In the History Department we highly emphasize on the dissemination of knowledge created through research. Through publications, teaching, and innovative ways in engaging with our local and global communities, we hope to raise public’s awareness in history, and to bring history out of academia and into everyday lives and experiences.
Here you can explore some recent samples of how members of our Department's researches made a difference to a wider audience:
The Great Kantō Earthquake and a New Understanding of Responses to Natural Disasters
Website
Drawing together the photos, maps and materials gathering from
his research on the Great Earthquake, Professor
Charles Schencking compiles a website, the Great Kantō Earthquake.Com, which serves as an online introduction
to various aspects in the history of the Great Kantō Earthquake as well as an archive of
materials free for public access. Since its launching in December 2013, the site has been
visited more than 220,000 times. It has also been used as a core reference in other universities'
courses on environmental history and the history of modern Japan.
Discovery Channel documentary
Research conducted on the legacy of the Great Kantō Earthquake as well as the reconstruction process that followed underpinned collaboration with the Discovery Channel in the production of a TV-documentary entitled: "Japan: Designed for Recovery" which aired on September and October 2016. The documentary has been shown in Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and across South East Asia. The viewership, as estimated by the Discovery Channel, currently stands at 2.7 million individuals.
Professor Schencking was interviewed
for the documentary and provided insights that were instrumental in the making of the programme. His book,
The Great Kantō Earthquake and the Chimera of National
Reconstruction in Japan, and his website were also referred to throughout the documentary
as sources of analysis of rare imagery.
Museum Exhibition
The research also led to a large museum exhibit, "Aftershocks: Experiences of Japan's Great Kantō Earthquake" at the Noel
Shaw Gallery, University of Melbourne, from September 2015 to March 2016. It was estimated that
over 1,000 people visited the exhibition. The curator of the exhibition, Hannah Gould, calls
this rare collection of original documents and artefacts relating to the earthquake "one
of the single most significant collections of these documents outside of Japan."
