Prize
The Prize consists of:
- $500 in cash;
- a suitably inscribed medallion;
- return airfares for the winner and partner to attend the Army History Unit conference where the Prize will be presented by the Chief of Army;
- two years complimentary attendance at the Chief of Army's History Conference; and
- complimentary attendance at the Chief of Army's History Conference Dinner the year of the award.
Contact
Those interested in being considered, or those wishing to suggest a possible recipient for the C.E.W. Bean Prize should contact:
Professor Bruce Scates
Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies
Building B
Caulfield Campus
Monash University
VIC 3800
Email: bruce.scates@arts.monash.edu.au
Past Recipients
| 2005 |
Dr Rosaline Hearder |
| 2006 |
Dr Garth Pratten |
| 2007 |
Dr Craig Stockings |
The annual C.E.W. Bean Prize for Military History is awarded to the best honours or postgraduate thesis submitted in any Australian university focusing on Australian Army's experience of war. The Prize was established in 2004 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Army History Unit and its aim is to foster and encourage the study of military history and heritage at a tertiary level.
It is an annual Prize, in honour of the first prominent Australian military historian, C.E.W. Bean, the official war correspondent to the AIF, who joined the troops on Gallipoli and at the Western Front and was appointed to write the official history after the war.
More about C.E.W. Bean
2008 Recipient
The 2008 C.E.W. Bean Prize has been awarded to
Dr Kirsty Harris, for her PhD thesis:
Not just 'routine nursing': the roles and skills of the Australian Army Nursing Service during World War I
PhD, University of Melbourne
The citation reads as follows:
Utilising an extensive range of sources, Kirsty Harris discusses the evolution of, and the significant changes in, Australian military nursing practices that occurred over the course of the First World War. Unlike the British distinction between the professional officer Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) and the untrained civilian Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) who worked for the British Red Cross Society (BRCS), all Australian Army Nursing Service personnel were professionals and members of the Australian Army. As such, by charting the impact of the war on their professional development, Kirsty Harris's thesis offers new understanding of a military branch that is often overlooked. She discusses the technical facets of nursing in a clear and accessible manner while the database of Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) members included as an Appendix is particularly impressive and provides a useful new research tool for historians. From today's perspective, these Australian nurses were "soldiers" with an affinity that linked them to the AIF, and as such her thesis bears a close link with the history of the Australian Army in meeting the fundamental criterion of the CEW Bean Prize.