Prof Bruce Scates - Researcher Profile

Bruce Scates

Address

Monash University
Wellington Road, Clayton

Biography

 

An ANZAC History

Despite its central place in Australia's national mythology, identity and memory, and despite growing popular observance of the day itself, a history of Anzac Day is yet to be written. Respected historian and author, Professor Bruce Scates is about to right that wrong.

 

 

Bruce is uniquely placed to write a history of Australia's ANZAC commemorations.

In 2005-6, he was a member of an expert panel convened to recover the bodies of men missing from the Great War and he is the author of a submission to the Senate Inquiry into controversial road works at Gallipoli. He has also led several historical tours of the battlefields and commemorative sites of the Great War, including the Premier of Victoria's 'Spirit of Anzac'.

His catalogue of award-winning works include histories of iconic Australian events, places and people, such as Gallipoli, the Shrine of Remembrance and our involvement in both world wars. 

The ANZAC Day work he has recently begun is funded through an ARC Linkage Grant, and seeks to find answers to questions that lay curiously un-asked through a century of Australia's unofficial national day. It is an international collaboration, bringing together leading scholars across the globe and the largest and most ambitious project of its kind funded in the humanities.  

"We have little understanding of how Anzac Day has changed over the years, how its meanings have been shaped and contested, or how its observance has differed in city and country, across different regions and in the very different cultural landscapes of Australia and New Zealand," Bruce says.

"What are the cultural meanings of this ever changing, ever renewing ritual? How has it shaped our personal and national identity? How do we explain the Day's emergence, demise and in recent years phenomenal reinvention? 

"Equally importantly, few have considered what Anzac Day means outside Australia and how its mass commemoration in the UK, France and Turkey have fostered a sense of belonging for Australian communities abroad."

Bruce is also currently leading an ARC Discovery project investigating the experiences and motivations of generations of Australians undertaking pilgrimages to the battlefields and cemeteries that define the country's involvement in war.  

It will be both an historical study, charting changes in the nature of commemoration from one world war to another, and an investigation of the experience of today’s travellers. 

"Since the death of the last Gallipoli veterans, the Anzac legend is increasingly associated with Australia’s involvement in WW2 and pilgrimages to its battlefields and cemeteries now extend across three generations of travellers," Bruce says.

"This study will ask who undertakes such journeys and why. 

"I am confident the mix of oral history, archival research and personal survey will offer new insights into the emotional world of loss and mourning and explore the intersection between personal and collective memory."

Bruce’s third ARC project examines the social, cultural and environmental history of soldier settlement in New South Wales.  Like the History of Anzac Day study, it fosters a partnership with leading cultural institutions to promote new scholarship and engage with the community.

 

Qualifications

PHD
Institution: Monash University
Year awarded: 2007

Publications

Books

Scates, B.C., 2012, On Dangerous Ground: A Gallipoli Story, UWA Publishing, Crawley, Western Australia.

Scates, B.C., 2009, A Place to Remember: A History of the Shrine of Remembrance, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne Australia.

Scates, B.C., 2006, Return to Gallipoli: Walking the Battlefields of the Great War, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK.

Scates, B.C., 2005, The Ghosts of Gallipoli: Re-Visiting the Anzac Battlefields, History Council of New South Wales, Sydney NSW Australia.

Scates, B.C. (ed), 2004, A Future for the Past: The State of Children's History, History Council of New South Wales, Sydney NSW Australia.

Book Chapters

Scates, B.C., 2010, A 'democratic rendezvous': the bookshops of radical Sydney, in Radical Sydney: Places, Portraits and Unruly Episodes, eds Terry Irving and Rowan Cahill, UNSW Press, Sydney NSW Australia, pp. 89-96.

Scates, B.C., 2010, Finding the missing of Fromelles: when soldiers return, in Anzac Legacies Australians and the Aftermath of War, eds Martin Crottty and Marina Larsson, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne Vic Australia, pp. 212-232.

Scates, B.C., 2009, Manufacturing memory at Gallipoli, in War Memory and Popular Culture, eds Michael Keren and Holger H Herwig, McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina, pp. 57-75.

Scates, B.C., 2008, Places of the heart: real and imaginary pilgrimages to the cemetaries and battlefields of the Great War, in Writings of War, eds Claire Woods and Judith Timoney, Lythrum Press, Adelaide SA Australia, pp. 1-35.

Scates, B.C., 2008, Remembering Gallipoli: from the first Anzac Day service to today's backpacker pilgrimage, in Making Australian History: Perspectives on the Past Since 1788, eds Deborah Gare and David Ritter, Thomson Learning Australia, Melbourne Vic Australia, pp. 302-310.

Oppenheimer, M.N., Scates, B.C., 2005, Australians and war, in Australia's History: Themes and Debates, eds Martyn Lyons and Penny Russell, UNSW Press, Sydney NSW Australia, pp. 134-151.

