Dr Michelle Staff
Position: Online and Outreach Manager
School and/or Centres: National Centre of Biography
Email: michelle.staff@anu.edu.au
Location: Level 5, RSSS Building, 146 Ellery Crescent
Qualification:
PhD (History), ANU, 2023; Master of Studies in British and European History (Distinction), University of Oxford, 2018; Bachelor of Arts (Hons I), University of Sydney 2017
Michelle's historical training spans ten years and three institutions. Hailing from Dharug land (Sydney), she completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Sydney (2017) before spending a year at the University of Oxford undertaking a master's program (2018). In 2023 she received her PhD from the ANU's School of History, with a thesis titled 'Women Going Global: Australian and British Feminist Internationalists, 1919-39'. After working as a research editor in 2023, from 2024 she commences as online and outreach manager with the National Centre of Biography/Australian Dictionary of Biography. Alongside this she is writing a biography of the Australian feminist Bessie Rischbieth and is a co-convenor of the Australian Women's History Network.
Women’s/gender history; history of feminism; biography; Australian history; British history; international history; transnational history
Peer-reviewed articles:
'Garland, Dorothy Shelagh Leighton (1913-1999).' Australian Dictionary of Biography (forthcoming 2024)
'Storey, Cecile Eunice (1933-1997).' Australian Dictionary of Biography (forthcoming 2024)
'Encountering "the East": Travel and Internationalism in Bessie Rischbieth’s Interwar Feminism.' Australian Historical Studies 53, no. 1 (2022): 97–118
'Women’s Rights on the World Stage: Feminism and Internationalism in the Life of Chrystal Macmillan (1872–1937).' Journal of Women’s History 32, no. 3 (2020): 38–63
Reviews:
With Emily Gallagher. Exhibition review of Feared and Revered. Australian Historical Studies (forthcoming)
‘History off the Page Review: Changemakers.’ History Australia 20, no. 2 (2023): 312–13
Review of James Cotton’s The Australians at Geneva: Internationalist Diplomacy in the Interwar Years. Australian Book Review, no. 449 (December 2022). https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/984-december-2022-no-449/9923-michelle-staff-reviews-the-australians-at-geneva-internationalist-diplomacy-in-the-interwar-years-by-james-cotton
Review of Jacqueline Kent’s Vida: A Woman for our Time. Australian Journal of Biography and History, no. 6 (2022): 269–73
With Joshua Black. Review of Ms Represented. Australian Book Review. 30 August 2021. https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/arts-update/101-arts-update/8280-ms-represented-an-illuminating-but-incomplete-expose-on-women-s-electoral-struggle
Review of Patricia Clarke’s Great Expectations: Emigrant Governesses in Colonial Australia. Victorian Historical Review 22, no. 1 (2021): 220–22
Media:
With James Keating. ‘From Militant to Middle-of-the-Road – Why Do So Few Remember International Women’s Day’s Radical Past?’ Australian Policy and History. 8 March 2023. https://aph.org.au/2023/03/from-militant-to-middle-of-the-road-why-do-so-few-remember-international-womens-days-radical-past/
‘Remembering Bessie Rischbieth.’ History Workshop. 20 January 2023. https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/empire-decolonisation/remembering-bessie-rischbieth/
With Joshua Black. ‘120 Years of Women in Federal Politics.’ VIDA! Blog of the Australian Women’s History Network. 2 August 2022. http://www.auswhn.org.au/blog/women-federal-politics/
Invited interview on suffragette white. ABC Radio Darwin, 12 May 2021
‘What is suffragette white? The colour has a 110-year history as a protest tool.’ The Conversation. 20 April 2021. https://theconversation.com/what-is-suffragette-white-the-colour-has-a-110-year-history-as-a-protest-tool-158957
With Angela Woollacott. ‘Friday essay: Sex, power and anger – a history of feminist protests in Australia.’ The Conversation. 26 March 2021. https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-sex-power-and-anger-a-history-of-feminist-protests-in-australia-157402
‘Why is it taking so long to achieve gender equality in parliament?’ The Conversation. 29 May 2019. https://theconversation.com/why-is-it-taking-so-long-to-achieve-gender-equality-in-parliament-117313
Professor Rae Frances AM Thesis Prize in Australian Women’s and Gender History, 2023
ANU Gender Institute Prizes for Excellence in Gender and Sexuality Research (Journal article published by an ANU graduate student), 2022
ANU Gender Institute Prizes for Excellence in Gender and Sexuality Research (Journal article published by an ANU graduate student), 2020
Australian Government Research Training (RTP) Program Domestic Scholarship 2019–23
Memberships:
Australian Historical Association
Australian Women’s History Network
Berkshire Conference of Women Historians (US)
Gender Institute, ANU
Teaching Experience:
HIST8011: Biography & History
HIST2110: Approaches to History
HIST1209: Terror to Terrorism
HIST2136: World at War, 1939–1945
HIST2227: Australian Political History