History for Writers and Readers

The Department of History is offering new postgraduate courses taught by prize-winning authors, biographers, and film-makers: all leading historians!

Units of Study can be undertaken as non-award (single) units of study, or as part of a Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma, or Master of Arts by Coursework.

For more information on each of these options, please go to the History Postgraduate Coursework page in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Or download an application form here.

Dr James Curran
Room 817 MacCallum Building

+61 2 9351 4003

Your lecturers

This is your chance to have first-hand experience work with some of Australia's leading teachers and writers of history, many of whom are multi-award-winning authors in their field. For a full profile on the coordinators of each of the units offered over the following year, just click on the name of the unit's coordinator. For a list of other participating academics from the Department of History, each of whom are also prize-winning writers, see the list of other featured lecturers.

Literary London

Chris Hilliard
Senior Lecturer

The city in literature, and the hubs of literary life, from publishers to pubs. Taught by Chris Hilliard, author of To Exercise Our Talents, a history of writers’ clubs and the democratization of writing.
HSTY6996 Literary London

Writing History for Publication

Julia Horne
University Historian

Seminars and practical workshops on the how and what of writing history, with Julia Horne, oral historian, and author of The Pursuit of Wonder: How Australia’s Landscape Was Explored, Nature Discovered and Tourism Unleashed.

Biography

Mark McKenna
Senior Research Fellow

Practice and Theory with Mark McKenna, biographer of Manning Clark and author of Looking for Blackfella's Point, winner of Book of the Year and the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction, 2003 NSW Premier's Literary Awards.

Exploring Historical Formats

Iain McCalman
Professorial Research Fellow and ARC Research Fellow

History beyond the printed page, from film to museums to the web and beyond. Taught by Iain McCalman AO, author of The Seven Trials of Count Cagliostro, documentary maker, and Australia's most decorated historian.

Historical Fiction

Jonathan Walker
International Research Fellow

The fiction of history and the history of fiction, with photographer, historian, and creative writer Jonathan Walker, author of Pistols! Treason! Murder!: The Rise and Fall of a Master Spy.

Writing the Past

Richard Waterhouse
Bicentennial Professor of Australian History

An introduction to the practice of history, taught by Richard Waterhouse, Bicentennial Professor of Australian History and author of The Vision Splendid: A Social and Cultural History of Rural Australia.

Featured lecturers

Together with those profiled above, other academics to participate in History for Writers and Readers include:

• Cassandra Pybus, Prize-winning author of over a dozen non-fiction books
• Martin Thomas, broadcaster and the author of The Artificial Horizon: Imagining the Blue Mountains, winner of the Gleebooks Prize in 2004 and NSW Premier's Literary Awards, and
• Peter Read, biographer, historian and author of Haunted Earth