Carolyn Rasmussen combines scholarly work in Australian Labour History and Biography with work as a public historian which ranges across the history of Victorian public institutions, science and technology, education, and the role of women in these areas.
Educated at Coburg High School and the University of Melbourne, after some years teaching in Victorian technical and secondary schools she returned to the University of Melbourne to complete an MA and PhD in labour history and the peace movement (published as The Lesser Evil? : Opposition to War and Fascism in Australia 1920-1941).Following the publication of an HSC textbook on early colonial Australia she embarked on a career as a public historian in 1985.
Her major publications include Poor Man's University: Seventy Five Years of Technical Education in Footscray; Vital Connections: Melbourne and its Board of Works 1891 to 1991, (with Tony Dingle); A Place Apart, The University of Melbourne: Decades of Challenge (with John Poynter); a chapter on women scientists, in F. Kelly (ed. ), On the Edge of Discovery: Australian Women in Science; Lauriston: 150 Years of Educating Girls; A Museum for the People: A history of Museum Victoria and its predecessors, 1854-2000, which was judged best print publication, Victorian Community History Awards, 2002; a short history of the Science Faculty at the University of Melbourne; Increasing Momentum: Engineering at the University of Melbourne 1861-2004; and ‘A Whole New World’ 100 years of Education at University High School.
Since 1996 she has been a member of the Victorian Working Party of the Australian Dictionary of Biography project to which she has contributed fourteen entries. In 2011 she was appointed to the National Editorial Board, and chair of the Victorian Working Party in 2016. In 2004 she received a State Library of Victoria Creative Fellowship to further her joint biography of the radical political and social activists, Maurice and Doris Blackburn. In 2011 an Australia Council Literature Board grant enabled significant further progress on this work. Other biographical publications include chapters in M. Lake & F. Kelly (eds), Double Time: Women in Victoria - 150 years; Political Tourists: Travellers from Australia to the Soviet Union in the 1920s-1940s, which she co-edited with Sheila Fitzpatrick, and ‘Double Helix, Double Joy’: David Danks the Father of Clinical Genetics in Australia.
She was an executive member of the History Institute of Victoria and is a foundation member of the Professional Historians Association. She has been an honorary fellow/senior fellow in History at the University of Melbourne since 1990 and was an active member of the History of Melbourne University Unit from its inception in 1995 until 2014. As Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow from 2013-2016 she prepared an up-dated history of the University of Melbourne published in 2018 as Shifting the Boundaries: The University of Melbourne 1975-2015. Her joint biography of Maurice and Doris Blackburn, The Blackburns: Private Lives, Public Ambition was published by MUP in March 2019. She is currently working on a history of Computer Science at the University of Melbourne.
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Scholarly Works
Displaying the 25 most recent scholarly works by Carolyn Rasmussen.
Honours, Awards and Fellowships
Best Print Publication
Highly commended, Best Print Publication: Commercial for 'A Whole New World': 100 Years of Education at University High School.
For completion of a joint biography of Maurice and Doris Blackburn
For work towards a joint biography of Maurice and Doris Blackburn
Best Print Publication for 'A Museum for the People: A History of Museum Victoria and its Predecessors, 1854-2000.
Credentials
Positions
Honorary
Historical And Philosophical Studies
Senior
Victorian Working Party, Australian Dictionary of Biography
National Editorial Board, Australian Dictionary Of Biography
National Editorial Board, Australian Dictionary of Biography
Professional Member
Professional Historians Association of Victoria & Tasmania
Education
Master of Arts
University of Melbourne
Bachelor of Arts
University of Melbourne
Diploma in Education
University of Melbourne
Doctor of Philosophy
University of Melbourne