Honorary Professor
Overview
Research Interests
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The historical Dimensions of Resilience to Extreme Weather
my interest is employing ethno-historical and anthropological modes of inquiry to determine what commonalities and differences in resilience to extreme weather events differentiate indigenous and non-indigenous residents of North Queensland. I am particularly concerned to understand the influence of factors such as memories of familial experiences, senses of place and local history on individual behavior and communal action before, during and after extreme weather events. I particularly want to know whether, and if so how, differently enculturated ways of knowing and ontological assumptions about the biophysical environment of the North Queensland wet tropics region influence the preparedness and ability of its residents to recover from cyclones and floods. -
The Procurement and Scientific Uses of Australian and Other Indigenous Bodies
My research investigates biomedical and anthropological research on Aboriginal Australian bodily remains and its salience in the conceptual history of European evolutionary science. I am particularly interested in answering the following questions: • What morphological and other evolutionary peculiarities did scientists active between 1860-1930 see in the bodies of Indigenous people? • What significance did their investigations of Aboriginal bodily remains have in the conceptual development of European thinking about racial classification and the evolutionary genealogy of humanity in this period? • What connections existed between metropolitan European perceptions of Indigenous Australian evolutionary inheritance connected and those of Australian-based researchers, 1860-1930? Were the latter, as has generally been assumed, little more than suppliers of crania and other "raw" bodily materials"? Or where they more active in creating knowledge and theorising about Aboriginal evolutionary inheritance than we have realised? • What did these locally-based scientists and their metropolitan peers contribute to racialised perceptions of Aboriginality within Australian settler society during the second half of the nineteenth and first three decades of the twentieth century? Historians have assumed that they confirmed the evolutionary primitivity and inevitability of Aboriginal peoples' extinction as a race, and the necessity of protecting those surviving the loss of their and allegedly "stone age" life-ways as wards of the colonial state. But exactly what scientific conclusions did draw about Aboriginal evolutionary inheritance? • Following on from this, what did these scientists tell colonial and metropolitan publics? What social implications did they see their findings having? And were the implications they saw licensed by their investigative conclusions, or did they reflect contemporary debates within Australian settler society on questions such as race and nationhood? -
e-Reseach tools and techniques in Historical Research
I am interested in employing data mining, network analysis and text analytics tools and techniques to investigate the ways in which science and anthropological knowledge was presented in popular books, magazines, newspapers, public lectures and museum exhibits in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia.
Research Impacts
Over the past decade, I have produced several on-line history and heritage research resources. The one with the greatest impact has been South Seas:
This resource, based on original research over a five year period, attracts around 121,000 users worldwide a month.
A second project having growing impact is PeprMiner:
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, James Cook University
- Bachelor of Arts, James Cook University
Publications
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Journal Article: An informed neural network for discovering historical documentation assisting the repatriation of Indigenous ancestral human remains
Bashar, Md Abul, Nayak, Richi, Knapman, Gareth, Turnbull, Paul and Fforde, Cressida (2023). An informed neural network for discovering historical documentation assisting the repatriation of Indigenous ancestral human remains. Social Science Computer Review, 41 (6), 2293-2317. doi: 10.1177/08944393231158788
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Journal Article: The ‘Aboriginal’ Australian brain in the scientific imagination, c. 1820–1880
Turnbull, Paul (2012). The ‘Aboriginal’ Australian brain in the scientific imagination, c. 1820–1880. Somatechnics, 2 (2), 171-197. doi: 10.3366/soma.2012.0056
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Turnbull, Paul (2011). A judicious collector: Edward Charles Stirling and the procurement of Aboriginal bodily remains in South Australia, c. 1880-1912. The body divided: Human beings and human 'material' in modern medical history. (pp. 109-130) edited by Sarah Ferber and Sally Wilde. Farnham, Surrey, United Kingdom: Ashgate Publishing.
Grants
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(2014) Australian National University
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(2012–2014) UQ Collaboration and Industry Engagement Fund
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Integrating e-research capabilities in history
(2011–2012) UQ Teaching & Learning Strategic Grants
Publications
Featured Publications
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The ‘Aboriginal’ Australian brain in the scientific imagination, c. 1820–1880
Turnbull, Paul (2012). The ‘Aboriginal’ Australian brain in the scientific imagination, c. 1820–1880. Somatechnics, 2 (2), 171-197. doi: 10.3366/soma.2012.0056
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Turnbull, Paul (2011). A judicious collector: Edward Charles Stirling and the procurement of Aboriginal bodily remains in South Australia, c. 1880-1912. The body divided: Human beings and human 'material' in modern medical history. (pp. 109-130) edited by Sarah Ferber and Sally Wilde. Farnham, Surrey, United Kingdom: Ashgate Publishing.
