ANU Emeritus Faculty Oral History Project
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1885/213358
"The energy of grace alone can make a soul strong in age." - John Henry Newman.
ANU Emeritus Faculty began its Oral History Project in 2008 and because of its access to and relationship with elders of the ANU, Emeritus Faculty is in a unique position to gather accounts of the origins and development of the ANU, aspects of which might be little known. Such stories potentially provide an opportunity for the pioneers to identify and record their place and role in the life and development of the university since its founding so many years ago, and for them to make comment on what was happening around them.
The Emeritus Faculty's Oral History Program aims to provide an opportunity, through audio interviews carried out under comfortable, informal conditions, conducive of recall and elaboration by interviewees. The venue is usually the Emeritus Faculty office, though it may be the subject's home or office. The interviews are minimally structured, with the aim of letting the interview unfold as it will. Interviewees are encouraged to be as candid and speculative as they wish.
While the ANU Emeritus Faculty began its Oral History Project in 2008 the ANU Archives also has a collection of approximately 50 interviews produced in the 1980s and 1990s, when ANU had its own Oral History Program. This collection is now also available online and can be found at https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/15089
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Item Open Access Interview with Winifred MumfordMumford, Winifred; Bedford, StuartWinifred was an illustrator with the Department of Prehistory at the Australian National University from the 1960s to the 1980s. She outlines her initial involvement with archaeology that began in New Zealand, then in Scandinavia and ultimately at the Australian National University. She recounts her experiences at the ANU and pioneering fieldwork in the then New Hebrides (now Vanuatu).Item Open Access Ian Hancock - Head of Department of History, Faculty of Arts, ANU(The Australian National University, Emeritus Faculty Inc.) Hancock, Ian; Bygrave, FyfeThis audio interview with Ian Hancock is part of the Emeritus Faculty's Oral History Program involving retired members of ANU who were part of the university in its earlier life. The Oral History Program was initiated and developed by ANU Emeritus Faculty as a contribution to university and community understanding of the beginnings and development of ANU over the past seven decades. Emeritus Faculty has a special interest in this period since the Faculty's membership includes many of the people who helped shape ANU in those early days, to make it the preeminent university it is today. Ian held Teaching appointments in the Department of History, Faculty of Arts for many years and for many was Head of the Department. As seen in his CV Ian has broad interests among these being a preeminent author of past and present members of the Australian Liberal Party.Item Open Access Erich Weigold - Director, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering(The Australian National University, Emeritus Faculty Inc.) Weigold, Erich; Bygrave, Fyfe; Bygrave, FyfeThis audio interview, with Professor Erich Weigold, is part of the Emeritus Faculty's Oral History Program involving retired staff members of ANU who were part of the university in its earlier life. The Oral History Program was initiated and developed by ANU Emeritus Faculty as a contribution to university and community understanding of the beginnings and development of ANU over the past six decades. Emeritus Faculty has a special interest in this period, since the Faculty's membership includes many of the people who helped shape ANU in those early days, to make it the pre-eminent university it is today. Erich Weigold was Director of the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the ANU from 1992 to 2002. As revealed in his CV he also occupied many other positions in his time in both Australia and the USA.Item Open Access Colin Steele - University Librarian and Director of Scholarly Information Strategies(The Australian National University, Emeritus Faculty Inc.) Steele, Colin; Bygrave, FyfeThis interview with Colin Steele of the ANU Library, is part of the ANU Emeritus Faculty's Oral History Program.Item Open Access Colin Peter Groves - Emeritus Professor, bioanthropology(The Australian National University, Emeritus Faculty Inc.) Groves, Colin Peter; Bygrave, FyfeThis interview with Colin Peter Groves of the School of Archaeology and Anthropology, is part of the ANU Emeritus Faculty's Oral History Program. Colin has done museum work on primates and other mammals all over the world. His lifelong studies on classification, variation and evolution of living primates culminated in 2001 with the publication of a book Primate Taxonomy (Smithsonian Institution Press), but it continues with new discoveries and new assessments. He is regularly invited to address conferences on this and related subjects, including the Goettingen Freilandtage (an annual conference of primatologists in Germany) in December, 2005, the African Genesis symposium in Johannesburg in January, 2006, the International Primatological Congress in Cancun in 2012, and the International Conference on Ruminant Systematics and Evolution in Munich in 2014. I is also still publishing on human evolution (a recent paper with a Debbie Argue, Bill Jungers and Mike Lee on the infamous Hobbit, Homo floresiensis), and on the taxonomy of ungulates and other animals, including elephants and carnivores. Biogeography is an increasingly important theme in his research, giving clues to reconstruction of past climates and geography. His