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.
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.
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
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
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
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.