About the team
contact: david.lowe[at]deakin.edu.au
David Lowe
David is a historian of modern international relations, and Australia's role therein. Ever since writing about Menzies's attempts to create a national security state in the early 1950s in Australia he has been keen explore the history of the idea of national security.
In addition to this project, he is working on a history of the Colombo Plan for postwar aid to South and Southeast Asia.
Carolyn Holbrook
Carolyn is an ARC DECRA fellow in the Contemporary Histories Research Group at Deakin University, and the Director of Australian Policy and History. She is currently researching a history of how Australians have regarded their federation since 1901.
With James Walter, Carolyn is writing a history of political decision-making in Australia. Carolyn is part of an ARC Linkage team with the Victorian Cancer Council researching the history of anti-cancer campaigns, and is also writing about the history of public health care systems, with international colleagues.
Previously, she has written about how we remember the First World War in Anzac: The Unauthorised Biography (NewSouth, 2014) and The Great War: Aftermath and Commemoration (UNSW Press, 2019), the latter edited with Keir Reeves.
A co-edited volume, Lessons from History: Leading Historians Tackle Australia’s Greatest Challenges will be published by NewSouth in July 2022.
contact: carolyn.holbrook[at]deakin.edu.au
Eckart Conze
Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Maburg, Germany, Eckart is a partner investigator on the project.
Eckart's research focuses on the history of security, and he is a founding member of the "Dynamics of Security" Collaborative Research Centre in Germany.
Mia Martin Hobbs
Mia is a research fellow on the project. She is currently investigating parliamentary records, newspapers, television, polling, and social media, analysing the different uses of "national security" by politicians, journalists, and others in the Australian public sphere.
Mia is also developing an independent project with women and minority veterans who fought in the US, UK, and Australian militaries since 9/11. See more about Mia's research here.
contact: mia.martinhobbs[at]deakin.edu.au