CRC PhDs feature in upcoming book launch on disaster history

A new book featuring chapters written by Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC PhD researchers is set to be launched in July by a panel of expert speakers.

Disasters in Australia and New Zealand: Historical Approaches to Understanding Catastrophe brings together the first edited collection of scholarly research on the history of disasters in both countries. Leading experts, including CRC associate students Gretel Evans (University of Melbourne) and Daniel May (Australian National University), provide an interrogation of assumptions about the impacts of bushfires, floods, cyclones and earthquakes, asking the important question of how societies over generations have responded to or understood disaster.

Delving into immigrant experiences of bushfires, Gretel’s chapter is chapter 2, Shaped by fire: how bushfires forged migrant environmental understanding and memories of place. In chapter 7, Shallow fire literacy hinders robust fire policy: Black Saturday and prescribed burning debates, Daniel discusses the relationship between policy, writing and prescribed burning.

Both Gretel and Daniel will appear on the live panel of expert speakers for the launch of the book by Emeritus Professor Tom Griffiths (ANU) on 2 July 2020 at 6.30 pm AEST. Register for the webinar here.

This book is published by Palgrave Macmillan and is available to pre-order in hardback or as an e-book via their website.