Professor Stephen Garton

Professor of History and Provost & Deputy Vice-Chancellor


Stephen Garton is the author of four books and over sixty articles, chapters and encyclopaedia and historical dictionary entries in such areas as the history of madness, psychiatry, crime, incarceration, masculinity, eugenics, social policy, poverty, returned soldiers, masculinity and sexuality. Although much of his research focuses on Australia he has researched and published work in relation to British and American history. This research concentrates on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries although on occasion he has ranged more widely. In addition to being a fellow of a number of learned academies and societies he was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2003 for services to Australian history. From 2001 to 2009 Professor Garton was Dean of the Faculty of Arts.

Research areas

• Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Social and Cultural History – particularly Australia, also Britain and America
• History of Medicine
• History of Crime and Incarceration
• History of Sexuality
• History of Masculinity

Current projects

• Black Metropolis: Harlem 1915-1930
• Australian Dictionary of Biography Supplement, 1618-1980
• Dictionary of Sydney

Selected publications

Medicine and Madness: Insanity in NSW 1880-1940 (1988)

Out of Luck: Poor Australians 1788-1988 (1990)

The Cost of War: Australians Return (1996)

Histories of Sexuality: Antiquity to Sexual Revolution (2004)

Areas of teaching and research supervision

• Australian, British and American social and cultural history, with specific focus on crime, incarceration, medicine, masculinity and sexuality.

Other professional contributions

• Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities
• Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
• Fellow of the Royal Australian Historical Society