Professor Christina Twomey joined the ARC as its inaugural Chief Research Officer in January 2023.
An experienced academic leader, Christina is former Vice-President of Monash University’s Academic Board and was also Head of the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies in the Faculty of Arts (2017-21). A member of the ARC College of Experts (2019-21), her elected positions have included Chair of the Board of Australian Historical Studies (after a term as Editor, 2012-15), Executive of the Australian Historical Association and President of the International Australian Studies Association. She has led submissions to research evaluation processes.
Christina is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. In 2012, she was the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Distinguished Visiting Chair of Australian Studies at the University of Copenhagen and in 2018, a Visiting Professor at Kyushu University, Japan. She is a member, by Ministerial invitation, of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Editorial Advisory Board.
A prize-winning historian, Christina research focuses on the social and cultural history of war, with a particular interest in imprisonment and internment, gendered violence, trauma, Australia-Asia relations, humanitarian and aid programmes, and visual cultures of atrocity. Her most recent work focuses on Australia’s Asian garrisons and regional engagement during the Cold War period.