Ros Pesman

Roslyn Louise "Ros" Pesman, (; born 24 June 1938) was the first female Challis Professor of History at the University of Sydney and the first woman to be elected chair of the academic board at the university.

Early life and family Roslyn Cooper was born in Leeton, New South Wales, on 24 June 1938

Career In 1966, Pesman was appointed lecturer in history at the University of Sydney and promoted to professor in 1996, A scholar of the social and political elites of Renaissance Florence, Pesman published a number of works in this field. However, family, teaching and administrative duties limited her capacity to undertake sustained research in Italian archives and she devoted more time to projects within Australia, leading research in fields such as Italian migration to Australia later serving as its vice-president from 2005–06, served as president of the Australian Historical Association from 2004–06 and in 2010 she was awarded the History Council of New South Wales Annual History Citation for services to the discipline.

She was appointed chair of the History Department in 1989 and oversaw the centenary celebrations of the department in 1991. In 1995 she became acting principal of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music at University of Sydney. She was elected chair of the University of Sydney of Sydney Academic Board in 1997, the first woman to hold this role.

Pesman was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2012 Australia Day Honours for "service to tertiary education through academic and administrative roles, particularly the study of the history of Italian migrants in Australia, and to the community".

Selected works

1982 A volume of Italian Renaissance studies (with Conal Condren), Frederick May Foundation for Italian Studies, University of Sydney 1990 Alessandro Malaspina, an Italian life in the Pacific: papers of a conference held at History House, 11 May 1990 University of Sydney, Frederick May Foundation for Italian Studies 1992 History at Sydney, 1891–1991: centenary reflections (with Barbara Caine) History Dept., University of Sydney, [Sydney] 1996 The Oxford Book of Australian Travel Writing (with David Walker and Richard White) Oxford University Press 1996 Duty Free: Australian Women Abroad Melbourne, Oxford University Press Australia 2002 Pier Soderini and the ruling class in Renaissance Florence Goldbach: Keip, 2005 From paesani to global Italians: Veneto migrants in Australia (with Loretta Baldassar) Crawley, W.A.: University of Western Australia Press 2008 Australians in Italy: contemporary lives and impressions (ed with Bill Kent and Cynthia Troup) Clayton, Victoria, Monash University ePress