Dr Geraldine Fela

Position: AuSI Visiting Fellow
School and/or Centres: Australian Studies Institute

Biography
Research interests

Dr Geraldine Fela is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Macquarie University in the Department of History and Archaeology. Her research sits at the intersection of labour history, gender and sexuality studies and social history. She is currently undertaking a project examining the 1998 waterfront dispute between the Maritime Union of Australia and Patrick Stevedores. Her doctoral research, which she is working towards publishing as a monograph, explored the role of Australian nurses and nursing unions in responding to the HIV and AIDS crisis.

Dr Fela is undertaking the first sustained scholarly examination of the 1998 waterfront dispute between Patrick Stevedores, the Coalition government, and the Maritime Union of Australia. Dr Fela’s fellowship will enable her to undertake sustained research in the ANU’s Noel Butlin Archives Centre, which is home to significant archival holdings relevant to the dispute. This research will lead towards the production of a monograph, the first book-length historical study of this watershed moment in Australia's political and industrial history.