@dranastevenson
anastevenson.phd | feminist historian + ISG @ UFS | ✍ social movements 🪧 women in politics 📚 AcLits 📐 evaluation | #VIDAblog @auswhn.bsky.social | archivingsocialmovements.com | 🗳 The Suffrage Postcard Project | 🗺️ Mapping Monuments | 🎼 blockflute ♫♬♫ | 😷
International Women's Day 2026 Balance the Scales For All Women and Girls #BalanceTheScales #IWD2026 UN Women Australia
Every day is International Women's Day at the Australian Women's History Network!
To celebrate, check out our wealth of feminist, gender, and women's history at #VIDAblog 🚺 ⚧️
#IWD2026 #BalanceTheScales #RightsJusticeAction
Read more here ⬇️
www.auswhn.com.au/blog/
BREAKING: The US has bombed Tehran’s main refinery and burning oil is now flooding down the streets into the city’s sewers.
This is a vision from hell, unleashed by the US tonight.
(🎥 Vahid Online)
Australian health authorities have been encouraging ‘no hat no play’ for 100 years.
👉 Read the full story: theconversation.com/fry-now...
Former Harvard president Larry Summers will retire with the title “president emeritus” after scrutiny over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein — a soft landing that, one economist argues, underscores academia’s tolerance of powerful, sexist men.
theconversation.com/former-harva...
Was having a convo with @bachynski.bsky.social & we decided that it's of upmost importance to start gathering the oral histories of those who lived through the time before polio vaccines, measles vaccines, etc. They can provide important perspectives and they will not be with us for too much longer
I saw an amazing presentation once about a colleague simply using an Excel spreadsheet for this kind of thing, set up with hyperlinks to various primary and secondary documents within a cloud system, i.e., SharePoint.
Public History: A Practical Guide, 3rd edition by Faye Sayer, is an exploration of what historians do and can do beyond the classroom, and a guide through the complete range of skills needed to work within and even outside public history.
Find out more 👉 https://bit.ly/3LPW6L7
🚨 I spoke to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) with some colleagues about One Nation’s meteoric rise
Some really good data visualisation in this Story Lab piece
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...
Gender studies courses are shutting down across the US. The Epstein files reveal why | Joan Wallach Scott
Copy of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë on a table. It's dimly lit and we can see a struggling tea candle next to it on a flower tile.
A gothicist whose research includes narratives of domestic and family violence reviews the 2026 film “Wuthering Heights". A thread:
1/
ONE MORE WEEK to get your abstracts in for the 2026 AHA Conference! We can't wait to see you at Macquarie University in July -- don't miss out! theaha.org.au/aha-conferen...
The title page of a 1971 book by Karen DeCrow. The book is called The Young Woman’s Guide to Liberation — Alternatives to a Half-Life While the Choice is Still Yours. The publisher’s name appears at the bottom of the page: Pegasus, a division of the Bobbs-Merrill Company Incorporated Publishers.
From my vintage advice book collection: a 1971 book for young women. (I can’t get over the subtitle.)
Happy UK release day to Opera Wars! Let's celebrate with a massive book review in the London Times, shall we? 😱
"Vincent is at her most evocative — in a gloomy way — in describing the jobbing opera singer’s lot, or 'near constant rejection.'”
#operasky #booksky
Highlighted statistics: 69% disagreed that 'Senior management considers employee psychological health to be as important as productivity.' 73% disagreed that risks to their psychological health are actively monitored. 82% of participants ranked high or very high in emotional exhaustion.
Australian University Census of Staff Wellbeing is now out - some shocking stats!
Census WEBSITE for more info and full report: stresscafe.net/census/
#AcademicSky #AustralianUnis
“This isn’t a fringe issue. It goes to the heart of why housing has become so expensive, and why inequality keeps growing,” writes Kasy Chambers, Executive Director of Anglicare Australia.
Read the full piece on The Point: https://theaus.in/4rKDUBX
I wrote about all the men who flocked to Jeffrey Epstein's inbox to talk about sexual abuse allegations with an expert. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
the Epstein files are really devastating because they remind me of how many girls and women miss out on professional opportunities, mentorship and careers because of how many powerful, rich and influential men only view girls and women — and interactions with them — through the lens of sex
New: Former Texas A&M lecturer Melissa McCoul is suing the university months after Texas A&M fired her over a gender identity lesson.
McCoul alleges that administrators knowingly violated her free speech and due process rights to appease political critics.
