Christina Louise Twomey, is an Australian historian and academic.

Education and career

Twomey was born in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

and attended

Mac.Robertson Girls' High School The Mac.Robertson Girls' High School (also known simply as Mac.Rob or MGHS) is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school, located in Albert Park, Victoria, Australia. Entry for Mac.Rob, which is operated by th ...

in Melbourne. She graduated from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

with

Honours Honour (Commonwealth English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is a quality of a person that is of both social teaching and personal ethos, that manifests itself as a code of conduct, and has various elements such as valo ...

. She returned to the university in 1992 to complete her

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

, graduating in 1996. She is the head of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies at

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

in Melbourne. Her area of study focuses on the cultural history of war. In 2004 Twomey won the Margaret George Award, a grant presented by

National Archives of Australia The National Archives of Australia (NAA), formerly known as the Commonwealth Archives Office and Australian Archives, is an Australian Government agency that is the National archives, official repository for all federal government documents. It ...

to emerging historians, for her "exploration of the experiences of Australian civilians interned by the Japanese in World War II". Twomey's 2008 book, ''Australia's Forgotten Prisoners: Civilians Interned by the Japanese in World War Two'' won a New South Wales Premier's History Award in the John and Patricia Ward History Prize category. In 2009, the

awarded Twomey the Frederick Watson Fellowship. Twomey was president of the International Australian Studies Association in 2011 to 2012. Between 2012 and 2015, she was the co-editor of ''

Australian Historical Studies ''Australian Historical Studies'', formerly known as ''Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealand'' (1940–1967) and ''Historical Studies'' (1967–1987), is one of the oldest historical journals in Australia. It is regarded as the countr ...

'' alongside Catharine Coleborne, after which she was appointed chair of the Board managing that publication. In 2016 her work as an historian was recognised by her election as fellow of both the

Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) is an independent, non-governmental organisation devoted to the advancement of knowledge and research in the social sciences. It has its origins in the Social Science Research Council of Aus ...

and

Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australi ...

. In May 2016, she attended a

Historians without Borders Historians without Borders is a Finnish organisation. It was founded at the initiative of Erkki Tuomioja, the former foreign minister of Finland. The purpose of the organization is to further public discussion about history and to promote the use ...

conference in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

. In 2018, Twomey won the New South Wales Premier's Australian History Prize for her book, ''The Battle Within: POWs in Postwar Australia''.

Bibliography

Author

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Editor

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Twomey, Christina Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Australian historians 21st-century Australian women writers Academic staff of Deakin University Academic staff of Monash University Australian Book Review people Australian women historians Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities People educated at Mac.Robertson Girls' High School University of Melbourne alumni Writers from Melbourne