Clarissa Carden | Griffith University (original) (raw)

Papers by Clarissa Carden

Research paper thumbnail of Secularisation in Australian Education since 1910

Research paper thumbnail of The uses of rurality in twentieth century youth justice: an Australian case study, 1900-1994

Pedagogica Historica , 2021

In 1900, the Westbrook Reformatory for Boys, an institution holding both young people convicted o... more In 1900, the Westbrook Reformatory for Boys, an institution holding both young people convicted of criminal offences and those deemed to be neglected children, was established in a farming region just over 135km from Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, Australia. The institution would remain in the same location until 1994. By then, the institution had been rebranded as a Youth Detention Centre. Rather than the mix of neglected and offending children it had originally housed, its purpose was to hold teenagers who were convicted of crimes or who were on remand. In the institution's earliest stages, rurality, and particularly agricultural labour, were central to practices intended to reform young people. By the century's end, the institution's rural setting, its distance from the capital city, and its inclusion of a working farm were key contributing factors to its closure. Drawing on archival data, newspaper records, memoirs of former inmates, and the findings of three inquiries into the institution, this essay seeks to explain how and why rurality, perceived as central to projects of moral reform in 1900, became understood primarily through the lens of inconvenience and danger by 1994. In doing so, it argues that the moral and rehabilitative discourses associated with rurality did not necessarily become obsolete or irrelevant by the end of the twentieth century. Instead, they interacted with shifting cultural expectations about the treatment of institutionalised children, as well as changing economic circumstances, creating a situation in which the perceived value of rurality alone was insufficient to justify the continued presence of a youth justice institution at Westbrook. This analysis contributes to scholarly knowledge about the reach and limits of the moral values ascribed to place, particularly rural places.

Research paper thumbnail of The politics of neglect: policing, institutionalising, and providing for 'neglected children' in late nineteenth-century Queensland (1881-1900)

Cultural & Social History , 2021

This article examines the political forces which influenced the treatment of children legally cla... more This article examines the political forces which influenced the treatment of children legally classified as 'neglected' in Queensland, Australia, between 1881 and 1900. It focuses on the two government-run institutions which held 'neglected children': The Reformatory School for Boys and the Industrial and Reformatory School for Girls. While identifying a range of social-structural factors (such as class and gender) which contributed to views about neglected children, the analysis focuses on professional and ideological tensions between state interests. The intersecting tensions resulted in a patchwork of uneven and inconsistent institutional responses. In doing so, the article argues for the value of examining the roles of competing 'officials' in historical analyses of child welfare systems.

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction: the moral uncanny in Netflix's Black Mirror

The Moral Uncanny in Black Mirror , 2021

Netflix's critically acclaimed series Black Mirror (2011-2019) brings compelling representations ... more Netflix's critically acclaimed series Black Mirror (2011-2019) brings compelling representations of the emerging fourth industrial revolution in which robotics, data profiling, VR, algorithms, and biohacking are enmeshed in systems of governance, work, pleasure, intimate relationships, memory, death and grief. The inventive title Black Mirror is itself evocative of countless technological forms-mobile phones, flat screen TVs as well as small-screen wearable and hand-held devices that mediate our relationship to self, others and world. Notably the mirror is not just a reflecting surface, it is a dark cracked rebound suggesting that the plethora of our technologies are not neutral in their very design. In fact, it is a mistake to assume that technology is impartial since it is in essence an extension of our humanity, and in some cases, inhumanity. Built into the endless stream of technologies is an obvious surveillance dimension and this is rigorously explored in Brooker's anthology series. Already a cult series, Black Mirror provokes and disturbs asking us to question the morality and ethics of devices that now provide unprecedented access to information, real time unfolding events, intimate lives and bodies. There is a deep sense of moral uncanniness as we grapple with how to deal with the ethical implications of being able to access people's information that poses a threat to privacy. In fact, what Brooker's series reveals is the collapsed binary between what is private and what is public, and this operates as a very incisive critique of what is happening right now, especially in light of the Russian Facebook hack and the Cambridge Analytic scandal.

