Dr Julie McIntyre

 

I am an early career historian and wine studies scholar in the Department of History, School of Humanities and Social Science at The University of Newcastle. My doctoral research in History at the University of Sydney identified the framework for wine studies as a new Humanities and Social Science research field in which I have since published widely.

My post-doctoral research explores the ‘wine complex’ of early Australian wine production, trade and consumption within multiple historical frameworks including colonial and environmental history. I have published on the significance of wine and wine growing in the Australian colonial imaginary, Aboriginal-settler relations, social reforms to create sobriety, and notions of place.

In 2010, I held the Rydon Fellowship at the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King's College, London. I have taught Australian and European History at the University of Sydney, UNSW and since 2010 at the University of Newcastle. I am a founding member of the University of Newcastle's Wine Studies Research Network.

My current project 'Vines, Wine and Identity: the Hunter Valley NSW and changing Australian taste" is an ARC Industry Linkage (LP14). The project summary is: Australia is a leader in global wine trade and tourism, and Australian drinkers are shifting from beer to wine. Yet little is known about the regional communities that make wine, how wine production has shaped their identity, and how producers have changed national culture by creating a taste for their wines. This project explores these themes through an historical sociological study of Australia's oldest wine region, the Hunter Valley NSW. It traces intra- and transnational networks of people, knowledge and wine. This will in turn reveal elements of the power nexus in wine production, trade and consumption to provide critical new insights into Australia's change to a wine making and wine drinking country".  The lead investigator on the grant is Prof John Germov, University of Newcastle. The remainder of the team comprises myself; Dr David Dunstan, Monash University; Prof James Simpson, Carlos III University Madrid; Julie Baird, Newcastle Museum, and Brian McGuigan, the Hunter Valley Wine & Tourism Association.

My involvement in this project has arisen from my interest in wine as an historical lens to explore Australian themes of human desire, ambition, innovation and environmental change within global contexts. In my work, wine is defined not only as an alcoholic drink drenched in meaning arising from its role in Europe's Biblical and Classical traditions (pictured:  Ancient Greek wine god Dionysus and I at the British Museum). In Australia it is also an exotic plant product, agricultural industry, subject of scientific inquiry and object of trade that exemplifies changes in agriculture, trade and consumption in the Age of European Empires and the Enlightenment.

As post-Enlightenment environmental concerns highlight questions about the impact of plant adaptation, wine studies offers a transom to the contemporary dialetic between globalisation and neo-localism.  For instance, the current exoticisation of Australian wine in China, and Australian expertise in the creation of Chinese wine grape vineyards, is a fascinating expression of the connection between modernity and adaptation of the ancient European practices of wine growing, trading and drinking. 

By using historical sociological methods in archives and oral historical research, I observe the interplay of agency and external forces in the wine complex of growing, trading and drinking. The wine complex of production-distribution-consumption provides an ideal framework for case studies across a range of historical themes. I have published on early Australian wine growing within colonial and imperial history, Aboriginal-settler relations, transnational exchange, knowledge flow, social policies on sobriety, and notions of place. My research has pioneered new approaches to wine studies in Australia.

In First Vintage: Wine in Colonial New South Wales (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2012), I argue that wine growing had a significant role in visions for the making of European Australia. First Vintage was shortlisted for the 2013 NSW Premier's History Awards and the 2013 Wine Communicators of Australia Best Publication Award. It won the Gourmand Publishing Best Drinks History in Australia for 2013 and was consequently a finalist in the Gourmand International Awards for Best Wine History in the World. The book received a High Commendation in the 2013 Vice Chancellor's Research Excellence Awards at the University of Newcastle.

 Part of the research for First Vintage was completed while I held the Rydon Fellowship with the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King’s College, London, in 2010. This fellowship also resulted in an article in Australian Historical Studies. My research has also been published in journals such as Australian Economic History Review and the Journal of Australian Colonial History. As a founding member of The University of Newcastle's Wine Studies Research Network - my current collaborative focus is a history of wine in the Hunter Valley. This district is close to The University of Newcastle's main campus at Callaghan, and Australia's oldest continually producing wine region. On 15 May 2014 I will deliver the University's Annual John Turner Memorial History Lecture. This lecture, entitled The World in a Glass of Hunter Valley Wine, will show how the region's wine industry has been shaped by - and contributed to - the grand sweeping themes of nineteenth century global history.

 I am also engaged in non-wine projects. As the Migration Heritage Historian for Port Macquarie Hastings Council, I have traced the emergence of local communities on the Mid North Coast of NSW. As a co-convenor of the Newcastle Hunter Studies research group, I aim to push the boundaries of regional research to take account of global themes. My interest multi-scalar (local/regional - national - global) approach to research has been fostered during more than a decade of unversity teaching in regional and metropolitan universities in Australian History, European History, and in Communication and Cultural Studies.

I currently convene The University of Newcastle's History Research Seminar series, History@Newcastle, which attracts world class scholars while offering graduate and postgraduate students a forum to test their ideas with peers. 

I communicate my research outcomes to audiences beyond the academy in my blog The World in a Wine Glass, The Conversation, public talks and media interviews.  Indeed, public interest in wine has proved to be an ideal way to spark interest in wider colonial historical themes. 

Research Expertise
My doctoral research began to identify the framework for a new Humanities and Social Sciences research field: wine studies. As an early career researcher I have continued to build my skills and profile in this area. As Rydon Fellow, at the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King's College, London, I encountered Australian History scholars in an international environment and accessed international archives, which greatly enhanced my research expertise. I work with a range of methodologies and research techniques. During my Honours research training I translated several years of experience as a broadcast interviewer into expertise as an oral historian. My research since then has comprised a case study approach across several History sub-disciplines using collections of business records, published works, family papers, press reports and artefacts held at a several libraries and archive depositories in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and London. More recently I have used historical sociological methodologies that are particularly salient in wine studies. Since completing my doctorate in 2009, I have extended the reach of my inquiries in terms of form, content and depth through inter-disciplinary collaboration to shape new research questions and means of addressing these inquiries. My research publications situate early Australian wine production, trade and consumption within the frameworks of colonial, regional, national and world history and, given the contemporary approach to the history of land use in Australia: environmental history. My research has been tested among peers in more than a dozen non-refereed conference presentations and University research seminars since 2005. As the Migration Heritage Historian for Port Macquarie Hastings Council, I research regional culture and identity. This Migration Heritage Project extends migration studies to Aboriginal forced migration in the Mid North Coast river valleys.

Teaching Expertise
I began teaching at the University of Newcastle in 2000. Over fourteen years of lecturing and tutoring I have demonstrated a deep commitment to encouraging the development of undergraduate scholarship across several disciplines: Australian History (ranging from introductory survey courses to upper level subjects focusing on gender, war, cultural history and comparative history), European History (politics, imperial history, environmental history, society and culture), Journalism and Cultural Studies. This commitment is reflected in consistently high evaluations of teaching from students. I have been responsible for curriculum development as well as course delivery at University of Sydney and University of New South Wales (UNSW) as well as University of Newcastle. At each university I have enjoyed the privilege of working with key scholars’ teaching teams and, in 2013, leading a team of six tutors in a large History service course. My experience extends from inner-city campuses and metropolitan student cohorts to rural and regional campuses and student groups. My teaching at University of Sydney included the role of lead tutor in classes run simultaneously in Sydney and at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) which was teleconferenced to allow students to experience cultural transmissions while studying the connections between Australian and United States histories. Currently my teaching development is focused on encouraging History students to learn 'how to read'. That is, how to engage closely with the primary and secondary source material they are introduced to in first year History. Through guiding students to read actively and critically - to understand authorship, argument and context - I aim to build skills that complement traditional 'how to write essays' approaches. Skills in reading arm students for their History studies and beyond. University of Newcastle courses in which I have taught are:
HIST1051 The Australian Experience
HIST1080 Europe and the World
HIST3242 Growing Up in Australia
CMNS1080 Introduction to Professional Writing
CMNS1090 Introduction to Journalism
CMNS1100 Communication & Culture
CMNS2370 Broadcast Journalism
CMNS3270 Communication & Discourse

Administrative Expertise
Julie has more than a decade of experience as a course co-ordinator in first year and upper level undergraduate courses. She convenes the History Research Seminar series, History@Newcastle, which is held fortnightly during teaching semester in Cultural Collections, Archives, Auchmuty Library.

Collaborations
The University of Newcastle's Wine Studies Research Network (WSRN), of which I am a key member, is Australia's only cross-faculty collaboration in humanities and social science-based wine research. Partner collaborators of the WSRN include Newcastle Museum and the Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association. My research intersects with Newcastle Hunter Studies, in which I work with other scholars and the community to seed a new generation of international standard research on Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. The next Newcastle Hunter Studies event will celebrate digitisation of colonial Newcastle newspapers on Trove. This event will be held at Newcastle Art Gallery on 27 May 2014 (contact the gallery for details). My first book A Living History of Fort Scratchley (2008) was the result of a research collaboration with Professor Erik Eklund, now based at Federation University. The book project was funded by Newcastle City Council and involved academics and students in the School of Design, Communication & IT at University of Newcastle. A major creative work incorporating academic research for a general audience - the radio documentary Vintage Stories, commissioned by ABC Radio Newcastle and broadcast in 2009 - was co-produced by myself and Dr Phillip McIntyre, Communication & Media, University of Newcastle. In 2012, with Gillean Shaw of the University Gallery Newcastle, I fostered the collection of work for Vintage Dupain. This exhibition that brought together for the first time all of the known photographs of the Hunter Valley wine region by leading Australian photographer Max Dupain. Vintage Dupain was a collaboration between the Wine Studies Research Network, the University Gallery and the Hunter Valley wine industry, and has since toured other galleries in New South Wales.