Senior Lecturer
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
BA (Honours First Class), University of Melbourne, 2003
PhD (in History), University of Melbourne, 2009
2025-29: Australian Research Council Discovery Project CI for"Pacific Powers: Imperial Competition and Cooperation in Micronesia" ($618,568)
2020: Flinders University COVID-19 Research Grant ($12,000)
2018: Catherine Helen Spence Memorial Scholarship ($25,000)
2012: Invited participant in the US Department of State’s International Visiting Leadership Program on ‘Security in Asia’
2011: Establishment Grant, Flinders Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences ($8,000)
2009: Overseas Conference Leave funding, Flinders Faculty of Social Sciences
2005: Gerald R. Ford Foundation Research Travel Grant, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library ($2,000)
2005: Lillian Ernestine Lobb Scholarship, University of Melbourne ($8,000)
2005: Postgraduate Overseas Research Experience Scholarship, School of Graduate Studies ($3,500)
2005: Travel for Research in Postgraduate Study, Faculty of Arts ($1,350)
2004-8: Australian Postgraduate Award
2003: Margaret Kiddle Prize for the best fourth year thesis in pure or combined History, University of Melbourne ($590)
2003: Jessie Mary Vasey Prize for best thesis in Women’s History, University of Melbourne ($1,000)
My focus is U.S. history and I teach topics that run from the 1600s to the 2020s. I have an interest in social history (gender, race, class, religion) and also political history.
President of the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association
Recent Invited Commentary
Abortion did not play as big a role in the US election as many anticipated. What might happen on this issue now?, The Conversation, November 2024
Abortion is back in the headlines in Australia. The debates in the United States tell us why, The Conversation, October 2024
Republicans once championed immigration in the US. Why has the party’s rhetoric – and public opinion – changed so dramatically?, The Conversation, October 2024
George Washington didn’t have biological children. So, why is the criticism of Kamala Harris touching such a nerve?, The Conversation, July 2024
‘Kamala IS brat’: how the power of pop music has influenced 60 years of US elections, The Conversation, July 2024
6 in 10 Americans support abortion rights. This could be the advantage Kamala Harris needs against Donald Trump, The Conversation, July 2024
Will abortion be the issue that swings the 2024 US presidential election?, The Conversation, February 2024
How Ronald Reagan led the 1960 actors' strike - and then bcame an anti-union president, The Conversation, July 2023
After 49 years, outlawing abortion in the US won’t stop abortions - it will just make them dangerous, Sydney Morning Herald, May 2022
US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade - but for abortion opponents, this is just the beginning, The Conversation, June 2022
The end of Roe v. Wade would likely embolden global anti-abortion activists and politicians, The Conversation, May 2022
Will Roe v Wade be overturned, and what would this mean? The US abortion debate explained, The Conversation, December 2021
Playing Politics with the Court: The US Supreme Court, Abortion, and Republican Electoral Strategy, Australian Outlook, October 2020
What would Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court, mean for abortion rights in the US?, The Conversation, September 2020
How the US right-to-life movement is influencing the abortion debate in Australia, The Conversation, August 2019
US states pushing for Roe v Wade test case in Supreme Court, The Interpreter, July 2019