Research paper thumbnail of Living on Beyond the Body: The Digital Soul of Black Mirror

The Moral Uncanny in Black Mirror , 2021

The desire for immortality is part of the human condition. Tales of immortal beings, and of means... more The desire for immortality is part of the human condition. Tales of immortal beings, and of means through which humans too can cheat death, are part of mythologies worldwide. Great minds have spent lifetimes seeking a cure for death. It is easy, today, to dismiss alchemy and the search for the philosopher’s stone as childish nonsense, but it was a quest which occupied kings and scientists alike. Today, our hopes have turned to digital technologies, and the promise of a lengthened—or unending—lifespan.

Research paper thumbnail of Grief and Youth Remembered: Accessing Experiences of Historical Youth Justice through Memoir

Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, 2021

This article will explore the theme of disenfranchised grief in the memoirs of two former inmates... more This article will explore the theme of disenfranchised grief in the memoirs of two former inmates of the Westbrook Farm Home for Boys, an institution in Queensland, Australia, which primarily housed boys convicted of criminal offences. Both Stokes and Fletcher were incarcerated in the institution during a pivotal moment in its history, one which has come to be known, through later government inquiries, as a period during which abuse was rife. In analyzing these memoirs, this article demonstrates the significance of published memoir as a means to access the historical experiences of marginalized young people. It also argues for the recognition of grief as an important, but often neglected, aspect of marginalized youth experiences.

Research paper thumbnail of Turning Points: Christian and Secular Battlelines in the History and Present of Queensland Education

Doctor of Philosophy Thesis, 2018

This thesis answers the question: to what extent is the history of education in Queensland, Austr... more This thesis answers the question: to what extent is the history of education in Queensland, Australia, a history of secularisation? Through a Foucauldian history of the present, it explores the shifting relationship between Christian and secular ideals in Queensland education from the early twentieth century through to 2017. It focuses on a series of six case studies, each of which examines a moment during which the existing relationship between Christian and secular ideals was challenged. This thesis offers a revised definition of secularisation. This definition holds that secularisation should be understood as (1) historically, culturally, and spatially specific; (2) changing and recursive; (3) situated in power relations; (4) multi-faceted and multi-scalar and (5) existing in the context of multiple modernities. Using this definition, the thesis finds that secularisation has occurred through the history of education in Queensland, despite legislative changes which continue to privilege Christianity. The key data this thesis relies upon are archival sources including letters, reports, and cabinet minutes. Other significant forms of data include newspaper sources, Census data, legislation, and Hansard reports.

Research paper thumbnail of Reading to the soul: Narrative imagery and moral education in early to mid-twentieth-century Queensland

History of Education, 2018

This paper examines the way in which narratives, including stories and poetry, have been used in ... more This paper examines the way in which narratives, including stories and poetry, have been used in school texts relating to moral instruction. The paper will draw on texts used in Queensland classrooms in the early part of the twentieth century to demonstrate the ways in which description of sights and the experiences of the senses, and of exaggerated consequences, are used in narratives and poems with the intention of imparting moral lessons. The texts analysed include both those used in ‘Civics and Morals’ lessons and the Queensland School Readers, a long-running series of classroom readers designed to suit the unique needs of the state’s children.

Research paper thumbnail of Reformatory schools and Whiteness in danger: An Australian case

Childhood, 2018

The Queensland Reformatory and Industrial Schools Act (1865) provided for the creation of a syste... more The Queensland Reformatory and Industrial Schools Act (1865) provided for the creation of a system of reformatory and industrial schools. This article explores the early years of the reformatory for boys. The Act defined Aboriginal children as ‘neglected’ and eligible to be sent to this institution. However, of the first 1000 children admitted, all but 33 were White. This article explores this contradiction through an analysis of the reformatory in light of fears about the fragility of Whiteness in Queensland’s climate.

Research paper thumbnail of Strengthening discipline in state schools: constructions of discipline in a public policy moment

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 2016

This article uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) to interrogate government documents associate... more This article uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) to interrogate government documents associated with the passing of the Education (Strengthening Discipline in State Schools) Act 2013 in Queensland, Australia. It uses these documents to demonstrate the way in which the discourse of discipline has been constructed in order to legitimate the removal of legislative safeguards intended to curtail the disciplinary power of school officials.

Research paper thumbnail of Living (in) cities of the past: Time travel in Second Life

Rethinking History, 2019

The virtual world Second Life invites residents to plan, build, and maintain their own social geo... more The virtual world Second Life invites residents to plan, build, and maintain their own social geographies. In this article, I draw on data gathered during a multi-year ethnographic study to explore the intersection between memory, nostalgia, place and belonging in Second Life. The article focuses on two packages of land, or ‘sims,’ owned and designed by a single Second Life resident who is one of most dedicated heritage creators. The 1920s Berlin Project and Time Portal are both popular sims in which physical historical locations are recreated and opened to the public to visit, rent commercial or domestic property and engage in 1920s role play. These sims demand different types of historical engagement. Together, they offer a complex and nuanced portrait of the way Second Life recreates cities of the past.

Research paper thumbnail of From Reformatory to Farm Home: Developments in Twentieth-Century Juvenile Justice

Cultural and Social History, 2019

The early twentieth century saw a transnational shift in the way in which children were responded... more The early twentieth century saw a transnational shift in the way in which children were responded to by the state. This article explores this shift through a change of name undergone by reformatory institutions for boys in two Australian states during the second decade of the twentieth century. This article analyses contemporary newspaper sources in order to argue that this shift in name responded to both transnational changes in attitudes to the institutional care of children and to local needs.

Research paper thumbnail of A breakdown of reformatory education: remembering Westbrook

History of Education Review , 2018

Westbrook Farm Home for Boys in Queensland, Australia, existed in various forms for over one hund... more Westbrook Farm Home for Boys in Queensland, Australia, existed in various forms for over one hundred years. As such, it offers a valuable window into Australian approaches to managing and reforming boys through the twentieth century. The present paper examines its approach to reforming teenage boys during a period marked by a mass escape in 1961. It argues that the reformatory education initially intended was no longer tenable during this moment in history, and that this period represents a breakdown of that approach.

This paper draws on material including newspaper reports, memoirs, and the report of an inquiry into an escape by inmates in 1961. These are analysed in order to construct a picture of the type of reformatory education during this period and the public and official responses to this.

Westbrook Farm Home for Boys was, during this period, an institution attempting to provide a reformatory education at a historical moment when such an education was no longer viewed as appropriate means of addressing the criminal behaviour of youths. This, combined with the leadership of a domineering figure in Superintendent Roy Golledge, led to a culture of abuse, rather than education. The uncovering of this culture was a pivotal moment in the transition of Westbrook into an institution explicitly dealing with criminal youths.

Research paper thumbnail of ‘A constant menace to British interests’: changing attitudes towards ‘German schools’ during World War I

History Australia , 2019

This article draws on archival materials and newspaper reports in order to provide an account of ... more This article draws on archival materials and newspaper reports in order to provide an account of the closure of ‘German schools’ in Queensland during the First World War. Prior to 1915, German Lutheran students enrolled at state schools were permitted to take time off to attend German schools, often run by German ministers of religion, in order to preserve cultural and linguistic traditions. From 1915, however, this practice was forbidden. This article shines a light on the local factors that differentiated the story of German schools in Queensland from that of other Lutheran schools in Australia.

Research paper thumbnail of “As parents congregated at parties”: Responsibility and blame in media representations of violence and school closure in an Indigenous community

Journal of Sociology, 2017

This article considers the discourses of responsibility and blame emerging from newspaper reporta... more This article considers the discourses of responsibility and blame emerging from newspaper reportage of a crisis in the remote Indigenous community of Aurukun in Northern Queensland, Australia. In doing so, it aims to contribute to the sociology of racism and add to the existing body of scholarship on the ways in which deracialised media discourse can nevertheless be racist. The month of May 2016 saw violence perpetrated by young people against the teachers and principal of the community’s only school. Teachers were evacuated to the regional city of Cairns on 10 May due to violence in the community and fears for their safety. They returned on 18 May, only to be evacuated again on 25 May. These events form the focus of the reportage analysed in this article. The way in which three primary groups of players – parents, teachers and police – are portrayed in mainstream print media is analysed in order to ascertain how responsibility and blame are apportioned in relation to these events.

