Media Release from La Trobe University Wednesday, 21 July 2010 Marilyn Lake elected to top history post La Trobe University historian and prize-winning author, Professor Marilyn Lake, has been elected President of the Australian Historical Association (AHA). A two year posting, she takes over from Professor Martyn Lyons from the University of New South Wales. The Association has more than 800 members, including scholars, teachers, writers and librarians. It promotes history among members and the general public, through conferences, prizes, a website and journal, History Australia. Professor Lake has written 12 books, ranging from labour history to land settlement, the history of feminism and the politics of anti-racism. She has a particular interest in the ways in which class, gender and race shape people's experience and their politics. Recent books include What's Wrong with Anzac? written with Joy Damousi, Mark McKenna and published in 2010 and Drawing the Global Colour Line, co-authored with Professor Henry Reynolds from the University of Tasmania. It won the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-fiction, as well as the Queensland Premier's History Book Prize and the University of Melbourne's prestigious Ernest Scott History Prize. Professor Lake recently drafted the AHA's response to the National History Curriculum, supporting the proposal to establish History as a separate subject in the nation's primary and secondary schools. Professor Lake is a Fellow of the Australian Academies of Social Sciences and Humanities. She has held a range of visiting posts overseas and within Australia, including the Harvard Chair in Australian Studies and professorial fellowships at Stockholm, the ANU and University of Sydney. Contact: Marilyn Lake, Tel: 03 9479 1610; Mob: 041 9871713.

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