A/Prof Melanie Oppenheimer
Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, School of Humanities
Qualifications
PhD Macquarie Uni, 1997, M.Litt, UNE, 1988, BA, Dip.Ed., UNE, 1979
Contact
| Email: | melanie.oppenheimer@une.edu.au |
| Room: | Arts (E11) G.62 |
| Phone: | 02 6773 2125 (or +61 2 6773 2125 overseas) |
| Fax: | 02 6773 3520 |
| Mobile: | 0417 219 006 |
Affiliations
2001 – 2010 Committee member of National Executive, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History
1999 – 2010 Associate Editor of Labour History
2010 – Member of Editorial Board, Labour History
Recent Appointments
2009-2010 Member of Volunteering Policy Advisory Group to advise the Commonwealth government on policy issues
2009-10 Member of Advisory Panel for new National History Curriculum
2008-11 Member of NSW Board of Studies, Modern History Examination Committee
2008 - Member of Australian Dictionary of Biography’s military persons working party
Research interests
War and society; role of women in war; imperial feminism and roles of ‘ladies of rank’ including governors and governors-general’s wives especially Lady Helen Munro Ferguson and Lady Gowrie; soldier settlement in NSW; and the history of the Australian Assistance Plan.
Australian Red Cross
Hons and Awards
2007 UWS College of Arts Teaching Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching.
2006/7 National Archives of Australia (NAA) Margaret George Award to assist research for history of volunteering in Australia.
2003 Canadian Studies Faculty Research Award for comparative research project on Canadian and Australian civilian volunteering in World War II.
2003 Shortlisted for NSW Premiers’ History Awards
Areas of HDR Supervision
Twentieth century Australian history, especially the roles and impact of war and society; women and volunteering; gender and imperialism with a special interest in gender, voluntary organisations, charities and philanthropy, the Australian Red Cross and other non-government organisations.
Competitive Grants Held
2010-2013 ARC Linkage Award LP100200065 ‘Meals on Wheels: building towards a new social experiment for our times’
2010 – 2013 Appointed Centenary Historian for Australian Red Cross to research and write the organisation’s centenary history
2010 – March 2011 – Research Project with Great Community Transport Inc, Penrith and Blue Mountains, ‘Protection of volunteers in the workplace: a pilot study of Great Community Transport, Inc Penrith and Blue Mountains, NSW
2008-2011 ARC Linkage Award (with Professor Bruce Scates, Monash University). ‘A Land fit for Heroes: A social, cultural and environmental history of soldier settlement in NSW, 1916-1939’.
2001 Awarded Centenary of Federation and Australian Historical Association (AHA) Publication Grant to assist with the publication of PhD manuscript, All Work. No Pay. Australian Civilian Volunteers in War.
2000 NSW Centenary of Federation History Grants Scheme. Project Manager for Australian Red Cross project Archiving & Cataloguing the Records of Australian Red Cross, NSW’.
1999 the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) to convene a workshop on 'Volunteering in the New Millenium', held at UWS, Feb. 2000.
1999 Travel grant from the Wellcome Trust, as part of larger project ‘Women of Empire. Imperial Feminism and Women’s Movements, 1880-1920’.
1999 Small ARC Grant for project ‘Women of Empire. Imperial Feminism and Women's Movements, 1880-1920’.
1999 John Treloar Research Grant-in-Aid from the Australian War Memorial to continue research on project ‘Lady Helen Munro Ferguson and the Australian Red Cross,1914-1920’.
Refereed Publications
Books
2008 Volunteering: Why we can’t survive without it, UNSW Press, Sydney.
2008 Australian Women and War, Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Canberra
2006 Oceans of Love: Narrelle, An Australian Nurse in World War I ABC Books, Sydney.
2002 All Work. No Pay. Australian Civilian Volunteers in War, Ohio Productions, Walcha (shortlisted for NSW Premiers’ History Awards, 2003).
1999 Red Cross VAs. A History of the VAD Movement in NSW, Ohio Productions, Walcha.
Edited Books
2011 Melanie Oppenheimer and Nicholas Deakin, Beveridge and Voluntary Action in Britain and the wider British World, Manchester University Press, Manchester
2000 Jeni Warburton and Melanie Oppenheimer, Volunteers and Volunteering, Federation Press, Leichhardt
Contribution to Books
2010 ‘Fated to a life of suffering’: Graythwaite, the Australian Red Cross and returned soldiers, 1916-39’ in Martin Crotty and Marina Larsson (eds.), Anzac Legacies. Australians and the Aftermath of War, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, pp. 18-38.
2011 Melanie Oppenheimer and Nicholas Deakin, ‘Beveridge and Voluntary Action’ in Melanie Oppenheimer and Nicholas Deakin (eds.), Beveridge and Voluntary Action in Britain and the wider British World, Manchester University Press, Manchester, pp. 1-8.
2011 ‘Beveridge in the Antipodes: the 1948 tour’, in Melanie Oppenheimer and Nicholas Deakin (eds.), Beveridge and Voluntary Action in Britain and the wider British World, Manchester University Press, Manchester, pp. 66-79.
2008 ‘Aileen Elizabeth Lynch’, in Di Langmore (ed), Australian Dictionary of Biography vol. 18, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne (forthcoming)
2008 ‘Eleanor Manning’ in Di Langmore (ed), Australian Dictionary of Biography vol. 18, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne (forthcoming)
2007 ‘Kathleen Hope Barnes’ in Di Langmore (ed), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 17, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
2007 ‘Thelma Bate’, in Di Langmore (ed), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 17, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
2005 ‘Australians and War’, with Bruce Scates, in Martyn Lyons and Penny Russell (eds.), Australia’s History: Themes and Debates, UNSW Press, Sydney, pp. 134-151.
