Professor Angela Woollacott
Areas of expertise
- Australian History (Excl. Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander History) 210303
- Gender Specific Studies 169901
- Biography 210304
- Historical Studies 2103
Research interests
Australian history; decolonisation and postcolonial history; biography; political history and human rights; women's and gender history; transnational history; settler colonialism.
Biography
Angela Woollacott is the Manning Clark Professor of History. From 2004 to 2009 she was Professor of Modern History at Macquarie University in Sydney. Prior to that she was a Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Her areas of research, research supervision and teaching include Australian history; British Empire, colonialism, postcolonial and decolonization history; political history; women's and gender history; biography; modernity and transnational histories.
Professor Woollacott is an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, and the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and a former president of the Australian Historical Association. She currently serves on the editorial boards of three journals. She has been a visiting professor at Oberlin College; a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College, the University of Melbourne, the University of Adelaide, the University of California, Berkeley, Flinders University and the University of Oxford; and in 2002 she was a Visiting Fellow at the Humanities Research Centre at ANU.
Researcher's projects
Current major project
I am grateful to the Australian Research Council for the Discovery grant 2023-2025 funding my current research. The project is titled 'Challenging colonialism: Australians who helped us to embrace human equality'.
'Challenging colonialism' traces how ideas of human rights and equality gained ground in Australia in the 1940s-1960s. It uses group biography to discover how ten influential thinkers and activists opposed social structures based on racial inequality. While we have made great strides in prohibiting discrimination, our society still bears legacies of colonialism. This project creates new knowledge about how key progress occurred -- knowledge that will be publicly shared to enhance Australians’ understanding of our national development and the links between intellectual and social change. Its innovation includes tracing the connections among its diverse subjects: how their interactions brought together the realms of internationalism, organisation, advocacy, literature and activism to change general thinking. It will be globally significant in tracing how challenges to colonialism and racial inequality circulated and became accepted in a settler-state. It is methodologically innovative in using group biography to follow how ideas spread outwards through networks from the ten individuals. Outcomes will include new knowledge about how ideas of human rights and equality spread from activists and groups to mainstream Australia. Benefits include new insight into how ideas of equality eroded cultural acceptance of White Australia and Australians reconceptualised their society as diverse.
Most recent monograph
Don Dunstan: The visionary politician who changed Australia (Allen and Unwin, 2019)
My biography of Don Dunstan, the transformative Premier of South Australia in the 1960s-70s who was a major political figure nationally and internationally, was published as Don Dunstan: The visionary politician who changed Australia by Allen and Unwin in 2019, and was shortlisted for the 2020 Magarey Medal for Biography. It is the first comprehensive, scholarly biography of Dunstan, and has been widely and positively reviewed in the Australian media. My research and writing were supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery grant, which I gratefully acknowledge.
Publications
- Woollacott, A 2022, 'Dunstan, Donald Allan (Don) (1926-1999)', in Placeholder Do not edit! Please contact publications.collection@anu.edu.au (ed.), RSD Books, Australian National University, Canberra, pp. it's online.
- Woollacott, A 2021, '1968 and the Fight for Democracy in Australia: Don Dunstan, Student Activism, and the End of the South Australian “Playmander�', Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol. 67, no. 2, pp. 246-259.
- Woollacott, A & Staff, M 2021, Friday essay: Sex, power and anger - a history of feminist protest in Australia , pp. online.
- Woollacott, A 2020, 'Being a Women's Adviser at the State Level: Deborah McCulloch and Don Dunstan in 1970s South Australia', in Michelle Arrow & Angela Woollacott (ed.), How the Personal Became Political: The Gender and Sexuality Revolutions in 1970s Australia, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, Oxon, pp. 97-113.
- Arrow, M & Woollacott, A, eds, 2020, How the Personal Became Political: The Gender and Sexuality Revolutions in 1970s Australia, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, Oxon.
- Woollacott, A 2020, 'Imperial Conquest, Violent Encounters and Changing Gender Relations in Colonial Warfare, 1830s-1910s', in Karen Hagemann, Stefan Dudink and Sonya O Rose (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Gender, War, and the Western World since 1600, Oxford University Press, New York, 21pp.
- Arrow, M & Woollacott, A, eds, 2019, Everyday Revolutions: Remaking Gender, Sexuality and Culture in 1970s Australia, ANU Press, Canberra.
- Arrow, M & Woollacott, A 2019, 'Revolutionising the everyday: The transformative impact of the sexual and feminist movements on Australian society and culture', in Michelle Arrow and Angela Woollacott (ed.), Everyday Revolutions: Remaking Gender, Sexuality and Culture in 1970s Australia, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia, pp. 1-20.
- Woollacott, A 2019, Don Dunstan: The visionary politician who changed Australia, Allen & Unwin, NSW.
