Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Christina Twomey is Professor of History. Her research focuses on the social and cultural history of war, with a particular interest in imprisonment and internment, gendered violence, trauma, Australia-Asia relations, humanitarian and aid programmes, and visual cultures of atrocity. Her most recent work focuses on Australia's Asian garrisons and regional engagement during the Cold War period.
Christina is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. In 2012, she was the Distinguished Visiting Chair of Australian Studies at the University of Copenhagen and in 2018, a Visiting Professor at Kyushu University. She is a member, by Ministerial invitation, of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Editorial Advisory Board .
Christina is an experienced academic leader. A former Vice-President of Monash University's Academic Board, she was also Head of the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies in the Faculty of Arts. (2017-21). A member of the ARC College of Experts (2019-21), her elected positions have included Chair of the Board of Australian Historical Studies (after a term as Editor, 2012-15), Executive of the Australian Historical Association (current) and President of the International Australian Studies Association. She has led ERA processes, and coordinated disciplinary submissions in the 2015 and 2018 ERA.
Christina is a prize-winning historian. Her most recent book is The Battle Within: POWs in post-war Australia (2018), winner of the 2018 NSW Premier's Prize for Australian History. She co-authored with Mark Peel A History of Australia (2011: 2nd Edition, 2017). Her book Australia's Forgotten Prisoners: Civilians Interned by the Japanese in World War Two (2007) won a 2008 NSW Premier's History prize. In 2009, she was awarded the Frederick Watson Fellowship by the National Archives of Australia. Christina's first book, Deserted and Destitute: Motherhood, Wife Desertion and Colonial Welfare (2002), was the recipieint of an AHA/National Centenary of Federation prize, and published the results of her PhD research into gender and welfare in colonial Victoria. Her research has been funded through the ARC's Discovery, Linkage and Future Fellowship schemes.
Recent titles include Gender and Trauma since 1900 (Bloomsbury, 2021: with Paula Michaels) and Detention Camps in Asia (Brill, 2022: with Robert Cribb and Sandra Wilson). Other published collections range from The Pacific War: Aftermaths, Remembrance and Culture (Routledge, 2015: with Ernest Koh) to Australians in Papua New Guinea, 1960-75 (UQP, 2014: with C. & S. Spark). Journal special issues include 'Protection: Global Genealogies, Local Practices' for Pacific Historical Review (2018) and 'Photography and Atrocity' for History of Photography (2012).
From 2023-25, Christina is on secondment to the Australian Research Council as its inaugural Chief Research Officer.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
History, PhD, University of Melbourne
Award Date: 6 Nov 1996
External positions
College of Experts, Australian Research Council (ARC)
1 Feb 2019 → 21 Dec 2021
Editorial Advisory Board, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) (Australia)
1 Feb 2017 → 30 Dec 2021
Research area keywords
- 20th Century Australian History
- Gender and Welfare
- Australian Cultural and Social History
- Humanitarianism
- Cultural and Social History of War
- Photography of Atrocity
- War and Australian Society
- Internment and Detention
- Pacific War
- Prisoners of War
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 8 Finished
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Australia's Asian garrisons and regional engagement, 1945-1988.
Twomey, C. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)), Brawley, S. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Koh, E. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Sobocinska, A. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Augustine, M. (Partner Investigator (PI)) & Blackburn, K. (Partner Investigator (PI))
Australian Research Council (ARC), Monash University, Macquarie University, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Kyushu University
1/03/16 → 31/07/21
Project: Research
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Detention: The Humanitarian and Imperial Origins of Internment and Concentration Camps
Australian Research Council (ARC), Monash University
31/05/12 → 28/10/18
Project: Research
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Australian generations: life histories, generational change and Australian memory
Thomson, A., Bradley, K., Holmes, K., O'Hanlon, S., Reiger, K., Twomey, C. & Rayner, M.
Australian Research Council (ARC), National Library of Australia (NLA), Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), La Trobe University
1/07/10 → 31/05/16
Project: Research
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Captive Australians: The place of POWs in post-war Australian culture
Australian Research Council (ARC)
4/01/10 → 31/12/12
Project: Research
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Amah Activism: Domestic Servants and Decolonization in 1960s Malaysia and Singapore
Twomey, C., 18 Jul 2023, In: International Labor and Working-Class History. 103, p. 312-327 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile1 Citation (Scopus) -
Detention Camps in Asia: The Conditions of Confinement in Modern Asian History
Cribb, R. B., Twomey, C. & Wilson, S., 2022, Brill. (Social Sciences in Asia; vol. 41)Research output: Book/Report › Edited Book › peer-review
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Reconcentration and the camp system: The legacy of the Philippine-American war
Twomey, C., 2022, Detention Camps in Asia: The Conditions of Confinement in Modern Asian History. Cribb, R., Twomey, C. & Wilson, S. (eds.). Leiden The Netherlands: Brill, Vol. 41. p. 25-42 18 p. (Social Sciences in Asia; vol. 41).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Research › peer-review
1 Citation (Scopus) -
We Say Sorry
Twomey, C., Oct 2022, Australian Academy of the Humanities.Research output: Other contribution › Other
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Gender and Trauma since1900
Michaels, P. A. (Editor) & Twomey, C. (Editor), 2021, London UK: Bloomsbury Academic. 296 p.Research output: Book/Report › Edited Book › peer-review
Prizes
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DEEWR Distinguished Visiting Professor of Australian Studies, University of Copenhagen
Twomey, C. (Recipient), 1 Aug 2012
Prize: Competitive Fellowships
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Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia
Twomey, Christina (Recipient), 2016
Prize: Election to learned society
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Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
Twomey, Christina (Recipient), 2016
Prize: Election to learned society
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Activities
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Life After Internment
Christina Twomey (Contributor)
17 Aug 2021Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public event
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Conflict, Collective Memory and the Creation of History
Christina Twomey (Contributor)
20 Apr 2019Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public event
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The post-war lives of prisoners of war
Christina Twomey (Contributor)
20 Nov 2019Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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The Battle Within: POWs in post-war Australia
Christina Twomey (Contributor)
13 Aug 2019Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Telling the Truth or Telling History?
Christina Twomey (Contributor)
6 Apr 2019Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public event
Press/Media
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Myths of War - Changi and the POWs behind the wire (ABC Radio National)
23/12/19
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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ABC RN, Big Ideas: The Writing of War History
11/11/19
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Prisoners of War and the Battle Within
25/04/18
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities