Yorick Smaal | Griffith University (original) (raw)
Books by Yorick Smaal
London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 250pp +xxiii
Edited books by Yorick Smaal
Melbourne: Monash University Publishing, 2016
Melbourne: Monash University Publishing, 2011
Melbourne: Monash University Publishing, 2013
Special journal issues by Yorick Smaal
Special issue, Journal of Australian Studies, 37, 3 (2013)
Special issue, Queensland Review, 14, 2 (2007)
Papers by Yorick Smaal
Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 3,1, 3 (2019): 349-64
This paper investigates the history of sexual violence in Australian male prisons. It traces a ge... more This paper investigates the history of sexual violence in Australian male prisons. It traces a genealogy of sex between incarcerated men from the penal colonies to the 1990s, drawing on a range of criminal justice and sexological and cultural records to show how sexual violence inflected both conceptions and experiences of homosexual prisoners. We outline how these inmates shifted from being perceived as an institutional threat to a victim of the institution, an uneven process propelled by competing and contradictory ideas about the constitution and practice of sexual behaviours, identities and power behind bars.
‘Character, discipline, law: Courts martial in World War 1’. Australian Historical Studies, 51, 3(2020):324-40 , 2020
Queensland Review, 25, 1 (2018):89-101, 2018
Family and local community historians have always made use of criminal justice records. Increasin... more Family and local community historians have always made use of criminal justice records. Increasingly available as digital files, these documents are accessible to anyone with access to an internet-linked computer or even smartphone. In many cases, the fragmented nature of these records means their richness remains a potential rather than reality. The Prosecution Project 1 links these records as a large-scale Australian exercise in unlocking the criminal justice records of all the states. We seek to digitise and eventually make publicly accessible the records of the criminal courts, documenting not only the names of the accused but of magistrates, judges, lawyers, police and victims and other witnesses. The project is a significant collaboration between university researchers and a large and growing community of volunteers. This paper outlines what the project is doing, how we are doing it and illustrates its potential use for family and local historians interested in Australia's past.
From sodomy laws to same-sex marriage: International persepectives since 1989, eds Sean Brady and Mark Seymour (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019), 83-93
The Cambridge History of American Gay Autobiography, ed. David Bergman (forthcoming)
American gay military life writing emerged as a discrete literary genre in the last decades of th... more American gay military life writing emerged as a discrete literary genre in the last decades of the twentieth century. These memoirs include tales by older men who served in the Second World War and accounts by younger soldiers who navigated the challenges of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT). In this paper, I compare these two cohorts of writers to examine their experiences of institutional life and male bonding in the American forces. Their stories, and their purpose for writing, reveal how the forces shaped sexual and political subjectivities. Gay men from the 1940s used their narratives to document the service of "fairies" and butch men attracted to one another, straight soldiers and commanders who accepted gay personnel despite official policies, and the infinite opportunities for sex and friendship. Servicemen of recent decades tell a different story of protest. Their gay life was lonelier than their ancestors, and their memoirs function as conversion narratives. In "coming out", they craft a respectable masculine self to demand the right to serve openly. Soldiers in both eras recall experiences of prejudice and resistance in an organisation hostile and conducive to sex and love between men.
Criminologies of the military: Militarism, national security and justice, eds Ben Wadham and Andrew Goldsmith (Oxford:Hart, 2018), 169-88, 2018
Historical studies of prosecution and punishment patterns for the sexual maltreatment of children... more Historical studies of prosecution and punishment patterns for the sexual maltreatment of children are rare. Australian criminal justice histories like those elsewhere remain underdeveloped despite attention to specific areas of inquiry such as gender, which bear on the subject of child victims. Serious problems of access to public archives, where materials involving children are invariably closed or otherwise strictly controlled, frustrate scholarly efforts to assess the scope and detail of the law’s response. These factors are exacerbated for institutions that had charge of children – researchers have had to wait for public inquiries such as the current Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse to open organisational policies and practices to greater scrutiny. This chapter reconsiders the popular assumption that mechanisms of prosecution and punishment for sexual offences against children are a very recent historical phenomena. While recognising that responses to the maltreatment of children are not always located in the court room, we argue that the historical volume of criminal justice responses constitute a significant index of social attitudes towards children. In that context, we review briefly some of the historical conditions for recognition of child sexual assault, the policing and justice responses that follow from its recognition, and conclude by considering associated problems of silence and invisibility.
Children Childhood and Youth in the British World, eds Shirleene Robinson and Simon Sleight (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 221-236.
