Associate Professor Nancy Cushing

Dr Nancy Cushing is Associate Professor in Australian history in the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Newcastle. Her primary research area is Australian environmental history, in particular human animal relations, with a secondary interest in the history of Newcastle.

Cushing brings an immigrant's perspective to the Australian past seeking to understand why and how particular cultural forms emerged. In these investigations, she is most interested in the relationship between non-Indigenous Australians and the natural environment.  Her current project, supported by a Merewether Scholarship from the State Library of NSW, examines choices about meat eating in colonial Australia from a human animal relations perspective.  Past projects have included work on Australian beach cultures, the fight against air pollution in Newcastle and the range of relations between humans and other animals in Australia, from pet keeping to captive animal displays.  In 2018, she co authored, with Jodi Frawley, Animals Count: How population size matters in Animal-Human Relations (Routledge).

Her 2010 book, coauthored with Kevin Markwell, Snake-bitten: Eric Worrell and the Australian Reptile Park, traced the life and work of early celebrity naturalist Eric Worrell, placing his own adventures in the context of contemporary attitudes towards Australian wildlife, especially the generally disparaged reptiles. The book charts important shifts in the second half of the twentieth century as the status of Australian native animals was transformed from curiosity or unwanted pest to icon.

Another research strand is the history of Newcastle. Curiosity about the gulf between her own experience of Newcastle as a pleasant beachside city and the prevailing national stereotype of it as heavily polluted and relentlessly industrial inspired Cushing's 1995 thesis "Creating the Coalopolis: Perceptions of Newcastle 1770 - 1935." Ongoing interest in the history of Newcastle has led to projects on beaches and surf lifesaving, including a chapter in the centenary history of surf life saving, and a book, co authored with Howard Bridgman, on air pollution in Newcastle entitled Smoky City: A History of Air Pollution in Newcastle, NSW (2015). Cushing is a founder with Julie MacIntyre of the Global Newcastle research group and co-editor, with James Bennett and Erik Eklund, of the collection Radical Newcastle, published by New South Press in 2015.

Nancy Cushing is Assistant Dean Research Training for the Faculty of Education and Arts, having previously served as Head of the History Discipline, Program Convenor of the Bachelor of Arts and BA (Hons) from 2012 to 2015 and supported students as Deputy Dean of Students for the Ourimbah and Sydney Campuses from 2008 to 2011. She is a member of the NSW Working Party for the Australian Dictionary of Biography and of the Executive of the NSW History Council and the Australian and New Zealand Environmental History Network.

Research Expertise
My field is Australian environmental history, in particular human animal relations. My PhD treated the history of Newcastle and I maintain an interest in local and urban history expressed in ongoing research into the history of air quality in the city undertaken with Assoc. Professor Howard Bridgman; and co editorship with James Bennett and Erik Eklund (Federation University) of the Radical Newcastle collection, published in 2015. I have co written a number of pieces on human animal relations with Associate Professor Kevin Markwell of Southern Cross University including our 2010 book, Snake-bitten: Eric Worrell and the Australian Reptile Park (UNSW Press). Currently, my main project brings together interests in human animal relations and food studies by examining choices around meat eating in colonial Australia.

I have supervised a number of theses at the Masters and Doctoral level in the areas of heritage, industrial, women's and local history.  Full titles of current and past supervisions are available under the "Supervision" tab. 

Teaching Expertise
My teaching is in the area of Australian cultural and environmental history, including histories of crime and women's history. I enjoy the challenge of helping to introduce up to 600 first year students to the fascinating history of Australia each year in HIST1051, the Australian Experience. At upper level, I offer a number of courses which reflect my own research interests, environmental history, crime and history and heritage. For honours studies, I provide a special study on using the journals kept by members of the First Fleet.

Collaborations
I have engaged in a number of collaborative projects across my areas of research interest.  I have had a long and fruitful research association with Assoc. Professor Kevin Markwell of Southern Cross University which has produced a series of articles and one book:  Snake-bitten: Eric Worrell and the Australian Reptile Park (UNSW Press, 2010).  Working with thirty present and former colleagues and others, I co edited a collection on Radical Newcastle, with James Bennett and Professor Erik Eklund of Federation University. Another project is a special issue of the Journal of Australian Colonial History on Newcastle and the Hunter Region, co edited with Drs Julie Macintyre and David Roberts of UNE, in which I co wrote an article with former PhD student Ann Hardy.  I worked closely with co editor Jodi Frawley and our authors on Animals Count.   Planning underway for a collaborative ARC Linkage project on Global Newcastle, with colleagues and community organisations.