Elena Govor, Diploma (Hons), (Minsk Institute of Culture, USSR), PhD (ANU)
Research Fellow, School of Culture, History & Language
Email: elena.govor@anu.edu.au
Biographical statement
Since 2006 I have been working on the collaborative ARC Discovery Project "European Naturalists and the Constitution of Human Difference in Oceania: Crosscultural Encounters and the Science of Race, 1768-1888" studying materials of the Russian voyagers in Oceania and Miklouho-Maclay's heritage. My other current projects include the history of early Russian émigré communities in Australia.
Research interests
Ethnohistory of Nuku-Hiva; Russian visit to Nuku-Hiva in 1804; Russian voyages in Oceania; history of science of race in Russia; Russian sources on the South Pacific; Miklouho-Maclay's voyages in Melanesia in 1879-80; Russian Anzacs; history and database of early Russian émigrés in Australia.
Key publications
- Twelve Days at Nuku Hiva: Russian Encounters and Mutiny in the South Pacific, Honolulu, UHP, 2010
- Rossiiskie moriaki i puteshestvenniki v Avstralii [Russian Sailors and Travellers in Australia], Moscow, Vostochnaia literatura, 2007 (with A. Massov).
- Russian Anzacs in Australian History, Sydney, UNSW Press, 2005.
- 'Speckled Bodies': Russian Voyagers and Nuku Hivans, 1804. - In: N. Thomas et al (eds), Tattoo. Bodies, Art and Exchange in the Pacific and the West, London, Reaktion Books, 2005, pp. 53-71, ills
- 'Russians and the Australian Aborigines (200 Years of Observation, Research and Speculation)', in A. Anderson, I. Lilley, S. O'Connor (eds), Histories of Old Ages. Essays in Honour of Rhys Jones, Canberra, Pandanus books, 123-132, 2001.
- My Dark Brother: the Story of the Illins, a Russian-Aboriginal Family, Sydney, UNSW Press, 2000.
- Australia in the Russian Mirror, Changing Perceptions, 1770-1919, Melbourne, MUP, 1997.
- Bibliografiia Avstralii [Bibliography of Australia] (1710-1983), Moscow, Nauka, 1985. Partly translated as Russian Sources on Australia, 1788-1990, Brisbane, St. Lucia, 1993.
Career highlights
Research Scholar, Department of South Pacific Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow (1989-1990); PhD Scholar, ANU (1991-1996), Lecturer and tutor in Russian, MEL, ANU (1992-1996), Visiting Scholar, AIATSIS (1997-2000); Postdoctoral Fellow, Pacific and Asian History, RSPAS, ANU (2002-2004).