Scates, B.C., 2004, Walking with history: school excursions to the cemetaries of the Great War, in A Future for the Past: The State of Children's History, eds Bruce Scates, History Council of New South Wales, Sydney NSW Australia, pp. 93-118.

Scates, B.C., 2002, Imagining Anzac: children's responses to the killing fields of the Great War, in Children and War: An Anthology, eds James Marten, New York University Press, New York USA, pp. 50-63.

Scates, B.C., 2002, The case of Clarinna Stringer: strategic options and the household economy in late nineteenth century Australia, in Rebellious Families: From Household Strategies to Collective Action, eds Jan Kok, Berg Publishers, Oxford UK, pp. 58-77.

Scates, B.C., 2001, Andrew Fisher: a political testament, in 1901: The Forgotten Election, eds Marian Simms, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia NSW Australia, pp. 81-95.

Journal Articles

Scates, B.C., Frances, R., Reeves, K.J., Bongiorno, F., Crotty, M., Knapman, G.L., Seal, G.P., Becker, A., Reeves, A.P., Soutphommasane, T.E., Blackburn, K.P., Clarke, S.J., Stanley, P., Hoskins, A., Winter, J., Bridge, C., James, L.K., Wheatley, R.K., Riches, L.K., McCosker, A., Sleight, S.P., 2012, Anzac Day at home and abroad: towards a history of Australia's national day, History Compass [P], vol 10, issue 7, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, United Kingdom, pp. 523-536.

Reeves, K., Eklund, E., Reeves, A., Scates, B., Peel, V., 2011, Broken Hill: rethinking the significance of the material culture and intangible heritage of the Australian labour movement, International Journal of Heritage Studies [P], vol 17, issue 4, Routledge, United Kingdom, pp. 301-317.

Scates, B., 2009, '[It] ought to be as famous as the Statue of Liberty': The forgotten history of Tasmania's cenotaph - Australia's first state war memorial, Tasmanian Historical Studies [P], vol 14, University of Tasmania, School of History and Classics, Tasmania Australia, pp. 53-78.

Olssen, E., Scates, B.C., 2008, Class formation and political change: a trans-Tasman dialogue, Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History, vol 95, issue 95, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Sydney NSW Australia, pp. 3-24.

Scates, B.C., 2008, Memorialising Gallipoli: manufacturing memory at Anzac, Public History Review, vol 2008, issue 15, UTS epress, Sydney NSW Australia, pp. 47-59.

Scates, B.C., 2007, The first casualty of war: A reply to McKenna's and Ward's 'Gallipoli pilgrimage and sentimental nationalism', Australian Historical Studies, vol 38, issue 130, Routledge, United Kingdom, pp. 312-321.

Scates, B.C., 2006, Return to Gallipoli, Wartime, vol -, issue July 2006, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT Australia, pp. 8-12.

Scates, B.C., 2004, Young Australians at Gallipoli, Teaching History, vol -, issue December 2004, History Teacher's Association of New South Wales, Sydney NSW Australia, pp. 32-38.

Scates, B.C., 2003, The price of war: labour historians confront military history, Labour History, vol May 2003, issue 84, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Sydney NSW Australia, pp. 133-143.

Scates, B.C., 2003, Walking with history: children, pilgrimage and war's restless memory, Australian Cultural History, vol -, issue 22, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia Qld Australia, pp. 83-104.

Scates, B.C., 2002, In Gallipoli's shadow: pilgrimage, memory, mourning and the Great War, Australian Historical Studies, vol 33, issue 119, University of Melbourne, Melbourne Vic Australia, pp. 1-21.

Scates, B.C., 2002, Journeys into history, EQ Australia, vol 1, issue Autumn 2002, Curriculum Corporation of Australia, South Melbourne Vic Australia, pp. 44-47.

Scates, B.C., 2002, My brilliant career and radicalism, Australian Literary Studies, vol 20, issue 4, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia Qld Australia, pp. 370-379.

Scates, B.C., 2001, The unknown sock knitter: voluntary work, emotional labour, bereavement and the Great War, Labour History, vol Nov. 2001, issue 81, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Sydney NSW Australia, pp. 29-51.

Other

Scates, B., 2011, A Gallipoli story: imagining history, Chapter, The Voyage: Journeys in Creative Writing, Highlands, pp. 177-186.

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
'Anzac Nations': the politics of the Anzac Memory between New Zealand and Australia.
Supervisors:
Reeves, K (Joint), Scates, B (Joint-co).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
'Teaching Anzac' .
Supervisors:
Reeves, K (Joint), Scates, B (Joint-co).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
A Day to Remember? From holy day to political protests Anzac Day 1955 - 1985 .
Supervisors:
Reeves, K (Joint), Scates, B (Joint-co).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
From Tasmania to the top end: An exploration into the meaning and significance of Anzac Day in regional Australia.
Supervisors:
Reeves, K (Joint), Scates, B (Joint-co).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Kokoda and Pilgrimage.
Supervisors:
Reeves, K (Joint), Scates, B (Joint-co).