Encyclopaedias and Australian Politics
The political impact of Australian encyclopaedias is the focus of current Faculty research. Encyclopaedias have often been described as mirrors of the societies they are produced in. This metaphor reveals a lack of understanding of the complex politics embedded in the genre. Encyclopaedias are not passive mirrors, but have the power, along with other cultural, artistic and educational products, to subtly control and, paradoxically, to change the societies which produced them. Nadine Kavanagh has uncovered convincing evidence that Australian encyclopaedias played a significant role in the construction of an Australian national identity.
A set of conference papers and publications, dealing with encyclopaedias from a political perspective, are in preparation. In particular, Kavanagh is researching the role the Australian Encyclopaedia (1925/26) played in the highly political and sensitive historiographical debate on Australia's convict past.