Associate Professor Josephine May
Honorary Associate Professor
Learning and Teaching (History)
Looking back to move forward
Simply but superbly, Conjoint Associate Professor Josephine May is seeking to improve the Australian student experience.
At the heart of Associate Professor Josephine May’s research is the principle of equality. Motivated by this principle, the feminist historian has spent most of the last three decades piecing together our educational past, trying to understand how and why women have not been accorded equal rights and enrichment – a condition sadly still apparent today.
“How women have dealt with the gendered obstacles they encountered as they claimed their place in education is relevant to our current predicament,” she insists.
"I explore this history from other perspectives as well, including through a biographical / first person lens, as well as utilising class, age and race perspectives."
“My research interests extend to the history of educational representations, especially in cinema and photography.”
Like many scholars at university who have engaged in both teaching and research, Josephine has more than one academic focus. A clever multitasker, she is proudly committed to ensuring that students are given every opportunity to succeed in tertiary education.
“I believe we must make all possible efforts amid the increasingly econometric culture in which we are placed, to remember that our students are far more than generators of numbers – they are the future leaders of our society,” the critical thinker asserts.
“Our job is to challenge, nurture, inspire and encourage them to be rounded, knowledgeable, just, inclusive, thoughtful and optimistic global citizens, equipped to face the uncertainties they will no doubt encounter as we make our way into the post-industrial future.”
Old issues, new understandings
Josephine’s research career began in 1993, when she commenced a PhD at UON. Blurring the boundaries of history and memory, the seven-year probe sought to gain fresh insight into the experiences of students from Newcastle Girls’ High School and Newcastle Boys’ High School during the middle decades of the 20th century.
“I crafted a blended oral history methodology called ‘history-in-the-round,’” she recalls.
“It allowed for a multilayered analysis of schooling experiences from the adolescents’ point of view.”
“At the time, studies from this perspective were rare.”
Simultaneously drawing from interdisciplinary research literature on memory, Josephine then looked to explore the nature of both personal and social memory about education, then and now. Adopting a gendered lens, the passionate and hardworking researcher also examined the ways in which schools were places where students were constructed as young men and women.
“The oral histories produced a rich portrait of life in these schools,” she elaborates.
“In particular, I found that the boys’ school operated within wider society’s hegemonic view of masculinity, enacting its role in producing young men who would be breadwinners, social leaders and perhaps soldiers if needed.”
“The girls’ school, however, occupied an ambivalent position because, while it advocated a strict normative model of femininity based on the concept of ‘the lady,’ its project was deeply subversive of traditional gender roles.”
“This subversion happened both directly, such as when female students, especially the high achieving ones, were encouraged to think in terms of professional careers, and indirectly, such as when unmarried professional women teachers modelled an alternative life outside of the domestic norm.”
“On the whole, men were less conscious of these forces exerted by gender formation than women were.”
Aligning with the work of American sociologist Michael Kimmel, Josephine’s thesis agreed that women, although accorded less power than men, had more latitude to define their identities. Men, on the other hand, were offered at that time a narrower range of options for the performance of their gender identities.
Teaching, learning, researching and inspiring
Josephine stayed on at UON after receiving her award in 2000, having already signed on as a casual tutor in Australian History in what was then the School of Liberal Arts and in Australian Culture and Society within the University’s enabling programs. What began in the mid 1990s as a fractional appointment as an enabling lecturer soon turned into a full time academic position. However, the prolific publisher also spent a number of “happy years” as a History lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences based at Ourimbah.
“I came back to Callaghan in 2011 and was Deputy Head of School (Teaching and Learning) for a time,” she states.
“Then in 2013 I returned to the English Language and Foundation Studies Centre where I began and spent the remaining years as Deputy Director, overseeing Teaching and Learning .
“My career at the University of Newcastle has had a pleasing circularity to it”, she said.
Having retired, Josephine is currently undertaking a generous handful of interesting research projects as a conjoint For example, she is engaged in research with colleagues about study skills, especially looking at the design and efficacy of free online courses (MOOCs). As well this thought-provoking scholar is in the process of exploring the transnational lives of the first generations of academically educated Australian women.
“As well I am part of a team of researchers using narrative techniques to write a book commissioned by Palgrave Macmillan about the experiences of first-in-family university students,” she shares.
“I’m also a member of the national Office of Learning and Teaching-funded study aimed at improving the success rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university students, and the HERMES research group looking at historical consciousness.”
“It’s a busy life!”
Looking back to move forward
Associate Professor Josephine May am an historian of education specializing in the history of Australian education and enabling education.
Career Summary
Biography
I am Conjoint Associate Professor in the English Language and Foundation Studies Centre. I am a historian of education specializing in the history of Australian education and enabling education. I am interested in visual representations of educational subjects, as well as gender, class, age, race and ethnicity and how they have in the past, and do now, affect the lived experience of education. My comprehensive work on filmic representations of Australian schooling, entitled Reel Schools: Schooling and the Nation in Australian Cinema, published by Peter Lang in 2013, has received excellent reviews. My numerous research articles have appeared in leading journals including History of Education Review, Australian Journal of Adult Learning, Journal of Australian Studies and Paedagogica Historica. I am on the Editorial Board of History of Education Review, Associate Editor of Historical Encounters, a journal of historical consciousness, historical cultures and history education, and I was the inaugural Chair of the Editorial Board of the Dictionary of Educational History in Australia and New Zealand (DEHANZ). I am a former President of the Australian & New Zealand History of Education Society (2011-2012) and former national secretary and executive member of InASA (2004-2008). My new book with Tanya Fitzgerald is entitled Portraying lives: Headmistresses and women professors 1880s-1940s (in press, IAP 2016, http://www.infoagepub.com/products/Portraying-Lives). With colleagues Sarah O'Shea and Janine Delahunty (University of Wollongong) and Cathy Stone (University of Newcastle), I collaborated on a successful OLT project in 2013-2014 entitled 'Breaking the Barriers' that resulted in a very well attended national workshop, a report and a website (see www.firstinfamily.com.au) for prospective and current first in family university students and staff who work with them. The research team is currently working on a book about the experiences of first-in-family university students for Palgrave Macmillan (2017).
