Dr Dan Tout

Position: Lecturer, History and Sociology
Study area: Humanities and Social Sciences
Location: Office 130A | Building 901 | Berwick Campus
Phone: 5327 6409
Email: d.tout@federation.edu.au
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1036-8805

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy - Swinburne University of Technology - 2018

Bachelor of Arts (Hons) - Swinburne University of Technology - 2012

Bachelor of Arts - University of South Australia - 2011

Teaching

Course(s)

  • Bachelor of Arts

Units

  • Indigenous History (1788–1967) (INDSL1001)
  • Indigenous Rights in the International Arena (INDSL2/3006)
  • Introduction to Indigenous Australia (INDSL1000)

Biography

Dan is a lecturer in history and sociology at Federation University Australia and an Arena Publications Editor. In 2023, he was an inaugural Visiting Fellow with the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne, where his project focused on developing his original theorisation of settler nationalism, with the aim of elaborating the nature and political implications of settler nationalism in contemporary Australia, and around the settler-colonial world. Dan currently convenes the ‘nationhood’ stream of the Australian Centre’s 2024 Research Strategy.

Dan has published widely in highly ranked journals, including Aboriginal History, Australian Historical Studies, Australian Journal of Politics & History, Journal of Australian Studies, Settler Colonial Studies and Thesis Eleven. In 2016, he co-edited the book Cold War to Hot Planet: Fifty Years of Arena (Arena). Dan currently teaches in Federation University’s history, sociology and Indigenous studies programs, having previously taught at the University of Melbourne, Victoria University and Swinburne University of Technology, where he obtained his PhD in 2018.

Areas of expertise

Dan’s areas of interest and expertise include the history of settler–Indigenous relations in Australia, settler colonial studies, critical Indigenous studies, the sociology of nationalism and national identity, and Australian cultural and political history. His research focuses on settler colonialism and nationalism in Australia and their impacts on and implications for First Nations peoples.

Research interests

  • Indigenous studies
  • Settler colonial studies
  • Nationalism and national identity
  • Cultural history

Supervision

Dan is available for HDR supervision within his areas of research interest and expertise, outlined above. He has successfully supervised one PhD and one MA student and is currently Associate Supervisor for one MA and one PhD student in Indigenous Studies / History.

Publications

Books

Hinkson, J., James, P., Caddick, A., Cooper, S., Hinkson, M., & Tout, D. (eds). (2016). Cold War to hot Planet: Fifty years of Arena. Arena.

Book chapters

Tout, D. (2016). The Janus faces of Indigenous politics. In J. Hinkson, P. James, A. Caddick, S. Cooper, M. Hinkson, & D. Tout (eds), Cold War to hot planet: Fifty years of Arena (pp. 211–243). Arena.

Robinson, A., & Tout, D. (2012). Unsettling conceptions of wilderness and nature. In J. Hinkson, P. James, & L. Veracini (eds), Stolen lands, broken cultures: The settler-colonial present (pp. 153–175). Arena.

Refereed journal articles

Tout, D., Alley, K., & Strakosch, E. (2024). “Australia” as competing projects of settler nationalism. Settler Colonial Studies, n.p. https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2024.2408142.

Tout, D. (2024). Dreaming of an indigenised Australia. Journal of Australian Studies, 48(1), 135–151. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2023.2291651.

Veracini, L., & Tout, D. (2024). The negative Commonwealth: Australia as “laboratory”, then and now. Thesis Eleven, 180(1), 92–110. https://doi.org/10.1177/07255136231206181.

Clark, I. D., Cahir, F., Wilkie, B., Tout, D., & Clark, J. (2023). Aboriginal use of fire as a weapon in colonial Victoria: A preliminary analysis. Australian Historical Studies, 54(1), 109–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2022.2071954.

Cahir, F., Clark, I. D., Tout, D., Wilkie, B., & Clark, J. (2021). Aboriginal fire-management practices in colonial Victoria. Aboriginal History, 45, 109–130. https://doi.org/10.22459/AH.45.2021.05.

Tout, D. (2020). Rex Ingamells and Ted Strehlow: Correspondences and contradictions in Australian settler nationalism. Journal of Australian Studies, 44(3), 254–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2020.1796756.

Cahir, F., & Tout, D. (2018). “All that appears possible now is to mitigate as much as possible the trials of their closing years”: Alfred Deakin’s attitudes to Aboriginal affairs. Australian Journal of Politics & History, 64(2), 177–193. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.12463.

Cahir, F., Tout, D., & Horrocks, L. (2017). Reconsidering the origins of the Australian legend. Agora, 52(3), 4–12. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/INFORMIT.069512373799807.

Tout, D. (2017). Reframing “Inky” Stephensen’s place in Australian cultural history. Settler Colonial Studies, 7(1), 72–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473x.2016.1149964.

Tout, D. (2017). Encountering Indigeneity: Xavier Herbert, “Inky” Stephensen and the problems of settler nationalism. Cultural Studies Review, 23(2), 141–161. https://doi.org/10.5130/csr.v23i2.5823.

