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Urgent History

Urgent History

By: The Australian National University
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Summary

Urgent History brings together leading historians to apply their knowledge of the past to some of the most pressing questions of the present. Season 1, hosted by Dr Filip Slaveski, Senior Lecturer in Russian, Soviet and East European History, covered issues from the fate of face-to-face lectures and the crisis in Australian universities, to the roots of political populism, climate activism, and the cost-of-living squeeze.


In Season 2, Emeritus Professor Carolyn Strange, a specialist in criminal justice and gender history, joins Filip Slaveski in new conversations with historians who explore how the past continues to shape our present. In this season, we consider the repercussions of war and colonisation, the changing nature and dynamics of families, and the historic and contemporary ways in which we consume the news.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Episodes
  • How war-ravaged eastern Europe struggled to recover

    How war-ravaged eastern Europe struggled to recover
    Apr 22 2026
    How do societies respond to war’s devastation? In this episode, co-host Carolyn Strange asks Filip Slaveski to answer that question, tapping his expertise in the history of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, especially Russia and Ukriane. Revolution and famine preceded the waves of violence and destruction of the Second World War. What strategies and resources allowed ordinary people to survive, to cope, to retain hope and rebuild their lives once the guns fell silent, or at least were muted? How can we better understand Ukraine’s response to Russia’s recent attacks through that past?

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    40 mins
  • The privileges and perils of queenship in late Antiquity

    The privileges and perils of queenship in late Antiquity
    Apr 22 2026
    What was it like to be a queen in the Roman, Byzantine and Medieval period? In this episode we discuss how elite women experienced peril alongside privilege. Historian of late Antiquity, Dr. Meaghan McEvoy, recounts tales of women entangled in political jockeying, unhappy marriages and risky reproduction. Did the rise of Christianity provide queens and their daughters preferable alternatives? How can we reconceive contemporary notions of female leadership through its longer history?

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    34 mins
  • The collision of worlds in Australian exploration

    The collision of worlds in Australian exploration
    Apr 22 2026
    How can studying expeditions recast the history of colonisation? In this episode, historian Professor Martin Thomas recounts the dynamics of mutual discovery in the last gasp of imperial exploration in Australia’s Arnhem Land in the 1940s. The American expeditioners considered themselves the clever men, but how did Aboriginal leaders express their expertise, artistry and spirituality? After the blows of dispossession and the theft of human remains, how can we think more deeply about the obligations and meanings of reconciliation?

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    41 mins
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