Biography Workshop

School/Centre

National Centre of Biography

Contacts

The Biography Workshop was established by the National Centre of Biography in response to requests by practitioners, students and readers of biography for a forum to discuss a range of methodological issues relating to biography. The group considers recent and long-standing questions about biography.

From early March to late November 2023 we are offering ten events, covering topics as diverse as Australian women in science, the celebrated novelist Ruth Park, biographical microhistories exploring fin de siècle Australia 1890-1914, and much else. Each workshop will be conducted by an esteemed scholar. 

The format is similar to that used in previous years, RSSS building, 146 Ellery Cres, ANU campus, specific room for each workshop to be advised. Timing is 11:00 am to 12.30 pm.  

For any inquiries contact Dr Stephen Wilks, stephen.wilks@anu.edu.au, 02 6125 2349.


Workshops 2023

2 March – Ebony Nilsson: Vladimir Mischenko (a.k.a. Bill Marshall): Russian émigré and spy for ASIO

30 March – Catherine Bishop: ‘A Worthwhile Trace of Myself’: Autobiographical essays of World Youth Forum delegates 1947-1972

27 April – Jane Carey: Recovering and situating life stories in Taking to the Field: A History of Australian Women in Science

25 May – Rachel Franks: An Uncommon Hangman: The Life and Deaths of Robert ‘Nosey Bob’ Howard in the justice system of late colonial New South Wales

29 June – Stephen A. Chavura: The Forgotten Menzies: The World Picture of Australia’s Longest-Serving Prime Minister

27 July – Monique Rooney: A Window of Life: Ruth Park, a Biography

24 August – Alison Bashford: The Huxleys: An Intimate History of Evolution, on how four generations of this family helped shape modern science and culture

28 September – Mark Hearn: The Fin de Siècle Imagination in Australia, 1890-1914, using biographical microhistories to explore this era

26 October – Katherine Sanders: F.O.V. Acheson, judge of the New Zealand Native Land Court 1919-43

30 November – Kevin Windle: Alexander Zuzenko, the Communist International and the Workers’ Republic of Australia


Past events

Kevin Windle: Alexander Zuzenko, the Communist International and the Workers’ Republic of Australia

30 Nov 2023

Alexander Zuzenko, a sailor and veteran of the 1905 Russian revolution, arrived in Australia in 1911 and embarked upon a career of industrial and political...

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Katherine Sanders: F.O.V. Acheson, Judge of New Zealand’s Native Land Court 1919-43

26 Oct 2023

F.O.V. Acheson, Judge of New Zealand’s Native Land Court 1919-43: Innovative Legal Judgments on Native Title and the Treaty of Waitangi F.O.V. Acheson, a...

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Philip Payton - D.H. Lawrence and Cornwall: In Search of Utopia

28 Sep 2023

This talk is based on my forthcoming biographical study D.H. Lawrence and Cornwall: In Search of Utopia, to be published shortly by University of Exeter Press...

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Alison Bashford: Writing a Family History of Evolution

24 Aug 2023

An Intimate History of Evolution (Allen Lane, 2022) is a history of evolutionary ideas told through one family, the Huxleys. It is, at core, a double biography...

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A Window of Life: Ruth Park, a Biography

27 Jul 2023

Abstract TBA about a week prior to the seminar.

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Monique Rooney - “Inky Comradeship:” Writing, Mutual Help and the Marriage of Ruth Park and D’Arcy Niland

27 Jul 2023

**PLEASE NOTE: THE WORKSHOP IS BEGINNING HALF AN HOUR EARLIER (10.30am AND ENDING AT NOON) DUE TO ANU INDUSTRIAL ACTION** In a 1939 letter addressed to...

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Stephen Chavura: The Forgotten Menzies

29 Jun 2023

Stephen Chavaura: The Forgotten Menzies: The World Picture of Australia’s Longest-Serving Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies was Australia's longest-serving...

» read more

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Updated:  15 August 2023/Responsible Officer:  Head of School/Page Contact:  CASS Marketing & Communications