Book
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Science, museums and collecting the Indigenous dead in colonial Australia
Turnbull, Paul (2017). Science, museums and collecting the Indigenous dead in colonial Australia. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-51874-9
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The long way home: the meaning and values of repatriation
(2010). The long way home: the meaning and values of repatriation. New York, NY, United States: Berghahn Books.
Book Chapter
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Museums, Colonialism and Repatriating the Ancestral Dead
Turnbull, Paul (2023). Museums, Colonialism and Repatriating the Ancestral Dead. Human Remains: Ethische Herausforderungen für Forschung und Ausstellung. (pp. 200-210) edited by Guido Fackler, Thomas M. Klotz and Stefanie Menke. Darmstadt, Germany: WBG Academic.
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Are We There Yet?: Australian History Making in the Wake of the World Wide Web
Turnbull, Paul (2022). Are We There Yet?: Australian History Making in the Wake of the World Wide Web . The Australian History Industry . (pp. 106-117) edited by Paul Ashton and Paula Hamilton. Melbourne, VIC Australia: Australian Scholarly Publishing .
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Collecting and colonial violence
Turnbull, Paul (2020). Collecting and colonial violence. The Routledge companion to Indigenous repatriation. (pp. 452-468) edited by Cressida Fforde, C. Timothy McKeown and Honor Keeler. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203730966-27
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Turnbull, Paul (2020). Legally acquired? The moral and legal context of collecting Indigenous Australian human remains in colonial Australia. The great laboratory of humanity: collection, patrimony and the repatriation of human remains. (pp. 235-270) edited by Milicia, Maria Teresa. Padua, Italy: CLEUP sc.
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Fforde, Cressida, Turnbull, Paul, Carter, Neil and Aranui, Amber (2020). Missionaries and the removal, illegal export, and return of ancestral remains: the case of Father Ernst Worms. The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Repatriation: Return, Reconcile, Renew. (pp. 316-334) edited by Cressida Fforde, C. Timothy McKeown and Honor Keeler. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203730966-19
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Knapman, Gareth, Turnbull, Paul and Fforde, Cressida (2020). Provenance research and historical sources for understanding Nineteenth-century scientific interest in Indigenous human remains: the scholarly journals and popularscience media. The Routledge companion to Indigenous repatriation: Return, Reconcile, Renew. (pp. 564-582) edited by Cressida Fforde, C. Timothy McKeown and Honor Keeler. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203730966-34
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Turnbull, Paul (2020). The ethics of repatriation. The Routledge companion to Indigenous repatriation. (pp. 927-939) edited by Cressida Fforde, C. Timothy McKeown and Honor Keeler. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203730966-60
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Fforde, Cressida, Aranui, Amber, Knapman, Gareth and Turnbull, Paul (2020). ‘Inhuman and very mischievous traffic’: early measures to cease the export of ancestral remains from Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Repatriation: Return, Reconcile, Renew. (pp. 381-399) Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203730966-22
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Aranui, Amber, Fforde, Cressida, Pickering, Michael, Turnbull, Paul, Knapman, Gareth and Keeler, Honor (2020). ‘Under The Hammer’, the role of auction houses and dealers in the distribution of Indigenous Ancestral Remains. The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Repatriation: Return, Reconcile, Renew. (pp. 335-360) edited by Cressida Fforde, C. Timothy McKeown and Honor Keeler. Abingdon, Oxon, U.K.: Routledge.
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Aranui, Amber, Fforde, Cressida, Pickering, Michael, Turnbull, Paul, Knapman, Gareth and Keeler, Honor (2020). ‘Under the Hammer’: The role of auction houses and dealers in the distribution of indigenous ancestral remains. The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Repatriation: Return, Reconcile, Renew. (pp. 335-360) Abingdon, Oxon United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780203730966-20
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Turnbull, Paul (2019). Pitt Rivers museum. Encyclopedia of global archaeology. (pp. 1-2) Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_2657-1
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Turnbull, Paul (2019). Pitt-Rivers. Encyclopedia of global archaeology. (pp. 1-3) Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_2656-1
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Digitally analysing colonial collecting: the "Return, Reconcile, Renew Project"
Turnbull, Paul (2018). Digitally analysing colonial collecting: the "Return, Reconcile, Renew Project". Provenienzforschung zu ethnografischen Sammlungen der Kolonialzeit: positionen in der aktuellen Debatte. (pp. 103-113) edited by Larissa Förster, Iris Edenheiser, Sarah Fründt and Heike Hartmann. Berlin, Germany: Arbeitsgruppe Museum der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie. doi: 10.18452/19029
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Repatriation research: archives and the recovery of history and heritage
Fforde, Cressida, Ormond-Parker, Lyndon and Turnbull, Paul (2015). Repatriation research: archives and the recovery of history and heritage. Heritage, ancestry and law: principles, policies and practices in dealing with historical human remains. (pp. 39-59) edited by Ruth Redmond-Cooper. London, United Kingdom: Institute of Art and Law.
