First World War, the Universities and the Professions in Australia 1914-1939

Australia's extraordinary contribution to World War I extended well beyond its military forces to the expertise of its universities and professional men and women. Scientists and engineers oversaw the manufacture of munitions and the development of chemical weapons. Doctors sustained soldiers in the trenches, and treated the physically and psychologically damaged. Public servants, lawyers and translators were employed in the war bureaucracy, while artists and writers found new modes to convey the trauma of war. The graduates and staff of Australia's six universities—Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Tasmania, Queensland and Western Australia and Queensland—were involved in this expansion of expertise.

But what did these men and women do after the guns were silenced? How were the professions and universities transformed by the immediate and longer-term impacts of the war?

The First World War, the Universities and the Professions examines how the technical and conceptual advances that occurred during World War I transformed…

About the Editors

Kate Darian-Smith is Executive Dean and Pro Vice-Chancellor, College of Arts, Law and Education at the University of Tasmania. A historian, she has published widely on war, childhood, media, memory and heritage, including On the Home Front (MUP). Kate is an investigator on the Expert Nation research project on Australian universities and World War I, funded by the Australian Research Council.

James Waghorne co-ordinates the History of Universities Program in the Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne. He has published histories of lobby groups, and professional and community organisations, and currently writing histories of the Student Union, University of Melbourne and (with Gwilym Croucher) the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee. James is an investigator on the Expert Nation research project, funded by the Australian Research Council.