Professor Thomas Griffiths

Contacts

Contact email:tom.griffiths@anu.edu.au
Contact phone:+61 2 6125 3345
Link:ANU Researchers profile
William Keith Hancock Professor of History
ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences

Tom Griffiths is a Professor of History in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University, Canberra, and Director of the Centre for Environmental History at ANU. His research, writing and teaching are in the fields of Australian social, cultural and environmental history, the comparative environmental history of settler societies, the writing of non-fiction, and the history of Antarctica. Tom's books and essays have won prizes in history, science, literature, politics and journalism. His most recent monograph, Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica (UNSW Press and Harvard University Press, 2007), won the Queensland and NSW Premiers' awards for Non-Fiction and was the joint winner of the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History in 2008.

Research interests

Australian cultural and environmental history; the comparative environmental history of settler societies; the history of Antarctica.

Groups

  • Griffiths, T 2015, 'Environmental History, Australian Style', Australian Historical Studies, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 157-173.
  • Griffiths, T 2015, 'A Polar Drama: The Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-14', in Martin Thomas (ed.), Expedition into empire: exploratory journeys and the making of the modern world, Routledge, New York, USA and Abingdon, UK, pp. 171-193pp.
  • Griffiths, T 2014, 'Weather and Mind Games', in Ashley Hay (ed.), The Best Australian Science Writing 2014, NewSouth Publishing (an imprint of University of New South Wales Press), Sydney, pp. 50-72.
  • Griffiths, T 2014, 'The Beast of the Forest in The Edges of Environmental History: Honouring Jane Carruthers', Rachel Carson Center (RCC) Perspectives, vol. 1, pp. 37-43.
  • Griffiths, T 2014, 'Coming of Age in the Great Acceleration', Australian Book Review, no. November, pp. 8-11.
  • Griffiths, T 2013, 'In Antarctica', in Michelle Hetherington (ed.), Glorious Days Australia 1913, National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra, pp. 15-25pp.
  • Griffiths, T 2013, Debunking Mawson, p. 7.
  • Griffiths, T 2013, 'At dusk in the Gevaudan', Australian Book Review, vol. 354, no. September 2013, pp. 41-50.
  • Griffiths, T 2013, 'Foreword - The ADB's Story', in Melanie Nolan and Christine Fernon (ed.), The ADB's Story, ANU ePress, Canberra, pp. xi-xii.
  • Griffiths, T 2013, 'Commentary on Wallace S Broecker, 'unpleasant Surprises in the Greenhouse?' and JR Petit et al, 'Climate and Atmospheric History'', in L. Robin, S. Sorlin, P. Warde (ed.), The Future of Nature, Yale University Press, Yale, USA, pp. 337-362.
  • Griffiths, T 2013, 'Weather and Mind Games: Why can't we talk about climate change?', Griffith Review, vol. 41, pp. 20pp.
  • Griffiths, T 2013, 'Seeing the forest and the trees', in Anna Clark & Paul Ashton (ed.), Australian History Now, NewSouth Publishing (an imprint of University of New South Wales Press), Sydney, pp. 251-268.
  • Griffiths, T 2013, A landmark work of Australian history, p. 9.
  • Griffiths, T 2013, 'Australia's Culture of the Ice - Ninth Phillip Law Lecture', The Phillip Law Lectures, Department of Economic Development, Tourism and the Arts, Hobart, pp. 28-46.
  • Griffiths, T 2012, The Disturbing logic of Stay or Go, pp. online.
  • Griffiths, T 2012, 'The language of catastrophe: Forgetting, blaming and bursting into colour', Griffith Review, vol. 35, p. 13.
  • Griffiths, T 2012, 'The AAT and the Evolution of the Australian Nation', Australia's Antarctica - Proceedings of the Symposium to mark 75 years of the Australian Antarctic Territory, ed. J Jabour, M Haward, T Press, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Hobart Australia, pp. 13-22.
  • Griffiths, T 2012, 'Looking into the Ice', in Nancy Sever, Caroline Turner and Anthony Oates (ed.), Antarctica: Sidney Nolan, Jan Senbergs, Bea Maddock, Jorg Schmeisser, Anne Noble, Philip Hughes, Chris Drury, Australian National University Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra, Australia, pp. 8-11.
