#  Australian Committee 

 



**STUART MACINTYRE - CHAIR** [ **Stuart Macintyre**](http://shaps.unimelb.edu.au/about/history/macintyre.html) has held appointments at Cambridge, Murdoch, the Australian National University and the University of Melbourne. Since 1990 he has been the Ernest Scott Professor of History and in 2002 was made a Laureate Professor of the University of Melbourne. He was professor of Australian Studies at Harvard in 2007-8, and currently holds a professorial research fellowship of the Australian Research Council. His research is concerned principally with aspects of Australian history. Among his recent books are The History Wars (2003), a new edition of A Concise History of Australia (2009)), and The Poor Relation: A history of the social sciences in Australia (2010). He is an editor of the Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume Four, 1800-1945 (2011) and The Cambridge History of Australia (2013). Stuart Macintyre is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and from 2006 to 2009 was president of the Academy of the Social Sciences. He is advisor to the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority on the new national curriculum for history in schools.

**JOAN BEAUMONT**   
   
 [ **Joan Beaumont**](https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/beaumont-je) is Professor of History in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, College of Asia and the Pacific (CAP), Australian National University, Canberra. Born in Adelaide, South Australia, she was educated at the University of Adelaide (BA Hons 1969) and King’s College London (PhD 1975). Prior to joining CAP, she was Dean of Arts and Social Sciences at the ANU (2010-11), Director of the Faculty of Arts, ANU (2008-09) and Dean of Arts at Deakin University, Victoria (1998-2008) She is a leading scholar of the history of Australia at war, particularly in the two world wars and the Anzac ‘legend’. Her *Broken Nation: Australians and the Great War* will be published in late 2013. She has also published widely on the history of prisoners of war and international humanitarian law and in 2011-13 was commissioned to research the commemorative web site of the Australian Department of Veterans’ Affairs on Hellfire Pass and Australians on the Thai-Burma railway. Recent publications include (with Matthew Jordan, eds), *Australia and the World*: *A Festchrift for Neville Meaney* (Sydney University Press, 2013); and 'Nation oder Commonwealth? Der gefallene Soldat und die nationale Identitat', in Manfred Hettling/Jorg Echternkamp (ed.), *Gefallenengedenken im globalen Vergleich*, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich, Germany, pp. 43-68.

**LESLEY HEAD**

[ **Lesley Head**](http://www.uow.edu.au/science/eesc/eesresearcacademics/UOW002993.html) is an inaugural ARC Australian Laureate Fellow and Director of the Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research (AUSCCER) at the University of Wollongong. Professor Head is known for her cross-disciplinary work in cultural geography, archaeology and physical geography. This research has focused on Australian landscape change, and the material and conceptual interactions that both prehistoric and contemporary peoples have had with different environments. Her books include Second Nature: The history and implications of Australia as Aboriginal landscape (Syracuse University Press, NY, 2000), Cultural Landscapes and Environmental Change (Arnold, London, 2000), Backyard: Nature and culture in suburban Australia (University of Wollongong Press 2007), Ingrained. A Human Bio-geography of Wheat (Ashgate UK 2012) and Household Sustainability: Challenges and Dilemmas in Everyday Life (Edward Elgar UK 2013). She has been King Carl XVI Gustaf Visiting Professor in Environmental Science, Sweden (2005-06) and President of the Institute of Australian Geographers (2008-10).

**HELEN IRVING****[Helen Irving](http://sydney.edu.au/law/about/staff/HelenIrving/)** is Professor in the Faculty of Law at Sydney University. She holds degrees in political science, anthropology, history, and law, and teaches and researches in Australian and comparative constitutional law and constitutional history. She has been prominent in events and debates surrounding the Centenary of Federation (for which she was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2003), the Republican referendum, and the proposed Australian Bill of Rights. She held the Harvard Chair of Australian Studies in 2005-2006, as Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. Her publications include To Constitute a Nation: A cultural history of Australia's Constitution (Cambridge University Press, 1997), (editor) The Centenary Companion to Australian Federation (Cambridge University Press, 1999: finalist in the NSW Premier's History Prize, 2001), and most recently, Gender and the Constitution: equity and agency in comparative constitutional design (Cambridge University Press, 2008).

**NICHOLAS JOSE**

[ **Nicholas Jose**](http://www.uws.edu.au/staff_profiles/uws_profiles/professor_nicholas_jose2) is an author and scholar. He is Professor of English and Creative Writing in the J M Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice at the University of Adelaide, and Adjunct Professor in the Writing and Society Research Centre, University of Western Sydney. He served as Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy, Beijing, 1987-90, and has written widely on Australian and Asian culture. He was general editor of the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature (2009). His books include the novels Paper Nautilus (1987), Avenue of Eternal Peace (1989) The Rose Crossing (1994-5) The Custodians (1998), The Red Thread (2000) and Original Face (2005), and non-fiction Chinese Whispers: Cultural Essays (1995) and Black Sheep: Journey to Borroloola (2002). He occupied the Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard in 2009-10.