Academic Staff, Project Researchers and Workshop Members

Regular 2024 meetings of MHW include current Honours students (Rob Elkerton, Naomi Mackie and Amelia Rothnie),  PhD students (Jac Bosman, Anthony Jenkins, Patrick Gigacz, Mary Sheehan and Ross Karavis), PhD elective student (Heidi Bula) as well as former students (Barbara Minchinton, Nicole Davis, Roly Wettenhall, Sue Silberberg and Susan Reidy) and project staff (Mitchell Harrop) and collaborators.

Andrew J. May is Professor of History in the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, where he has been a faculty member since 2000. As a social historian with broad interests across urban, colonial and imperial history, he has published widely on the social experience and cultures of the city—including Melbourne Street Life (1998), Espresso! Melbourne Coffee Stories (2001), and as co-editor The Encyclopedia of Melbourne (Cambridge University Press, 2005).

Dr Sophie Couchman is a curator and professional historian interested in Australia’s migration history. She has researched and published in the field of Chinese-Australian history for many years and was curator at the Chinese Museum for seven years. She has been involved in a diverse range of activities including developing exhibitions, walking tours, oral histories and online resources. Sophie is currently working with the MHW on the ARC-funded ‘Time-Layered Culture Map’ project. Website

Dr Mitchell Harrop is an honorary research fellow in History in the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. As a social scientist with a strong software engineering background he is a true generalist. Mitchell is working across a number of MHW projects including the ‘A Journal of the Plague Year: An Archive of Covid-19‘ project and the ARC-funded ‘Time-Layered Culture Map’ project.

Dr Henry Reese completed his PhD in 2019 under the supervision of Professor David Goodman on ‘Cultures of sound recording and preservation in and around Australasia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries’, and is currently working with the MHW on the Postwar Apartments project. Website

Dr Sue Silberberg completed her PhD in 2016 under Professor May’s supervision and her book A networked community: Jewish Melbourne in the nineteenth century was published by Melbourne University Publishing in 2020. Sue runs Silberberg Consulting, specialising in cultural heritage and historical research.

Dr Roland S. Wettenhall completed his PhD under Professor May’s supervision in 2019 on ‘The translocation of the English Friendly Society movement to Victoria, 1835-1920’. He currently works as Access Services & Digital Project Officer at Public Record Office Victoria.

Current Research Higher Degree Students

Professor May is available for supervision.

Patrick Gigacz: ‘Cultures of electricity in Melbourne’.

Anthony Jenkins: ‘A history of smoking culture in Australia’.

Ross Karavis: ‘Bon goût in the Antipodes: The impact of the globalisation of French taste on Australian culinary culture 1850 -1914’.

Mary Sheehan: ‘Community in crisis: Spanish influenza in Victoria’.