The IPA has released a landmark audit of the 791 history subjects offered across 35 Australian universities. Forgetting the Past: How Post-Modernist Theory has replaced History in Australian Universities in 2022 shows the decline of history studies taught to students.
“Modern Australia has its roots in Great Britain and the West, and so cannot be understood without appreciation of that long arc of history. However, with post-modernism, we are deliberately being pushed towards a society which has lost that collective memory,” said Dr d’Abrera.
The audit found that of the history subjects offered at Australian universities more teach about ‘Race’ than ‘Democracy’ (86 subjects compared to 33 subjects), ‘Identity’ than the ‘Enlightenment’ (64 subjects compared to 25 subjects) and ‘Sexuality’ than the ‘Reformation’ (54 subjects compared to 17 subjects).
“The research reveals that Australia’s history academics are more preoccupied with inculcating students with post-modern theory, focusing on issues of class, race, gender, and sexuality, rather than key periods, such as, the Reformation, Renaissance or the Industrial Revolution,” said Dr d’Abrera.
“Deliberately choosing to forget the past means graduates will be prone to repeating history’s same mistakes. Our future leaders need to be able to recognise the signs of totalitarianism, threats to our freedoms and threats to our personal sovereignty,” said Dr d’Abrera.
“The only way of doing this is to cast our eyes backwards. We cannot afford to leave history in the past.”
“Any student hoping a university education will grow their historical understanding of humanity will be greatly disappointed. Australian universities need to be honest with undergraduates before they commence their degrees.”
“Those subjects which are by and large, dominated by post-modernist theories but are currently being sold as history, should be abolished or moved to more suitable homes, such as Sociology departments or Gender Studies.”
To download a copy of the audit click here.
