Humanities Research Centre: A History of the first 30 years of the HRC at The Australian National University

Abstract

This is the record of the first thirty years of an institution which was conceived in a particular economic and political environment, inspired by a particular traditional model and launched with a particular expectation of expanding financial support. The environment changed totally; the model was eff ectively abandoned almost before the institution commenced operations; and the expectations of expanding support became almost immediately realisations of just the opposite. But the response has been more than equal to the challenge. It is not just that the Humanities Research Centre is still here: the real measure of its achievement is that an institution which was intended to be pa! erned on the most traditional classical model of ‘a centre within a library’ has succeeded in ceaselessly reinventing itself, advancing from the classical age of academe to the electronic age, engaging with on-line teaching, electronic publishing and all the educational possibilities of the new media. It is in every sense still a work in progress. But the bo! om line is that all this quite astounding adaptation, enterprise and vision shown over the past thirty years has been through the devoted eff orts of what a Vice-Chancellor called a staff of ‘absolute minimum size’. It is not surprising that the Humanities Research Centre has continued to receive quite unreserved, not to say rapturous accolades from many of the most distinguished academics in the world. It is certainly a story worth telling.