Venue: Downstairs in RHSV exhibition space at 239 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne

5.30pm Drinks and food / canapes + book sales by RHSV

6.00pm Welcome by Prof Alistair Thomson, and Acknowledgement of Country

6.05pm Launch by Hon. Ged Kearney MP (Assistant Minister for Social Services and Assistant Minister for Prevention of Family Violence)

6.20pm Closing Remarks by Prof Michael Roper (Essex University)

Book sales, signing, drinks and food / canapes

7.00pm Finish

Please RSVP to attend.

Fathering and Family Life: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Issues

Venue: Upstairs in the RHSV Drill Hall at 239 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne

3.30 Afternoon tea

4.00 Welcome and introductions: Emeritus Prof Alistair Thomson

Panel Moderator: 
Prof Michelle Arrow (Macquarie University; President of the Australian Historian Association)

Panel 1: Fathering and Mothering
Focusing on how expectations about and experiences of fathering – and mothering – have changed across time and varied across culture and circumstance, and how cultural expectations enable and disable men’s ability to be active and effective fathers.

• Prof Jacqui McDonald (Deakin University, convenor, Australian Fatherhood Research Consortium)
• Associate Prof Richard Fletcher (Principal Investigator, SMS4dads & SMS4DeadlyDads, Fathers and Families Research Program, University of Newcastle)
• Dr Johnny Bell (Fathering author)
• Emeritus Prof Alistair Thomson (Monash University, Fathering author)

Panel 2: Fathering and Work
Focusing on how men’s paid work and employment policies and practices have impacted fathering, and how fathers and families, and society and policy, can make paid work less of an impediment to active and effective fathering.

• Belinda Probert (author of Bill’s Secrets: Love, War and Ambition, formerly Professor at Melbourne and LaTrobe universities)
• Prof Sean Scalmer (University of Melbourne, author of A Fair Day’s Work: The Quest to Win Back Time)
• Emeritus Prof John Murphy (University of Melbourne, Fathering author)

Panel 3: Fathering and Fractured Families
Focusing on the changing experience of fathering in families that have been fractured – by parental illness, death or separation, by war and trauma, by violence or neglect, by child removal – and how fathers, families and Australian society best manage such difficult situations)

• Hon. Ged Kearney MP (Assistant Minister for Social Services and Assistant Minister for Prevention of Family Violence)
• Associate Prof Catherine Kevin (Flinders University, ARC Strategic Research Initiative, ‘A History of Domestic Violence in Australia 1850-2020’)
• Dr Sean Martin, (Program Lead, Ten To Men: The Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health at the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS))
• Dr Kate Murphy (Monash University, Fathering author)
• Dr Jill Barnard (author of the PhD ‘The Family Lives of Forgotten Australians)

Please RSVP to attend.