Pete as Mentor, Colleague, Collaborator, Friend: ‘Thanks, Pal!’

by Trevor Hogan

Upon knocking on their front door, the domestic tableau that greeted us included Pete sitting on the floor and leaning against a couch, pen and paper in hand, folder perched on his knee, surrounded by piles of books including an up-ended paperback of E.P. Thompson’s (1963) The Making of the English Working Class, or so my mind’s eye reconstructs the scene of our first meeting. He was preparing lecture notes for his first semester of teaching – first year sociology at La Trobe University. Our conversations moved quickly from beaches and bands to books, critical theory, and politics. 

Peter Beilharz’s Baby: The Infancy of Thesis Eleven

by Alastair Davidson

Peter Beilharz is the only one of the three founding editors of Thesis Eleven to have remained with the journal over the decades since 1980. Three generations of editors joined him in its progress from the tiny, self-financed Australian journal born in Room 681 of the Menzies Building, at Monash University, but he alone saw it through to its transition into a major international journal of the Left, outlasting many other journals born in the same decade. His early energy and enthusiasm, his tenacity, flair and insights accompanied him through the years.

Reflections on Friendship and Gratitude for Peter Beilharz on the Occasion of His ‘Revolution #70’

by Christopher G Robbins and Eric Ferris with Sian Supski

To describe this project as a festschrift seems fitting. It is, indeed, a collection of writings gathered together to honour, or pay tribute to, Peter as a scholar. The metrics describing Peter’s scholarship – his contributions to sociology, historical sociology, and social and cultural theory – reflect both its volume and quality and make him fitting of such a tribute.

Podcast episode: The life of editing

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Thesis Eleven, a journal of critical theory and historical sociology. Its Founding Editor, Professor Peter Beilharz, sat down with Dr Alonso Casanueva Baptista and Dr Andrew Gilbert, both current editors, to discuss the journal’s history, the changes in the university and academic publishing since the journal’s beginnings in 1981, as well as various other topics. Please join us for this inaugural podcast.