School of Historical Studies The Australian Centre

Professor Kate Darian-Smith

Professor of Australian Studies and History

Telephone:
(+61 3) 8344 7232
Email:
k.darian-smith@unimelb.edu.au
Fax:
(+61 3) 9347 7731
Location:
Room 210, 137 Barry St
Australian Centre, Carlton VIC 3053

Academic Profile (click on the link for more information)

Biography
Research
Publications
Teaching
Supervision

Biography

Qualifications:
BA Hons (Melb); PhD (Melb); Dip. Ed. (Melb)
Professional Societies:
Fellow, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA)

Professor Kate Darian-Smith is Professor of Australian Studies and History, and teaches in both programs. She was Director of The Australian Centre from 1998-2005, and over the past decade has held a range of senior administrative positions within Faculty of Arts, including terms as Deputy Dean, Associate Dean (International) and Associate Dean (Graduate Studies).

Kate is immediate past President (2002-2007) and current Vice President of the International Australian Studies Association (InASA). She has been involved in Australian Studies activities in Europe, North America and Asia; has directed government-funded Australian Studies projects in Taiwan and Indonesia; advises on Australian Studies grants for the Australian-China Council/DFAT; and has worked with the Australia-Japan Foundation/DFAT to assist the growth of Australian Studies in Japan.

She is a Research Associate at Museum Victoria, and serves on a number of editorial boards, including the Advisory Board of Meanjin; the Editorial Advisory Committee for Journal of Australian Studies; as Section Editor, Australasia & the Pacific, for History Compass; and as a Reviews Editor for Australian Historical Studies.

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Research

Kate is a convenor of the 'Cultural Histories and Geographies' node of the ARC-funded Cultural Research Network (2005-9). She has been the Chief Investigator on many previous ARC research grants, including on a special project in conjunction with the Australian Academy of the Humanities, ANU and Sydney University on 'Writing for Scholars' (2005-6).

Current ARC-funded research projects:

  1. DP0663788: Dr H Lewi; Prof K Darian-Smith; Prof PJ Goad; Dr JL Willis; A/Prof JF Murphy
    Title: Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds: Designing Everyday Modernism for Australian Communities 1920-1970
  2. LP0669282: Prof K Darian-Smith; Prof WS Logan; Prof GP Seal
    Title: Childhood, Tradition and Change: a national study of the historical and contemporary practices and significance of Australian children's playlore
    Partner Organisations: National Library of Australia and Museum Victoria
  3. LP0776803: Prof K.Darian-Smith; Dr. Penny Edmonds; Dr Julie Evans; Antoinette Smith
    Title: Conciliation Narratives and the Historical Imagination in British Pacific Rim Settler Societies.
    Partner Organisations: National Museum of Australia, Museum Victoria, Tasmanian Arts Gallery and Museum
  4. DP0984223: Dr CA Driscoll; Dr K Bowles; Prof K Darian-Smith; A/Prof CR Gibson; Dr D Nichols; A/Prof G Waitt.
    Title: Cultural sustainability in Australian country towns: amenity, mobility, and everyday life

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Publications

Books

Selected Edited Books

Book Chapters (from 2001 only)

Journal Articles and Refereed Conference Proceedings (from 2001 only)

Publications available through e-prints repository:

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Teaching

Kate has interests in Australian cultural and social history, particularly in the twentieth century; war and Australian society, with reference to gender; the relationship between memory and history; museum studies and forms of exhibiting histories and cultures; ideas of community, society and the build environment in Australia; comparative colonial discourse and postcolonial studies; and is currently researching interactions between rural and urban Australia.

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Supervision

Kate supervises postgraduate students across a range of topics in Australian studies, Australian history and cultural studies and is particularly interested in interdisciplinary research approaches. In 2006 she was the recipient of the Faculty of Arts Best Practice in Supervision Award in recognition of excellence in research higher degree supervision. (For full citation see: www.arts.unimelb.edu.au/staff/research/ExcellenceSprvsn2006.html).

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