- Woollacott, A 2018, 'Ambiguity and Necessity: Settlers and Aborigines in Intimate Tension in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Australia', in Penelope Edmonds and Amanda Nettelbeck (ed.), Intimacies of Violence in the Settler Colony, Palgrave Macmillan, Switzerland, pp. 45-65.
- Arrow, M & Woollacott, A 2018, 'Introduction-How the Personal Became Political: The Gender and Sexuality Revolutions in 1970s Australia', Australian Feminist Studies, vol. 33, no. 95, pp. 1-8pp.
- Woollacott, A 2018, 'Being a Women's Adviser at the State Level: Deborah McCulloch and Don Dunstan in 1970s South Australia', Australian Feminist Studies, vol. 33, no. 95, pp. 97-113.
- Woollacott, A 2017, 'One and All: Labor and the Radical Tradition in South Australia.', Journal of Labor and Society, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 561-565pp.
- Woollacott, A 2017, 'RADICAL ROOTS IN FIJI', Griffith Review, vol. 55.
- Woollacott, A 2016, 'From the President', History Australia, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 1-2.
- Woollacott, A 2016, 'Book Review: Republicanism and Responsible Government', Journal of World History, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 698-700.
- Woollacott, A 2016, 'From the President', History Australia, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 191-192.
- Woollacott, A & Bishop, C 2016, 'Business and Politics as Women's Work: The Australian Colonies and the Mid-Nineteenth-Century Women's Movement', Journal of Women's History, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Spring 2016): 84-106.
- Woollacott, A 2016, The making of a reformer:Don Dunstan before the 'Dunstan Decade', History Australia. Dec 2016, pp. 462-473.
- Woollacott, A 2015, 'From the President', History Australia, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 1-2.
- Woollacott, A 2015, Settler Society in the Australian Colonies: Self-Government and Imperial Culture, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
- Woollacott, A 2015, 'A Radical's Career: Responsible government, settler colonialism and indigenous dispossession', Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, vol. 16, no. 2.
- Woollacott, A 2015, 'From the President', History Australia, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 1-2.
- Woollacott, A 2014, ''From the President', foreword History Australia', History Australia, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 1-3.
- Woollacott, A 2014, 'Colonialism: What Girlhoods Can Tell Us', in Kristine Moruzi and Michelle J. Smith (ed.), Colonial Girlhood in Literature, Culture and History, 1840-1950, Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, Abingdon, UK and New York, USA, pp. 15-29.
- Woollacott, A 2013, 'Manly authority, employing non-white labour, and frontier violence 1830s-1860s', Journal of Australian Colonial History, vol. 15.
- Woollacott, A, Webb, K, Adcock, M et al, eds, 2013, History 9: NSW syllabus for the Australian Curriculum, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne.
- Woollacott, A, Webb, K, Adcock, M et al, eds, 2013, History 10 - NSW syllabus for the Australian Curriculum, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne.
- Woollacott, A, Webb, K, Adcock, M et al., eds, 2013, History 8: NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne.
- Woollacott, A, Catton, S, McPherson, J et al 2012, History 9 Australian Curriculum Workbook, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
- Woollacott, A, Catton, S, McPherson, J et al 2012, History 8 Australian Curriculum Workbook, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
- Woollacott, A, Catton, S, McPherson, J et al 2012, History 7 Australian Curriculum Workbook, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
- Woollacott, A, ed., 2012, History for the Australian Curriculum 7, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, Australia.
- Woollacott, A 2012, 'Foreward: History for the Australian Curriculum 7', in Angela Woollacott (ed.), History for the Australian Curriculum 7, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, Australia, pp. v.
- Woollacott, A 2012, 'Book Review - Wellington's Men in Australia: Peninsular War Veterans and the Making of Empire c.1820-40 by Christine Wright', American Historical Review, vol. 117, no. 3, pp. 839-840.
- Woollacott, A, Adcock, M, Allen, M et al 2012, 'History 8 for the Australian Curriculum', in Angela Woollacott (ed.), History 8 for the Australian Curriculum, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, pp. 400pp.
- Woollacott, A, Adcock, M, Allen, M et al 2012, 'History 9 for the Australian Curriculum', in Angela Woollacott (ed.), History 9 for the Australian Curriculum, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, pp. 296pp.
- Woollacott, A, Adcock, M, Allen, M et al 2012, 'History 10 for the Australian Curriculum', in Angela Woollacott (ed.), History 10 for the Australian Curriculum, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, pp. 1-328pp.
- Woollacott, A 2011, 'Book Review: Female Performance Practice on the Fin-de-Siecle Popular Stages of London and Paris: experiment and advertisement; Babylon Girls: black women performers and the shaping of the modern', Womens History Review, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 171-174.
- Woollacott, A 2011, 'Political Manhood, Non-white Labour and White-settler Colonialism on the 1830s-1840s Australian Frontier', in Alison Holland and Barbara Brookes (ed.), Rethinking the Racial Moment: Essays on the Colonial Encounter, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, United Kingdom, pp. 75-96pp..
- Woollacott, A 2011, Race and the Modern Exotic: three 'Australian' women on global display, Monash University Publishing, Victoria, Australia.
- Woollacott, A 2011, 'South Australia and the Imperial World: connections to India and beyond, 1830s to 1860s', Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, vol. 39, pp. 1-10.
- Woollacott, A 2001, To Try Her Fortune in London: Australian Women, Colonialism, and Modernity, Oxford University Press, New York.
- Deacon, D, Russell, P & Woollacott, A 2010, 'Introduction: (Transnational Lives: Biographies of Global Modernity, 1700-present)', in Desley Deacon, Penny Russell and Angela Woollacott (ed.), Transnational Lives: Biographies of Global Modernity, 1700-present, Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, Hampshire, UK, pp. 1-11.
- Woollacott, A 2010, 'Colonial Origins and Audience Collusion: The Merle Oberon Story in 1930s Australia', in Desley Deacon, Penny Russell and Angela Woollacott (ed.), Transnational Lives: Biographies of Global Modernity, 1700-present, Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, Hampshire, UK, pp. 96-108.
- Woollacott, A 2010, 'Inventing Commonwealth and Pan-Pacific Feminisms: Australian women's internationalist activism in the 1920s-30s', in Karen Offen (ed.), Globalizing Feminisms 1789-1945, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon, UK and New York, USA, pp. 217-231.
- Deacon, D, Russell, P & Woollacott, A, eds, 2010, Transnational Lives: Biographies of Global Modernity, 1700-present, Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, Hampshire, UK.
- Woollacott, A 2009, 'Whiteness and 'the imperial turn'', in Boucher, L., Carey, J., & Ellinghaus, K. (ed.), Re-orienting Whiteness, Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, New York, pp. 17-30.
- Woollacott, A 2009, 'Frontier Violence and Settler Manhood', History Australia, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 11/1-15.
- Woollacott, A 2009, 'Making Empire Visible or Making Colonialism Visible? The Struggle for the British Imperial Past', British Scholar (pre 2010), vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 155-165.
- Woollacott, A 2009, 'The Colonial Actress: Empire, Modernity and the Exotic in Twentieth-Century London', in Levine, P., & Grayzel S. R. (ed.), Gender, Labour, War and Empire: Essays on Modern Britain, Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, Basingstoke, pp. 72-89.
- Woollacott, A 2008, 'London, New York and Hollywood: Three 'Australians' on the World Stage', in Robert Dixon and Veronica Kelly (ed.), Impact of the Modern: Vernacular Modernities in Australia 1870s-1960s, Sydney University Press, Sydney, pp. 185-201.
- Deacon, D, Russell, P & Woollacott, A, eds, 2008, Transnational Ties Australian Lives in the World, ANU ePress, Canberra, ACT.
- Woollacott, A 2008, 'Gender and Sexuality', in Deryck M. Schreuder and Stuart Ward (ed.), Australia's Empire, Oxford University Press, United States, pp. 312-335.
- Woollacott, A 2007, 'Rose Quong Becomes Chinese: An Australian in London and New York', Australian Historical Studies, vol. 38, no. 129, pp. 16-31.
- Woollacott, A 2007, 'A Feminist History of Violence: History as a Weapon of Liberation?', Lilith: A Feminist History Journal, vol. 16, pp. 1-12.
- Woollacott, A 2006, 'Gender and war, gender and peace new perspectives', Australian Feminist Studies, vol. 21, no. 51, pp. 389-391.
- Woollacott, A 2006, Gender and Empire, Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, New York.
- Woollacott, A 2005, 'Russel Ward, Frontier Violence and Australian Historiography', Journal of Australian Colonial History, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 23-36.
- Woollacott, A 2005, 'Modernity', in M Spongberg, A Curthoys and B Caine (ed.), Companion to Women's Historical Writing, Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, Basingstoke, UK, pp. 349-360.
- Woollacott, A 2005, 'Women Writing History', Journal of Women's History, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 181-193.
- Woollacott, A 2005, 'Postcolonial histories and Catherine Hall's Civilising Subjects', in Ann Curthoys and Marilyn Lake (ed.), Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective, ANU ePress, Canberra, Australia, pp. 63-74.
- Woollacott, A 2003, 'Creating the White Colonial Woman: Mary Gaunt's Imperial Adventure and Australian Cultural History', in Hsu-Ming Teo and Richard White (ed.), Cultural History in Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney, pp. 186-200.
- Woollacott, A 2002, 'The Metropole as Antipodes: Australian Women in London and Constructing National Idenitity', in Pamela K. Gilbert (ed.), Imagined Londons, State University of New York Press, Albany NY, pp. 85-99.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Challenging colonialism: Australians who helped us embrace human equality (Primary Investigator)
- Don Dunstan and political and social reform in Australia (Primary Investigator)
- Settler society in the Australian colonies: The political and cultural changes of the 1830s-1860s in imperial context (Primary Investigator)