Qualifications
- PhD, University of Newcastle
- Bachelor of Arts, University of Newcastle
- Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of Newcastle
- Graduate Diploma of Education, University of Newcastle
Keywords
- Australian History
- Enabling Education
- Film and History
- Film and the History of Australian Education
- Gender and History
- Gender and sexuality
- History of Australian Education
- History of Teacher Education
Professional Experience
Academic appointment
Dates | Title | Organisation / Department |
---|---|---|
1/3/2013 - | Associate Professor | University of Newcastle Centre for English Language and Foundation Studies Australia |
1/1/2013 - | Editorial Board - Historical Encounters: A Journal of Historical Consciousness, Historical Cultures, and History Education | Historical Encounters: A Journal of Historical Consciousness, Historical Cultures, and History Education Australia |
1/1/2013 - | Editorial Board - Online Dictionary of Educational History in Australia and New Zealand | Online Dictionary of Educational History in Australia and New Zealand Australia |
1/1/2012 - | Editorial Board - History of Education Review | History of Education Review Australia |
1/1/2010 - 31/12/2014 | Membership - Executive, Australian & New Zealand History of Education Society | Executive, Australian & New Zealand History of Education Society Australia |
1/1/2009 - 12/3/2013 | Senior Lecturer | University of Newcastle School of Humanities and Social Science Australia |
1/1/2005 - 31/12/2011 | Membership - International Australian Studies Association (InASA) Executive | International Australian Studies Association (InASA) Executive Australia |
1/8/2004 - 1/12/2008 | Lecturer | University of Newcastle School of Humanities and Social Science Australia |
1/1/2004 - 31/12/2004 | Conference Chair - Ourimbah Campus Festival of Literature Committee | Ourimbah Campus Festival of Literature Committee Australia |
1/1/2003 - 31/12/2004 | Conference Chair - The Inaugural Australian Enabling Educators Conference Committee | The Inaugural Australian Enabling Educators Conference Committee Australia |
Awards
Recognition
Year | Award |
---|---|
2012 |
Vice-Chancellor's Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning University of Newcastle |
2009 |
Excellence Award Unknown |
2009 |
Teacher Recognition Award Unknown |
2009 |
Lecturer of the Year Unknown |
2007 |
New South Wales Quality Teaching Award Australian College of Educators |
Invitations
Keynote Speaker
Year | Title / Rationale |
---|---|
2016 |
Sight, Sound and Text in the History of Education Keynote entitled 'Views from Somewhere: gender, history and filmic representations of Australian primary school teachers'. See https://storify.com/suzman/sight-sound-and-text-in-the-history-of-education |
2012 |
Presidential Address Organisation: ANZHES |
2009 |
'From Reel Schools to Real Schools Australian Films and the History of Education' Organisation: Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society Description: May, J., 2009, Keynote, 'From Reel Schools to Real Schools Australian Films and the History of Education', ANZHES Conference, Connections and Circuits in Histories of Education, 7 - 10 December, 2009, St Mark's College, North Adelaide. |
Participant
Year | Title / Rationale |
---|---|
2013 |
NewMac Postgraduate Conference Organisation: University of Newcastle and Macquarie University |
2012 |
Newmac Postgraduate Conference Organisation: University of Newcastle/Macquarie University Description: NewMac Postgraduate Conference |
2012 |
Invited Book Launch Organisation: Common Ground Publishing; Coop Bookstore Description: Invitation to launch the book "Transformations & Self-Discovery" by Cathy Stone and Sarah O'Shea on 5 December 2012 at the Coop Bookstore at Ourimbah. |
2011 |
NSW Premiers History Prize Organisation: Arts NSW, NSW State Government |
2011 |
NSW State Records Organisation: NSW Department of Services, Technology and Administration Description: This prestigious annual prize is worth $15,000. |
2010 |
Public Forum on Governor Macquarie Organisation: NSW History Week (Hunter) Description: Public Forum on Governor Macquarie, Newcastle City Hall. |
2009 |
NSW Premier’s History Awards Organisation: Arts NSW in association with the History Council of NSW Description: The New South Wales Premier’s History Awards, established to honour distinguished achievement in history by Australians, are worth $90,000 in total. I was one of six specialist invited judges under the leadership of Professor Ros Pesman, University of Sydney. I participated in the multimedia and Young People's History awards judging. |
Speaker
Year | Title / Rationale |
---|---|
2012 |
Ned Kelly Organisation: Singleton Library Description: Guest Speaker |
2011 |
'Look Who's Talking' Local History Series Organisation: Maitland City Council Library Description: Invited speaker because of my research and expertise in Australian women's history. |
2009 |
International Women’s Day After Dinner Speech Organisation: Union of Australian Women (Hunter Region) Description: Speech entitled: "Making Ends Meet: Women's Lives When the Global Becomes Local" on the Hunter Experience of the Great Depression. |
2009 |
Invited Speech for book launch Organisation: Australian Teacher Education Association Description: Claiming a Voice, ATEA Conference, Albury, 29 June 2009. |
2008 |
Annual Conference Dinner Organisation: Progressive Labour Party Description: Invited After Dinner Speaker on The Labour Movement in Newcastle During WWI. |
2008 |
Invited Occasional Talk Organisation: Union of University Women Description: 'Topic: 'On Teaching The Patriarchal Equilibrium’ |
Prestigious works / other achievements
Year Commenced | Year Finished | Prestigious work / other achievement | Role |
---|---|---|---|
2015 | 2015 | BA Review Panel La Trobe University | Reviewer |
Publications
For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.
