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Personal History

After more than two decades in England, in 2007 I returned to Melbourne and a post as Professor of History at Monash University. At Monash I am Director of the Institute for Public History, teach a range of undergraduate and postgraduate units in oral history, public history and Australian social history, and supervise research students working on diverse topics involving public history and life story sources (as listed below).

I completed my first degree in Arts at Melbourne University in 1982, and then an MA and DPhil in History at the University of Sussex. In England I was active in the community history and oral history movements, and taught for 16 years at the University of Sussex where I became Professor of Oral History, Director of the Centre for Life History Research and a Trustee of the Mass-Observation Archive. Between 1991 and 2007 I co-edited Oral History, the journal of the Oral History Society of Great Britain, and from 2006-08 I served as President of the International Oral History Association www.ioha.fgv.br .

Current Research

My teaching and writing explores the ways in which different kinds of life story evidence can illuminate the past and its meanings in the present lives of individuals and society. I'm currently researching the lives of four British women who emigrated to Australia in the 1950s and 1960s, drawing upon a rich archive of letters, journals, autobiographical writing, oral history interviews and photographs. These life story documents offer detailed and intimate evidence about events and experiences, and changing relationships, attitudes and feelings, as these four women negotiated their wartime and postwar lives through migration and in the context of dramatically shifting roles and expectations for women in each country. Though migration is the connecting thread in all four lives, this project - tentatively titled 'Moving Stories, Women's Lives: British Women and the Postwar Australian Dream' - is not only about migration. Precisely because these women were migrants they recorded their lives in the letters and photographs they sent home, and because they wanted to describe, compare and explain their new life in Australia they photographed and wrote about aspects of everyday life and women's experience that are often lost to history. Hear Al talk about this 'Moving Stories' project in this talk on 19 June 2008 at the National Museum of Australia - on the NMA website at www.nma.gov.au/audio/historical_interpretation_series/alistair_thomson/

Other research projects in development include:

• Australian Generations: an Oral History of Everyday Life, a national oral history project in collaboration with the National Library of Australia, ABC Radio National, the Oral History Association of Australia, and colleagues at Monash and La Trobe Universities.
• an edited collection about oral history and photography, with Professor Alexander Freund from the University of Winnipeg in Canada.
• Anzac Memories Revisited: an exploration of Anzac ‘post-memory’ after the passing of the last Great War veterans.

Major Publications

Authored Books
Moving Stories: British Women and the Postwar Australian Dream, Manchester University Press, forthcoming 2009.
Ten pound Poms: Australia's Invisible Migrants (co-author with A. James Hammerton), Manchester University Press, 2005.
Anzac Memories: Living With the Legend, Oxford University Press, 1994.

Edited Books
The Oral History Reader (co-editor with Rob Perks), 2nd edition, Routledge, 2006 (1st edition, 1998).
Through the Joy of Learning: Diary of a Thousand Adult Learners(co-editor with Pam Coare), NIACE, 1996.
Engaging With Difference: the 'Other' in Adult Education (co-editor with Mary Stuart), NIACE, 1995.

Journal Articles
'Oral history and community history in Britain: Personal and critical reflections on twenty-five years of continuity and change', Oral History, 2008.
'Dancing through the memory of our movement: four paradigmatic revolutions in oral history', BIOS, 2007, pp 21-29.
'Four paradigm revolutions in oral history', Oral History Review 34, 1, 2007, pp 49-70.
'Anzac Stories: Using Personal Testimony in War History', War and Society 25, 2, 2007, pp 1-22.
"Le storie di vita nello studio dell'emigrazione femminile" ("What was really going on!' Illuminating migrant women's experience through the comparative study of contemporary and retrospective life stories"),Quaderni Storici , 120, 3, 2005, pp. 685-708.
'I live on my memories: British return migrants and the possession of the past', Oral History 31, 2, 2003, pp 55-65.
'Introduction - Sharing Authority: Oral History and the Collaborative Process',The Oral History Review, 30, 1, Winter / Spring 2003, pp 23-26 (and editor of theme issue).
'Voices we never hear: the unsettling histories of postwar ten pound Poms who returned to Britain', Voices of a 20th Century Nation: Oral History Association of Australia Journal 24, 2002, pp 52-59.
'Landscapes of memory: the migrations of Elizabeth Jolley', Meanjin 61, 3, 2002, pp 81-97.
'Recording British migration: meaning and identity in the Good family audio letters from Australia, 1963-65', in W. Prest and G. Tulloch (eds),Scatterlings of Empire, Journal Of Australian Studies / University of Queensland Press, 2001.
'Making the Most of Memories: The Empirical and Subjective Value of Oral History', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, Vol. ix, 1999, pp. 291-301.
'Moving Stories: Oral History and Migration Studies', Oral History 27, 1, Spring 1999, pp. 24-37.
'Fifty Years On: An International Perspective on Oral History', Journal of American History 85, 2, September 1998, pp 581-595.
'Recompondo a Memória: Questôes Sobre a Relaçâo Entre a História Oral as Memórias', Projecto História 15, April 1997, pp 51-85 ('Deconstructing memory: issues about oral history relationships and remembering').
'Experience Never Ends: Connecting Life History Work and Experiential Learning', Australian Journal of Experiential Learning, Issue 35, 1996, pp 24-29.
'Memory as a Battlefield: Personal and Political Investments in the National Past', Oral History Review 22, 2, Winter 1995, pp 55-73.
'The Memory and History Debates: Some International Perspectives' (with Michael Frisch and Paula Hamilton), Oral History, 22, 2, 1994, pp 33-43.
''The Vilest Libel of the War'? Imperial Politics and the Official Histories of Gallipoli', Australian Historical Studies 25, 101, 1993, 628-636.
'Learning About Adult Learning: the 1992 North American adult education research conferences', Studies in the Education of Adults 25, 1, April 1993, pp 92-104.
'A Past You Can Live With: Digger Memories and the Anzac Legend', Oral History Association of Australia Journal, 13, 1991, pp 12-18.
'Anzac: Putting Popular Memory Theory Into Practice in Australia', Oral History, Spring 1990, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp 25-31.
'Steadfast Until Death'? C.E.W. Bean and the representation of Australian Military Manhood', Australian Historical Studies, Vol. 23, No. 93, October 1989, pp 462-478.
'Out of the People: J.B.Priestley as Wartime Populist', Scottish Labour History Journal, No. 21, 1986, pp 4-13.

Contributions to Edited Books
'Memory and Remembering in Oral History', in Donald A. Ritchie (ed.), The Oxford Handbook to Oral History, New York, Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2009.
'"I'm not a good mother": gender expectations and tensions in a migrant woman’s life story', in Desley Deacon and Penny Russell (eds), Looking Out: Australian Lives in the World, ANU E Press, 2008. See http://epress.anu.edu.au/anu_lives/transnational/pdf/ch09.pdf
'"My wayward heart": homesickness, longing and the return of British post-war immigrants from Australia', in Marjory Harper (ed), Emigrant Homecomings: the return movement of emigrants, 1600-2000, Manchester University Press, 2005, pp 105-130.
''The Empire was a bar of soap': Life stories and race identity among British emigrants travelling to Australia, 1945-1971', in Hsu-Ming Teo and Richard White (eds), Cultural History in Australia, University of New South Wales Press, 2003, pp 201-213.
'Teaching Oral History to Undergraduate Researchers', in Alan Booth and Paul Hyland (eds), The Handbook of University History Teaching, Manchester University Press, 2000, pp 154-165.
'Unreliable Memories? The Use and Abuse of Oral History', in Willie Lamont (ed.), Historical Controversies and Historians, UCL Press, 1998, pp. 23-34.
'The Return of a Soldier', in Penny Russell and Richard White (eds),Memories and Dreams: Reflections on Twentieth Century Australia, Pastiche II, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1997, pp. 60-76.
'Writing About Learning: Using Mass-Observation Educational Life Histories to Explore Learning Through Life', in Juliet Swindell (ed.), Uses of Autobiography , Taylor & Francis, 1995, pp 163-176.
'A Crisis of Masculinity? Australian Military Manhood in the Great War', in Marilyn Lake and Joy Damousi (eds), Gender and War, Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp 133-147.
'Working With Words: Active Learning in Community Writing and Publishing Groups' (with Michael Hayler), in Jane Mace (ed.), Language, Literacy and Community Publishing: Essays in Adult Education , Multilingual Matters, 1995, pp 41-59.
'Embattled Manhood: Gender, Memory and the Anzac Legend', in Kate Darian Smith and Paula Hamilton (eds), Memory and History in Twentieth Century Australia, Oxford University Press, 1994, pp 158-173.
'A Past You Can Live With: Digger Memories and the Anzac Legend', in Alan Seymour and Richard Nile (eds), Anzac: Meaning, Memory and Myth, University of London Australian Studies Centre, 1991, pp 21-31.
'Anzac: exploring national myth and memory in Australia', in Paul Thompson and Raphael Samuel (eds), The Myths We Live By, Routledge, 1990, pp 73-82.
'Domestic Drudgery Will Be a Thing of the Past: Co-operative Women and the Reform of Housework', in S. Yeo (ed), New Views of Co-operation, Routledge, 1988, pp 108-127.
'Passing Shots at the Anzac Legend', in V.Burgmann and J.Lee (eds), A Most Valuable Acquisition: A People's History of Australia Since 1788, McPhee Gribble/Penguin, 1988, pp 190-204.

