People
Chief Investigators
Prof. Tony Moore
Professor of Communications and Media Studies, Monash University
A/Prof Tony Moore is Head of Communications and Media Studies at Monash University and leads the Conviction Politics project. He is author of Death or Liberty: Rebels and Radicals Transported to Australia 1788-1868 (2010), adapted as a television documentary of the same name (2015), Dancing with Empty Pockets: Australia’s Bohemians since 1860 (2012) and The Barry McKenzie Movies (2005). Tony has had previous careers as a documentary maker at the ABC and academic commissioning editor at Pluto Press and Cambridge University Press. Tony also led ARC Discovery Project Fringe to Famous: Australian culture as an innovation system (2014-2019) and served as Director, Monash National Centre for Australian Studies (2010-2013).
Prof. Hamish Maxwell-Stewart
Professor of History, University of New England University
Prof Hamish Maxwell-Stewart is a Professor of History at the University of New England. Hamish has authored many books and articles on convict transportation, the history of crime and the health of past populations. He specialises in the use of digital data to explore life course outcomes and has worked on a number of heritage site interpretations and other visualisation projects. He lives in Hobart, Tasmania.
Michael Quinlan
Emeritus Professor of Industrial Relations, University of New South Wales
Michael Quinlan is emeritus professor of industrial relations University of New South Wales and visiting professor Middlesex University. His major research interests are occupational health and safety (OHS) and industrial relations history. In 2020 he edited a special issue on OHS for the journal Labour History with Dr Sarah Gregson. His books include The Origins of Worker Mobilisation: Australia 1788–1850 (New York: Routledge, 2018) and Contesting Inequality and Worker Mobilisation: Australia 1851–1880 (New York: Routledge, 2020). With Hamish Maxwell Stewart he has just completed a book Unfree Workers: Insubordination and Resistance in Convict Australia 1788-1860 (Palgrave Macmillan London, forthcoming). m.quinlan@unsw.edu.au
Dr Mike Davis
Senior Lecturer of History, Griffith University University
Dr Mike Davis is Senior Lecturer of History at Griffith University in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science. Prior to joining Griffith University in 2012, he held appointments at the University of Tasmania and The University of Queensland. His publications include Crowd Actions in Britain and France: From the Middle Ages to the Modern World (2015); Liberty, Property and Popular Politics: England and Scotland, 1688-1815 (2015); and Political Trials in an Age of Revolutions: Britain and the North Atlantic, 1793-1848 (2019).
Prof. Nick Carter
Associate Professor in Modern History, Australian Catholic University
A/Prof Nick Carter's publications include Modern Italy in Historical Perspective (2010) and Britain, Ireland and the Italian Risorgimento (2015). He has also written widely on the subject of ‘difficult heritage’ and the memory and commemoration of ‘histories that hurt’. Before joining ACU in 2013, he was Head of History at the University of Wales, Newport (UK), 2010-13, and Head of History at De Montfort University, Leicester (UK), 2001-04. He has held Visiting Fellowships at the University of Southampton (UK), the University of New South Wales and Monash University.
Prof. Kim Marriott
Professor in Computer Science, Monash University
Prof Kim Marriott is a researcher whose work focuses on book usability and document layout issues, information visualisation, accessible graphics, constraint programming, and cognition of information graphics. He is a Professor in Computer Science at the Faculty of Information Technology, where he heads the newly formed Department of Human-Centred Computing.
Prof. Jon McCormack
Professor of Computer Science, Monash University
Prof Jon McCormack is an Australian-based artist and researcher in computing. His research interests include generative art, design and music, evolutionary systems, computer creativity, visualisation, virtual reality, interaction design, physical computing, machine learning, developmental models and physical computing. Jon is the founder and Director of SensiLab and oversees all operations, research programs and partnerships. He is also full Professor of Computer Science at Monash University’s Faculty of Information Technology and currently an ARC Future Fellow.
Partner Investigators
Steve Thomas
Creative Director, Roar Film
Steve Thomas is a filmmaker with extensive expertise in documentary, multimedia, and interactive digital storytelling. He has contributed to over 30 award-winning film and television projects since 1995. Steve is Creative Director at Hobart-based production company Roar Film, and his work at Roar has been broadcast on ABC, SBS, NITV, ZDF Germany, TG4 Ireland, S4C Wales, and the Discovery Channel. He has also collaborated with institutions such as the Australian National Maritime Museum, the National Trust of Australia, and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
Dr Julie Brooks
Dr Julie Brooks completed a PhD at the University of Durham in 2006, reconsidering the survival of Presbyterian radicalism in Ulster in the first half of the nineteenth century. Following a year working in the university's Archives and Special Collections, Julie went to Dublin where she completed the MA in Archives and Records Management at UCD. Subsequently, she worked for three years as a professional archivist at the National Archives of Ireland cataloguing the Registered Papers of the Chief Secretary's Office.
Collaborating Researchers
Prof. Andrew Reeves
Prof. Andrew Reeves was most recently the senior advisor to Senator Kim Carr, Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). Prior to that Andrew had worked for many years in Australian museums as a historian and archivist. He has also published widely in the fields of labour and industrial history and material culture studies.
Dr Tim Causer
Senior Research Associate of the Bentham Project, University College London
Dr Tim Causer is senior research associate of the Bentham Project of University College London. Tim Causer's research interests include the life and thought of Jeremy Bentham, and the histories of convict transportation, crime and punishment, and colonial Australia.
Dr Richard Tuffin
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of New England
Dr Richard Tuffin is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of New England. He conducts research in relation to the Australian convict period, in particular the deployment and management of unfree labour.
Research Fellow
Dr Monika Schwarz
Researcher, SensiLab
Dr Monika Schwarz is a researcher at Monash University’s SensiLab, where she focuses on data analysis, interactive data visualisation as well as data fabrication. Monika also has a PhD in archaeology and over 15 years of experience in that field. Currently she combines skills from her two careers in archaeology and information technology for the Conviction Politics project by turning convict records into interactive data visualisations and more.
Research Assistant
Dr Kyle Harvey
Monash University and the University of Tasmania
Dr Kyle Harvey is a historian based in the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University and at the University of Tasmania. He has written widely on migration, media, popular culture and the history of radicalism and social movements.
PhD Candidate and Research Assistant
Daisy Bailey
Daisy Bailey is a PhD Candidate in the School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University. Her doctoral research focuses on political prisoners from the Chartist and Young Ireland movements who were transported to the Australian colonies in the mid-nineteenth century, the emotions of radical activism and exile, and their impact on democracy. Daisy has been a project Research Assistant since 2023.
Senior Project Coordinator
Isabel Fangyi Lu
Isabel Fangyi Lu is senior project coordinator of Conviction Politics. She is also a PhD Candidate in the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne. Her PhD thesis explores the practices and politics of digital placemaking. Her research sits at the intersection of art, technology and democracy.