Rate My Professor Effie Karageorgos

Dr Effie Karageorgos is a Senior Lecturer in History in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, College of Human and Social Futures, at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She earned her PhD in History from Flinders University. Her research focuses on the social history of war, examining Australians' experiences on the battlefield and home front. Central themes include traumatic responses to war and historical perceptions of traumatised soldiers by doctors, military authorities, political figures, and the public. She also investigates protest and social movements during wartime, particularly anti-Vietnam War activism, expanding the understanding of protesters to include 'quiet protestors'. Her scholarship has traced war trauma back to the South African War (1899-1902), predating the First World War and Federation, using innovative archival methods such as asylum, charity, and military records. Fields of research encompass Australian history, gender history, and the history and philosophy of medicine.

Prior to her current role, Karageorgos served as a teaching academic at Deakin University, Swinburne Online, the University of Melbourne, and Flinders University. She is Editor of Health and History, journal of the Australian and New Zealand Society for the History of Medicine, and Deputy Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence. Awards include the 2023 College Excellence Award for Student Experience from the University of Newcastle and the 2023 State Library of New South Wales Fellowship, alongside various travel bursaries from University College London, Flinders University, the Society for the Social History of Medicine, and the Australian Historical Association. Key publications feature books such as Australian Soldiers in South Africa and Vietnam: Words from the Battlefield (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016), Critical Mental Health in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Social and Historical Perspectives (co-edited with N. Hendry, 2025), and Quiet Protest: A New History of Activism during the Vietnam War (UNSW Press, 2026). Notable articles include 'The Bushman at War: Gendered Medical Responses to Combat Breakdown in South Africa, 1899–1902' and 'Delusion, Trauma and the South African War in Australian Asylum Records' (2023). Her work informs public understanding through exhibitions like 'Return: The Way Back Home 1914-1920' at Monash University Library (2020), a public lecture 'Returning Home: The Traumatised Male Soldier from Federation to the First World War and Beyond', media appearances on SBS's Who Do You Think You Are? (2023), and an interview with the Australian War Memorial (2022).