Dr Amanda Laugesen
Areas of expertise
- Australian History (Excl. Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander History) 210303
- North American History 210312
- Lexicography 200407
- Cultural Studies 2002
Research interests
The history of Australian English; history of the book, reading, and publishing; library history; US and Australian cultural and intellectual history; social and cultural history of war
Biography
Associate Professor Amanda Laugesen is Director of the Australian National Dictionary Centre, ANU. She completed her PhD in the History Program at the ANU in 2000, and subsequently worked as a research editor at the Australian National Dictionary Centre, ANU, as well as undertaking teaching in the History Department. She produced two lexical monographs for Oxford University Press (Convict Words: the Language of the Australian Convict Era and Diggerspeak: the Language of Australians at War) while working at the ANDC, as well as working on a number of other projects relating to the history of Australian English. Amanda was appointed as a Lecturer in History at the University of Southern Queensland in 2004, and Lecturer in History and American Studies at Flinders University in 2006. She has extensive teaching experience in US, Australian, and World History, and has experience in the development of postgraduate and online course design and delivery. Since taking over as Director of the ANDC, she has co-edited the seventh edition of the Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary (2013) and the third edition of the Australian Primary Dictionary (2015). She was Managing Editor of the second edition of the Australian National Dictionary (2016)
is co-editor of the fifth edition of the Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary (2017).
Amanda's research includes numerous books and articles in the areas of historical memory, the history of reading, libraries and publishing, cultural history (with a particular interest in the cultural history of war), the history of Australian English, and lexicography. Recent books are Furphies and Whizzbangs: Anzac Slang from the Great War (2015) and Boredom is the Enemy: the Intellectual and Imaginative Worlds of Australian Soldiers in the Great War and Beyond (2012). The latter is a study of Australian soldiers’ experiences of education and entertainment during wartime. Her current research areas include: cultural history of Australian English and slang; cultural history of war; and the global history of publishing, libraries and literacy. The monograph Taking Books to the World: American Publishers and the Cultural Cold War, a study of American publishers in the developing world, was published in 2017.
Researcher's projects
Current research projects and interests include: a cultural history of attitudes to language in Australia; language, sound and war; a biography of the Australian writer Henrietta Drake-Brockman; and the global history of publishing, libraries and literacy.
Publications
- Laugesen, A & Fisher, C 2020, 'Introduction: Expressions of War in Australia and the Pacific - Language, Trauma, Memory, and Official Discourse', in Amanda Laugesen and Catherine Fisher (ed.), Expressions of War in Australia and the Pacific: Language, Trauma, Memory, and Official Discourse, Palgrave Macmillan, United Kingdom, pp. 1-16.
- Laugesen, A 2020, 'Cross-Cultural Communication and the Experiences of Australian Soldiers During the First World War', in Amanda Laugesen and Richard Gehrmann (ed.), Communication, Interpreting and Language in Wartime: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan, United Kingdom, pp. 25-44.
- Laugesen, A & Fisher, C 2020, 'Conclusion: Languages of War', in Amanda Laugesen and Catherine Fisher (ed.), Expressions of War in Australia and the Pacific: Language, Trauma, Memory, and Official Discourse, Palgrave Macmillan, United Kingdom, pp. 229-234.
- Laugesen, A & Gehrmann, R 2020, 'Introduction: Understanding Communication, Interpreting, and Language in Wartime', in Amanda Laugesen and Richard Gehrmann (ed.), Communication, Interpreting and Language in Wartime: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan, United Kingdom, pp. 3-22.
- Laugesen, A & Fisher, C, eds, 2020, Expressions of War in Australia and the Pacific: Language, Trauma, Memory, and Official Discourse, Palgrave Macmillan, United Kingdom.
- Laugesen, A & Gehrmann, R, eds, 2020, Communication, Interpreting and Language in Wartime: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan, United Kingdom.
- Gehrmann, R & Laugesen, A 2020, 'Conclusion: Cross Cultural Communication and Language in Wartime: Reflections and Future Directions', in Amanda Laugesen and Richard Gehrmann (ed.), Communication, Interpreting and Language in Wartime: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan, United Kingdom, pp. 255-266.
- Laugesen, A 2019, Globalizing the Library: Librarians and Development Work, 1945-1970, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, United Kingdom.
- Laugesen, A & Gwynn, M, eds, 2019, Australian Middle Primary Oxford Dictionary & Thesaurus, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, Australia.
- Gwynn, M & Laugesen, A, eds, 2019, Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary, 8th edition, Oxford University Press, Australia.
- Laugesen, A 2019, 'Changing 'man made language': Sexist language and feminist linguistic activism in Australia', in Michelle Arrow and Angela Woollacott (ed.), Everyday Revolutions: Remaking Gender, Sexuality and Culture in 1970s Australia, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia, pp. 241-260.
- Laugesen, A & Gwynn, M, eds, 2018, Australian Middle Primary Oxford Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, Australia.
- Gwynn, M & Laugesen, A, eds, 2017, Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary, 6th edition, Oxford University Press, Australia.
- Laugesen, A 2017, Taking Books to the World: American Publishers and the Cultural Cold War, University of Massachusetts Press, United States.
- Laugesen, A 2017, 'The Limitations of Memory and the Language of the War on Terror in Australia, 2001-2003', in Jessica Gildersleeve and Richard Gehrmann (ed.), Memory and the Wars on Terror: Australian and British Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan, United Kingdom, pp. 49-67.
- Laugesen, A 2017, '[BOOK REVIEW] The early reader in children's literature and culture: theorizing books for beginner readers', History of Education, vol. 46, no. 5, pp. 699-700.
