Joan Beaumont

Joan Errington Beaumont, (born 25 October 1948) is an Australian historian and academic, who specialises in foreign policy and the Australian experience of war. She is professor emerita in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University.

Early life and education Beaumont was born Joan Errington Magor on 25 October 1948 in Adelaide, South Australia, to Clifford James Magor and his wife Edna Jean (née Errington). Educated at Unley High School, she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours at the University of Adelaide in 1970. In her final year, Beaumont was appointed a tutor in modern European history at the university. During her time in London, Beaumont wed Oliver James Beaumont in 1973. The couple had three daughters, before the union ended in divorce. Beaumont was promoted to reader in 1990. Beaumont continued in the latter role until 2008, when she moved to the Australian National University (ANU) as Director of the Faculty of Arts. Dean of Arts and Social Sciences from 2010 to 2011, she has been a professor in the ANU's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre since 2012; In 2013, Beaumont's research into the Australian experience of the First World War was published as Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War. The volume was well received, winning the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History, New South Wales Premier's Australian History Prize and the University of Southern Queensland History Book Award in 2014, and the 2015 Asher Literary Award from the Australia Council for the Arts. Broken Nation was also short-listed for the Western Australian Premier's Book Award for Non-fiction and the Council for the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences Prize for a Book. Beaumont retired from full-time academia in 2016, and was appointed professor emerita at the ANU.