|
University of Queensland Postdoctoral Fellow
Melissa Bellanta arrived at the Centre in July 2007. She is a cultural historian interested in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Anglo society. Her current project focuses on popular theatre, religious beliefs and understandings of modernity in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Australia. Called Holy Smoke and Mirrors, it delves into the wacky world of ‘mystic theatre’– public séances, mesmerist displays, mind-reading exhibitions, and magic-shows. The project explores how ordinary Australian urbanites related to these performances, and what this has to tells us about their worldviews, their beliefs, and what they thought about being ‘modern’ at the time.
Melissa received her PhD from the University of Sydney in 2006, and was an associate lecturer there from late 2005. She has taught on various aspects of cultural and social history, usually with an Australian focus, and also on the history of place. Her PhD and the majority of her publications concern Australia’s late nineteenth century land radicals in the religious-cum-utopian beliefs of its members, their links to the labour and first-wave feminist movements, and the way that their ideas were in fact an early form of environmentalism.
Melissa is Book Reviews Editor for the Journal of Australian Studies.
If you are interested in finding out more about book-reviewing for JAS, or otherwise want to contact Melissa, you can do so on: email – m.bellanta@uq.edu.au and phone – (07) 3346 7410.
|
|
|
Related links for: Dr Melissa Bellanta
Melissa Bellanta - ResearchMelissa's research interests combine an interest in Australian masculinity, popular theatre, sentimentality and religiosity in the 1870-1920 period
Melissa Bellanta - PublicationsA categorised list of recent publications