Research paper thumbnail of “Fiddling with young kiddies’ minds”: Reporting on Safe Schools

Continuum, 2019

The Safe Schools Coalition Australia program provides resources, including information packages, ... more The Safe Schools Coalition Australia program provides resources, including information packages, training and an eight-lesson curriculum, intended to promote the understanding of LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) young people in Australian schools. This program has been controversial, with opposition enflamed in no small part by inaccurate rhetoric put forward by politicians and some media outlets which positions this anti-bullying program as a radical intervention into existing gender and sexual norms. In part due to the public outcry caused by such rhetoric, it has been defunded on a national level. This article explores the response of Queensland’s only major print newspaper, The Courier Mail, to the introduction and subsequent use of this program in the state from mid-2015. This program has been characterized in this newspaper alternatively as a necessary intervention into existing school cultures and an undesirable act of social engineering. Using critical discourse analysis, I seek to explore these divergent viewpoints in light of broader debates relating to religion, social change and the role of schools in protecting children and producing good citizens. Fears of Marxism, changing gender norms and a perceived decline of Christian influence on state education are shown to be key factors in the negative coverage of this program.

Research paper thumbnail of Managing moral reformation: the case of Queensland's reformatory for boys 1871-1919

History of Education Review , 2020

This article explores the case of the Queensland reformatory for boys through the years 1871-191... more This article explores the case of the Queensland reformatory for boys through the years 1871-1919 to analyse how the institution negotiated the complex, and at times competing, goals of reforming, educating, and punishing its inmate population.

The article relies on documentary evidence, including archival material produced by the institution and newspaper records published between 1865, when the legislation allowing the institution to be created was passed, to 1919, when the institution ceased to be known as a ‘reformatory.’

This research demonstrates that, despite considerable changes during the studied period, the overarching goal of reforming criminal and potentially-criminal young people continuously relied on achieving a balance between reformative techniques such as religious instruction and work placements, providing a useful education, and punishing offenders. It also demonstrates that, despite efforts to achieve this balance, the institution was often described as unsuccessful.

Due to the paucity of available archival evidence, there is still relatively little known about how the reformatories of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Australia attempted to carry out programmes of moral reformation. This paper contributes to the field through an analysis of an institution which faced unusual challenges as a result of a complex inmate population.

Books by Clarissa Carden

Research paper thumbnail of Secularisation and Conflict in Australian Education Since 1910

Research paper thumbnail of Living and Dying in a Virtual World: Digital Kinships, Nostalgia, and Mourning in Second Life

Palgrave Memory Studies, 2018

The purpose of this book is to offer an ethnographic analysis of what it means to live, die, and ... more The purpose of this book is to offer an ethnographic analysis of what it means to live, die, and mourn in the virtual world Second Life.

Research paper thumbnail of Secularisation in Australian Education since 1910

Research paper thumbnail of The uses of rurality in twentieth century youth justice: an Australian case study, 1900-1994

Pedagogica Historica , 2021

In 1900, the Westbrook Reformatory for Boys, an institution holding both young people convicted o... more In 1900, the Westbrook Reformatory for Boys, an institution holding both young people convicted of criminal offences and those deemed to be neglected children, was established in a farming region just over 135km from Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, Australia. The institution would remain in the same location until 1994. By then, the institution had been rebranded as a Youth Detention Centre. Rather than the mix of neglected and offending children it had originally housed, its purpose was to hold teenagers who were convicted of crimes or who were on remand. In the institution's earliest stages, rurality, and particularly agricultural labour, were central to practices intended to reform young people. By the century's end, the institution's rural setting, its distance from the capital city, and its inclusion of a working farm were key contributing factors to its closure. Drawing on archival data, newspaper records, memoirs of former inmates, and the findings of three inquiries into the institution, this essay seeks to explain how and why rurality, perceived as central to projects of moral reform in 1900, became understood primarily through the lens of inconvenience and danger by 1994. In doing so, it argues that the moral and rehabilitative discourses associated with rurality did not necessarily become obsolete or irrelevant by the end of the twentieth century. Instead, they interacted with shifting cultural expectations about the treatment of institutionalised children, as well as changing economic circumstances, creating a situation in which the perceived value of rurality alone was insufficient to justify the continued presence of a youth justice institution at Westbrook. This analysis contributes to scholarly knowledge about the reach and limits of the moral values ascribed to place, particularly rural places.

Research paper thumbnail of The politics of neglect: policing, institutionalising, and providing for 'neglected children' in late nineteenth-century Queensland (1881-1900)

Cultural & Social History , 2021

This article examines the political forces which influenced the treatment of children legally cla... more This article examines the political forces which influenced the treatment of children legally classified as 'neglected' in Queensland, Australia, between 1881 and 1900. It focuses on the two government-run institutions which held 'neglected children': The Reformatory School for Boys and the Industrial and Reformatory School for Girls. While identifying a range of social-structural factors (such as class and gender) which contributed to views about neglected children, the analysis focuses on professional and ideological tensions between state interests. The intersecting tensions resulted in a patchwork of uneven and inconsistent institutional responses. In doing so, the article argues for the value of examining the roles of competing 'officials' in historical analyses of child welfare systems.

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction: the moral uncanny in Netflix's Black Mirror

The Moral Uncanny in Black Mirror , 2021

Netflix's critically acclaimed series Black Mirror (2011-2019) brings compelling representations ... more Netflix's critically acclaimed series Black Mirror (2011-2019) brings compelling representations of the emerging fourth industrial revolution in which robotics, data profiling, VR, algorithms, and biohacking are enmeshed in systems of governance, work, pleasure, intimate relationships, memory, death and grief. The inventive title Black Mirror is itself evocative of countless technological forms-mobile phones, flat screen TVs as well as small-screen wearable and hand-held devices that mediate our relationship to self, others and world. Notably the mirror is not just a reflecting surface, it is a dark cracked rebound suggesting that the plethora of our technologies are not neutral in their very design. In fact, it is a mistake to assume that technology is impartial since it is in essence an extension of our humanity, and in some cases, inhumanity. Built into the endless stream of technologies is an obvious surveillance dimension and this is rigorously explored in Brooker's anthology series. Already a cult series, Black Mirror provokes and disturbs asking us to question the morality and ethics of devices that now provide unprecedented access to information, real time unfolding events, intimate lives and bodies. There is a deep sense of moral uncanniness as we grapple with how to deal with the ethical implications of being able to access people's information that poses a threat to privacy. In fact, what Brooker's series reveals is the collapsed binary between what is private and what is public, and this operates as a very incisive critique of what is happening right now, especially in light of the Russian Facebook hack and the Cambridge Analytic scandal.

Research paper thumbnail of Living on Beyond the Body: The Digital Soul of Black Mirror

The Moral Uncanny in Black Mirror , 2021

The desire for immortality is part of the human condition. Tales of immortal beings, and of means... more The desire for immortality is part of the human condition. Tales of immortal beings, and of means through which humans too can cheat death, are part of mythologies worldwide. Great minds have spent lifetimes seeking a cure for death. It is easy, today, to dismiss alchemy and the search for the philosopher’s stone as childish nonsense, but it was a quest which occupied kings and scientists alike. Today, our hopes have turned to digital technologies, and the promise of a lengthened—or unending—lifespan.

Research paper thumbnail of Grief and Youth Remembered: Accessing Experiences of Historical Youth Justice through Memoir

Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, 2021

This article will explore the theme of disenfranchised grief in the memoirs of two former inmates... more This article will explore the theme of disenfranchised grief in the memoirs of two former inmates of the Westbrook Farm Home for Boys, an institution in Queensland, Australia, which primarily housed boys convicted of criminal offences. Both Stokes and Fletcher were incarcerated in the institution during a pivotal moment in its history, one which has come to be known, through later government inquiries, as a period during which abuse was rife. In analyzing these memoirs, this article demonstrates the significance of published memoir as a means to access the historical experiences of marginalized young people. It also argues for the recognition of grief as an important, but often neglected, aspect of marginalized youth experiences.

Research paper thumbnail of Turning Points: Christian and Secular Battlelines in the History and Present of Queensland Education

Doctor of Philosophy Thesis, 2018

This thesis answers the question: to what extent is the history of education in Queensland, Austr... more This thesis answers the question: to what extent is the history of education in Queensland, Australia, a history of secularisation? Through a Foucauldian history of the present, it explores the shifting relationship between Christian and secular ideals in Queensland education from the early twentieth century through to 2017. It focuses on a series of six case studies, each of which examines a moment during which the existing relationship between Christian and secular ideals was challenged. This thesis offers a revised definition of secularisation. This definition holds that secularisation should be understood as (1) historically, culturally, and spatially specific; (2) changing and recursive; (3) situated in power relations; (4) multi-faceted and multi-scalar and (5) existing in the context of multiple modernities. Using this definition, the thesis finds that secularisation has occurred through the history of education in Queensland, despite legislative changes which continue to privilege Christianity. The key data this thesis relies upon are archival sources including letters, reports, and cabinet minutes. Other significant forms of data include newspaper sources, Census data, legislation, and Hansard reports.

Research paper thumbnail of Reading to the soul: Narrative imagery and moral education in early to mid-twentieth-century Queensland

History of Education, 2018

This paper examines the way in which narratives, including stories and poetry, have been used in ... more This paper examines the way in which narratives, including stories and poetry, have been used in school texts relating to moral instruction. The paper will draw on texts used in Queensland classrooms in the early part of the twentieth century to demonstrate the ways in which description of sights and the experiences of the senses, and of exaggerated consequences, are used in narratives and poems with the intention of imparting moral lessons. The texts analysed include both those used in ‘Civics and Morals’ lessons and the Queensland School Readers, a long-running series of classroom readers designed to suit the unique needs of the state’s children.

Research paper thumbnail of Reformatory schools and Whiteness in danger: An Australian case

Childhood, 2018

The Queensland Reformatory and Industrial Schools Act (1865) provided for the creation of a syste... more The Queensland Reformatory and Industrial Schools Act (1865) provided for the creation of a system of reformatory and industrial schools. This article explores the early years of the reformatory for boys. The Act defined Aboriginal children as ‘neglected’ and eligible to be sent to this institution. However, of the first 1000 children admitted, all but 33 were White. This article explores this contradiction through an analysis of the reformatory in light of fears about the fragility of Whiteness in Queensland’s climate.

Research paper thumbnail of Strengthening discipline in state schools: constructions of discipline in a public policy moment

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 2016

This article uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) to interrogate government documents associate... more This article uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) to interrogate government documents associated with the passing of the Education (Strengthening Discipline in State Schools) Act 2013 in Queensland, Australia. It uses these documents to demonstrate the way in which the discourse of discipline has been constructed in order to legitimate the removal of legislative safeguards intended to curtail the disciplinary power of school officials.

Research paper thumbnail of Living (in) cities of the past: Time travel in Second Life

Rethinking History, 2019

The virtual world Second Life invites residents to plan, build, and maintain their own social geo... more The virtual world Second Life invites residents to plan, build, and maintain their own social geographies. In this article, I draw on data gathered during a multi-year ethnographic study to explore the intersection between memory, nostalgia, place and belonging in Second Life. The article focuses on two packages of land, or ‘sims,’ owned and designed by a single Second Life resident who is one of most dedicated heritage creators. The 1920s Berlin Project and Time Portal are both popular sims in which physical historical locations are recreated and opened to the public to visit, rent commercial or domestic property and engage in 1920s role play. These sims demand different types of historical engagement. Together, they offer a complex and nuanced portrait of the way Second Life recreates cities of the past.

Research paper thumbnail of From Reformatory to Farm Home: Developments in Twentieth-Century Juvenile Justice

Cultural and Social History, 2019

The early twentieth century saw a transnational shift in the way in which children were responded... more The early twentieth century saw a transnational shift in the way in which children were responded to by the state. This article explores this shift through a change of name undergone by reformatory institutions for boys in two Australian states during the second decade of the twentieth century. This article analyses contemporary newspaper sources in order to argue that this shift in name responded to both transnational changes in attitudes to the institutional care of children and to local needs.

Research paper thumbnail of A breakdown of reformatory education: remembering Westbrook

History of Education Review , 2018

Westbrook Farm Home for Boys in Queensland, Australia, existed in various forms for over one hund... more Westbrook Farm Home for Boys in Queensland, Australia, existed in various forms for over one hundred years. As such, it offers a valuable window into Australian approaches to managing and reforming boys through the twentieth century. The present paper examines its approach to reforming teenage boys during a period marked by a mass escape in 1961. It argues that the reformatory education initially intended was no longer tenable during this moment in history, and that this period represents a breakdown of that approach.

This paper draws on material including newspaper reports, memoirs, and the report of an inquiry into an escape by inmates in 1961. These are analysed in order to construct a picture of the type of reformatory education during this period and the public and official responses to this.

Westbrook Farm Home for Boys was, during this period, an institution attempting to provide a reformatory education at a historical moment when such an education was no longer viewed as appropriate means of addressing the criminal behaviour of youths. This, combined with the leadership of a domineering figure in Superintendent Roy Golledge, led to a culture of abuse, rather than education. The uncovering of this culture was a pivotal moment in the transition of Westbrook into an institution explicitly dealing with criminal youths.