Over the moon 🌙 that 'The Book that Taught the World to Orgasm and then Disappeared' received a starred review from Publishers Weekly! 🌟 🔭 🌃
www.publishersweekly.com/9781685892319
Grab a ☕ and revisit a History Australia Collection!
History in practice: Trove Special Section.
www.tandfonline.com/journals/rah...
Eight great articles from 18(4) 2021.
Human rights advocates are calling for the Australia Government to stop violating children’s rights and locking them up in “cages” as the country faces renewed calls to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility.
Read the full piece on The Point: https://theaus.in/4a07kEL
I am hearing that RFK Jr.’s minions are going to go after HPV vaccines. I’ve got problems with these people and now you’re going to hear about them, first from a personal perspective and then from a professional one.
It all boils down to this: WE HAVE A SAFE VACCINE THAT PREVENTS CANCER.
1. “Unreal and untrue: Refrigerator mother theory and the historic vilification of the mothers of disabled children,” by Kate McAnelly 2. “The Neptune: A Biography of Convict Women,” by Nichola Garvey 3. “Remembering Lyndall Ryan (1943-2024),” by Vera Mackie and the Australian Women’s History Network 4. “Camp Names and Vernacular: Queensland’s Lavender Language,” by Michael Stockwell 5. “The History of Objectifying Women: From Opium Use in the Japanese Empire to Contemporary Advertising,” by Ming Gao 6. “White Aprons, White Sauce, White … Supremacy? The culinary politics of internet ‘tradwives’,” by Lauren Samuelsson 7. “An Exercise in Biography-as-Frustration: The Enigma of Evdokia Petrov,” by Julie Kimber and Phillip Deery 8. “Histories of Birth Trauma and Obstetric Violence,” by Paige Donaghy 9. “‘You Can’t Wear A Red Ribbon If You’re Dead’: The Complex Rise of The Ribbon Project for People With AIDS,” by Caitlin Merlin 10. “‘Production-line baby-killing centres’: Vilification of Abortion in Queensland’s Recent History,” by Cassandra Byrnes
Congratulations to the authors of the top 10 most-read blogs for 2025! ✨
And a huge thanks to the #VIDAblog editorial team for all their stellar work in 2025.
@paigedonaghy.bsky.social | @dranastevenson.bsky.social | @veramackie.bsky.social
Read these blogs + more here ⬇️
www.auswhn.com.au/blog/
“On April Fool’s Day—bonus points for DOGE’s sense of humor—I wake up at 4:45 AM and check my email. I’ve been RIFed, along with the rest of my Division. There is no proposal to Congress; no 'bump and retreat'.” pghrev.com/my-last-day-...
Ed Simon explores the complex relationships between writers and their day jobs.
It’s funny how Wikipedia used to seem relatively unreliable, because it was written by regular people instead of encyclopedia experts, and now it seems relatively reliable, because it’s written by regular people instead of glib CliffsNotes robots
“Writers perform a crucial national service. For this service they are underpaid and undervalued. The Adelaide Writers’ Week Festival has just made them pay the price for a problem they didn’t create."
Read Leanne Minshull’s full piece on The Point: thepoint.com.au/opinions/260...
Screenshot of journal article. Title: Making an Entrance on a Man’s Stage: Pioneer Women Flautists in Australia. Authors: Karen Anne Lonsdale (University of Southern Queensland) and Ana Stevenson (University of Southern Queensland and University of the Free State). Abstract: Flute playing was primarily a male domain during the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. Whereas the piano and singing were traditionally considered acceptable musical pursuits for women, the flute was not thought to be an appropriate choice of instrument. As women were not included in orchestras, they formed their own. Despite facing strong opposition and public criticism, Australia’s trailblazing women flautists pursued music as both amateurs and professionals. Against a backdrop of changing trends in women’s work in 20th-century Australia, some women musicians first broke into the profession as replacements for men who were serving during World War II. This article uses newspapers to uncover women flautists’ entry into the classical music scene of the early 20th century, highlighting the achievements of five pioneering women: Constance Pether, June Lindsay, Florence Elkin, Linda Vogt and Audrey Walklate.
Next in 49.4:
Lonsdale and Stevenson highlight five pioneering women flautists breaking the glass ceiling of Australia's professional music scene.
#OzMusic #WomensHistory #flutes #OzStudies #OpenAccess
tinyurl.com/3ypwd9xc
