Colonial Violence and Pacifism: Quaker Life and Ideals in Australia, c. 1830-1860

Principal Investigator: PD Dr. Eva Bischoff

Duration: 2011-2017

This project investigates the history of a group of Australian Quaker settler families and explores the ambiguous roles Quakers played in the processes of settler colonialism. Methodologically speaking, it employs the central analytical tool of the recently developed Histoire Croisée, namely focusing on different échelles or scales. One of the key questions of the study is: How did Quakers, considering their pacifism and involvement in humanitarian projects, negotiate the violence of the frontier? Numerous publications have resulted from the project, including the postdoctoral thesis (“Habilitation”) of the principal investigator, which was submitted in May 2017.

Publications (selected)

Bischoff, Eva (2020): Benevolent Colonizers: Quaker Lives and Ideals in Colonial Australia. Cambridge Imperial and Postcolonial Studies Series, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

Bischoff, Eva (Ed.) (2019): Dimensions of Settler Colonialism in a Transnational Perspective. Experiences, Actors, Spaces. London: Routledge.

Bischoff, Eva (2017): Arms & Amelioration: Negotiating Quaker Peace Testimony and Settler Violence in 1830s Van Diemen's Land, in: Settler Colonial Studies (Special Issue: Experiences, Actors, Spaces: Dimensions of Settler Colonialism in Transnational Perspectives. Ed. Eva Bischoff), DOI:10.1080/2201473X.2015.1090653.

Bischoff, Eva (2017): Introduction: Experiences, Actors, Spaces: Dimensions of Settler Colonialsim in Transnational Perspective, in: Settler Colonial Studies (Special Issue: Experiences, Actors, Spaces: Dimensions of Settler Colonialism in Transnational Perspectives. Ed. Eva Bischoff), DOI:10.1080/2201473X.2015.1090650.