Tout, D. (2017). Neither nationalists nor Universalists: Rex Ingamells and the Jindyworobaks. Australian Humanities Review, 61, 1–26. http://australianhumanitiesreview.org/2017/06/13/neither-nationalists-nor-universalists-rex-ingamells-and-the-jindyworobaks/.

Tout, D. (2017). Confronting a new Leviathan. Arena Journal, 47/48, 1–9. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.570502758209164.

Tout, D. (2016). The Janus faces of Indigenous politics. Arena Journal, 45/46, 211–243.

Robinson, A., & Tout, D. (2012). Only planet: Unsettling travel, culture and climate change in settler Australia. Australian Humanities Review, 52, 171–197. https://australianhumanitiesreview.org/2012/05/01/only-planet-unsettling-travel-culture-and-climate-change-in-settler-australia/.

Robinson, A., & Tout, D. (2012). Unsettling conceptions of wilderness and nature. Arena Journal, 37/38, 153–175. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.639603613613983.

Tout, D. (2012). Stabilise, normalise, eliminate. Arena Magazine, 118, 40–43. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/INFORMIT.340296510103382.

Other articles

Tout, D. (2023). Settler nationalism and progressive discourse. Arena, 15, 36–45. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.339500015541846.

Altman, J., & Tout, D. (2020, December 22). The desecration of Juukan Gorge lays bare the ugly truth about our settler logic. Crikey, n.p. https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/12/22/juukan-gorge-settler-logic/.

Altman, J., & Tout, D. (2020, December 17). Again and again: Settler-colonial extractivism and the Juukan Gorge inquiry’s interim report. Arena Online, n.p. https://arena.org.au/again-and-again/.

Tout, D. (2020). Juukan Gorge destruction: Extractivism and the Australian settler-colonial imagination. Arena, 4, 61–67. https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/informit.625825624275615.

Tout, D. (2020, June 30). Destruction and erasure: Juukan Gorge and the contemporary settler-colonial imagination. Arena Online, n.p. https://arena.org.au/destruction-and-erasure-juukan-gorge-and-the-contemporary-settler-colonial-imagination/.

Tout, D. (2019). Belonging [book review]. Arena Magazine, 158, 55–56. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.238861763375452.

Tout, D. (2017). Confronting a new Leviathan [editorial]. Arena Journal, 47/48, 1–9. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.157310934368445.

Tout, D. (2017). Why didn’t we listen? Arena Magazine, 148, 9–10. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/agispt.20173110.

Tout, D. (2016). Settler recognition? Arena Magazine, 143, 12–13. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.261828956345823.

Tout, D. (2015). Whose genocide? Whose stain? The Tasmanian killing fields [book review]. Arena Magazine, 137, 52–53. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.503765141352426.

Tout, D. (2014). Settler colonial closures. Arena Magazine, 133, 12–13. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.852896809541793.

Conference papers and presentations

Tout, D. (2023, November 18). Australian settler-colonial modernisms: Negating the negative Commonwealth. Antipodean Modernism Today Symposium, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK.

Tout, D., Strakosch, L., & Alley, K. (2023, November 14). “Australia” as competing projects of settler nationalism. A Profound Reorganising of Things Conference, the Australian Centre, University of Melbourne, Melbourne.

Tout, D., & Alley, K. (2023, July 13). Settler nationalism and Indigenous sovereignty in so-called “Australia”. Visiting Fellows Seminar, the Australian Centre, University of Melbourne, Melbourne. https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/australiancentre/projects-publications-resources/resources/visiting-fellows-seminar-semester-one.

Tout, D. (2022, July 4–8). Tracing the continuities of pre- and post-Mabo settler national/ist historiographies. The Association for the Study of Australian Literature Conference, University of Tasmania, Hobart.

Tout, D. (2016, July 4–8). Xavier Herbert and the Euraustralian League: Hybridity and indigeneity towards settler independence. The Australian Historical Association 35th Annual Conference, Federation University, Ballarat.

Tout, D. (2014, July 9–12). Rex Ingamells and the Jindyworobaks: Ambivalent settler nationalists of the interwar period?. The Association for the Study of Australian Literature Conference, University of Sydney, Sydney.

Tout, D. (2014, July 7–11). Nationalists or universalists? Rex Ingamells and the Jindyworobaks. The Australian Historical Association 33rd Annual Conference, University of Queensland, Brisbane.

Tout, D. (2013, July 9–12). Reframing “Inky” Stephensen’s place in Australian cultural history. The Australian Historical Association 32nd Annual Conference, University of Wollongong, Wollongong.

Tout, D. (2012, November 21–23). Displacement and disavowal in Australian settler colonialism. Place & Displacement Conference, Victoria University, Melbourne.

Associations and memberships

  • The Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne
  • The Australian Historical Association (AHA)
  • The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)
  • The International Australian Studies Association (InASA)
  • The Institute of Postcolonial Studies (IPCS)
  • The Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RSV)
  • Warrigunya Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation