Michelle is professor of history at Macquarie University. Her first book, Upstaged: Australian Women Playwrights in the Limelight at Last, (Currency, 2002) and was shortlisted for five national prizes in 2003. Michelle was a presenter on the ABC TV history series Rewind in 2004. Her second book, Friday on Our Minds: Popular Culture in Australia since 1945 (UNSW Press 2009) was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Australian History Prize. She won an ALTC citation for her teaching in 2010. Michelle served on the advisory panel of the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History between 2009-12. She has published numerous book chapters and articles on topics ranging from the Lindy Chamberlain case, the history of the women's movement, Helen Reddy's feminist anthem I Am Woman, reality history TV, Australian popular culture, and the representation of history on television. She has held research fellowships at the National Archives of Australia and the National Library of Australia. Her most recent book, The Seventies: The Personal, The Political and the Making of Modern Australia (NewSouth 2019) won the 2020 Ernest Scott Prize for History.
Experience
2020–present
Professor of History, Macquarie University
2012–2019
Associate Professor, Macquarie University
2010–2012
Senior lecturer, Macquarie University
2007–2009
Lecturer, Macquarie University
2004–2006
Associate Lecturer, Macquarie University
Education
1999
University of Sydney, PhD
1995
University of Sydney, Bachelor of Arts, (Hons 1)
Publications
2024
Personal Politics: Sexuality, Gender and the Remaking of Citizenship in Australia (with Leigh Boucher, Barbara Baird, and Robert Reynolds), Monash University Press
2023
Women and Whitlam: Revisiting the Revolution (ed), NewSouth
2019
Everyday Revolutions: Remaking Sexuality, Gender and Culture in 1970s Australia (ed with Angela Woollacott), ANU Press
2019
The Seventies: The Personal, The Political and the Making of Modern Australia, NewSouth
2016
Small Screens: Essays on Contemporary Australian Television (ed With Jeannine Baker and Clare Monagle), Monash University Press
2009
Friday on Our Minds: Popular Culture in Australia Since 1945, University of NSW Press
2009
The Chamberlain Case: Nation, Law, Memory (ed with Deborah Staines and Katherine Biber), ASP
2002
Upstaged: Australian Women Playwrights in the LImelight at Last , Currency Press
Honours
Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences, Australia