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The University of Newcastle, Newcastle City Council and the Global Newcastle Research Group present the 2017 John Turner Memorial Lecture.

Bringing the Artful Dodger to Life: Data Visualisation and Convict Transportation will be delivered by Professor Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, a highly regarded historian of convictism and a leader in the application of digital techniques to the analysis of historical evidence.

Using data drawn from 72,000 convict records, this lecture will explore the lives of the men and women transported from Ireland and Britain to Van Diemen’s Land in the first half of the nineteenth century. Data visualisation techniques will be employed to examine variations in the backgrounds of convicts born in rural and urban environments as well as the impact of forced migration to Australia on marriage, offending rates and life expectancy.

When: Thursday 9 March 2017, 6:00-7:15pm.
Where: Hunter Room, Newcastle City Hall, 290 King Street, Newcastle.
Cost: Free
Contact: research@newcastle.edu.au

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This lecture series commemorates the life and work of Dr John Turner who shared his love of history with generations of students of the WEA and University of Newcastle before his premature death in 1998. Dr Turner was one of the foremost historians of the Hunter Valley, with a keen interest in local convict history. His histories of coal mining, manufacturing, convict artist Joseph Lycett and Newcastle as a convict settlement remain essential reading for those seeking to understand the city’s foundational period.

Image: detail from George Cruikshank, “Oliver introduced to the Respectable Old Gentleman”, The Writings of Charles Dickens, Volume IV, Oliver Twist, 1894.