Joy Damousi


Joy Damousi, is an Australian historian and a Professor of History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. She is the current President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Her work is on Australian cultural history, women’s history, memory, trauma and the aftermaths of war, the history of emotions and psychoanalysis, and migration history in relation to refugees, humanitarianism and internationalism. In 2014, she was awarded the Australian Research Council Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship for her research leadership and scholarly excellence.

Early life and education

Damousi was born in Melbourne, Victoria. Her parents George and Sophia migrated to Australia from Greece in 1956 and 1957 respectively. Damousi graduated from La Trobe University where she completed her Bachelor of Arts and the Australian National University where she graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in 1987.

Academic career

Damousi held contract positions at Monash University, La Trobe University, and the University of Melbourne where she accepted a tenured position in 1996. She was appointed as Professor of History in 2004 and has held positions of leadership within the University of Melbourne, including Associate Dean Research in the Faculty of Arts, Pro Vice Chancellor Research and also as the inaugural Head of the School of Historical Studies.
Damousi was appointed as a Research Evaluation Committee Chair for the Humanities and Creative Arts disciplines as part the Excellence in Research for Australia initiative of the Australian Research Council for 2012. On 18 November 2017 she was elected as President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. From 2014 to 2015, she was also a member of the ARC Research Evaluation Committee Humanities and creative arts.
As part of the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship, Damousi manages the related fellowship mentoring scheme. This scheme involves mentoring, training and workshops aimed to develop the careers of early career female researchers at the PhD level.

Awards and honours

Damousi's book Freud in the Antipodes: A Cultural History of Psychoanalysis in Australia was awarded the Ernest Scott Prize for the most distinguished contribution to the history of Australia or New Zealand or to the history of colonisation in 2006. Other books by Damousi have been shortlisted for prizes. Colonial Voices: A Cultural History of English in Australia, 1840–1940 was short-listed for the New South Wales Premier's History Awards, Australian History Prize in 2011.
Damousi was elected as a Fellow of both the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Australian Academy of Humanities in 2004. She was the 2015 Fred Alexander Fellow in History at the University of Western Australia, and is a holder of the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Fellowship for "outstanding female researchers in humanities, arts and social sciences".

Publications

Monographs