The Pacific War: Aftermaths, Remembrances and Culture, eds Christine Twomey and Ernest Koh (London: Routledge, 2015), 233-249.
Acts of Love and Lust: Sexuality in Australia from 1945 to 2000, eds Lisa Featherstone, Rebecca Jennings, and Robert Reynolds (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), 112-129.
Army Journal, culture edition, 10, 3 (2013): 23-40
Sex, gender and sexuality have always been the subject of lively debates within and around the mi... more Sex, gender and sexuality have always been the subject of lively debates within and around the military -from the age-old problem of the on and off-duty sexual behaviour of servicemen to the more recent process of creating a place for women as front-line fighters. In recent years a spate of scandals has challenged the reputation and operation of the armed services. But there is another side that needs to be taken into account -increasingly, very public action is being taken in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) personnel against those accused of sexism and homophobia. This article seeks to place these developments in an historical context, focussing on homosexuality during World War II. Drawing on the memories and memoirs of homosexual men as well as archival records of the responses of Army officials and other servicemen who encountered same-sex behaviour, we explore a range of homosexual behaviours HISTORY and identities present in the armed services. We are particularly interested in how a vilified, marginalised and criminalised minority made lives for themselves in the forces and, for all the risks and penalties they faced, the fact that these lives were characterised by pleasure and conviviality as much as by fear and victimisation. Three forces were at work, each shaping the homosexual sub-cultures in their own ways -the commanding echelons, homosexual men, and the broader mass of service personnel.
Journal of Australian Studies 37, 3 (2013): 316-32
This article examines forty-six criminal charges of lineal family sex crime in Queensland between... more This article examines forty-six criminal charges of lineal family sex crime in Queensland between 1870 and 1900. It finds that the special incest provisions introduced with increases to the age of consent in 1891 did not radically alter prosecution practices of father-daughter rape. While the new law did bring more cases before the courts, persisting cultural attitudes about the character and respectability of working-class girls, the dynamics of families under exaggerated paternal control, and the inviolability of the colonial family home continued to affect patterns of abuse and the regulation of incest in the last decade of the nineteenth century.
History Compass, 11, 9 (2013): 715-26
The second part of this article explores some of the topics of inquiry that have preoccupied scho... more The second part of this article explores some of the topics of inquiry that have preoccupied scholars of child sexual abuse. It begins with feminist considerations of incest and the age of consent before providing a brief historiographical overview of the concept of moral panic as it pertains to offenders and, to a lesser degree, the sexuality of young people. A significant focus is childhood sexuality, including scholarly treatment of juvenile delinquency, and paedophilia, and homosexuality, as well as assumptions underpinning concepts of harm. It concludes by addressing history's potential to inform public debate, including the deliberations of commissions and inquiries before reflecting on the methods, approaches and problems in the field.
History Compass 11, 9 (2013): 702-14
This article reviews histories of child sexual abuse in Australia. While it is national in its fo... more This article reviews histories of child sexual abuse in Australia. While it is national in its focus, the historical problems, methods, and approaches explored here resonate globally, especially in the Anglosphere. Given the transnational dimensions of sex and gender politics, child welfare and protection, and the development of common law, any local historiographic survey is best located within the international context. This article argues that defining and interpreting sex with children is a significant problem in the historical literature. The cleavage between constructions of innocence and paradigms of abuse remains prominent in contemporary scholarship although assimilating these schools of thought is neither feasible nor fruitful. The first part of this article explores the feminist rediscovery of child sexual abuse in the late twentieth century, considering the extent to which the problem had been earlier erased from the public domain. Paying particular attention to law and socio-legal histories, it investigates definitional problems around children and crime, and examines how the criminal justice system and media have been used to recover histories of abuse.
Special issue, Journal of Australian Studies, 37, 3 (2013)
Special issue, Queensland Review, 14, 2 (2007)
Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 3,1, 3 (2019): 349-64
This paper investigates the history of sexual violence in Australian male prisons. It traces a ge... more This paper investigates the history of sexual violence in Australian male prisons. It traces a genealogy of sex between incarcerated men from the penal colonies to the 1990s, drawing on a range of criminal justice and sexological and cultural records to show how sexual violence inflected both conceptions and experiences of homosexual prisoners. We outline how these inmates shifted from being perceived as an institutional threat to a victim of the institution, an uneven process propelled by competing and contradictory ideas about the constitution and practice of sexual behaviours, identities and power behind bars.
‘Character, discipline, law: Courts martial in World War 1’. Australian Historical Studies, 51, 3(2020):324-40 , 2020
Queensland Review, 25, 1 (2018):89-101, 2018
Family and local community historians have always made use of criminal justice records. Increasin... more Family and local community historians have always made use of criminal justice records. Increasingly available as digital files, these documents are accessible to anyone with access to an internet-linked computer or even smartphone. In many cases, the fragmented nature of these records means their richness remains a potential rather than reality. The Prosecution Project 1 links these records as a large-scale Australian exercise in unlocking the criminal justice records of all the states. We seek to digitise and eventually make publicly accessible the records of the criminal courts, documenting not only the names of the accused but of magistrates, judges, lawyers, police and victims and other witnesses. The project is a significant collaboration between university researchers and a large and growing community of volunteers. This paper outlines what the project is doing, how we are doing it and illustrates its potential use for family and local historians interested in Australia's past.
From sodomy laws to same-sex marriage: International persepectives since 1989, eds Sean Brady and Mark Seymour (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019), 83-93
The Cambridge History of American Gay Autobiography, ed. David Bergman (forthcoming)
American gay military life writing emerged as a discrete literary genre in the last decades of th... more American gay military life writing emerged as a discrete literary genre in the last decades of the twentieth century. These memoirs include tales by older men who served in the Second World War and accounts by younger soldiers who navigated the challenges of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT). In this paper, I compare these two cohorts of writers to examine their experiences of institutional life and male bonding in the American forces. Their stories, and their purpose for writing, reveal how the forces shaped sexual and political subjectivities. Gay men from the 1940s used their narratives to document the service of "fairies" and butch men attracted to one another, straight soldiers and commanders who accepted gay personnel despite official policies, and the infinite opportunities for sex and friendship. Servicemen of recent decades tell a different story of protest. Their gay life was lonelier than their ancestors, and their memoirs function as conversion narratives. In "coming out", they craft a respectable masculine self to demand the right to serve openly. Soldiers in both eras recall experiences of prejudice and resistance in an organisation hostile and conducive to sex and love between men.
Criminologies of the military: Militarism, national security and justice, eds Ben Wadham and Andrew Goldsmith (Oxford:Hart, 2018), 169-88, 2018
Historical studies of prosecution and punishment patterns for the sexual maltreatment of children... more Historical studies of prosecution and punishment patterns for the sexual maltreatment of children are rare. Australian criminal justice histories like those elsewhere remain underdeveloped despite attention to specific areas of inquiry such as gender, which bear on the subject of child victims. Serious problems of access to public archives, where materials involving children are invariably closed or otherwise strictly controlled, frustrate scholarly efforts to assess the scope and detail of the law’s response. These factors are exacerbated for institutions that had charge of children – researchers have had to wait for public inquiries such as the current Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse to open organisational policies and practices to greater scrutiny. This chapter reconsiders the popular assumption that mechanisms of prosecution and punishment for sexual offences against children are a very recent historical phenomena. While recognising that responses to the maltreatment of children are not always located in the court room, we argue that the historical volume of criminal justice responses constitute a significant index of social attitudes towards children. In that context, we review briefly some of the historical conditions for recognition of child sexual assault, the policing and justice responses that follow from its recognition, and conclude by considering associated problems of silence and invisibility.
Children Childhood and Youth in the British World, eds Shirleene Robinson and Simon Sleight (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 221-236.
The Pacific War: Aftermaths, Remembrances and Culture, eds Christine Twomey and Ernest Koh (London: Routledge, 2015), 233-249.
Acts of Love and Lust: Sexuality in Australia from 1945 to 2000, eds Lisa Featherstone, Rebecca Jennings, and Robert Reynolds (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), 112-129.
Army Journal, culture edition, 10, 3 (2013): 23-40
Sex, gender and sexuality have always been the subject of lively debates within and around the mi... more Sex, gender and sexuality have always been the subject of lively debates within and around the military -from the age-old problem of the on and off-duty sexual behaviour of servicemen to the more recent process of creating a place for women as front-line fighters. In recent years a spate of scandals has challenged the reputation and operation of the armed services. But there is another side that needs to be taken into account -increasingly, very public action is being taken in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) personnel against those accused of sexism and homophobia. This article seeks to place these developments in an historical context, focussing on homosexuality during World War II. Drawing on the memories and memoirs of homosexual men as well as archival records of the responses of Army officials and other servicemen who encountered same-sex behaviour, we explore a range of homosexual behaviours HISTORY and identities present in the armed services. We are particularly interested in how a vilified, marginalised and criminalised minority made lives for themselves in the forces and, for all the risks and penalties they faced, the fact that these lives were characterised by pleasure and conviviality as much as by fear and victimisation. Three forces were at work, each shaping the homosexual sub-cultures in their own ways -the commanding echelons, homosexual men, and the broader mass of service personnel.
