John Murphy retired in January 2024, and is now appointed as an Emeritus Professor.

He researches Australian politics and history, and comparative social policy history, with a developing focus on Indonesian social protection.

He has expertise in social policy, examined historically and comparatively. He has published research on Australian social, political and policy history, public narratives about welfare, masculinity and nation, and memory, historiography and biography.

He previously taught at RMIT University where he was Director of the Centre for Applied Social Research. In the Faculty of Arts at Melbourne, he was previously the Associate Dean (Research and Research Training), Assistant Dean for the PhD Program, Deputy Dean and Acting Dean.

Forthcoming Dec 2024

An Unlikely Survival; The politics of welfare in Australia since 1950

Recent publications:

(2023) with Andrew Rosser, Contesting Social Welfare in Southeast Asia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

(2020) "Social Protection and Vulnerability: Australia's distinctive public policy profile" in Jenny Lewis and Anne Tiernan (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Australian Politics

DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198805465.013.10

(2019) "The historical development of Indonesian social security, Asian Journal of Social Science, vol. 47, no. 2, May/June, pp. 255-279 br /> br />

(2016) Evatt: A life, NewSouth Publishing, Sydney
Short-listed for:

Prime Minister's Literary Awards, Australian History prize (2017)
National Biography Award (2017)
CHASS (Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences), Australia Prize (2017)
Queensland Literary Awards, History Book Award (2017)

(2013) "Conditional Inclusion: Aborigines and welfare rights in Australia, 1900-1947, Australian Historical Studies, vol. 44, no. 2, June, pp. 206-226,

(2011) A Decent Provision: Australian welfare policy, 1870 to 1949, (Ashgate, UK)

(2011) Half a Citizen: Life on welfare in Australia, with Suellen Murray, Jenny Chalmers, Sonia Martin & Greg Marston, (Allen & Unwin),
awarded the Australian Human Rights Commission 2011 Award

Previous books:

(2000) Imagining the Fifties: Private Sentiment and Political Culture in Menzies' Australia (UNSW Press),

(1993) Harvest of Fear: a History of Australia's Vietnam War (Allen and Unwin, Sydney and Westview Press, USA),

(2009) with Suellen Murray, Elizabeth Branigan and Jenny Malone, After the Orphanage: Life beyond the children's home; (UNSW Press) www.newsouthbooks.com.au/isbn/9781921410901.htm

Prof

John Murphy

Honorary (Professor Emeritus)

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Faculty of Arts

Primary Interest

Social policy development in South East Asia

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