Book (5 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||||
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2024 |
O'Shea S, May J, Stone C, Delahunty J, First-in-Family Students, University Experience and Family Life, Springer International Publishing (2024)
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2017 |
O'Shea S, May J, Stone C, Delahunty J, First-in-Family Students, University Experience and Family Life Motivations, Transitions and Participation, Springer, 223 (2017) [A1]
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Nova | |||||
2016 | Fitzgerald T, May J, Portraying lives: Headmistresses and Women Professors 1880s-1940s, Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, NC, 148 (2016) [A1] | Nova | |||||
2013 |
May J, Reel Schools: Schooling and the Nation in Australian Cinema., Peter Lang, Bern, 285 (2013) [A1]
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Nova | |||||
2009 |
May JR, Holbrook AP, Thompson AM, Preston GD, Bessant B, Claiming a Voice: The First Thirty-Five Years of the Australian Teacher Education Association, Australian Teacher Education Association, Perth, WA, 169 (2009) [A2]
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Nova | |||||
Show 2 more books |
Chapter (6 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
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2021 |
May J, Parnell J, 'Introduction', The Bride in the Cultural Imagination Screen, Stage, and Literary Productions, Lexington Books, London xiii-xxii (2021)
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2019 | May J, 'Gender and hyper-linear history in the representation of the female Australian primary school teacher in Marion (ABCTV, 1974)', Sight, Sound and Text in the History of Education, Routledge, London (2019) | ||||
2018 | May JR, 'Foreword', Representations of the Mother-In-Law in Literature, Film, Drama, and Television, Lexington Books, Minneapolis vii-xii (2018) | ||||
2016 | May JR, 'History-in-the-round: Oral history, memory and praxis for small scale oral history projects', Oral history education: Dialogue with the past, Slovenian National Commission for UNESCO, Ljubljana 27-41 (2016) [B1] | Nova | |||
2011 | May JR, 'The Devil's Playground: Coming-of-age as national cinema', Making Film and Television Histories: Australia and New Zealand, I. B. Tauris, London 158-163 (2011) [B2] | Nova | |||
2002 | May JR, 'Loyalty and dissent: the labour movement in Newcastle during the Great War', Broadmeadow to Villers-Bretonneux: Newcastle during the Great War, Random, Newcastle 250 (2002) [B2] | ||||
Show 3 more chapters |
Journal article (32 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||||||||
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2023 |
May J, 'Elite women's clubs in the 1930s across three Australian states: a prosopographical study', History of Education Review, 52 49-68 (2023) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2023 |
May J, 'Elite women's schools across three Australian states in the 1930s: a prosopographical study', History of Education Review, 52 29-48 (2023) [C1] Purpose: This paper presents a descriptive analysis of elite women's biographical sketches in Who's Who-type collections, now out of copyright, published in Australia in... [more] Purpose: This paper presents a descriptive analysis of elite women's biographical sketches in Who's Who-type collections, now out of copyright, published in Australia in the 1930s: Victoria (1934), New South Wales (1936) and Queensland (1939). It concentrates on information given about their schooling. Design/methodology/approach: The biographical sketches of the women, defined as ¿elite¿ by their inclusion in three collections from the 1930s, were examined for information about their and their daughters' education. Using mixed methods in a prosopographical approach, this is mainly a quantitative analysis. It outlines and compares the schools they attended where given as well as providing basic demographic details of the 491 women. Findings: The paper shows that, for those who gave educational details, the women and their daughters attended private schools almost exclusively. Three types of schools were listed ¿ private venture, corporate, and a very few state schools. The paper demonstrates that the landscape for girls¿ secondary schooling was not a settled terrain in terms of type, place, religion, or age of schools available for elite girls' education in the late 19th and early 20th century. Private schools are shown to be part of the ¿machinery of exclusiveness which characterised the inter-war years¿ (Teese, 1998, p. 402) and private venture schools survived well into the third decade of the 20th century. Originality/value: Beyond the histories of individual schools, little is known about the educational profile of Australian elite women in the past. This largely quantitative analysis helps to uncover and compare across state-based cohorts, previously unknown demographic, and schooling details for interwar women who recorded their educational details, as well as for the NSW and Victorian daughters where given.
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Nova | |||||||||
2022 |
Conway J, Cushing N, May J, 'Obstacle Course: Women s Entry into Skilled Positions in the Newcastle Steel Industry, 1980 2000', Labour History, 122 77-105 (2022) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2021 |
May J, 'Revisiting the life of Lucy Garvin, first principal of Sydney Girls High School: expanded biography and use of digital sources', History of Education Review, 50 287-302 (2021) [C1] Purpose: The article sets out primarily to fill in some of the gaps in the biography of Lucy Arabella Stocks Garvin (1851¿1938), first principal of Sydney Girls High School. As a ... [more] Purpose: The article sets out primarily to fill in some of the gaps in the biography of Lucy Arabella Stocks Garvin (1851¿1938), first principal of Sydney Girls High School. As a reflexive exercise stimulated by this biographical research, the second aim is to explore the transformative work of digital sources on the researcher's research processes that in turn generate possibilities for expanded biographical studies in the history of education. Design/methodology/approach: This article encompasses two approaches: the first uses traditional historical methods in the digital sources to provide an expanded biography of Lucy Garvin. The second is a reflexive investigation of the effects of digitisation of sources on the historian's research processes. Findings: The advent of digital technologies has opened up more evidence on the life of Lucy Garvin which enables a fuller account both within and beyond the school gate. Digital sources have helped to address important gaps in her life story that challenge current historiographical understandings about her: for example, regarding her initial travel to Australia; her previous career as a teacher in Australia and the circumstances of her appointment as principal; her private and family life; and her involvement in extra school activities. In the process of exploring Garvin's life, the researcher reflected on the work of digital sources and argues that such sources transform the research process by speeding up and de-situating the collection and selection of evidence, while at the same time expanding and slowing the scrutiny of evidence. The ever-expanding array of digital sources, despite its patchiness, can lead to finer grained expanded biographical studies while increasing the provisionality of historical accounts. Originality/value: The article presents new biographical information about an important early female educational leader in Australia and discusses the impact of digital sources on archival and research processes in the history of women's education.
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Nova | |||||||||
2020 |
May J, 'Empire s daughters: the first 25 Australian born
women at Girton and Newnham Colleges
Cambridge, 1870 1940, as insiders and outsiders', History of Education, 49 781-804 (2020) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2018 |
May J, 'The national in the transnational: The compelling story of Anna Marie Hlawaczek in the New South Wales colonial teaching service', History of Education Review, 47 197-207 (2018) [C1] Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to relate the compelling story of Viennese-born and educated Anna Marie Hlawaczek (c.1849¿1893) and her employment as the second headmistress... [more] Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to relate the compelling story of Viennese-born and educated Anna Marie Hlawaczek (c.1849¿1893) and her employment as the second headmistress at Maitland Girls High School in the colony of New South Wales (NSW) from 1885 to 1887. Design/methodology/approach: Through a biographical lens, this paper uses traditional documentary research mainly in the school administration files in the NSW State Archives to explore Hlawaczek¿s experiences. Findings: The first set of findings forms the narrative of Anna Hlawaczek¿s troubled employment in the NSW teaching service at the beginnings of public girls¿ secondary education. It shows the ways in which ethnicity, gender, career history and expectations worked on both sides to exacerbate the potential for misunderstanding between her and the all-male administrators of the NSW Department of Public Instruction. The second set of findings suggests two ways in which the national worked as a transnational shaping factor in her story, both constraining and empowering her. Originality/value: The careers of non-Anglo women working in the early colonial secondary schools for girls have been rarely studied. This paper presents a previously untold story of one pioneering transnational headmistress in the NSW Department of Public Instruction. Her story complicates the transnational approach in the history of women¿s education by highlighting the power of the national within the transnational.
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Nova | |||||||||
2018 |
May J, 'Gender and hyper-linear history in the representation of the female Australian primary school teacher in Marion (ABCTV, 1974)', History of Education, 47 209-224 (2018) [C1] Building on the author¿s previous work on Australian national cinema and schooling, this article explores the representation of the female primary school teacher in the television... [more] Building on the author¿s previous work on Australian national cinema and schooling, this article explores the representation of the female primary school teacher in the television mini-series entitled Marion (Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1974). Using narrative analysis, it argues that this representation is disruptive of patriarchal gender relations, demonstrating ¿hyper-linear history¿ where an exemplary relationship is created between the disrupted gender relations in school leadership in Australia caused by the Second World War and the ongoing disruption of gender relations occasioned by the second-wave women¿s movement in the 1970s. This mini-series shows how history, gender and representation are mobilised to create a unique cinematic historical argument about the gendered nature of Australian primary school teaching. Finally, the article reflects briefly on the situatedness of this reading out of the Global South.
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Nova | |||||||||
2018 |
O'Shea S, Stone C, Delahunty J, May JR, 'Discourses of betterment and opportunity: exploring the privileging of university attendance for first-in-family learners', Studies in Higher Education, 43 1010-1033 (2018) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2017 |
Mundy-Taylor J, May JR, Reynolds R, 'Storytelling in 3D: Interrogating Engagement with Oral Storytelling in the School Classroom', Storytelling, Self, Society, Vol. 11 159-182 (2017) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2016 |
May JR, Delahunty J, O'Shea S, Stone C, 'Seeking the passionate career: first-in-family enabling students and the idea of the Australian university', Higher Education Quarterly, 70 384-399 (2016) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2016 |
Stone C, O'Shea S, May JR, Delahunty J, Partington Z, 'Opportunity through online learning: experiences of first-in-family students in online open-entry higher education', Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 56 146-169 (2016) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2015 |
May J, Bunn RJ, 'A1974-1976: The seeds of longevity in a pathway to tertiary participation at University of Newcastle, NSW', Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 55 135-152 (2015) [C1] By the 1960s equality of opportunity was a dominant theme in social science research, and in keeping with this trend, the Whitlam Labor Government abolished university fees in 197... [more] By the 1960s equality of opportunity was a dominant theme in social science research, and in keeping with this trend, the Whitlam Labor Government abolished university fees in 1974 to open university access, especially to talented women and men who otherwise would not contemplate a university career. In the same year also the University of Newcastle instituted a radical new plan to open up its doors to the wider community of ¿non traditional students¿. This paper explores the history of the enabling program that resulted, the Open Foundation Program, focusing on the 1974 pilot program and its first two years of full operation. Thought at the time likely to ¿drain its market¿ within five years, the Open Foundation has flourished and grown for forty years. The analysis focuses on hitherto unexplored aspects of the program and canvasses three key themes: curriculum and pedagogy, access and success, and support and retention, in order to understand the seeds of this longevity.