Journal of Australian Studies 37, 3 (2013): 316-32
This article examines forty-six criminal charges of lineal family sex crime in Queensland between... more This article examines forty-six criminal charges of lineal family sex crime in Queensland between 1870 and 1900. It finds that the special incest provisions introduced with increases to the age of consent in 1891 did not radically alter prosecution practices of father-daughter rape. While the new law did bring more cases before the courts, persisting cultural attitudes about the character and respectability of working-class girls, the dynamics of families under exaggerated paternal control, and the inviolability of the colonial family home continued to affect patterns of abuse and the regulation of incest in the last decade of the nineteenth century.
History Compass, 11, 9 (2013): 715-26
The second part of this article explores some of the topics of inquiry that have preoccupied scho... more The second part of this article explores some of the topics of inquiry that have preoccupied scholars of child sexual abuse. It begins with feminist considerations of incest and the age of consent before providing a brief historiographical overview of the concept of moral panic as it pertains to offenders and, to a lesser degree, the sexuality of young people. A significant focus is childhood sexuality, including scholarly treatment of juvenile delinquency, and paedophilia, and homosexuality, as well as assumptions underpinning concepts of harm. It concludes by addressing history's potential to inform public debate, including the deliberations of commissions and inquiries before reflecting on the methods, approaches and problems in the field.
History Compass 11, 9 (2013): 702-14
This article reviews histories of child sexual abuse in Australia. While it is national in its fo... more This article reviews histories of child sexual abuse in Australia. While it is national in its focus, the historical problems, methods, and approaches explored here resonate globally, especially in the Anglosphere. Given the transnational dimensions of sex and gender politics, child welfare and protection, and the development of common law, any local historiographic survey is best located within the international context. This article argues that defining and interpreting sex with children is a significant problem in the historical literature. The cleavage between constructions of innocence and paradigms of abuse remains prominent in contemporary scholarship although assimilating these schools of thought is neither feasible nor fruitful. The first part of this article explores the feminist rediscovery of child sexual abuse in the late twentieth century, considering the extent to which the problem had been earlier erased from the public domain. Paying particular attention to law and socio-legal histories, it investigates definitional problems around children and crime, and examines how the criminal justice system and media have been used to recover histories of abuse.
Journal of the History of Sexuality, 22, 3 (2013): 501-24.
Intimacy, violence and activism: Gay and lesbian perspectives on Australasian history and society, eds Graham Willett and Yorick Smaal (Melbourne: Monash University Publishing, 2013), 56-73.
Criminal Law Journal, 36, 4 (2012): 249-51.
Women’s History Review, Australian sexualities special issue, 12, 5, (2012): 793-811.
The 1960s in Australia: People, power and politics, eds Julie Ustinoff and Shirleene Robinson (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012), 69-94.
Making Film and Television Histories: Australia and New Zealand, eds James E. Bennett and Rebecca Beirne (London: I.B. Taurus, 2012), 215-19.
Queensland Historical Atlas, eds Peter Spearritt and Marion Stell (2010)
Queensland Historical Atlas, eds Peter Spearritt and Marion Stell (2010)
Oxford encyclopaedia of the modern world, vol. 4, ed. Peter N. Stearns (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 30-33.
Australian Historical Studies, 49, 3 (2018): 429-30
Australian Historical Studies, 48, 3 (2017): 455-6.
Journal of Australian Studies, 39, 4 (2015): 572-73.
![Research paper thumbnail of Confused Distillation [theatre review of Boundary Street]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/47206533/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](History Australia, 11, 1 (2014): 242-4.
night after night as his chauffeur. This nexus of power and affection is queered even further whe... more night after night as his chauffeur. This nexus of power and affection is queered even further when they start to enact the relationship in terms of father and son. It is clearly more than narcissism that prompts Liberace to point at his portrait and instruct the plastic surgeon to make his lover look more like this younger version of himself. He wants family, and an heir. In its forensic portrayal of the operations of age, money and power in this romance, the film gives us a more than usually complex view of life in the closet.
Journal of Australian Studies, 37, 2 (2012): 273-4.
Journal of Australian Studies, 36, 1 (2012): 120-1
Journal of Australian Studies, 34, 4 (2010): 552-3.
Australian Journal of Politics and History, 51, 1 (2005): 136-7.