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Margins, mainstreams and the mission of digital humanities
Turnbull, Paul (2014). Margins, mainstreams and the mission of digital humanities. Advancing digital humanities: research, methods, theories. (pp. 258-273) edited by Paul Longley Arthur and Katherine Bode. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9781137337016.0024
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Das indigene Australien im ersten Jahrhundert der europaeischen Invasion
Turnbull, Paul (2013). Das indigene Australien im ersten Jahrhundert der europaeischen Invasion. Australien: 18. bis 21. Jahrhundert. Geschichte und Gesellschaft. (pp. 87-100) edited by Hermann Mückler, Gabriele Weichart and Friedrich Edelmayer. Wien, Austria: Promedia-Verlag.
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Turnbull, Paul (2011). A judicious collector: Edward Charles Stirling and the procurement of Aboriginal bodily remains in South Australia, c. 1880-1912. The body divided: Human beings and human 'material' in modern medical history. (pp. 109-130) edited by Sarah Ferber and Sally Wilde. Farnham, Surrey, United Kingdom: Ashgate Publishing.
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Turnbull, Paul (2010). Introduction. The Long Journey Home: the meanings and Values of Repatriation. (pp. 1-14) edited by Paul Turnbull and Michael Pickering. Oxford, England: Berghahn Books.
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Turnbull, Paul (2010). The Vermillion Accord and the significance of the history of the scientific procurement and use of Indigenous Australian bodily remains. The Long Way Home: The Meaning and Values of Repatriation. (pp. 117-134) edited by Paul Turnbull, Michael Pickering, Mary Bouquet and Howard Morphy. Oxford, U.K.: Berghahn Books.
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The chief mourner's costume: Religion and political change in the Society Islands, 1768-73
Turnbull, Paul (2009). The chief mourner's costume: Religion and political change in the Society Islands, 1768-73. Discovering Cook's collections. (pp. 41-57) edited by Michelle Hetherington and Howard Morphy. Canberra, Australia: National Museum of Australia Press.
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Turnbull, Paul (2008). British anthropological thought in colonial practice: The appropriation of Indigenous Australian bodies, 1860-1880. Foreign bodies: Oceania and the science of race 1750-1940. (pp. 205-228) edited by Bronwen Douglas and Chris Ballard. Canberra, Australia: ANU E Press.
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Alternatives to pay-for-view: The case for open access to historical research and scholarship
Turnbull, Paul, Kornbluh, Mark and Shell-Weiss, Melanie (2006). Alternatives to pay-for-view: The case for open access to historical research and scholarship. Libr@ries: Changing information space and practice. (pp. 211-228) edited by Cushla Kapitzke and C. Bruce Bertram. Mahwah, New Jersey, United States: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates. doi: 10.4324/9780203928639
Journal Article
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Bashar, Md Abul, Nayak, Richi, Knapman, Gareth, Turnbull, Paul and Fforde, Cressida (2023). An informed neural network for discovering historical documentation assisting the repatriation of Indigenous ancestral human remains. Social Science Computer Review, 41 (6), 2293-2317. doi: 10.1177/08944393231158788
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Turnbull, Paul (2022). ‘Thrown into the fossil gap’: Indigenous Australian ancestral bodily remains in the hands of early Darwinian anatomists, c. 1860–1916. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 92, 1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2021.12.010
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Turnbull, Paul (2020). International repatriations of Indigenous human remains and its complexities: the Australian experience. Museum and Society, 18 (1), 6-18. doi: 10.29311/mas.v18i1.3246
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PaperMiner—a real-time spatiotemporal visualization for newspaper articles
Kutty, Sangeetha, Nayak, Richi, Turnbull, Paul, Chernich, Ron, Kennedy, Gavin and Raymond, Kerry (2019). PaperMiner—a real-time spatiotemporal visualization for newspaper articles. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 35 (1), 83-100. doi: 10.1093/llc/fqy084
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Turnbull, Paul (2018). German-Australian research on a difficult legacy: colonial collections of Indigenous human remains in German museums and collections. German-Australian Encounters and Cultural Transfers: Global Dynamics in Transnational Lands, 179-191. doi: 10.1007/978-981-10-6599-6_12
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Managing and mapping the history of collecting indigenous human remains
Turnbull, Paul (2016). Managing and mapping the history of collecting indigenous human remains. The Australian Library Journal, 65 (3), 203-212. doi: 10.1080/00049670.2016.1207714
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Turnbull, Paul (2015). Anthropological collecting and colonial violence in colonial Queensland: a response to 'the blood and the bone'. Journal of Australian Colonial History, 17, 133-158.