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Nova | |||||||||
2013 |
May J, Proctor H, 'Being special: memories of the Australian public high school, 1920s-1950s', History of Education Review (Emerald Group Publishing Limited), 42 55-68 (2013) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2010 |
May JR, 'A field of desire: visions of education in selected Australian silent films', Paedagogica Historica, 46 623-637 (2010) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2009 | May J, 'Schools as dangerous places: a historical perspective', JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND HISTORY, 41 210-211 (2009) | ||||||||||
2009 |
May JR, 'ATEA special publication: Claiming a voice: The first thirty-five years of the Australian Teacher Education Association', Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 37 415-417 (2009) [C3]
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Nova | |||||||||
2009 |
May JR, 'A challenging vision: The teacher-student relationship in The Heartbreak Kid', Journal of Australian Studies, 33 405-415 (2009) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2008 |
May JR, 'Puberty Blues and the representation of an Australian comprehensive high school', History of Education Review, 37 61-67 (2008) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2007 |
May JR, Ramsland JA, 'The disenchantment of childhood: Exploring the cultural and spatial boundaries of childhood in three Australian feature films, 1920s-1970s', Paedagogica Historica, 43 135-149 (2007) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2006 |
May JR, 'Imagining the secondary School : the 'pictorial turn' and representations of secondary schools in two Australian feature films of the 1970s', History of Education Review, 35 13-22 (2006) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2006 | May JR, 'Insistent Bodies versus the Rule: Male Sexualities and Gender Identities in the Devil's Playground', Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, 10 107-123 (2006) [C1] | Nova | |||||||||
2006 | Bennett JE, May JR, 'Introduction', Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, 10 i-ix (2006) [C3] | Nova | |||||||||
2006 |
May J, 'Secrets and lies: Sex education and gendered memories of childhood's end in an Australian provincial city, 1930s-1950s', Sex Education, 6 1-15 (2006) There are few historical studies about the sex education of Australian youth. Drawing on a range of sources, including the oral histories of 40 women and men who attended two sing... [more] There are few historical studies about the sex education of Australian youth. Drawing on a range of sources, including the oral histories of 40 women and men who attended two single-sex, selective high schools in a provincial Australian city (Newcastle, New South Wales) in the 1930s-1950s, this paper explores the adolescent experience of sex education and gender relations. First, it outlines attempts by the New South Wales State Government and the Newcastle community to introduce sex education, especially during the moral panic about sexuality generated during World War Two. Second, it charts the experiential realm of growing up for adolescent females and males. Hegemonic gender ideology meant that sexual knowledge was mostly kept secret from adolescent girls, and that frightening lies about sexual matters proliferated in the vacuum created by sexual ignorance. For adolescent males, sexual knowledge, while still shrouded in myth and mystery, was more readily available. Indeed sex education classes were introduced at the boys' school in the 1950s, while the girls' school remained silent on the matter for the entire time. At the theoretical level, the paper suggests that the dominant ideology of femininity included sexual ignorance and was allied to the ideology of childhood innocence. Both ideologies were artefacts of patriarchal power. © 2006 Taylor & Francis.
