Associate ProfessorJoanna Cruickshank

History of religion in Britain and Australia

Gender and religion

History of Christian missions

Empire and religion

Race and Christianity

Projects
Joanna is involved in a number of research projects which examine the role of
religion in colonial Australia and the British Empire. These include studies
of missionary women involved in Aboriginal missions and research on the
relationship between church and state in Australian settler colonialism. She
is also part of a team conducting research into how Australians understand
history and its uses.

From 2018, Joanna has been a Chief Investigator on an ARC Discovery
(Indigenous) Project which examines the leadership of Aboriginal people in
conducting lawful relations with the settler government in Victoria.

From 2011-2016, Joanna was part of a team awarded an ARC Linkage Grant for the
"Minutes of Evidence" project, which examines the ways in which colonial and
postcolonial societies have responded to injustice. At the heart of the
project is a theatre performance, Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country, which
consists entirely of the voices of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people who
testified at the 1881 Parliamentary inquiry into Coranderrk Aboriginal
station. Joanna's research within this project examined the religious
convictions of the non-Aboriginal people who testified at the inquiry,
particularly their understandings of justice.