Penny Russell

Penelope Ann Russell, (born 20 March 1961) is an Australian social historian. She is Bicentennial Professor of Australian History at the University of Sydney.

Early life and education Penelope Ann Russell was born in 1961 in Maryborough, Queensland, to teacher/librarian Mary Gertrude Russell (née Thompson) and dentist Gerald Victor Russell. As a young child, she moved with her family to Ballarat and attended primary school and then Ballarat East High School, where she sat the Higher School Certificate in 1978. She won the Australian History Prize at the New South Wales Premier's History Awards for Savage or Civilised? in 2011. She was awarded the 2023 Ross Stelle AM Fellowship by the State Library of New South Wales to explore the Sydney streetscapes by John Rae.

Selected works

Books

Worden, Nigel; Russell, Penny (eds.): Honourable Intentions?: Violence and Virtue in Australian and Cape Colonies, c. 1750 to 1850. (London: Routledge, 2016)

Articles

Personal Russell and James Andrew Campbell married in 1987. They have two children.