Radio and television productions
Historical consultant, BBC Timewatch in association with ABC and Essential Viewing Production Company, 'Ten Pound Poms', one hour documentary based upon my jointly-authored book, ABC TV, 1 November 2007.
Historical consultant and narrator, ABC Radio National, 'Anzac Memories - Revisited', one hour special, 31 July 2004.
Historical consultant and narrator, BBC Radio 4 The Archive Hour, 'Ten Pound Poms', 2001-02.

Areas of Research & Supervision

Oral history, collective memory, public history and life history research; 20th century British and Australian social history; migration history; war history and memory. I have supervised the following research students (doctoral unless noted)

Monash University (since 2007)
Mary-Lou Henderson, 'A History of the Compassionate Friends' (associate supervisor 2008-)
Anita Frayman, 'Ageing in the Melbourne Jewish Community' (joint supervisor 2007-)
Kath Ensor, 'Institutionalisation in Victoria: its history and its impact on individuals, families and communities' (associate superviser, 2008-)
Kay Dreyfus, 'Silence and Secrets: The Australian Wartime Experience of the Weintraub Syncopators' (joint superviser, 2008-)
Judith Crotty, 'The AMWU: a study in union militancy?' (associate superviser, 2008-)
Mischa Barr, 'Sophistication in Australian Cultural History' (main superviser, 2007-)
Patricia Armstrong-Grant, 'A biography of Dame Joan Hammond' (associate superviser, MA thesis, 2007-)
Meryl Andrews, 'The Australian Assistance Plan' (main superviser, MA thesis, 2007-08)

University of Sussex (1992-2007)
Audrey Gates, 'Alongside survival: life experiences of wives, widows and children of far-East prisoners of war in World War 2'
Suzanne Hyde, 'Lifelong learning through Unison: the learner experience'
Paul Watters, 'Men as general nurses, an oral history, 1949-1974', Ed D (Swansea University - external supervisor)
Angela Campos, 'Silence and shame? An oral history of ex-combatants of the Portuguese colonial wars, 1961-1974' (FCT Portugal government funding)
Rena Feld, 'Why tell my story: an exploration of public autobiographical storytelling', M Phil
Lorraine Sitzia, 'Telling people's stories: an exploration of community history-making from 1970-2000' (ESRC funded)
Teresa Cairns, 'Class, gender and identity in the educational experiences of correspondents to Mass Observation' (awarded 2008)
Gail Hopkins, 'Somali women refugees in London and Toronto: experience, theory, policy' (awarded 2006 - ESRC funded)
Peter Edwards, 'A war remembered: commemoration, battlefield tourism and British collective memory of the Great War' (awarded 2005 - AHRB funded)
Lee Sarafis, 'The local origins of the Greek civil war: two villages in central Greece' (awarded 2005)
Gillian Weaver, 'Stability, ability, work, learning: long term benefits from education programmes for stable and former drug users' (awarded 2005)
Philip Seaton, 'Japanese memory of the Asia-Pacific war: the struggle to reconcile defeat, aggression and suffering, 1991-2001' (awarded 2004 - Japanese government scholarship)
Susan Burton, 'Japanese women residents in England: a methodological and cultural study' (awarded 2003)
Vijay Reddy, 'Life histories of black South African scientists: academic success in an unequal society' (awarded 2000 - University of Durban Westville, external supervisor, British council funded)
Hera Cook, 'The long sexual revolution: British women, sex and contraception in the twentieth century' (joint supervisor 1995-96 only)
Eissa El-Ansari, 'Facilitating adult learning through continuing education in Kuwait' (awarded 1996 - Kuwait government scholarship)

Teaching

HSY2/3060 - The Uses of the Past
HSY2/3300 - Twentieth century Australia
HSY4210/HYM4/5200 - History and memory: Oral history, life stories and commemoration
HYM4/5660 - Recording Oral History: Theory and Practice
HSY4820/HYM4/5820- Local and community history
HYM5100- Public history research project
HYM5170- Public history placement
HSY4210/HYM4/5200 - History and memory: Oral history, life stories and commemoration