Professor Emerita Joan Beaumont
Affiliation: Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University
Discipline: History, heritage and archaeology
Year elected: 1997
How would you describe your work at a dinner party?
Historians of the two world wars and Australia’s role in these.
What role do the social sciences play in your work?
I draw on psychology and economics in my studies of Australia at war and memory.
What initially drew you to your field of study?
I wanted to understand why war seems to be an ineradicable part of human society and why we as human beings create systems of order only to destroy them. I was also taught by a charismatic academic who had been imprisoned in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany.
Tell us about a recent moment of motivation or inspiration?
I recently visited the Atomic Bomb Museum at Hiroshima and nearby gardens where many victims died of burns. It gave me a new appreciation of the absolute horror of nuclear weapons.
What continues to motivate your work?
Writing is never a hardship. It is integral to my sense of well being and identity
What question or issue, in your field, keeps you awake at night?
The lack of professional opportunities for young historians and the parlous state of Australian universities, because of the lack of government support.
What should your field of study be doing more of right now?
Integrating an understanding of the finances and economics of war into traditional military and diplomatic history
What are you most proud of?
In my own research, my two books on Australia in World War I and the Great Depression. Personally my three adult daughters, wonderfully competent and socially aware women.
Where is your ‘happy’ place?
Sitting on my balcony, with my 180 degree view of Melbourne, with my cat, Emmeline Pankhurst.
What is your desert island book, song and/or movie?
Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs (Vier letzte Lieder), 3rd song, “Beim Schlafengehen