Queering Auto/Biography: The Many Lives of Alison Clark
Seminar
Please note that this presentation will discuss gender based violence and trauma associated with the HIV/AIDS epidemic.In life-writing by and about queer lives, there are few examples of auto/biography that reflect, in their presentation of both content and structure, the anti-normative experience…
'My study is an archive of my mind': The making of Greg Dening
Seminar
Pacific historian and anthropologist Professor Greg Dening (1931-2008) was a man of many silences. Trawling through the large Dening archive in the State Library of Victoria, I am struck by the silences, the gaps and the stories left untold. In one of Greg’s many metaphors, that of ‘…
The Stained Man: A Crime, a Scandal, and the Making of a Nation, by Patrick Mullins
Book launch
The Stained Man: A Crime, a Scandal, and the Making of a Nation (Scribe, 2026) tells the story of Richard 'Dick' Meagher, the Sydney solicitor who incited a campaign to free a man he knew was guilty of attempted murder and subsequently lost it all, including his reputation and ability to…
Relationality, Movement and Transnationality in Biographies across PNG and Australia: Stories through Nahau and Wesley Rooney
Seminar
It seems straightforward: for years now, I’ve been saying that I’m working on Papua New Guinean politician Nahau Rooney’s biography. But really, I’ve been trying to make sense of telling a story that moves across epistemic spheres and transnationally across PNG and Australia. I experience movement…
The House of Blue Glass: A life of Penelope Lucas, by Alan Atkinson
Book launch
Join award-winning historian Alan Atkinson in conversation with Catherine Gay about his latest book The House of Blue Glass: A life of Penelope Lucas (NewSouth, 2026).Following on from his acclaimed joint biography of Elizabeth and John Macarthur, in his latest work Alan pieces together the life of…
Enchantment and Apocalypse: The Lives and Art of Twin Prodigies, Edward Julius and Charles Maurice Detmold
Seminar
The twin artists Charles Maurice (1883–1908) and Edward Julius (1883–1957) Detmold have been described as ‘two of the most extraordinary figures in the annals of early modern art’. Largely self-taught artistic prodigies, they first exhibited at the Royal Academy at the age of thirteen. But, as…
Mary Booth: The Woman Who Shaped the Anzac Legend, by Rae Frances and Bruce Scates
Book launch
Join Rae Frances and Bruce Scates in conversation with the National Centre of Biography's Michelle Staff as they discuss their latest jointly written book Mary Booth: The Woman Who Shaped the Anzac Legend (Miegunyah, 2026).Drawing on newly uncovered personal correspondence, the authors delve into…