PhD and Research Masters

Why a PhD or Research Masters in Violence at Newcastle?

The University of Newcastle's School of Humanities and Social Science is home to the Centre for the Study of Violence (CSoV).

PhD and Research Masters students who undertake projects with CSoV will benefit from the group’s critical mass of established international researchers, who explore all aspects of the history of violence from the early modern era to the present.

Dr Elizabeth Roberts-Pedersen

We investigate violence across geographic regions and across time periods. Our common focus is to develop critical understandings of violence across cultures. In the process we seek to redefine how people understood violence and how people engaged with it at various times in human history.

What you can research

The University of Newcastle has identified as one of its research strengths the study of violence, but project enquiries are welcome for all related topics outlined by the supervisor’s research areas below.

Research methodologies

CSoV members apply a range of critical approaches to research from a number of theoretical perspectives. Research includes historical, comparative, and international work.

Find a supervisor

Before you apply, contact a supervisor for discussion on possible research projects. This will allow you to frame your proposal to align with established disciplines and areas of supervisor capacity.

  • Professor Philip Dwyer – modern Europe, the massacre in history, cultural history, visual cultures, the civilian in war.
  • Professor Hans-Lukas Kieser – the Ottoman world, modern Turkey and the Middle East, and the Armenian genocide.
  • Professor Roger Markwick – Russia and Europe, revolution, fascism, genocide, colonialism, war, and gender.
  • Professor Lyndall Ryan – Australian history, frontier history and the massacre in history.
  • Dr Kate Ariotti – war and society, prisoners of war, First World War, Australian history.
  • Dr Tamara Blakemore – Child sexual abuse, interpersonal violence in young people.
  • Dr Kit Candlin – Atlantic World history, North American history, gender, race and power.
  • Dr Xanthé Mallett – True crime, gendered crimes, crime and the media.
  • Dr Kathleen McPhillips – Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, sociological approaches to the study of trauma, cultural trauma, trauma and violence in religious organizations.
  • Dr Elizabeth Roberts-Pedersen - gender and war, wartime psychiatry, war memorialisation.
  • Dr Shigeru Sato – Asian studies, Japanese studies.
  • Dr Sacha Davis – German history, Central and East European history, nationalism, fascism, minorities.

How to apply for a graduate research degree

Success stories from our previous students

Bryce Abraham

Won the CEW Bean Prize in 2020 for his PhD and is now working at the Australian War Memorial.

» Find out more

Jordan Beavis

Has just finished his PhD and has just taken up a position as a researcher on the Official History of Afghanistan and Iraq project at the Australian War Memorial.

» Find out more

Current graduate studies in the history of violence

Research projects being undertaken by research students in the area of violence studies at Newcastle include:

Markos Carelos (PhD)

Markos Carelos (PhD)

“Greek Political thought and the Treaty of Lausanne. 1914-1923.”

Sarah Kabanoff (PhD)

Sarah Kabanoff (PhD)

Creative Survival: What We Can Learn from Women Who Have Lived with Violence and How We Can Better Listen.

Ashleigh McIntyre (PhD)

Ashleigh McIntyre (PhD)

What are You Afraid of? Pretraumatic American Literature in the Anthropocene.

Caroline Schneider (PhD)

Caroline Schneider (PhD)

State Conducted Forcible Child Transfer: A Study of a Global Phenomenon from 1800 to the Present.

Truman Smith

Truman Smith

"Unprovoked Barbarity” : Kidnapping on Queensland’s Frontier, 1859 – 1897.

Muhammad Thalal (PhD)

Muhammad Thalal (PhD)

Memory and Violence in Aceh during the Armed Conflict 1976 - 2005.

Heidi Freihaut

Heidi Freihaut

Women, memory and genocide: practices of remembrance, 1945-present

Nik Orr

Nik Orr

Iconoclasm in Transnational Perspective: Monuments in Contemporary Colonial Politics, 1970 to 2020

Robert Wyse

Robert Wyse

Suspicious Minds: Korean War Ex-POWs, Commonwealth Intelligence Services, and the Cold War

Diana Sillato

Diana Sillato

From Gallipoli to Malta: A Medical, Social and Cultural History of the Anzacs

Louise Rak

Louise Rak

Narratives of Young Female Violence

For more information about a PhD or Research Masters degree in History, visit the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Humanities PhD and Research Masters.