2005 ‘Raymond Goward’ in Christopher Cunneen (ed), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplement, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
2005 ‘Australian Red Cross Society’, in Andrew Brown-May and Shurlee Swain (eds), Encyclopedia of Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
2002 ‘Commentary. Changes in the Nature of Work and Employment Relations: An Historical Perspective’, in Ron Callus and Russell Lansbury (eds.), Working Futures, Federation Press, Leichhardt, pp. 39-45.
2002 ‘Philadelphia Robertson’ in John Ritchie (ed), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 16, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
2001 Four articles in Joan Beaumont (ed.), Centenary History of the Australian Defence Forces. Sources and Statistics Volume, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
2000 ‘(Clarence) Roy McKerihan’ in John Ritchie (ed), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 15, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
2000 ‘Introduction’, in J. Warburton & M. Oppenheimer (eds.), Volunteers and Volunteering, Federation Press, Leichhardt, pp. 1-8
2000 ‘An Overview of the Voluntary Principle in Australia’, in J. Warburton & M. Oppenheimer (eds.), Volunteers and Volunteering, Federation Press, Leichhardt, pp. 9-18.
2000 ‘Home Front Largesse. Colonial Patriotic Funds and the Boer War’, in Peter Dennis and Jeffrey Grey (eds.), The Boer War: Army, Empire, Nation, Canberra, pp. 200-214.
1998 ‘Voluntary Action on the Australian Home Front during World War II', in Carl Bridge (ed.), Ranging Shots: New Directions in Australian Military History, SRMCAS, University of London, pp. 45-65.
1996 ‘Erna Keighley’ in John Ritchie (ed), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 14, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
Refereed Articles in Academic Journals
2010 ‘The “imperial girl”: Lady Helen Munro Ferguson, the imperial woman and her imperial childhood’, Journal of Australian Studies, vol. 34, no. 4, December, pp. 513-525.
2008 ‘Voluntary Action, Social Welfare and the Australian Assistance Plan in the 1970s’, Australian Historical Studies, vol. 39, no. 132, June, pp. 167-182.
2005 ‘Voluntary Action and Welfare in post-1945 Australia: Preliminary Perspectives’, History Australia, vol. 2, issue 3, December, pp. 82.1-82.16.
2005 with Justin Davis-Smith, ‘The Labour Movement and Voluntary Action in the UK and Australia: A Comparative Perspective’, Labour History, no. 88, May, pp. 105-120.
2005 ”Hidden under many bushels”: Lady Victoria Plunket and the NZ Society for the Health of Women and Children, 1907-1918, NZ Journal of History, vol. 39, no. 1 April, pp. 22-38.
2004 ‘Controlling Civilian Volunteering: Canada and Australia during the Second World War’, War and Society, vol. 22, no. 2, October, pp. 27-50.
2004 with Jeni Warburton & Gianni Zappala, ‘Marginalizing Australia’s volunteers: the need for socially inclusive practices in the non-profit sector’, Australian Journal on Volunteering, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 33-40.
2003 ‘Taking the Road Less Travelled: A Perspective on Third Sector Historical Research in the Twentieth Century’, Third Sector Review, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 135-146.
2002 ‘The Best PM for the Empire in War’? Lady Helen Munro Ferguson and the Australian Red Cross Society, 1914-1920’, Australian Historical Studies, no. 119, April, pp. 108-124.
2002 ‘Retooling the Class Factory: From Monochrome to Technicolour: Adding the Lens of Unpaid Labour’, Labour History, no. 82, May, pp. 124-126.
2001 ‘Rights and Protection of Volunteer Workers: Some Preliminary Considerations’, Australian Journal on Volunteering, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 139-144.
2001 ‘We all did Voluntary Work of some kind: Voluntary Work and Labour History’, Labour History, no. 81, November, pp. 1-12.
2000 ‘Controlling Wartime Patriotic Funds in Australia. The National Security (Patriotic Funds) Regulations, 1940-1953’, War and Society, vol. 18, no. 1, May, pp. 71-90.
1998 'Voluntary work and labour history', Labour History, no. 74, May, pp. 1-9.
1998 ‘Extending the Boundaries: Labour History and Voluntary Work’, Locality, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 16-20.
1996 '"Working for the Duration?" Voluntary Work in Queensland during World War Two', Queensland Review, vol. 3, no. 1, April 1996, pp. 73-82.
1995 ‘Alleviating Distress. The Lord Mayor's Patriotic Fund in NSW, 1914-1920’, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, volume 81, part 1, June 1995, pp. 85-98.
1993 ‘Gifts for France: Australian Red Cross Nurses in France, 1916-1919’, Journal of Australian Studies, No 39, 1993, pp. 65-78.
1991 ‘VAs: Australian Voluntary Aids during the Second World War’, Journal of the Australian War Memorial, No. 18, April 1991, pp. 28-34.
Media and Newspapers
2009, Third series of Vita Activa, Life Matters, ABC Radio National
2009-2011 Regular Historian in the History Classroom, Tuesdays with Kelly Fuller, ABC Local Radio New England, Northwest
2007-2008 Creator and regular guest on series Vita Activa. Discovering the Third Sector, ABC Radio National daily program, Life Matters. See www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters
2008 Opinion piece, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 September
2008 Opinion piece, The Australian, Higher Education Supplement, 14 May
2007 Essay, ‘Whither Anzacette’, The Australian Literary Review 7 November
2007 Opinion piece, The Age, 24 April ‘Nurses in War’