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2006 |
May JR, 'Secrets and lies: Sex education and gendered memories of childhood's end in an Australian provincial city, 1930s-1950s', Sex Education, 6 1-15 (2006) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2005 |
May JR, 'A child of change: the establishment of the Open Foundation Programme in 1974', History of Education Review, 34 51-62 (2005) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2005 |
Debenham JA, May JR, 'Making connections: a dialogue about learning and teaching in a tertiary enabling program', Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 45 82-105 (2005) [C1]
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Nova | |||||||||
2004 | May JR, 'Educating Rita and Peter: gender and a history of the Open Foundation Program, University of Newcastle, Australia, 1974-1994', Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, 9 129-147 (2004) [C1] | Nova | |||||||||
2004 | May JR, 'Special Issue on Enabling Education: Guest Editor's Desk', Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 44 (2004) [D2] | ||||||||||
2003 |
May JR, 'Of secular nuns and worldly men: Australia students from two single-sex high schools recall their teachers in the 1930's to the 1950's', Histoire de L'Education, 161-185 (2003) [C2]
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2003 | May JR, 'The Medium and the Message: Teaching 'Australia' to Australians in Two Types of tertiary Access Courses', Crossing: the bulletin of the International Australian Studies Association, Vol 8, 1 8 (2003) [C3] | ||||||||||
2001 | May JR, 'A very big change', Change: Transformations in Education, 4 19-32 (2001) [C1] | ||||||||||
Show 29 more journal articles |
Review (7 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | |||||
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2022 | May J, 'H-Biography: May on Baisnée-Keay and Bigot and Alexoae-Zagni and Genty and Bazin, 'Text and Image in Women's Life Writing: Picturing the Female Self' (2022) | |||||||
2017 |
May J, 'Margaret Bailey: Pioneering Headmistress of Ascham School', HISTORY OF EDUCATION REVIEW (2017)
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2014 |
May JR, 'A History of Australian Schooling (2014) [C3]
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Nova | ||||||
2013 | May JR, 'Book Review: Transformations and Self Discovery: Stories of Women Returning to Education by Cathy Stone and Sarah O'Shea 2012 Common Ground Publications.', Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association (2013) [C3] | Nova | ||||||
2009 |
May JR, 'Schools as dangerous place: A historical perspective', Journal of Education Administration and History (2009) [C3]
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Nova | ||||||
2009 | May JR, 'Australian postwar documentary film: An arc of mirrors', Media International Australia (2009) [C3] | Nova | ||||||
Show 4 more reviews |
Conference (37 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
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2022 | May J, 'Border crossings: state education and generational mobilities in the life and family of Janette Grace Grossmann (1862-1924), antipodean educator.', University of Sydney (2022) | ||||
2021 | May J, 'Who s Who in the world of women in the 1930s: A comparative study of elite women s biographical sketches from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland', Online (2021) | ||||
2020 | May J, 'From across the oceans: the transnational educational backgrounds of the first headmistresses of public secondary schools in New South Wales from 1883 to 1919', Port Macquarie NSW (2020) | ||||
2015 | Fitzgerald T, May JR, 'Portraits of past lives: Women headmistresses and professors 1880s-1940s', Wellington, NZ (2015) [O1] | ||||
2015 |
May JR, O'Shea S, Stone C, Delahunty J, 'Seeing what all the fuss was about: The narratives of two first-in-family men enrolled in an enabling program as sites of struggle over the cultural imaginary of the Australian university', Western Sydney University (2015) [E3]
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2014 |
O Shea S, Stone C, May JR, ''Breaking the Barriers: supporting and engaging mature age first-in-family university learners and their families'', Proceedings of the 17th International First Year in Higher Education (FYHE) Conference Darwin, Australia, July 2014., Darwin, NT (2014) [E1]
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Nova | |||
2014 | May JR, 'The shadow of the world-sorrow hangs over us all: Australian Women Educational Leaders Narrativising the World Wars', Full written paper but Abstract only reviewed and published in the Conference Program, University of London, London UK (2014) | ||||
2014 |
O'Shea S, May JR, Stone C, 'Ripples of learning higher education participation, familial habitus, gender and first-in-family female students', The abstract was peer reviewed, accepted by email on 6 June 20014 from the conference committee and the paper was presented., University of Melbourne (2014)
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2013 | May JR, 'Desire, Denial and Death in The Fringe Dwellers (1986): coming of age as a counter-narrative of nation', Conference Program and Book of Abstracts, Leicester, United Kingdom (2013) [E3] | ||||
2013 | May JR, 'Brian Smith: tackling wider access and participation in an Australian University in the 1970s', Final Conference Program with Abstracts, QUT Gardens Point Campus, Brisbane, Queensland Australia (2013) [E3] | ||||
2013 | May JR, Bunn R, '1974-1976: The seeds of flexibility in pathways to tertiary participation at University of Newcastle, NSW', National Association of Enabling Educators of Australia Conference, Melbourne, VIC (2013) [E3] | ||||
2012 | May JR, 'The multicultural nation at school in Australian cinema', Abstracts. International Standing Conference for the History of Education, Geneva, Switzerland (2012) [E3] | ||||
2012 | May JR, 'Lessons from the black box: Australian cinematic representations of the classroom', Combined conference of the ANZHES, Mechanics' Institutes World Wide and the 10th Australian Library History Forum, Melbourne, Australia (2012) [E3] | ||||
2012 | May JR, 'Reading the country in The Country Schoolteacher: The relevance of the history of education on film for understanding Australian nationalism', Program. 17th Biennial Conference: Canadian History of Education Association, Vancouver, BC (2012) [E3] | ||||
2011 | Proctor H, May JR, 'The ties that bind: Memory and the experience of the NSW selective public high school, 1920s-1950s', Experiencing Education: Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society Conference. Programme and Abstracts 2011, Auckland, NZ (2011) [E3] | ||||
2011 | May JR, 'Suffering sexualities: Otherness and counternarratives of nation in two Australian coming of age films', Histories of Sexuality, Newcastle, Australia (2011) [E3] | ||||
2010 | May JR, 'A classroom without walls: Reviewing post-war national imaginings of Australian geography in two Australian documentaries', Australian Historical Association Biennial Conference. Program and General Information for Delegates, University of Western Australia, WA (2010) [E2] | Nova | |||
2010 | May JR, 'Schooling at the periphery: In My Beginning and the experimental Koornong School, Victoria, 1939-1947', Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society Conference Program and Abstracts, Wagga Wagga, NSW (2010) [E3] | ||||
2010 | May JR, ''Welcome to Dante's Inferno': Gender, the nation, and the boy problem in two Australian school films of the 1980s', Double Vision: Biennial Australian Studies Conference, University of Sydney (2010) [E2] | Nova | |||
2009 | May JR, 'ATEA in the 1980s: Context, history and identity', ATEA 2009 Conference Program, Albury, NSW (2009) [E3] | ||||
2009 | May JR, 'From reel schools to real schools: Australian films and the history of education', Connections and Circuits in Histories of Education: Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society Conference Program and Abstracts 2009, Adelaide, SA (2009) [E3] | ||||
2008 | May JR, 'A challenging vision: Eros, agency and gender in The Heartbreak Kid', ASA Conference 2008. New Voices, New Visions: Challenging Australian Identities and Legacies. Book of Abstracts, Brisbane, QLD (2008) [E3] | ||||
2008 | May JR, 'Father knows best: One woman's transition from school to work in the late 1940s', Work! Work! Work! Work and the History of Education: Program and Abstracts, University of Sydney (2008) [E3] | ||||
2007 | May JR, 'Engaging histories: Engaging the history of education on Australian silent film: The female teacher as object of desire', Australian Historical Association 2007 Regional Conference. Papers, Armidale, NSW (2007) [E2] | ||||
2004 |
Debenham JA, May JR, 'Making connections: a dialogue about learning and teaching in a tertiary enabling program', Building Foundations 2004 Conference of Enabling Educators, Newcastle, Australia (2004) [E2]
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2003 | May JR, 'From idea to reality: A history of the Open Foundation Program, University of Newcastle, New South Wales, circa 1970-1978', Bridging Education in New Zealand Proceedings of the Third Conference of the New Zealand Association of Bridging Educators, Auckland, New Zealand (2003) [E4] | ||||
1999 |
Holbrook AP, May JR, 'Research into gender and discipline in the early twentieth century classroom', Global Issues & Local Effects: The Challenge for Educational Research, Melbourne Australia (1999) [E3]
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1998 |
Holbrook AP, May JR, 'Making an impression: teachers' use of the 'visual' in Australian classrooms (1920s-1950s)', Imagine, All the Education..... The Visual in the Making of the Educational Space through History, Leuven (1998) [E3]
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Show 34 more conferences |
Other (9 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
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2015 |
Fagan, May JR, 'Open Foundation opens doors to uni study', Newcastle Morning Herald Opinion. Newcastle NSW: Newcastle Morning Herald (2015)
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2015 |
Stone C, May J, O'Shea S, Delahunty J, 'Launching the First in Family website', ( issue.June pp.2-3). ANZSSA@vuw.ac.nz: ANZSSA (2015)
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2015 |
O'Shea S, Stone C, May JR, 'It's a good life going to uni isn't it? Problematising perceptions of opportunity and betterment for first-in-family learners attending university', (2015)
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2012 | May JR, 'Winn, Osbert Mervyn (1906-1983)', ( issue.-). Carlton, VIC (2012) [D2] | ||||
Show 6 more others |
Report (2 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2013 |
Grushka K, Bennett J, Parkes RJ, Beirne R, Donnelly D, Falzon C, et al., 'Visual media texts: Teaching and assessing the humanities & social sciences in a post-literate age', Centre for Learning and Teaching, 18 (2013) [R1]
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2013 |
Grushka KM, Bennett J, Parkes R, Beirne R, Donnelly D, Falzon C, et al., 'Visual Media Texts: Teaching and Assessing the Humanities and Social Sciences in a Post-literate Age', Faculty of Education and Arts, 17 (2013)
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Grants and Funding
Summary
Number of grants | 14 |
---|---|
Total funding | $113,661 |
Click on a grant title below to expand the full details for that specific grant.
20161 grants / $41,118
Addressing the gap between policy and implementation: Strategies for improving educational outcomes of Indigenous students$41,118
Funding body: Department of Education and Training
Funding body | Department of Education and Training |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Maree Gruppetta, Associate Professor Josephine May, Professor Bronwyn Fredericks, Professor Denise Wood, Dr Felecia Watkin, Professor Irabinna Rigney |
Scheme | Innovation Development Grant |
Role | Investigator |
Funding Start | 2016 |
Funding Finish | 2017 |
GNo | G1600568 |
Type Of Funding | C2100 - Aust Commonwealth – Own Purpose |
Category | 2100 |
UON | Y |
20151 grants / $15,000
Comparing Our Pasts (COP) International Pilot Study$15,000
Funding body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts
Funding body | University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Robert Parkes, Associate Professor Debra Donnelly, Associate Professor Heather Sharp, Associate Professor Josephine May, Doctor Jill Barnes, Ms Vicki Parkes |
Scheme | Strategic Networks Grant |
Role | Investigator |
Funding Start | 2015 |
Funding Finish | 2015 |
GNo | G1500901 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
20142 grants / $20,350
Historical Experience, Representation, Media, Education, Society$15,000
Funding body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts
Funding body | University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Robert Parkes, Associate Professor Debra Donnelly, Doctor Catherine Hart, Associate Professor Josephine May, Associate Professor Heather Sharp |
Scheme | Strategic Networks Grant |
Role | Investigator |
Funding Start | 2014 |
Funding Finish | 2014 |
GNo | G1400959 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
Breaking the barriers: supporting and engaging mature age first-in-family university learners and their families$5,350
Funding body: Office for Learning and Teaching
Funding body | Office for Learning and Teaching |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Josephine May, Professor Sarah O'Shea, Dr Cathy Stone, Ms Janine Delahunty |
Scheme | Commissioned Strategic Projects |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2014 |
Funding Finish | 2014 |
GNo | G1400842 |
Type Of Funding | Aust Competitive - Commonwealth |
Category | 1CS |
UON | Y |
20111 grants / $10,000
Visual Media Texts: Teaching and Assessing the Humanities and Social Sciences in a Post-literate Age$10,000
Funding body: University of Newcastle
Funding body | University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Dr James Bennett, Dr Robert Parkes, Dr Kath Gruska |
