Conflict & Society

Birds eye view of graveyard

The nexus of social and military history

The research strengths within UNSW Canberra, and especially the School of Humanities & Social Sciences, revolve around concepts such as ‘conflict’ and ‘society’. ‘Conflict’ expresses an interest in war and peace and the shades and nuances of social, political and military dimensions. These include societal discord more broadly. ‘Society’ encompasses culture (in all senses) including military culture and its relationship to civil societies. One of the school’s traditional strengths is a broad, diverse and coherent focus on the investigation of what can be concisely described as ‘Conflict and Society’.

Within the broad constellation of approaches, several interdisciplinary projects or ventures can be identified: the investigation of ‘Cold War Lives and Literature’ project, the prospective ‘Security in Colonial Australasia’ project, and the existing ‘Conflict and Society’ seminar series and the editing of the international scholarly journal War & Society. Further proposals, short- and long-term, will arise from the cooperation between participants in the Conflict & Society Research Group.

These enterprises bring together the school’s staff, postgraduates and visiting fellows to pursue interdisciplinary research articulating key ideas within and beyond its community. 

The Conflict & Society Research Group is led by Dr Neil Ramsey.

Conflict & Society seminars

Our Conflict & Society seminars are a series of free presentations debating the issues related to social and military history. Presenters include academics from ACT universities, professional historians and Australian Defence Force personnel.

War & Society journal

War & Society publishes high-quality scholarly articles on the causes, experience and impact of war. Our articles feature original research based on archival, oral and other primary sources.

Our researchers

Senior Lecturer in English and Media Studies
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Adjunct Associate Lecturer
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History Discipline Coordinator - Lecturer in History
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Adjunct Lecturer
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Professor of International Law and Security
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Associate Professor of History
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Associate Professor of History
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Senior Lecturer
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Senior Lecturer
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Deputy Head of School (Education), Senior Lecturer in History
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Headshot of HDR Student Ashleigh Brown
HDR Student
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Josh Hewson
HDR Student
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Headshot of HDR Student Nicole Townsend
HDR Student
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Headshot of Neil Westphalen
HDR Student
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