  • Griffiths, T 2012, 'Cultivating a Conversation', in Keir Wotherspoon and Erik Ropers (ed.), Written into History - Celebrating Fifty Years of the Melbourne Historical Journal, 1961-2011, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, pp. 223-225.
  • Griffiths, T 2012, Thus began the Australian occupation of Antarctica..., pp. 12-14.
  • Hansen, C & Griffiths, T 2012, Living with fire: People, nature and history in Steels Creek, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.
  • Griffiths, T 2012, 'We have still not lived long enough', in Irma Gold (ed.), The Invisible Thread: One Hundred Years of Words, Halstead Press, Canberra, pp. 48-52pp..
  • Griffiths, T 2012, Queen of Tides, pp. online.
  • Griffiths, T 2011, 'The Writing of A Million Wild Acres', in Eric Rolls (ed.), A Million Wild Acres: 200 Years of Man and an Australian Forest, Hale and Iremonger (an imprint of GHR Press), McMahon's Point, pp. xi-xxii.
  • Griffiths, T 2011, 'Foreword [Digging up a past]', in John Mulvaney (ed.), Digging up a past, UNSW Press, Sydney, pp. vii-xi.
  • Griffiths, T & Haward, M 2011, 'Introduction', in Marcus Haward and Tom Griffiths (ed.), Australia and the Antarctic Treaty System: 50 years of influence, UNSW Press, Sydney Australia, pp. 1-8.
  • Griffiths, T 2011, 'Sextants North & South', in Kari Herbert and Huw Lewis-Jones (ed.), In search of the South Pole, Conway (an imprint of Anova Books), London, UK, pp. 144-145.
  • Griffiths, T 2011, From the ashes, pp. online.
  • Griffiths, T & Haward, M, eds, 2011, Australia and the Antarctic Treaty System: 50 years of influence, UNSW Press, Sydney Australia.
  • Griffiths, T & Green, G 2011, 'Culture', in Marcus Haward and Tom Griffiths (ed.), Australia and the Antarctic Treaty System: 50 years of influence, UNSW Press, Sydney Australia, pp. 346-353.
  • Kawaja, M & Griffiths, T 2011, ''Our great frozen neighbour': Australia and Antarctica before the Treaty, 1880-1945', in Marcus Haward and Tom Griffiths (ed.), Australia and the Antarctic Treaty System: 50 years of influence, UNSW Press, Sydney Australia, pp. 9-47pp..
  • Griffiths, T 2010, 'The Frozen Past', The Wilson Quarterly:surveying the world of ideas, vol. Autumn.
  • Griffiths, T 2010, 'Dedication to Eric Rolls', Island, vol. 120, pp. 12-19.
  • Griffiths, T 2010, 'We have still not lived long enough: Black Friday and Black Saturday', Humanities Australia, vol. 1, pp. 23-33.
  • Griffiths, T 2010, 'The Antarctic Treaty in 1959', in (ed.), Australia and the Antarctic Treaty: Then and Now, University of Tasmania, Hobart Australia, pp. 9-15.
  • Griffiths, T 2010, 'Alice Duncan-Kemp (Pinningarra) and the history of the frontier', in L Robin, C R Dickman & M Martin (ed.), Desert Channels: The Impulse to Conserve, CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia, pp. 25-43.
  • Garrett, P, Griffiths, T & Richards, P 2010, Australia and the Antarctic Treaty - Then and Now.
  • Griffiths, T 2010, 'A humanist on thin ice', Griffith Review, vol. 29, pp. 67-117pp.
  • Griffiths, T & Attwood, B 2010, A radical among historians, The Australian Financial Review.
  • Griffiths, T 2009, ''An unnatural disaster'? Remembering and forgetting bushfire', History Australia, vol. 6, no. 2, p. 8.
  • Attwood, B & Griffiths, T, eds, 2009, Frontier, Race, Nation: Henry Reynolds and Australian History, Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd, North Melbourne.
  • Griffiths, T 2009, 'History and the Creative Imagination', History Australia, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 74.1 - 74.16.
  • Griffiths, T & Attwood, B 2009, 'Frontier, Race, Nation', in Bain Attwood and Tom Griffiths (ed.), Frontier, Race, Nation: Henry Reynolds and Australian History, Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd, North Melbourne, pp. 3-52.
  • Griffiths, T 2009, 'The Poetics and Practicalities of Writing', in Ann Curthoys and Ann McGrath (ed.), Writing Histories Imagination and Narration (2nd edition), Monash University ePress, Clayton Victoria, pp. 1.1-1.14.
  • Griffiths, T 2009, A miracle of politics and science, Inside Story - Current affairs and culture.
  • Griffiths, T 2009, We have still not lived long enough, Inside Story.
  • Griffiths, T 2008, 'The Cultural Challenge of Antarctica: the 2007 Stephen-Murray Smith Memorial Lecture', The La Trobe Journal, vol. 82, no. spring 2008, pp. 4-19.
