Ward, Stuart

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WARD, Stuart

PERSONAL: Married; wife's name, Lill; children: Oscar. Education: University of Queensland, B.A. (history); University of Sydney, Ph.D. Hobbies and other interests: Playing guitar.

ADDRESSES: Home—London, England. Office—Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King's College, University of London, London WC2R 2LS, England.

CAREER: Professor and writer. Taught at European University Institute, Florence, Italy, and University of Southern Denmark; University of Greenland, visiting lecturer; Menzies Centre for Australian Studies at King's College, London, lecturer in history.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with R. T. Griffiths) Courting the CommonMarket, 1996.

(Editor) British Culture and the End of Empire, Manchester University Press (New York, NY), 2001.

Australia and the British Embrace: The Demise of theImperial Ideal, Melbourne University Press (Carlton, Victoria, Australia), 2001.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Discordant Communities; Australia, Britain, and the Integration of Europe, to be published by Melbourne University Press.

SIDELIGHTS: Stuart Ward, a history professor at the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies at King's College, London, is an academic whose writings have focused on British and Australian history. Ward grew up on the Queensland coast in Australia. He earned a B.A. in history from the University of Queensland and then went on to University of Sydney, where he earned his Ph.D. Fluent in several languages, Ward has taught at a variety of universities in Europe,, including the European University Institute in Florence, the University of Southern Denmark and King's College, London. He has also lectured at the University of Greenland.

Ward's book Australia and the British Embrace: The Demise of the Imperial Ideal takes a new look at the time when Australian culture no longer stemmed from being British. Ward challenges other accounts that claim earlier dates for this shift, according to John Ramsden in Times Literary Supplement. Instead, Ward argues that Britain, rather than Australia, initiated the separation of the two countries by not being forthright with Australia about its intentions for joining the European Economic Community in 1957. Although Britain did not join until 1973, Australia had already refocused its trade and foreign policy toward the Pacific.

Ward also edited and contributed to British Culture and the End of Empire. This book asserts that the effect of decolonisation was felt as strongly in Britain as it was in its colonies. Ward contends that the fall of the British empire shocked British popular culture.