Academy Fellow

Frank Bongiorno is Director of the Vice-Chancellor's Centre of Public Ideas and Donald Horne Professor of History and Public Ideas at the University of Canberra. He is also a Distinguished Fellow of the Whitlam Institute within Western Sydney University and Emeritus Professor of History at the Australian National University.

He publishes primarily in the fields of Australian history and historiography, with an emphasis on contemporary history or the history of the recent past. His work applies insights from various sub-fields of history in exploring major themes such as sexuality, politics, war, culture and identity. Frank’s work treats politics and policy as critical to an understanding of historical process, but his research moves beyond a narrow focus on either to explore wider cultural and social contexts, meanings and impacts.

His books include Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia (2022), which won the ACT Book of the Year and Henry Mayer Book Prize of the Australian Political Studies Association; The Eighties: The Decade That Transformed Australia (2015; 2017); and The Sex Lives of Australians: A History (2012; 2015), both of which won ACT Book of the Year while being shortlisted for other national prizes. He has promoted the social sciences more generally as chair of the Social Sciences Board of the Australian National University Press.

Frank trained initially in labour history and is regarded as an authority on the history of the Australian labour movement, and especially the Australian Labor Party on which he has published widely. He is active in this scholarly community as vice-president of the Canberra Region Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, an editorial board member of Labour History, and a national executive member of the society.

Frank has served his discipline by co-editing the Australian Historical Association’s journal, History Australia, for three years from 2013 to 2015, continuing its transformation into a high-profile journal with a broad international focus. He has been President of the Australian Historical Association and is current President of the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. He has also been active as an advocate for archives, serving in recent years on the Advisory Council of the National Archives of Australia. He is also on the Editorial Board of the Documents on Australian Foreign Policy project in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Frank writes and reviews for a wide range of media as well as appearing regularly on television and radio, and at exhibitions, writers’ festivals and public lectures and panels. His historical work seeks to interpret Australia’s past for a wide audience who will approach history through a variety of media, and with a wide range of interests and perspectives.

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Member, Australian Historical Association

Member, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History

Member (AM) of the Order of Australia, 2019

1. Bongiorno, Frank 2022, Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia, La Trobe University Press in conjunction with Black Inc., Carlton, Victoria
2. Bongiorno, Frank 2015, The Eighties: The Decade That Transformed Australia, Black Inc., Collingwood, Victoria.
3. Bongiorno, Frank 2012, The Sex Lives of Australians: A History, Black Inc. Collingwood, Victoria
4. Dyrenfurth, Nick and Bongiorno, Frank 2024 (second edition), A Little History of the Australian Labor Party, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney.