Dr Joel Barnes

Joel Barnes is a historian with interests in histories of science, the humanities, and universities. His main current project (with Associate Professor Ian Hesketh) is examining commemorations of the life and work of Charles Darwin in a range of national and disciplinary contexts. He was recently postdoctoral research fellow on the history strand of the multi-disciplinary Science and Religion: Exploring the Spectrum project, which investigated the complexity of historical and contemporary relations between evolutionary science and belief across a number of national settings. Both projects are funded by the International Research Network for the Study of Science and Belief in Society. Before joining the University of Queensland, Joel was a Research Associate in the Australian Centre for Public History at the University of Technology Sydney, working on an Australian Research Council-funded project on the history of humanities institutions in Australia since 1945.

View UQ Researcher Profile.

Research Interests

• Science and religion

• History of universities

• History of humanities

• History of science

• History of knowledge

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy, University of Melbourne

• Bachelor of Arts, Monash University

Publications

Book Chapters

• Knowledge in the Air: Circulation, Actors, and Arenas of Knowledge

  Barnes, Joel (2023). Knowledge in the Air: Circulation, Actors, and Arenas of Knowledge. Knowledge Actors: Revisiting Agency in the History of Knowledge. (pp. 201-216) edited by Johan Östling, David Larsson Heidenblad and Anna Nilsson Hammar. Lund, Sweden: Nordic Academic Press.

• “This great principle of the continuity of phenomena”: Edward Aveling on the evolutionism of Darwin and Marx

  Barnes, Joel (2022). “This great principle of the continuity of phenomena”: Edward Aveling on the evolutionism of Darwin and Marx. Imagining the Darwinian Revolution: Historical Narratives of Evolution from the Nineteenth Century to the Present. (pp. 121-136) edited by Ian Hesketh. Pittsburgh, PA United States: University of Pittsburgh Press. doi: 10.2307/j.ctv2k4fwpr.10

Journal Articles

• Evolutionary science in denominational colleges at Australian universities, 1907–2020

  Barnes, Joel (2023). Evolutionary science in denominational colleges at Australian universities, 1907–2020. Paedagogica Historica, 1-19. doi: 10.1080/00309230.2023.2230450

• Vale: Stuart Macintyre, 1947-2021

  Barnes, Joel (2023). Vale: Stuart Macintyre, 1947-2021. Melbourne Historical Journal, 48 (1), 7-8.

• Australian universities and Atlantic slavery

  Barnes, Joel (2023). Australian universities and Atlantic slavery. History Australia, 20 (1), 41-63. doi: 10.1080/14490854.2022.2129265

• The history of knowledge and the history of education

  Barnes, Joel and Pietsch, Tamson (2022). The history of knowledge and the history of education. History of Education Review, 51 (2), 109-122. doi: 10.1108/her-06-2022-0020

• The ‘two cultures’ in Australia

  Barnes, Joel (2022). The ‘two cultures’ in Australia. History of Education. doi: 10.1080/0046760x.2022.2097742

• Review of: Hoffenberg, Peter H. A Science of our own: Exhibitions and the rise of Australian public science

  Barnes, Joel (2022). Review of: Hoffenberg, Peter H. A Science of our own: Exhibitions and the rise of Australian public science. Centaurus, 64 (2), 555-557. doi: 10.1484/j.cnt.5.130449

• Review of Forms of knowledge: developing the history of knowledge Edited by Johan Ostling, David Larsson Heidenblad and Anna Nilsson Hammar, Nordic Academic Press, 2020

  Barnes, Joel (2022). Review of Forms of knowledge: developing the history of knowledge Edited by Johan Ostling, David Larsson Heidenblad and Anna Nilsson Hammar, Nordic Academic Press, 2020. History of Education Review, 51 (1), 96-98. doi: 10.1108/her-06-2022-094

• The humanities in Australia and the problem of Europe

  Barnes, Joel (2021). The humanities in Australia and the problem of Europe. History of Humanities, 6 (2), 571-593. doi: 10.1086/715940

• Revisiting the ‘Darwin–Marx correspondence’: Multiple discovery and the rhetoric of priority

  Barnes, Joel (2021). Revisiting the ‘Darwin–Marx correspondence’: Multiple discovery and the rhetoric of priority. History of the Human Sciences, 35 (2), 29-54. doi: 10.1177/09526951211019226

• Collegial governance in postwar Australian universities

  Barnes, Joel (2020). Collegial governance in postwar Australian universities. History of Education Review, 49 (2), 149-164. doi: 10.1108/her-12-2019-0050

• Defunding arts degrees is the latest battle in a 40-year culture war

  Barnes, Joel (2020, 07 03). Defunding arts degrees is the latest battle in a 40-year culture war The Conversation

• Book review: Historicizing humans: deep time, evolution, and race in nineteenth-century British sciences

  Barnes, Joel (2019). Book review: Historicizing humans: deep time, evolution, and race in nineteenth-century British sciences. English Historical Review, 134 (569), 1033-1035. doi: 10.1093/ehr/cez178

• Book review: Historicism and the human sciences in Victorian Britain

  Barnes, Joel (2018). Book review: Historicism and the human sciences in Victorian Britain. European Review of History, 25 (6), 1087-1089. doi: 10.1080/13507486.2018.1434050

• The British women's suffrage movement and the ancient constitution, 1867-1909

  Barnes, Joel (2018). The British women's suffrage movement and the ancient constitution, 1867-1909. Historical Research, 91 (253), 505-527. doi: 10.1111/1468-2281.12234

• The right to read: the book censorship abolition league, 1934-37

  Barnes, Joel (2014). The right to read: the book censorship abolition league, 1934-37. Labour History, 1 (107), 75-93. doi: 10.5263/labourhistory.107.0075

• Book review: W. Macmahon Ball: Politics for the People, by Ai Kobayashi

  Barnes, Joel (2013). Book review: W. Macmahon Ball: Politics for the People, by Ai Kobayashi. Melbourne Historical Journal, 41, 130-132.