Ann McGrath

Biography

Ann McGrath is a historian of deep history, gender, colonialism, Indigenous relations and intermarriage in Australia and North America. Her work has been recognised through numerous awards including the NSW Premier’s History Prize; United Nations Association of Australia Media Award; Member of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to Indigenous studies; Archibald Hanna Junior Fellowship in American History; Inaugural W.K. Hancock Prize; Human Rights Award for non-fiction; and John Barrett Prize. Ann has been a director and coordinator for several multi-disciplinary government enquiries, leading the national history project for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

She is a leader in digital humanities scholarship, preparing innovative multimedia platforms for research and delivery, including documentary film, web and downloadable interactive projects. Her films A Frontier Conversation (2006) and Message from Mungo (2014) have been distributed internationally and selected for numerous film festivals and screenings in Australia, the US and Europe.

Professor McGrath is Distinguished Professor in the School of History, Research School of Social Sciences, at the Australian National University where she holds the 2017 Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship. Between 2003-18, she occupied the post of inaugural Director of the Australian Centre for Indigenous History.