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Turnbull, Paul (2015). The aims of Big History. History Compass, 13 (7), 349-358. doi: 10.1111/hic3.12242
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Turnbull, Paul (2015). Australian Museums, Aboriginal Skeletal Remains, and the Imagining of Human Evolutionary History, c. 1860-1914. Museum and Society, 13 (1), 72-87.
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Clark Lawlor, From Melancholia to Prozac: A History of Depression
Turnbull, Paul (2013). Clark Lawlor, From Melancholia to Prozac: A History of Depression. Health and History, 15 (2), 125-127. doi: 10.5401/healthhist.15.2.0125
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Global in scope, scientific in spirit: the challenges of big history
Turnbull, Paul (2012). Global in scope, scientific in spirit: the challenges of big history. The History Teacher eJournal, 50 (3).
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The ‘Aboriginal’ Australian brain in the scientific imagination, c. 1820–1880
Turnbull, Paul (2012). The ‘Aboriginal’ Australian brain in the scientific imagination, c. 1820–1880. Somatechnics, 2 (2), 171-197. doi: 10.3366/soma.2012.0056
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James Cook's hundred days in Queensland
Turnbull, Paul (2010). James Cook's hundred days in Queensland. Queensland Historical Atlas: Histories, Cultures, Landscapes, 2009-10.
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Captain Cook: Voyager between two worlds
Turnbull, Paul (2010). Captain Cook: Voyager between two worlds. Australian Journal of Politics and History, 56 (3), 465-466. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8497.2010.01566.x
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Historians, computing and the World-Wide-Web
Turnbull, Paul (2010). Historians, computing and the World-Wide-Web. Australian Historical Studies, 41 (2), 131-148. doi: 10.1080/10314611003713629
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Aphrodite's Island: the European discovery of Tahiti
Turnbull, Paul (2010). Aphrodite's Island: the European discovery of Tahiti. Journal of Pacific History, 45 (3), 375-375. doi: 10.1080/00223344.2010.530820
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Turnbull, Paul and Turnball, Paul (2010). Reviewed work: Body and Mind. Historical Essays in Honour of F.B. Smith by Graeme Davison, Pat Jalland, Wilfrid Prest. Health and History, 12 (1), 126-128. doi: 10.5401/healthhist.12.1.126
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Scientific theft of remains in colonial Australia - A postscript
Turnbull, Paul (2007). Scientific theft of remains in colonial Australia - A postscript. Australian Indigenous Law Review, 11 (2), 72-73.
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Scientific theft of remains in colonial Australia
Turnbull, Paul (2007). Scientific theft of remains in colonial Australia. Australian Indigenous Law Review, 11 (1), 92-104.
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British anatomists, phrenologists and the construction of the Aboriginal Race, c.1790–1830
Turnbull, Paul (2006). British anatomists, phrenologists and the construction of the Aboriginal Race, c.1790–1830. History Compass, 5 (1), 26-50. doi: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2006.00367.x/abstract
Conference Publication
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Visually analysing colonial entrepreneurship, architecture and science
Turnbull, Paul (2016). Visually analysing colonial entrepreneurship, architecture and science. Globalisation, entrepreneurship and the South Pacific: reframing Australian colonial architecture, 1800-1850, Hobart, Tasmania, 17 - 18 October, 2016. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: RMIT Press.
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Beyond South Seas: Making History in Networked Digital Technologies
Paul Turnbull and Mark Fallu (2008). Beyond South Seas: Making History in Networked Digital Technologies. eResearch Australasia 2008, Melbourne, Australia, 28 September - 3 October 2008.
Other Outputs
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Guide to sources for north Queensland history
Turnbull, Paul (2013). Guide to sources for north Queensland history. Parkville, VIC, Australia: Melbourne University.
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Paper Miner: Geo-Temporal Indexes for Australian Newspapers Online
Turnbull, Paul (2013). Paper Miner: Geo-Temporal Indexes for Australian Newspapers Online. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.48610/436c5fb
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Paper Miner: Geo-Temporal Indexes for Australian Newspapers Online
Turnbull, Paul (2013). Paper Miner: Geo-Temporal Indexes for Australian Newspapers Online. The University of Queensland. (Collection) doi: 10.14264/uql.2017.23
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Turnbull, Paul (2013). PaperMiner v1.0. Eveleigh, NSW, Australia: Smart Services CRC.
Grants (Administered at UQ)
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(2014) Australian National University
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(2012–2014) UQ Collaboration and Industry Engagement Fund
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Integrating e-research capabilities in history
(2011–2012) UQ Teaching & Learning Strategic Grants
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(2010–2012) UQ Teaching & Learning Strategic Grants