Scheme | TEACHING AND LEARNING PROJECT GRANTS 2011 |
Role | Investigator |
Funding Start | 2011 |
Funding Finish | 2011 |
GNo | |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | N |
20101 grants / $1,500
The Australian historical Associate Biennial Conference: Reviewing History, The University of Western Australia, Perth, 05 - 09 July 2010$1,500
Funding body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts
Funding body | University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Josephine May |
Scheme | Travel Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2010 |
Funding Finish | 2011 |
GNo | G1000529 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
20091 grants / $492
ANZHES Conference: Connections and circuits in histories of education, North Adelaide, 7-10 December 2009$492
Funding body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts
Funding body | University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Josephine May |
Scheme | Travel Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2009 |
Funding Finish | 2010 |
GNo | G0900106 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
20071 grants / $580
Engaging Histories - 2007 Regional Conference, University of New England, Armidale, 23/9/2007 - 26/9/2007$580
Funding body: University of Newcastle
Funding body | University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Josephine May |
Scheme | Travel Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2007 |
Funding Finish | 2007 |
GNo | G0188016 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
20061 grants / $17,510
History of the Australian Teacher Education Association$17,510
Funding body: Australian Teacher Education Association
Funding body | Australian Teacher Education Association |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Josephine May, Doctor Greg Preston, Professor Bob Bessant, Professor Allyson Holbrook |
Scheme | Research Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2006 |
Funding Finish | 2007 |
GNo | G0186621 |
Type Of Funding | Not Known |
Category | UNKN |
UON | Y |
20051 grants / $1,957
8th Biennial European Australian Studies Association Conference. ReVision of Australia: Histories, Images, Identities, 20-24 September 2005$1,957
Funding body: University of Newcastle
Funding body | University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Josephine May |
Scheme | Travel Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2005 |
Funding Finish | 2005 |
GNo | G0185436 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
20042 grants / $2,710
The National Conference of Enabling Educators: Building Foundations 14 to 16 July 2004$2,500
Funding body: University of Newcastle
Funding body | University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Josephine May |
Scheme | Conference Establishment Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2004 |
Funding Finish | 2004 |
GNo | G0183776 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
Social Change, Education and History ANZHES Annual Conference 2004, 7-10 December 2004$210
Funding body: University of Newcastle
Funding body | University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Josephine May |
Scheme | Travel Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2004 |
Funding Finish | 2004 |
GNo | G0184954 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
20031 grants / $840
3rd Annual Conference of New Zealand Association of Bridging Educators$840
Funding body: University of Newcastle
Funding body | University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Josephine May |
Scheme | Travel Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2003 |
Funding Finish | 2003 |
GNo | G0183280 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
20021 grants / $1,604
XXIV Annual Conference: Secondary Education-Institutional, Cultural and Social History, Paris, France 9-13 July 2002$1,604
Funding body: University of Newcastle
Funding body | University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Associate Professor Josephine May |
Scheme | Travel Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2002 |
Funding Finish | 2002 |
GNo | G0181718 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
Research Supervision
Number of supervisions
Past Supervision
Year | Level of Study | Research Title | Program | Supervisor Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
2022 | PhD | The Newcastle Women’s Movement in the 1970s and 1980s through the Lens of Josephine Conway’s Activism and Archives | PhD (History), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2019 | PhD | Pragmatic Transformations: An Entwined History of Newcastle Teachers College | PhD (Education), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2018 | PhD | When the Grass Roots Died: Finding and Understanding an Australian Coal Mining Community in the 1980s | PhD (History), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2018 | PhD | The History and Impacts of the University of Newcastle’s Open Foundation Program | PhD (History), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2016 | PhD | The History of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Australia from 1950 to 2010 | PhD (History), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2016 | PhD | "My Own Darling Laddie". In Search of George Wenham: An Aboriginal Anzac and the History of Denial | PhD (History), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2013 | PhD | Women and Constructing Re-Membering: Identity Formation in the Stolen Generations | PhD (History), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2013 | PhD | Storytelling Engagement in the Classroom: Observable Behavioural Cues of Children's Story Experiences | PhD (Humanities), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2013 | PhD | Masculinities in American Western Films, 1950-1972: A Hyper-Linear History | PhD (History), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
2013 | PhD | Creative Empathy: How Writers Turn Experience Not Their Own Into Literary Non-Fiction | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2008 | PhD | Value to Vermin: The Donkey in Australia | PhD (History), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
News
News • 19 Jan 2016
UON innovation and development grants
The University of Newcastle (UON) has achieved success in the latest round of Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) funding for innovation and development projects.
News • 1 Jul 2014
UON Research Group Launches World-class Journal
The University of Newcastle's Historical Experience, Representation, Media, Education, and Society (HERMES) Research Group has launched its inaugural issue of Historical Encounters.
Associate Professor Josephine May
Position
Honorary Associate Professor
Pathways and Academic Learning Support Centre
Learning and Teaching
Academic Division
Focus area
History
Contact Details
josephine.may@newcastle.edu.au | |
Mobile | 0439 676567 |
Office
Location | Callaghan University Drive Callaghan, NSW 2308 Australia |
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