Craig Stockings
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Monash University (GradDipEd)
Deakin University (MEd, MA)
Craig Stockings | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1974 (age 51–52) Sydney, New South Wales |
| Awards | C.E.W. Bean Prize for Military History (2007) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of New South Wales (BA [Hons], PhD) Monash University (GradDipEd) Deakin University (MEd, MA) |
| Thesis | The Torch and the Sword: A History of the Army Cadet Movement in Australia, 1866–2004 (2006) |
| Doctoral advisor | Jeffrey Grey |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Australian War Memorial University of New South Wales, Canberra |
| Main interests | Military and defence history |
| Notable works | Official History of Australian Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Australian Peacekeeping Operations in East Timor |
Craig Anthony John Stockings (born 1974) is an Australian historian with research interests in military and defence history. Since 2016, Stockings has been Official Historian and general editor of the Official History of Australian Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Australian Peacekeeping Operations in East Timor, based at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Prior to this appointment, Stockings was an officer in the Australian Army and professor of history at the University of New South Wales, Canberra, working out of the Australian Defence Force Academy.
Stockings was born in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1974. At 18 he entered the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) as an Australian Army officer cadet. Graduating in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Politics, he completed his final year of study as an officer cadet at the Royal Military College, Duntroon and was commissioned into the Royal Australian Infantry Corps in 1996.[1][2] Stockings returned to ADFA the following year to undertake an Honours degree in History, following which he was posted to the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) in 1998.[3][4] With 3RAR he deployed as part of the International Force East Timor in 1999–2000.[1][2][5]
On his return from East Timor, Stockings completed a Graduate Diploma of Education at Monash University and read for a Master of Arts in International Relations at Deakin University, graduating with both in 2001. His next posting was to Headquarters Training Command as a staff officer in 2001–02. Appointed aide-de-camp to the Governor-General of Australia in 2003, Stockings graduated from Deakin with a Master of Education the same year and in 2004 was reposted to ADFA as a staff officer.[3][4] At this time Stockings embarked on a Doctor of Philosophy degree in History through the University of New South Wales, Canberra.[1][2] His doctoral thesis, supervised by Jeffrey Grey, was a history of the Army Cadet movement in Australia from 1866 to 2004. He graduated with the doctorate in 2006, and his thesis was later revised and published as The Torch and the Sword with UNSW Press in 2007.[6][7] Stockings' thesis was also awarded the C.E.W. Bean Prize for Military History by the Australian Army History Unit.[8]
Academic career
While nearing the end of his doctorate, Stockings left the army and, in 2006, was appointed a lecturer in history and strategic studies at the University of New South Wales, Canberra.[3][4] In 2007, he received a research grant, the Margaret George Award, from the National Archives of Australia to begin work on his next project—an operational history of the Battle of Bardia, the first battle in which the Australian Army fought in the Second World War.[1] The result was a book, Bardia: Myth, Reality and the Heirs of Anzac, published by UNSW Press in 2009.[7] The volume was followed in 2011 by a shorter work, titled The Battle of Bardia, for the Australian Army History Unit's Army Campaigns Series.[9] He was promoted to senior lecturer in history in 2008.[4]
Following a series of edited volumes—Zombie Myths of Australian Military History (2010), Anzac's Dirty Dozen (2012) and, with John Connor, Before the Anzac Dawn (2013)—that sought to challenge or dispel dominant misconceptions in Australian military history, Stockings' next major research project delved into the Nazi German invasion of Greece during the Second World War with colleague Eleanor Hancock.[5][7] The project was funded as part of a Discovery Grant of A$107,000 from the Australian Research Council in 2012,[10] with the findings published as a book, Swastika over the Acropolis, with Brill in 2013.[5][7] More recent projects include Britannia's Shield (Cambridge University Press, 2015), an analysis of British imperial defence in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and work on the International Force East Timor (INTERFET). Early research into the latter was funded by a 2015 Discovery Grant from the Australian Research Council worth A$140,344.[11] By 2016 Stockings was an associate professor of history and deputy head of the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of New South Wales, Canberra.[12]
