Professor Kate Darian-Smith is passionate about understanding the social and cultural changes that have shaped Australian peoples and places.  As a leading historian of Australia, she is known for her distinctive cross-disciplinary approach, and her engagement with cultural heritage and the ways that historic events are publicly commemorated. “The narratives that we tell about the past matter today in vital ways, underpinning our actions, attitudes and emotional responses to contemporary challenges,” she said.

Across her career, Professor Darian-Smith has published widely, including works on settler-Indigenous interactions on Australia’s colonial frontiers, the impact of World War I and World War II on national identity, the histories of childhood, and the cultural sustainability of rural communities.

“I have always been interested in the experiences of those who have been relegated to the margins of conventional history books, whether that might be women during wartime, or children, or recent migrants to Australia seeking a better life.”

But how do historians uncover such stories, especially when there may be few written archives? Early in her academic career, Professor Darian-Smith turned to oral history as a research methodology that gave voice to the previously silenced. Her reflections on the relationships between memory and history have subsequently been influential in the development of the field of memory studies, both in Australia and overseas.  More recently, she has analysed the material culture of the past — the objects or ‘things’ that matter to individuals and their communities.  These interests came together in a recent scholarly volume co-edited by Professor Darian-Smith titled Remembering Migration: Oral Histories and Heritage in Australia (2019).

In current research projects funded by the Australian Research Council, Professor Darian-Smith examines how 20^th Century Australia changed as a result of global events (ARC grants DP160101109, SR200200208). One area of research explores how World War I and World War II were to create new opportunities for Australian universities through  the growth of specialist expertise and a new emphasis on the social and cultural transformation brought about by education and knowledge.

“The extraordinary scientific and technological advances that emerged from both World Wars were to profoundly change the status and scope of many occupations. Postwar training schemes for ex-soldiers also opened access to higher education. The result was the modernisation of the Australian workforce,” she explains.

In a second project, Professor Darian-Smith is leading a research team in the analysis of the role that migrants played as technicians, producers and actors in the television industry (LP150100202).  Australian television was launched in 1956, at a time when the nation was receiving waves of migration from around the world. But the connections between these parallel developments has not been previously explored. “Through oral histories, and the study of media sources and programs, we can see Australian society reflected in, and shaping, media representation.  This is a narrative of cultural diversity on, and behind, our screens and in the media from the 1950s to today.”

Professor Darian-Smith’s first university appointment was in regional Victoria, at Ballarat University College. This was followed by some years as the Deputy Director of the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies at the University of London. Returning to Australia, for two decades she was based at the University of Melbourne, where she served in leadership positions, and held joint professorial positions bridging the field of history and cultural heritage.

Her academic career has been one of forging connections between scholarly departments and disciplines, and connections between universities and government, industry and community organisations. This also involves making such links between Australian expertise and the world.  Professor Darian-Smith has a long record of working with the Australian Government in the promotion of Australian Studies internationally, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

As the Executive Dean of the College of Arts, Law and Education (CALE), Professor Darian-Smith is proud of the breadth and excellence of the College — from creative arts, the humanities and social sciences, to professional schools in law and education.

“For future students of the University, I would say that Tasmania as a location and a community can provide great insight into bigger questions of social change. This is an island with a unique environment, history and social make-up. It can also be a microcosm through which to understand and respond to issues with national and global ramifications.”