Dr William Westerman graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in history and international studies, and first-class Honours in history. He then completed a PhD with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales (Canberra), researching Australian battalion commanders in the First World War. In 2014 and 2015 Dr Westerman tutored at Monash University in nineteenth- and twentieth-century history, and in early 2016 worked as a teaching fellow with the Military and Defence Studies Program, Australian Command and Staff College, at the Australian National University.
Dr Tristan Moss completed his PhD at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University in 2015. His first book, Guarding the periphery: the Australian Army in Papua New Guinea, 1951–75, is set to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2017. In 2013–14 Dr Moss co-authored (with Professor Joan Beaumont) “The Thai–Burma Railway and Hellfire Pass: Australian prisoners of war on the Thai–Burma Railway 1942–1945” for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. He was a teaching fellow at the Australian Command and Staff College in 2016, and worked on both the Serving Our Country project, investigating Indigenous service in the Australian Defence Force, and the Official History of Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post–Cold War Operations.
Dr Chad Mitcham received his PhD in history at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London in 2000. Since 2010 he has been a contract researcher and consultant historian with the Historical Research and Publications Unit at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, where he has contributed to several publications, including Australia and the United Nations (2013) and volumes of Documents on Australian Foreign Policy. From 2014 to 2016 Dr Mitcham was based at the Australian National University’s School of History, where he worked as a joint researcher on a biography of Sir John Crawford. He continues to contribute entries to the Australian Dictionary of Biography and his research interests include matters relating to conflict, defence, and security, including international organisations, counter-insurgency, trade diplomacy, reconstruction, and development. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2008, and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University’s School of History and the University of New South Wales (Canberra). He has been writing books under contract for Routledge (New York, London) since 2003.
Dr Margaret Hutchison completed her PhD at the Australian National University in 2015, focusing on memory-making and Australia’s official art scheme of the First World War. She has published widely on war and art and has received a number of grants and awards, including an Australian Academy of the Humanities Travelling Fellowship. Between 2012 and 2015 she worked as a tutor and Graduate Teaching Fellow at the Australian National University, teaching courses on the First and Second World Wars. Most recently, she worked as a historical researcher for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Dr Tom Richardson completed his doctorate, “As if we’d never really been there? Pacification in Phuoc Tuy Province, Republic of Vietnam, 1966–1972”, at the University of New South Wales in 2014. Prior to this he attended Monash University, receiving a first-class Honours degree in 2009. His research interests include Australian military history, the Vietnam War, and counter-insurgency. Before joining the Official History team Dr Richardson worked as an associate lecturer in history at the University of New South Wales (Canberra).
Miesje de Vogel is a doctoral candidate with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales (Canberra), focusing on Australian war financing during the Second World War. She has previously worked at the Australian War Memorial on the Official History of Australian Peacekeeping in East Timor and the Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post–Cold War Operations. She has written two chapters on the involvement of the Australian Federal Police, civilian election monitors, and the Australian Army in Mozambique for a forthcoming series publication on Australian peacekeeping commitments in Africa. She is also currently part of the Memorial’s project examining the medical legacies of the Vietnam War, conducting interviews of veterans in the New South Wales and Queensland regions.
Project Support Officer
Ashleigh Brown graduated from the Australian National University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts in history and Australian studies. She is currently in the final stages of a Master of Philosophy in history with the University of New South Wales (Canberra), focusing on Australian brigade commanders of the First World War. She has been involved with the Australian War Memorial since 2012, beginning as a voluntary guide, and since then she has worked in various roles within Commemoration & Visitor Engagement before joining the Official History team.
