Dr Karen Fox
Areas of expertise
- Australian History (Excl. Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander History) 210303
- Biography 210304
- New Zealand History 210311
- Gender History 430309
- Culture, Gender, Sexuality 200205
- History Of Empires, Imperialism And Colonialism 430313
- Transnational History 430323
Research interests
Karen's research and supervision interests include:
- famous lives, reputations, and biographies;
- the history of fame, celebrity, and heroism;
- media and cultural history, especially about representations of gender and race;
- women’s, gender, and feminist history;
- comparative and transnational history of settler societies, particularly Australia and New Zealand;
- political and legal history, particularly relating to issues of gender and race;
- cross-cultural encounters, colonialism, and imperialism;
- nineteenth- and twentieth-century Australian and New Zealand history.
Biography
Karen Fox is a research editor for the Australian Dictionary of Biography in the National Centre of Biography, and a senior lecturer in the School of History. Karen joined the NCB in 2011, after completing her PhD at the Australian National University and her MA at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Her PhD thesis was a study of the shifting ways in which ideas about race, gender, and nation were reflected and constructed in print media depictions of prominent Aboriginal and Maori women during the second half of the twentieth century. Her MA thesis was a history of knighthoods and damehoods in New Zealand since 1917, with particular emphasis on the awarding of titles to women.
Karen’s research interests include Australian and New Zealand history, imperial and colonial history, gender and feminist history, media history, the history of fame and celebrity, and biography and life writing. She has taught Australian and imperial history and biography at the Australian National University, and her research has appeared in national and international journals, including the Australian Journal of Politics and History, the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, History Australia, and the Women’s History Review. Her most recent book is Honouring a Nation: A History of Australia's Honours System (ANU Press, 2022). She is currently researching the making and unmaking of historical reputations and the history of fame and celebrity in Australia.
Current teaching (2022):
HIST8011 Writing Biography (member of teaching team)
Researcher's projects
Karen is currently continuing her exploration of how we understand concepts of significance, merit, and reputation through researching the making and unmaking of historical reputations in Australia, and the history of fame and celebrity in Australia.
Publications
- Fox, K 2022, Honouring a Nation: A History of Australia's Honours System, ANU Press, Canberra.
- Fox, K & BONES, H 2022, 'Re-membering Tasman Lives', New Zealand Journal of History, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 67-93.
- Fox, K 2022, 'Melbamania: Nellie Melba and Celebrity in the British World', in Jatinder Mann and Iain Johnston-White (ed.), Revisiting the British World New Voices and Perspectives, Peter Lang Publishing Group, New York, pp. 91-112.
- Fox, K 2021, 'Rags-to-Riches and Other Fairytales: Indigenous Celebrity in Australia 1950-1980', in Jennifer Adese, Robert Alexander Innes (ed.), Indigenous Celebrity; Entanglements with Fame, University of Manitoba, Canada, pp. 126ââ¬â145.
- Fox, K 2019, 'The Cultural Journeys of Dictionaries of Biography', in Karen Fox (ed.), 'True Biographies of Nations?': The Cultural Journeys of Dictionaries of National Biography, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia, pp. 1pp-18pp.
- Fox, K, ed., 2019, 'True Biographies of Nations?' The Cultural Journeys of Dictionaries of National Biography, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia.
- Fox, K 2018, 'White, Sir Frederick William (Fred) (1905-1994)', Australian Dictionary of Biography (Online), vol. Online.
- Fox, K 2018, 'Heroes, Legends and Divas: Framing famous Lives in Australia', in Paul Longley Arthur (ed.), Migrant nation : Australian culture, society and identity, Anthem Press, Australia, pp. 213-234pp.
- Fox, K & Furphy, S 2017, 'The Politics of National Recognition: Honouring Australians in a Post-Imperial World', Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol. 63, no. 1, pp. 93-111.
- Fox, K 2015, 'Australian Legal Dynasties: The Stephens and the Streets', Australian Dictionary of Biography (Online).
- Fox, K 2014, 'An 'imperial hangover'? Royal Honours in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, 1917-2009', Britain and the World, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 6-27.
- Fox, K 2014, 'Ornamentalism, Empire and Race: Indigenous Leaders and Honours in Australia and New Zealand', The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 486-502.
- Fox, K 2013, ''A pernicious system of caste and privilege' Egalitarianism and official honours in Australia, New Zealand and Canada', History Australia, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 202-226.
- Fox, K 2013, 'A City and its People: Canberra in the ADB', Australian Dictionary of Biography (Online), vol. 1, no. 1, pp. online.
- Fox, K 2012, ''Housewives' Leader Awarded MBE': Women, Leadership and Honours in Australia', in Rosemary Francis, Patricia Grimshaw and Ann Standish (ed.), Seizing the Initiative Australian Women Leaders in Politics, Workplaces and Communities, University of Melbourne, EScholarship Research Centre, pp. 171-184pp.
- Fox, K 2012, 'Globalising Indigeneity? Writing Indigenous Histories in a Transnational World', History Compass, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 423-439.
- Fox, K 2012, 'Representing Lives', in Keir Wotherspoon and Erik Ropers (ed.), Written into History - Celebrating Fifty Years of the Melbourne Historical Journal, 1961-2011, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, pp. 425-426.
- Fox, K 2012, 'An Encounter With The White World of Wimbledon: Evonne Goolagong and Representations of Race and Gender in Australia', in Keir Wotherspoon and Erik Ropers (ed.), Written into History - Celebrating Fifty Years of the Melbourne Historical Journal, 1961-2011, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, pp. 427-442.
- Fox, K 2012, 'Knights and Dames in Australia', Australian Dictionary of Biography, http://adb.anu.edu.au/essay/2
- Fox, K 2012, 'Matriarchs, Moderates and Militants: Press Representations of Indigenous Women in Australia and New Zealand**', Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in the Asia and the Pacific, no. 28, 13pp, http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue28/fox.htm
- Fox, K 2011, Maori and Aboriginal Women in the Public Eye: representing difference, 1950-2000, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia.
- Fox, K 2010, 'Grand Dames and Gentle Helpmeets: women and the royal honours system in New Zealand, 1917-2000', Women's History Review, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 375-393.
- Fox, K 2009, 'Rosalie Kunoth-Monks and the making of Jedda', Aboriginal History, vol. 33, no. 2009, pp. 77-95.
- Fox, K 2008, 'Oodgeroo Noonuccal: media snapshots of a controversial life', in Peter Read, Frances Peters-Little, Anna Haebich (ed.), Indigenous Biography and Autobiography, ANU ePress, Canberra, Australia, pp. 57-68.
- Fox, K 2007, 'An Encounter with the White world of Wimbledon: Evonne Goolagong and Representations of Race and Gender in Australia', Melbourne Historical Journal, vol. 35, pp. 35-49.
- Fox, K & Pickles, K 2005, 'Success in Their Own Right: Dames on Top of the New Zealand Royal Honours System, 1917-2000', History Now, vol. 11, no. 1 & 2, pp. 24-30.