Sea Changes Symposium

SEA CHANGES SYMPOSIUM:

‘Power, Money and Technology in the Maritime World: new interdisciplinary approaches to historical shipwrecks in the Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific’

Thursday, November 27, 9:00am - 5pm | Vere Gordon Childe Centre Boardroom
Friday, November 28, 9:00am - 5pm | Australian National Maritime Museum

Hosted by the “Change and Innovation” Research Cluster, Vere Gordon Childe Centre (VGCC), University of Sydney, Australia, 27-28 November 2025

Research Cluster Leads: Associate Professor Cindy McCreery (History), Dr Natali Pearson (Archaeology) and Dr James Tan (Ancient History)

The Sea Changes Symposium explores the entangled histories of power, money, and technology through the lens of maritime worlds across time, with a particular focus on historical shipwrecks and their material, visual, and intangible legacies across the Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific. In doing so, the symposium foregrounds the Indian Ocean as a connective corridor, linking diverse regions and knowledge systems.

By bringing together scholars from archaeology, history, art history, anthropology, and museum studies, the symposium examines how maritime spaces have served as sites of technological innovation, economic exchange, and cultural transmission.

Historical shipwrecks’ coins, ceramics, and tools illuminate the vast networks of trade and the circulation of wealth, while the very construction of the ships reveals the technological ingenuity and cultural priorities of their makers. Yet the story of maritime innovation extends beyond what is preserved underwater. It lives on in the intangible practices of seafaring communities—such as the traditional boatbuilding and navigational knowledge of South Sulawesi (Indonesia)—where skills are passed down through generations, resisting erasure and offering alternative epistemologies. From European engravings to the bas-reliefs of Borobudur, artistic and architectural depictions of vessels further reflect how maritime power was imagined, aestheticized, and legitimized across cultures.

Crucially, this symposium brings the Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific into conversation—two regions often studied in isolation, despite their shared histories of maritime exchange, imperial ambition, and technological adaptation. By placing them side by side, we aim to uncover unexpected resonances, productive contrasts, and new thematic or methodological connections. What happens when we read Ancient Roman coins alongside a contemporary Southeast Asian shipwreck? Or when we compare eighteenth-century European maritime iconography with Javanese temple reliefs? Through these juxtapositions, the symposium invites participants to think across regions, disciplines, and forms of evidence, forging new pathways for understanding the global dimensions of maritime history.

PROGRAM:

Day One – Thursday, 27 November 2025

Venue: VGCC Boardroom, University of Sydney (Hybrid format)

Morning Session:

· Welcome and Opening Remarks

· Conference panel/Roundtable discussion: Shipwrecks and the Circulation of Power and Wealth

· Individual conference papers

Afternoon Session:

· Masterclass for HDR students and ECRs (TBC)

· Led by keynote speaker and senior academics

· Focus: Methodologies in maritime history, archaeology, and interdisciplinary research

· Keynote Lecture, Professor Wendy van Duivenvoorde. This will be held early evening at the Chau Chak Wing Museum.

Day Two – Friday, 28 November 2025

Venue: Australian National Maritime Museum (In-person only)

Morning Session:

· Object-Based Learning Workshop (TBC)

· Hands-on engagement with maritime artefacts from the ANMM collection

· Facilitated by curators and academic experts

Afternoon Session:

Curator-led tour of the Australian National Maritime Museum.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

Our Keynote Speaker is Professor Wendy van Duivenvoorde (Flinders University), a global authority on maritime archaeology. She is a recognised authority in seafaring, shipbuilding, technology and knowledge transfer, cultural contact, and maritime cultural heritage. Her research primarily examines global seafaring, including historical and archaeological studies of Western Australia's early European shipwrecks and shipbuilding in the Australian colonies. Additionally, she is passionate about ancient ships and seafaring, having contributed to the 3rd-century Kyrenia Ship project for over 20 years. Her regional focus spans Australasia, the Indian Ocean, and Europe, and she holds specialized expertise in legacy data, maritime landscape studies, archaeological artefacts, maritime museum collections, waterlogged and in-situ conservation, dendrochronology, archaeometallurgy, and archaeometry.

Professor van Duivenvoorde will also facilitate the Masterclass for students and ECRs, bringing with her a wealth of experience in mentoring emerging scholars, including in her previous role as Associate Director of the Australasian Consortium of Humanities Researchers & Centres.

Partners

· Australian National Maritime Museum

· Sydney Southeast Asia Centre

· Chau Chak Wing Museum

Day 1 Venue:
Vere Gordon Childe Centre Boardroom
Level 4, Madsen Building
Click here for a map

Day 2 Venue:
Australian National Maritime Museum
2 Murray Street,
Sydney NSW
Click here for a map

Image: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Jan_Peeters_Ships_and_a_Galley_Wrecked_on_a_Rocky_Coast