- Laugesen, A 2017, 'Lindgren, Harry (1912-1992)', Australian Dictionary of Biography (Online), vol. online.
- Laugesen, A 2016, 'American Publishers, Books, and the Global Cultural Cold War: Alfred A. Knopf Inc. and the United States Information Agency, 1953-1970', Australasian Journal of American Studies (AJAS), vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 19-38.
- Moore, B., Laugesen, A et al, eds, 2016, The Australian National Dictionary: Australian Words and Their Origins (2nd ed), Oxford University Press, Australia.
- Laugesen, A 2015, Furphies and Whizz-bangs: Anzac Slang from the Great War, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne.
- Laugesen, A & Gwynn, M, eds, 2015, Australian Primary Oxford Dictionary fourth edition, Oxford University Press, Australia.
- Laugesen, A 2015, 'Forgetting their troubles for a while: Australian soldiers' experiences of cinema during the First World War', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 596-614.
- Laugesen, A 2015, 'Australia and the globalisation of the public library', Australian Library Journal, The, vol. 64, no. 4, pp. 301-307.
- Laugesen, A 2014, 'UNESCO and the Globalization of the Public Library Idea, 1948 to 1965', Library and Information History, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 1-19.
- Laugesen, A 2014, 'Dictionaries for a nation: the making of the Macquarie Dictionary (1981) and the Australian National Dictionary (1988)', Journal of Australian Studies, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 52-67.
- Laugesen, A 2014, 'Models, medals, and the use of military emblems in fashion', in Denise N Rall (ed.), Fashion & War in Popular Culture, Intellect Ltd, BristoL, UK and Chicago, USA, pp. 107-122pp..
- Laugesen, A 2014, 'Journeys in Reading in Wartime: Some Australian Soldiers' Reading Experiences in the First World War', Australian Humanities Review, no. 56, pp. 55-68.
- Laugesen, A 2013, 'More than a luxury: Australian soldiers as entertainers and audiences in the First World War', Journal of War and Culture Studies, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 226-238.
- Gwynn, M, Laugesen, A & Robinson, J, eds, 2013, Australian Pocket Oxford Dictionary seventh edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford United Kingdom.
- Laugesen, A 2012, 'Publishing, Print Culture, and Australian English', Ozwords, vol. 21, no. 1, p. 7.
- Laugesen, A 2012, Boredom is the Enemy: The Intellectual and Imaginative Lives of Australian Soldiers in the Great War and Beyond, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, United Kingdom.
- Laugesen, A. 2011 'Writing the North-West, Past and Present: the 1930s fiction and drama of Henrietta Drake-Brockman' History Australia Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 109-126
- Laugesen, A 2010, 'Books for the World: American Book Programs in the Developing World, 1948-1968', in Greg Barnhisel and Catherine Turner (ed.), Pressing the Fight: Print, Propaganda, and the Cold War, University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst and Boston, pp. 126-144.
- Laugesen, A 2010, 'The Creation of a Global Modern Publishing Culture in the Cold War: Franklin Book Programs, Translation, and Modernization in the Developing World, 1952-1968' Princeton University Library Chronicle Vol. 71, No. 2 (Winter) pp. 168-186
- Laugesen, A 2008, '"An Inalienable Right to Read": Unesco's Promotion of a Universal Culture of Reading and Public Libraries, and Its Involvement in Africa 1948-1968' English in Africa 35 No 1. (May) pp. 67-88
- Laugesen, A 2007, 'Australian Soldiers and the World of Print during the Great War', in M.E. Hammond and S. Towheed (eds.) Publishing in the First World War: Essays in Book History Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke
- Laugesen, A 2006,'Finding "Another Great World": Australian Soldiers and Wartime Libraries', Library Quarterly Vol. 76, No. 4, October 2006, pp. 420-437 (special edition 'Retrieving Readers: the Library Experience').
- Laugesen, A 2005 Diggerspeak: The Language of Australians at War Oxford University Press, Melbourne
- Laugesen, A 2004, 'Keeper of Histories: the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Library and its cultural work, 1860-1910', Libraries and Culture, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 13-35.
- Laugesen, A 2003, 'War Words on the Web', Ozwords, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 7-8.
- Laugesen, A 2003, 'The Politics of Language in Convict Australia', Journal of Australian Colonial History, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 17-40.
- Laugesen, A 2002, 'Lags and Lasses: The Vocabulary of Convict Australia, 1788-1850', National Library of Australia News, vol. 2002, no. July, pp. 3-6.
- Laugesen, A 2002, 'Botany Bay argot', Ozwords, vol. 2002, no. November, pp. 1-3.
- Laugesen, A 2002, Convict Words: Language in Colonial Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia.
- Laugesen, A 2001, 'Patriotism and the Past: The Cultural Work of the Wisconsin State Semi-Centennial Celebrations of 1898', Australasian Journal of American Studies (AJAS), vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 41-54.
- Laugesen, A 2000, 'George Himes, F.G. Young, and the Early Years of the Oregon Historical Society', Oregon Historical Quarterly, vol. 101, no. 1, pp. 18-39.
- Laugesen, A 2000, 'Empowering African-American Manhood, Empowering African American Politics: The Quest of W.E.B. DuBois, 1890-1920', Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies, vol. 6, pp. 12-24.
- Laugesen, A 2000, 'Making a Unique Heritage: Celebrating Pikes Pawnee Village and the Santa Fe Trail, 1900-1918', Kansas History, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 172-185.