Researcher

Emeritus Professor Martyn Andrew Lyons

My Expertise

French history; French Revolution; Napoleonic and19th century France; modern France; modern Italian history;history of the book & of Reading Practices in Europe & Australia

Fields of Research (FoR)

Historical Studies, European History (excl. British, Classical Greek and Roman), Australian History (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History)

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Biography

I was born in London, took my D.Phil. at Oxford University and have been at UNSW since 1977. I am a former head of the history school, and was the Faculty’s Associate Dean for Research and Postgraduate Affairs from 2002-7. I am currently Emeritus Professor of History and European Studies in the School of Humanities and Languages. My main research interests are in two distinct fields: French revolutionary and Napoleonic history and the...view more

I was born in London, took my D.Phil. at Oxford University and have been at UNSW since 1977. I am a former head of the history school, and was the Faculty’s Associate Dean for Research and Postgraduate Affairs from 2002-7. I am currently Emeritus Professor of History and European Studies in the School of Humanities and Languages. My main research interests are in two distinct fields: French revolutionary and Napoleonic history and the history of books, reading and writing in Europe and Australia. I have produced nineteen books, including 'A History of Reading and Writing in the Western World' (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010), and 'The Writing Culture of ordinary people in Europe, c. 1860-1920' (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

I have held visiting positions at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the University of Alcalá de Henares and the Universidade Federal Fluminense in Niteroi, Brazil. In 1997, I was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy for the Humanities. In 2003, I was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to the Humanities in the study of History. In 2008-20, I was President of the Australian Historical Association. In 2008, I was Campagnia di San Paolo- Bogliasco Foundation Fellow at the Liguria Study Centre in Genoa, and in 2010 I was a Camargo Foundation Fellow in Cassis, France.


My Qualifications

BA DPhil Oxford FAHA


My Awards

Fayolle Prize (Academie des Jeux Floraux, Toulouse), 1980

FASS Dean's Award for Best Monograph, 2013

European History Quarterly Award for best article, 2014


My Engagement

Past President, Australian Historical Association
Fellow. Australian Academy of the Humanities

Board of Directors, Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing

I have held research fellowships and visiting positions in Cambridge (UK), Paris, Niteroi (Brazil), Bogliasco (Italy), Alcala de Henares (Spain), Lund (Sweden) and Cassis (France).

 


My Teaching

Research Students supervised successfully to completion, either as main or joint supervisor:

S.J.Blair PhD, Newspapers and their Readers in early Eastern Australia (1990)

N.Doumanis PhD, Italian Fascist Occupation of the Dodecanese Islands: an oral history (1994)

M.Voykovic PhD, The Culture of Thriller Fiction in Britain, 1898-1945 : authors, publishers and the 1st World War (1996)

G.Daly PhD, Napoleonic Rouen: Society, the State & the Prefectoral Administration in the Seine-Inférieure, 1800-1815 (1998)

F.Alafaci MA, Catholic Antisemitism in France during the 3rd Republic (2000)

D.Luscombe PhD, Inscribing the Social Role of the Architect: Frontispieces to 16th-century Italian Architectural Treatises, 1485-1585 (2004)

J.Burgess PhD, The Origins of the Banlieue Rouge: Politics, Local Government and Communal Identity in Arcueil and Cachan, 1919-1958 (2005)

M.Zarimis PhD, The Influence of Darwinism in Modern Greek Literature: the case of Grigoris Xenopoulos (2007)

M.Stephens PhD, The History of the Australian Museum Library (2013)

A.Lander PhD, The History of Zionist Youth Movements in Australia (2013)

 

Research Students currently supervised either as main or joint supervisor:

E.Meadows PhD, Horrors and Magnificence: British Travellers to Calabria, 19thc-20thc

 

 

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Location

Morven Brown

Research Activities

Historians have too easily assumed that the lives of poor and illiterate can never be directly known because they have left few written traces. This path-breaking project will demonstrate the contrary, in analysing a wide range of 'Ordinary Writings' - the improvised and ephemeral writings of the poor, semi-literate and hitherto silent people of history. The focus will be on transitions to mass literacy in France, Italy and Spain. The project will illuminate the democratisation of writing practices, the relationship between orality and literacy and ways in which the masses received or…