Australian universities are replacing the study of history with woke identity politics, according to a new report by the Institute of Public Affairs.
The report examined the themes present in all 791 history subjects offered across 35 Australian universities.
The results show Australian students are learning more 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).
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Speaking to Sky News Australia’s Andrew Bolt, the report’s author, Dr Bella d’Abrera, said history departments at Australian universities have jettisoned the study of the past in favour of a woke, identity politics obsessed version of sociology.
“History isn’t being taught as a study of the past anymore,” Dr d’Abrera said.
“It’s really being taught as a sort of mish mash of postcolonial theory, of queer theory, of gender theory, of postmodernist critical race theory.
“It’s not all historians, but in general, they’ve recast themselves as sociologists.”
The report identified “Gender” as the theme most commonly focused on in history subjects, growing 69 subjects to 96 subjects since the IPA’s last history audit in 2017. This was followed by “Indigenous issues” and “Race”, which was present in 91 and 86 subjects respectively.
The least common themes were “Science”, “Capitalism” and “Liberalism”, none of which managed to reach double digits.
According to Dr d’Abrera, the decline of history as a discipline has “deep implications” for Australian society.
“It’s quite dangerous because historians are there to safeguard the past and to keep that past in the present, in a way, so that we know not to make those mistakes again. And that’s clearly not happening,” Dr d’Abrera said.
“If you forget the past, then how do you recognise dangers to your personal sovereignty? How do you recognise dangers or threats to your freedom?
“You make the same mistakes over and over again.”
Dr. d’Abrera also spoke about what this means for students interested thinking about studying history.
“It’s difficult for students now thinking about what they’re going to study next year. If they’re thinking of studying history and really wanting to get to grips with Western civilisation and understand modern Australia they’re going to struggle,” she said.
However it wasn’t all bad news, with 280 of the 791 subjects focusing on some aspect of the “Essential Core Topics in the History of Western civilisation” – a list of 20 of the most significant topics in the history of the west, compiled by Harvard University’s Niall Ferguson.
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