Biography

I gained a Ph.D. in History at the University of Sydney in 2005. My dissertation, "Contested Legitimacy after the Cold War: The Bundestag Commissions of Inquiry into the East German past," examined unified Germany’s efforts to "work through" the communist past of East Germany. Specifically, it examined two commissions of inquiry established by the Bundestag to investigate Germany’s divided postwar history. I was awarded the Jean Monnet Thesis Prize for 2005 by the Contemporary Europe Research Centre in Melbourne, and a revised version of the thesis is under contract with Berghahn Books with the working title "Playing Politics with History: German Pasts and the Bundestag Inquiries into East Germany."
Since 2002 I have been lecturer in German Studies at the Institute for International Studies of the University of Technology, Sydney. During a sabbatical in 2006 I was visiting fellow and guest lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, and after my Max Weber Fellowship I will be visiting fellow at the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung in Potsdam, before returning to UTS in January 2008.

During 2006-7 I have revised my thesis and written several papers, articles and chapters expanding on my doctoral research, while also trying to develop new projects. The main new project is "From perpetrators to victims: Soviet internment, denazification and anticommunism in postwar Germany, 1945-1961," which examines interpretations and representations of Soviet "special camps" established in eastern Germany in the wake of the Second World War. The project is funded by a UTS Early Career Researcher Grant and resulted in one book chapter published during the year, as well as a conference paper and my Max Weber Working Paper.

I have found the EUI to be a stimulating academic environment and my Max Weber Fellowship an excellent opportunity to focus on research and develop international contacts.