  • Griffiths, T 2008, 'Obituary Greg Dening (1931-2008)', History Workshop Journal, vol. 10, pp. 1-5.
  • Griffiths, T 2007, 'The Fabric of a Common Humanity', NSW Premier's History Awards 2007, Arts NSW, Sydney, pp. 3-7.
  • Griffiths, T 2007, 'Rocking the Cradle: The politics of the deep past in a Rainbow Nation (South Africa)', reCollections: Journal of the National Museum of Australia, vol. 2, no. 1.
  • Griffiths, T 2007, Slicing the Silence - Voyaging to Antarctica, UNSW Press, Sydney Australia.
  • Griffiths, T 2007, 'Discovering the continent of ice: Antarctica in world history', in Dennis Trewin (ed.), 2007 Year Book Australia, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, pp. 14-24.
  • Griffiths, T 2007, 'Edward Snell 1820-1880', in (ed.), Dictionary of Australian Artists Online, Australian Government Publishing Service, Australia.
  • Griffiths, T 2006, 'Foreword [Continent of Curiosities: A Journey through Australian Natural History]', in Danielle Clode (ed.), Continent of Curiosities: A Journey through Australian Natural History, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne Australia, pp. vii-ix.
  • Griffiths, T & Sherratt, T 2006, 'What if the Northern Rivers had been turned inland?', in Stuart Macintyre & Sean Scalmer (ed.), What if?: Australian history as it might have been, Melbourne University Press (an imprint of Melbourne University Publishing), Melbourne, Australia, pp. 234-254.
  • Griffiths, T 2006, 'Truth and fiction: Judith Wright as historian', Australian Book Review, vol. tba, pp. 25-30.
  • Griffiths, T 2006, 'The breath of Antarctica', Tasmanian Historical Studies, vol. 2, pp. 4-14.
  • Griffiths, T 2005, 'Commentary', Australian Book Review, vol. feb 2005, pp. 45-46.
  • Sherratt, T, Griffiths, T & Robin, L, eds, 2005, A Change in the Weather: Climate and Culture in Australia, National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra Australia.
  • Griffiths, T 2005, 'Review of Antarctic Challenges', Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. tba, pp. 256-7.
  • Griffiths, T 2005, 'Review of Australian Antarctic Science', Historical Records of Australian Science, vol. tba, pp. 247-49.
  • Griffiths, T 2005, 'Book Review: True Gardens of the Gods: Californian-Australian Environmental Reform, 1860-1930', ARIES DUMMY JOURNAL for when you haven't got the journal you want.
  • Griffiths, T 2005, 'Legend and Lament', Southerly, vol. 64, no. 2, pp. 118-127.
  • Griffiths, T 2005, 'The roaring forties', in T Sherratt, T Griffiths, L Robin (ed.), A Change in the Weather: Climate and Culture in Australia, National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra Australia, pp. 152-164.
  • Griffiths, T 2005, 'Bushfires', in Andrew Brown-May and Shurlee Swain (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, pp. 103-104pp.
  • Griffiths, T 2005, 'Collecting Culture', New Norcia Studies, vol. 13, pp. 23-30.
  • Griffiths, T 2005, 'Drought', in Andrew Brown-May and Shurlee Swain (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, pp. 217pp.
  • Griffiths, T 2005, 'Foreword [Peopling the Cleland Hills: Aboriginal history in western Central Australia 1850-1980]', in Ingereth Macfarlane (ed.), Peopling the Cleland Hills: Aboriginal history in western Central Australia 1850-1980, Aboriginal History Inc, Canberra, pp. x-xi.
  • Griffiths, T 2004, 'Book Review: The Artificial Horizon: Imagining the Blue Mountains', Australian Historical Studies, vol. tba, pp. 416-17.
  • Griffiths, T 2004, 'Playing the Professional Australian', Meanjin, vol. 63, no. 3, pp. 166-174.
  • Griffiths, T 2004, 'Voyaging South', in Brij V. Lal, Duncan Beard (ed.), Summer Conversations, Pandanus Books, Canberra, pp. 10-35.
  • Griffiths, T 2004, The evolution of rights and wrongs.
  • Griffiths, T 2004, 'History as Therapy', Australian Book Review, vol. tba, pp. 43-44.
  • Griffiths, T 2004, 'Photography', in Brij V. Lal, Duncan Beard (ed.), Summer Conversations, Pandanus Books, Canberra, pp. 38-45.
  • Robin, Libby & Griffiths, T 2004, 'Environmental history in Australasia', Environment and History , vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 439-474.
  • Griffiths, T 2003, 'The Language of Conflict', in Bain Attwood & S. G. Foster (ed.), Frontier Conflict: The Australian Experience, National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra, Australia, pp. 135-149.
  • Griffiths, T 2003, 'The Nature of Culture and the Culture of Nature', in Hsu-Ming Teo and Richard White (ed.), Cultural History in Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney, pp. 67-80.
  • Griffiths, T 2003, 'The man from Snowy River', Thesis Eleven, vol. 74, pp. 7-20.
  • Griffiths, T 2003, 'The Humanities and an Environmentally Sustainable Australia', The Humanities and Australia's National Research Priorities, pp. 13-20.
  • Griffiths, T 2003, 'Cooper Dreaming', in Mark Tredinnick (ed.), A Place on Earth An anthology of nature writing from Australia & North America, UNSW Press, Sydney, pp. 81-91.
  • Griffiths, T 2003, 'Light Green, Dark Green', in D. Gare, G. Bolton, S. Macintyre and T. Stannage (ed.), The Fuss that Never Ended: The Life and Work of Geoffrey Blainey, Melbourne University Press (an imprint of Melbourne University Publishing), Carlton, Victoria, p. 217.
  • Griffiths, T & Bonyhady, T, eds, 2002, Words for Country: Landscape and Language in Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney.
  • Griffiths, T 2002, 'Professor Dening's Exercises', Dialogue (Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia), vol. 21, pp. 25-29.
  • Griffiths, T 2002, 'Stretton, Leonard Edward Bishop (1893 - 1967)', Australian Dictionary of Biography (Online), vol. 16, pp. 336-337.
  • Griffiths, T 2002, 'The Outside Country', in Tim Bonyhady and Tom Griffiths (ed.), Words for Country: landscape and language in Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney, pp. 222-244.
  • Griffiths, T 2002, 'Judge Strettons Fires of Conscience', Gippsland Heritage Journal, vol. 26, pp. 9-18.
  • Griffiths, T 2002, 'Francis Ratcliffe and changing ecological visions', in Denis Saunders, David Spratt & Monica van Wensveen (ed.), Perspectives on Wildlife Research - Celebrating 50 years of CSIRO Wildlife and Ecology, Surrey Beatty & Sons, Sydney Australia, pp. 132-140.
  • Griffiths, T 2002, 'How many trees make a forest ? Cultural debates about vegetation change in Australia', Australian Journal of Botany, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 375-389.
  • Griffiths, T & Bonyhady, T 2002, 'Landscape and Language in Australia', in Tim Bonyhady and Tom Griffiths (ed.), Words for Country: landscape and language in Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney, pp. 1-13.
  • Griffiths, T 2002, Race around the laboratory, Sydney Morning Herald.
  • Griffiths, T 2001, 'The writing of A Million Wild Acres', in John Dargavel, Diane Hart and Brenda Libbis (ed.), Perfumed Pineries Environmental history of Australia's Callitris forests, Australian National University, Canberra, pp. 184-195.
  • Griffiths, T 2001, 'The Gallery of Life', Meanjin, vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 85-92.
  • Griffiths, T 2001, 'One Hundred Years of Environmental Crisis', The Rangeland Journal, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 5-14.
  • Griffiths, T & Platt, A 2001, 'Edward Snell: Sketching a Fortune', in McCalman, I., Cook, A. and Reeves, A. (ed.), Gold: Forgotten Histories and Lost Objects of Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 285-298.
  • Griffiths, T 2001, 'Tuscan Dreaming', in D. A. Low (ed.), Keith Hancock: the legacies of an historian, Melbourne University Press (an imprint of Melbourne University Publishing), Melbourne, pp. 237-248.
  • Griffiths, T 2001, Forests of Ash: An Environmental History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
  • Griffiths, T 2001, 'Flying Fox and Drifting Sand: Going with the Flow', in Halligan, Marion (ed.), Storykeepers, Duffy & Snellgrove, Sydney, Australia, pp. 145-174.
  • Griffiths, T 2001, 'Deep Time and Australian History', History Today, vol. 51, no. 11, pp. 20-25.
  • Griffiths, T 2001, Inflows: The Channel Country, Goanna Print, Canberra.
  • Griffiths, T 2000, 'Travelling in Deep Time: La Longue Dur�e in Australian History', Australian Humanities Review, vol. n/a, no. June-August, p. 1.
  • Griffiths, T 2000, 'Essaying the Truth', Meanjin, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 128-144.
  • Griffiths, T 2000, 'Social History and Deep Time', Public History Review, vol. 8, pp. 8-26.
  • Griffiths, T 1999, Watersheds: The paroo to the Warrego, Goanna Print, Canberra.