Menzies Australia Institute

Celebrating 40 years of the Menzies Australia Institute

In 2022-23, Menzies Australia Institute at King's is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Join us as we review all we achieved over the past 40 years and our reflections on our work to come.

KCL SSPP SGA MENZIES ANNIVERSARY BANNER - WEBSITE 800x410

Global Australia: our new research theme

Australia has long been connected to its region and the world beyond. Before colonisation, Yolŋu people from northeastern Arnhem Land traded with sailors from nearby Makassar (now in Indonesia) and connected Indigenous Australians with supply chains stretching to China. Settler colonialism heralded widespread institutional and personal links with Britain as well as other parts of Europe, Asia, the United States and beyond.

These links inspired a great deal of travel and mobility, and today, Australians are among the world’s most voracious travellers and significant numbers of Australian expats can be found around the world, including in London.

2022 Reese Lecture

Dr Shirleene Robinson delivered the 2022 Reese Lecture, titled "Collecting in Crisis: Oral History, Marginalised Voices and the AIDS Pandemic".

The lecture examined the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and early 1990sin Australia, and considered ways oral history might uniquely facilitate ethical collecting with marginalised people in intensely troubled times.

See our upcoming events

The Annual Menzies Lecture

Delivered by former Director of the Menzies Australia Institute, Professor Carl Bridge, the 2022 Menzies Lecture reflected on Billy Hughes, Australia’s Prime Minister during the Great War.

A firebrand, socialist and determined race patriot, Hughes was a factious figure with a legacy that continues to divide opinion.