Skip to main content

School of History

  • Home
  • About us
  • People
    • Head of School
    • Academics
    • ADB academics
    • Research officers
    • Emeritus Professors
    • Professional staff
    • Visitors and Honorary Appointees
    • Current PhD students
    • Graduated PhD students
    • Alumni
  • Events
    • Event series
    • Conferences
      • Past conferences
  • News
    • Audio/Video Recordings
    • In the media
  • Students
    • Study with us
    • Current students
    • Minoru Hokari scholarship
    • Overseas study tours
  • Research
    • Books
  • Contact us

Research Centres

  • Australian Centre for Indigenous History
  • Centre for Environmental History
  • National Centre of Biography
  • Research Centre for Deep History

Australian Centre for Indigenous History

Centre for Environmental History

National Centre of Biography

ARC Laureate Program

  • Rediscovering the Deep Human Past
    • About
    • Advisory Committee
    • News
    • Events
    • People
      • Collaborating Scholars
      • Visitors
    • Collaborating Institutions
    • Contact

Resources

School of History

Related Sites

  • ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences
  • Research School of Social Sciences
  • Australian National Internships Program
  • Australian Journey
  • One Hundred Stories

Administrator

Breadcrumb

HomeUpcoming EventsBook Launch: Melanie Nolan, Biography: An Historiography
Book Launch: Melanie Nolan, Biography: An Historiography
Book Launch: Melanie Nolan, Biography: An Historiography

Join us for canapés and drinks in the RSSS Foyer as Prof. Tom Griffiths launches Melanie Nolan’s Biography: an historiography (London and New York: Routledge, 2023).

Biography: An Historiography examines how Western historians have used biography from the nineteenth century to the present – considering the problems and challenges that historians have faced in their biographical practice systematically. This volume analyses the strategies and methods that historians have used in response to seven major issues identified over time to do with evidence, including but not limited to the problem of causation, the problem of fact and fiction, the problem of other minds, the problem of significance or representativeness, the problems of perspective, both macro and micro, and the problem of subjectivity and relative truth.

Emeritus Prof. Tom Griffiths AO was the W K Hancock Professor of History in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University. He is currently Chair of the Editorial Board of the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Among Tom's many publications is The Art of Time Travel: Historians and their Craft (Black Inc., 2016), which was awarded the 2017 Ernest Scott Prize and the 2017 ACT Book of the Year Award.

Melanie Nolan is Professor of History, Director of the National Centre of Biography, and General Editor of the Australian Dictionary of Biography, in the School of History, at the Australian National University. 

Date & time

  • Wed 31 May 2023, 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Location

RSSS Foyer, Ground Floor (Level 1), RSSS Building, ANU, 146 Ellery Crescent, Acton, ACT 2601

Speakers

  • Tom Griffiths
  • Melanie Nolan

Contact

  •  Karen Ciuffetelli
     Send email