work has taken him to such places as Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, India, Iran, China and Indonesia. In the past few years he has also done fieldwork in Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He regularly collaborates in research with colleagues in Europe, China and Sri Lanka, among other places, although much of his research is sole-authored. (https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/groves-cp)Item Open Access Derek Wrigley : University Designer/Architect(The Australian National University) Wrigley, Derek; Winternitz, JudithItem Open Access Penny Sackett : former Director of Mount Stromlo Observatory(The Australian National University) Sackett, Penny; Winternitz JudithItem Open Access Stephen Padgham and Greg 'Charlie' Dickens : former ANU students(The Australian National University) Padgham, Stephen; Dickens, Greg 'Charlie'; Altenburg, KirstyItem Open Access Claire Wehner : former staff member at Mount Stromlo Observatory(The Australian National University) Wehner, Claire; Winternitz, JudithItem Open Access Hermann Wehner : former engineer at Mount Stromlo Observatory(The Australian National University) Wehner, Hermann; Winternitz, JudithItem Open Access Ken Freeman : astronomer at Mount Stromlo Observatory(The Australian National University) Speaker: Ken Freeman; Speaker: Judith WinternitzItem Open Access Toss Gascoigne : former resident at Mount Stromlo Observatory, and son of Ben and Rosalie Gascoigne.(The Australian National University) Gascoigne, Toss; Winternitz JudithItem Open Access Norman Banham : workshop foreman at Mount Stromlo Observatory(The Australian National University) Banham, Norman; Winternitz, JudithItem Open Access Graeme Blackman : site caretaker at Mount Stromlo Observatory(The Australian National University) Blackman, Graeme; Winternitz, JudithItem Open Access Gabe Bloxman : optics specialist, and John Hart : engineer, at Mount Stromlo Observatory(The Australian National University) Bloxman, Gabe; Hart, John; Winternitz, JudithItem Open Access James Connolly : President of ANUSA(The Australian National University) Connolly, James; Blair, SandyItem Open Access Richard Baker : Pro:Vice Chancellor (University Experience) and former ANU student(The Australian National University) Baker, Richard; Blair, SandyItem Open Access Donald Anthony Low, AO (1927-2015) - Professor, historian and ANU vice chancellor(The Australian National University, Emeritus Faculty Inc.) Low, Donald Anthony; Stewart, Peter; Fominas, Nik; Low, Belle; Low, Adam; Stewart, Peter; Fominas, NikInterview spoken by Belle Low (wife) September 2015, at Belle’s home, and eulogy written by Adam Low (son of Professor Low) February 2015, from London.Professor Low (Anthony as he was known to his family and to most British and African colleagues, Tony as he was happy to be known by many of his Australian friends and colleagues), was Vice Chancellor of the Australian National University (1975-82). Before that at ANU, he was Director of the Research School of Pacific Studies (1973-75), Professor of History (1964-72), and Fellow/Senior Fellow in History (1959-64). Beyond ANU Anthony was, among many other things, The Times of London’s correspondent in Uganda (1952-58), Founding Dean of African and Asian Studies at Sussex University (1964-69), and President of Clare College and Smuts Professor of History at Cambridge University (1987-94).Item Open Access James J Fox - Emeritus Professor, anthropologist and environmentalist(The Australian National University, Emeritus Faculty Inc.) Fox, James J; Stewart, Peter; Fominas, Nik; Stewart, Peter; Fominas, NikJim Fox built an enviable record in research, teaching, and academic leadership over more than four decades at ANU, and during many visiting appointments beyond ANU. He was recognised for his broad academic skills by appointment as Director of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (1999-2006), and as Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University (2006-2007). Following notional retirement in 2006, Jim continued to contribute to Asian and Pacific studies at ANU as a visiting fellow and a member of Emeritus Faculty.Item Open Access Ian Chubb - Emeritus Professor, ANU vice chancellor and Australian chief scientist(The Australian National University, Emeritus Faculty Inc.) Chubb, Ian; Stewart, Peter; Fominas, Nik; Stewart, Peter; Fominas, NikIan Chubb has grappled with and solved many important questions concerning the management of academic research, and academic leadership in Australia. A decade after Professor Chubb’s appointment as Vice Chancellor of ANU, his boss (Gareth Evans, Chancellor of ANU and previously Foreign Minister in the Hawke and Keating Governments) was moved to say of him as he retired from ANU: “… we’ve had in Ian Chubb an absolutely brilliant and inspiring leader of this great university, who has delivered an unbelievable amount during his tenure here, and whose legacy will be absolutely enduring. When the next history of the ANU is written we know that Ian Chubb is going to be right up there with the legends, and future generations will talk about the three Cs – Coombs, Crawford and Chubb – who, more than anyone else, made this great national institution what it is and what it aspires to be.” Emeritus Faculty spoke to Professor Chubb in January 2016, as part of the Faculty’s Oral History Program. We asked him to outline something of his origins and life as a student, as a scientist, and as an academic leader and manager. An audio file recording of the interview is attached below the following synoptic text file. His career is formally summarized at the Australian Chief Scientist website [www.chiefscientist.gov.au/about], a position he held after his decade with ANU, and has just relinquished.