Professor Noah Riseman
Faculty of Education and Arts, National School of Arts and Humanities
Areas of expertise: Australian history; LGBTIQ+ history; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history; Native American history; American history; gender and sexuality history
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4723-431X
HDR Supervisor accreditation status: HDR Supervisor (Full)
Phone: +61 3 9953 3226
Email: noah.riseman@acu.edu.au
Location: ACU Melbourne Campus
PhD, University of Melbourne (2009); Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, ACU (2011); BA, Georgetown University (2003)
My research historicises the experiences of marginalised social groups in Australia in the twentieth century. I have conducted several research projects examining the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation in the Australian armed forces, particularly in the Second World War and post-Second World War eras. Through these projects I have researched topics including the role of women, racism and commemorations of Indigenous service. I have also conducted transnational research, looking at Native American military service as a point of comparison with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experiences.
I also recently completed a project examining the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex service personnel in the Australian armed forces post-Second World War. This project, entitled 'Serving in Silence? LGBTI Military Service in Australia since 1945', was in partnership with the Australian Queer Archives (formerly Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives) and Defence LGBTI Information Service (DEFGLIS). I am still doing work with LGBTI veterans - especially the Defence LGBTI Veterans Association (DLVA) - to seek justice for past persecution of LGBTI service members.
Since 2017, I have been researching the history of transgender Australians since the early twentieth century. The project focuses especially on the personal experiences of gender diverse people and intentionally centres their stories and perspectives in the contemporary era, while looking to media, the law and medicine for trans histories before living memory. This project is working closely with Australia's trans and gender diverse community. Finally, I have recently commenced a project on the history of sex and sexuality in the Australian military.
Select publications
Books
- Noah Riseman and Shirleene Robinson. Pride in Defence: The Australian Military and LGBTI Service since 1945. Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing, 2020.
- R. Scott Sheffield and Noah Riseman. Indigenous Peoples and the Second World War: The Politics, Experiences and Legacies of War in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
- Noah Riseman, Shirleene Robinson and Graham Willett. Serving in Silence? Australian LGBT Servicemen and Women. Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2018.
- Noah Riseman and Richard Trembath. Defending Country: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Military Service since 1945. St Lucia, QLD: University of Queensland Press, 2016.
- Noah Riseman. In Defence of Country: Life Stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Servicemen and Women. Canberra: ANU Press and Aboriginal History Inc., 2016.
- Noah Riseman. Defending Whose Country? Indigenous Soldiers in the Pacific War. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2012.
Book chapters
- Noah Riseman. "Finding 'evidence of me' through 'evidence of us': Transgender oral histories and personal archives speak." In New Directions in Queer Oral History: Archives of Disruption. Eds Clare Summerskill, Amy Tooth Murphy and Emma Vickers, 59-70. Abingdon: Routledge, 2022.
- Noah Riseman. "Australia's History of LGBTI Politics and Rights." In Oxford Encyclopedia of LGBT Politics and Policy. Ed. Don Haider-Markel. Oxford University Press, 2019.
- Noah Riseman. "Vietnam War, LGBTQ+ Veterans." In Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History. Vol. 3. Ed. Howard Chiang, 1708-1710. Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2019.
Journal articles
- Noah Riseman. "A History of Transgender Women in Australian Sports, 1976-2017." Sport in History (published online 14/6/2021): A history of transgender women in Australian Sports.
- Noah Riseman. "The Royal Australian Navy and Courts-Martial for Homosexuality." International Journal of Military History and Historiography (published online 7/7/2021): The Royal Australian Navy and Courts Martial for Homosexuality.
- Noah Riseman. "Representing Transgender in the 1970s Australian Media." Gender and History 33, no. 1 (2021): 227-248.
- Noah Riseman. "Intimatopias and the Queering of Australian War Fiction." Continuum 34, no. 6 (2020): 940-954.
- Noah Riseman. "Searching for Trans Possibilities in Australia, 1910-39." Journal of Australian Studies 44, no. 1 (2020): 33-47.
- Noah Riseman. "Hunting Gays and Lesbians in the Australian Defence Force, 1974-92." Journal of the History of Sexuality 28, no. 3 (2019): 325-356.
- Noah Riseman. "Transgender Inclusion and Australia's Failed Sexuality Discrimination Bill." Australian Journal of Politics and History 62, no. 2 (June 2019): 259-277.
- Noah Riseman. "The Interview-Document Nexus: Recovering Histories of LGBTI Military Service in Australia." Archivaria 87 (2019): 6-33.
- Ben Morris and Noah Riseman. "Volunteers with a Legal Impediment: Australian National Service and the Question of Overseas Service in Vietnam." History Australia 16, no. 2 (2019): 266-286.
Projects
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Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery DP210100772 (2021-23): "A Century of Sex and the Australian Military, 1914-2020" ($264,435, 1st CI)
- Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery DP180100322 (2018-20): "Transgender Australians: The History of an Identity" ($256,966, 1st CI)
- Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery DP160103548 (2016-18): "Serving in Silence? Australian LGBTI Military Service since 1945" ($199,937 1st CI)
- Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage LP120200327 (2012-17): "Serving our country: a history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the defence of Australia" ($1,024,275 grant administered by ANU 3rd CI) Partner Organisations: Department of Defence, Department of Veterans' Affairs, National Archives of Australia, Australian War Memorial
- Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery DP110101627 (2011-13): "Defending Australia, defending Indigenous rights: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander military service and Australian identity, 1946-2003" ($120,000 1st CI)
Accolades and awards
- Shortlisted for 2021 Ernest Scott Prize and Highly Commended in the 2021 Educational Publishing Awards Australia, Scholarly Non-Fiction, for Pride in Defence: The Australian Military and LGBTI Service since 1945 (Melbourne University Publishing, 2020)
- Shortlisted for 2013 Chief Minister's Northern Territory History Award for Defending Whose Country? Indigenous Soldiers in the Pacific War (University of Nebraska Press, 2012)
Appointments and affiliations
- 2020, Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Australian Studies at the University of Cologne (cut short by Covid-19)
- 2014, Visiting Fellow at the Australian Studies Centre (Centro de Estudios Australianos) at the Universitat de Barcelona
Public engagement