Research paper thumbnail of ‘A constant menace to British interests’: changing attitudes towards ‘German schools’ during World War I

History Australia , 2019

This article draws on archival materials and newspaper reports in order to provide an account of ... more This article draws on archival materials and newspaper reports in order to provide an account of the closure of ‘German schools’ in Queensland during the First World War. Prior to 1915, German Lutheran students enrolled at state schools were permitted to take time off to attend German schools, often run by German ministers of religion, in order to preserve cultural and linguistic traditions. From 1915, however, this practice was forbidden. This article shines a light on the local factors that differentiated the story of German schools in Queensland from that of other Lutheran schools in Australia.

Research paper thumbnail of “As parents congregated at parties”: Responsibility and blame in media representations of violence and school closure in an Indigenous community

Journal of Sociology, 2017

This article considers the discourses of responsibility and blame emerging from newspaper reporta... more This article considers the discourses of responsibility and blame emerging from newspaper reportage of a crisis in the remote Indigenous community of Aurukun in Northern Queensland, Australia. In doing so, it aims to contribute to the sociology of racism and add to the existing body of scholarship on the ways in which deracialised media discourse can nevertheless be racist. The month of May 2016 saw violence perpetrated by young people against the teachers and principal of the community’s only school. Teachers were evacuated to the regional city of Cairns on 10 May due to violence in the community and fears for their safety. They returned on 18 May, only to be evacuated again on 25 May. These events form the focus of the reportage analysed in this article. The way in which three primary groups of players – parents, teachers and police – are portrayed in mainstream print media is analysed in order to ascertain how responsibility and blame are apportioned in relation to these events.

Research paper thumbnail of “Fiddling with young kiddies’ minds”: Reporting on Safe Schools

Continuum, 2019

The Safe Schools Coalition Australia program provides resources, including information packages, ... more The Safe Schools Coalition Australia program provides resources, including information packages, training and an eight-lesson curriculum, intended to promote the understanding of LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) young people in Australian schools. This program has been controversial, with opposition enflamed in no small part by inaccurate rhetoric put forward by politicians and some media outlets which positions this anti-bullying program as a radical intervention into existing gender and sexual norms. In part due to the public outcry caused by such rhetoric, it has been defunded on a national level. This article explores the response of Queensland’s only major print newspaper, The Courier Mail, to the introduction and subsequent use of this program in the state from mid-2015. This program has been characterized in this newspaper alternatively as a necessary intervention into existing school cultures and an undesirable act of social engineering. Using critical discourse analysis, I seek to explore these divergent viewpoints in light of broader debates relating to religion, social change and the role of schools in protecting children and producing good citizens. Fears of Marxism, changing gender norms and a perceived decline of Christian influence on state education are shown to be key factors in the negative coverage of this program.

Research paper thumbnail of Managing moral reformation: the case of Queensland's reformatory for boys 1871-1919

History of Education Review , 2020

This article explores the case of the Queensland reformatory for boys through the years 1871-191... more This article explores the case of the Queensland reformatory for boys through the years 1871-1919 to analyse how the institution negotiated the complex, and at times competing, goals of reforming, educating, and punishing its inmate population.

The article relies on documentary evidence, including archival material produced by the institution and newspaper records published between 1865, when the legislation allowing the institution to be created was passed, to 1919, when the institution ceased to be known as a ‘reformatory.’

This research demonstrates that, despite considerable changes during the studied period, the overarching goal of reforming criminal and potentially-criminal young people continuously relied on achieving a balance between reformative techniques such as religious instruction and work placements, providing a useful education, and punishing offenders. It also demonstrates that, despite efforts to achieve this balance, the institution was often described as unsuccessful.

Due to the paucity of available archival evidence, there is still relatively little known about how the reformatories of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Australia attempted to carry out programmes of moral reformation. This paper contributes to the field through an analysis of an institution which faced unusual challenges as a result of a complex inmate population.

Research paper thumbnail of Secularisation and Conflict in Australian Education Since 1910

Research paper thumbnail of Living and Dying in a Virtual World: Digital Kinships, Nostalgia, and Mourning in Second Life

Palgrave Memory Studies, 2018

The purpose of this book is to offer an ethnographic analysis of what it means to live, die, and ... more The purpose of this book is to offer an ethnographic analysis of what it means to live, die, and mourn in the virtual world Second Life.