Ep03: Michelle Arrow, Modern Historian

Unexpected and profound insights from smart people you’d like to meet. Today my guest is Michelle Arrow, who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University in Sydney’s north. Michelle is also co-editor of the Australian Historical Association’s journal History Australia. In this episode, Michelle and I speak about her early enthusiasm for modern Australian history and research interests related to popular culture. We also talk about her research and her new book The Seventies: the personal, the political and the making of modern Australia, which explores the enormous social changes that shaped modern Australia’s identity. We talk about the Royal Commission into Human Relationships and it’s significant role as primary evidence for Australian’s shifting attitudes towards a whole range of hot topics: equality and women’s voices, family, sexuality, abortion and interpersonal relations. Our conversation turns to the 1970s television show Number 96 and it’s significant role in reflecting Australia’s sexual revolution. Links to some of Michelle’s research papers and articles are provided in the show notes. Here’s my conversation with Associate Professor Michelle Arrow. Links: https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/michelle-arrow https://www.theaha.org.au/ https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8926430 https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/seventies/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068114/ https://twitter.com/michellearrow1