The Research Centre for Deep History and Rediscovering the Deep Human Past Laureate Program has a number of PhD students and student affiliates. These emerging researchers contribute to the scholarship of the Centre, and to the development of deep history research in Australia.
We also host a network of Early Career scholars from a wide variety of Indigenous and non-Indigenous backgrounds. Information for signing up to our deep history network is on the homepage.
Neil Brougham
Neil has taught English as a second language, worked in land management, and in Aboriginal liaison and engagement. In land management (park ranger), Neil worked widely across South and Western Australia, where he developed an interest in, and was exposed to, Australian Aboriginal culture and history, which set the general direction of his research: the precolonial history of Australia, and in particular that of the Pilbara. More recently Neil worked as a liaison officer for the Northern Land Council in Kakadu National Park, to facilitate proper engagement with the Aboriginal community in projects affecting their traditional lands. Neil joined the RDHP program as a doctoral student after finishing an Honour’s thesis part time in Kakadu. He was attracted by the program’s stated aim of finding “new approaches” to the deep history of Australia. Neil is concerned with developing a new philosophical-historical framework for the reconstruction of Australian history which reflects and supports the integrity of Aboriginal cultural systems and people.
Joshua Newham
Joshua came to university late, starting his PhD in 2019 at 33yrs old (with a newborn daughter). He completed a Bachelor of Arts in History and Creative Writing, as well as a Diploma of Languages (Spanish) at La Trobe University in 2017, then a combined History and English Honours year in 2018. Joshua’s Honours thesis combined historical essays with creative nonfiction and in 2020 received both the Allan Martin Prize and the Richard Broome Indigenous History Prize from La Trobe University, as well as a RDHP Laureate Scholarship to the ANU. His PhD project is a Landscape Biography of South Eastern NSW, examining the deep history of Aboriginal connection to place and the intercultural connections between people and sites across the region. Joshua is also a writer, musician, poet and visual artist; creative practices which, alongside traditional research, engage with his subjects and deepen qualitative understandings of the landscape and its history.
Robert Paton
Rob Paton has been a professional archaeologist for 35 years, working throughout Australia and overseas. He has published in the disciplines of archaeology, anthropology and history. He is also a Board Member for the journal Aboriginal History. Presently he is a doctoral scholar with the School of History, at the Australian National University.
Rob Hardcastle
Rob is a Sound Designer, Senior Lecturer in Film Sound at Arts University Bournemouth and an External Doctoral Candidate at ANU. The title of his interdisciplinary practice-based thesis is Unmuting the Past, and is primarily concerned with sound’s role in the creation of place and identities.