- 28 May 2007: Co-Keynote Speaker (with Provost, Professor Peter McPhee) for the University of Melbourne Career Advisors Seminar. This program is run by onshore marketing and recruitment and is directed at secondary school career advisors.
- 13 April 2007: Arts Faculty Speaker and Participant for Access All Areas Program. This university-wide event is especially designed to help with student recruitment and to provide transition information for senior secondary students and their families.
- 13 February 2007: Participant in the New Academic Staff Orientation Program. I gave a twenty-minute talk and participated in a round-table discussion on "Thriving at the University of Melbourne Advice from Experienced Staff."
- 29 May 2006: Speaker and Arts Faculty session coordinator for the University of Melbourne Career Advisors Seminar. This program is run by onshore marketing and recruitment and is directed at secondary school career advisors.
- 2002: Trinity College Foundation Studies Shepherd. Throughout the year I worked as a university shepherd and mentor for the Trinity College Foundation Studies Program, a program geared towards helping international students improve their critical thinking, research, persuasive writing and communications skills prior to (and after) acceptance and enrolment at the University of Melbourne.
Faculty of Arts Wide
- 2006-2009: Member of the Arts Faculty Undergraduate Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum Committee.
- 2006-2009: Member of the Arts Faculty, Faculty Board.
- 2002-2007: Participant in New Tutor Induction and Training Program. Twice each year, I was a guest speaker and led small discussion groups on fostering student learning and participation in a multi-cultural environment.
- 2001-2002: Member of the Arts Faculty, Faculty Board.
Department / School Wide
- 2006-2007: Member of the Asia Institute Undergraduate Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum Committee.
- 2004-2006: Asia Institute Australian Research Council Grants Shepherd.
- 2004-2006: Chair, Department of History Publications Committee.
- 2002-2006: Member of the Department of History Undergraduate Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum Committee.
- 2002-2006: Member of the Department of History Steering Group/Departmental Executive.