‘Coming to Power, Learning to Govern and Gathering Momentum, 1943-1954’

Thursday 17 & Friday 18 November 2022
The Library, Old Quad, The University of Melbourne

The Robert Menzies Institute is a prime ministerial library and museum at the University of Melbourne, dedicated to the legacy and vision of Sir Robert Menzies, Australia’s longest serving prime minister. Part of our mission is to foster research into and academic discussion of Menzies, his beliefs and ideas, and the policies and achievements of the governments which he led.

In fulfilment of this, the Robert Menzies Institute is hosting a series of four annual conferences bringing together historians and other thinkers to develop a collection of papers which will make a major contribution to the existing historiography on Menzies and the Menzies era. Once published in four volumes by Melbourne University Press, these will become a comprehensive reference on Menzies.

In this open call for papers, we encourage proposals from a wide range of perspectives to offer critical insight into Menzies-related topics covering the years 1943-1954, including but not limited to:

• The formation of the Liberal Party and the attempt to put liberal beliefs into political practice, balancing the freedom of the individual with the needs of coordination and community development, and the dilemma of dealing with the threat that communism posed to liberal democracy without undermining its tenets in the process
• The role of political leadership in determining the course of history, developments in the functioning of our parliamentary democracy, and the consequences of the enlargement of Parliament and the introduction of proportional representation in the Senate
• The watershed changes that swept Australian foreign and defence policy, stemming from the Cold War, the end of Empire, and Australia’s increasing engagement with the Asia-Pacific Region
• Australian culture in the 1950s as it reflects on who we are and where we have come from, revealed through key developments like the 1954 Royal Tour, the Colombo Plan program of student exchange, the broadening of what it meant to be an Australian within a context that remained assimilationist, and the role of women in politics and the workforce
• The transformation of Australia into a prosperous and self-confident nation, including the end of rationing, the defence of private enterprise through the defeat of bank nationalisation, home ownership, the immigration boom, and issues arising from attempts at Keynesian economic management
• Policy innovations like Commonwealth university scholarships, healthcare reforms, and Paul Hasluck’s administration of the Northern Territory, as well as the role of individual ministers and an expert and impartial public service in developing and implementing those policies.

Conference papers take the form of a 20 minute presentation, plus 10 minutes of audience Q&A. For the publication, written papers of 5000 words will be due by 1 March 2023. Interstate speakers will be covered for the costs of travel and accommodation for the days of the conference.

Please send a 300-word paper proposal, along with contact information and a brief biography to zachary@www.robertmenziesinstitute.org.au by Friday 15 April 2022. Spaces are limited and applicants will be informed whether their proposals have been accepted by Monday 16 May.