Events Manager

Christina is a former consultant who has been involved with coordinating a range of events for organisations. She has had experience working in government and the not-for-profit sector. She holds a Bachelor of Information Systems (Hons) and a Masters of Information Systems from The University of Melbourne and has an interest in Australian political history.

Dr Damien Freeman is a Fellow of the Robert Menzies Institute where he is responsible for the Institute’s  Menzies Early Career Network. He was educated at the University of Sydney (MA, LLB(Hons), MPhil) and the University of Cambridge (PhD).

He is a writer, lawyer and philosopher, whose books include “Abbott’s Right: the conservative tradition from Menzies to Abbott” and “The End of Settlement: why the 2023 referendum failed”.

He is the general editor of the Kapunda Press, and has edited numerous collections of essays including “Faith’s Place: democracy in a religious world” and “Nonsense on Stilts: rescuing human rights in Australia”. He has also published a range of occasional papers with the Centre for Independent Studies and the PM Glynn Institute, including “Radical Conservatism: tradition as a guide for managing change”, “Amen: a history of prayers in parliament” and “So Help Me God: a history of oaths of office”.

In addition to his work at the Robert Menzies Institute, he is a Research Fellow at the Kathleen Burrow Research Institute, an Honorary Fellow of Australian Catholic University, and a member of the advisory board of the John Howard Prime Ministerial Library at UNSW.

Associate Professor Gwilym Croucher is Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne. A former Fulbright Scholar, his research focuses on different aspects of the political economy of higher education.

He has published widely on higher education policy and management and has led large publicly funded research projects. He is a regular media commentator on higher education in Australia.

James Waghorne is a Senior Research Fellow and University Historian, working on the history of higher education in the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education. His work reaches across the history of university governance, university disciplines, the heritage of university campuses, and the changing influence of campus life and culture on the student experience.

Additionally he takes in the historical connections between universities and the state, industry and community groups.

He is co-editor (with Ross L. Jones and Marcia Langton) of the truth-telling Dhoombak Goobgoowana: a history of Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne. His history of the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee, Australian Universities (with Gwilym Croucher), was published by UNSW Press in September 2020, and his history of the Melbourne University Union, By Students, For Students was published by Australian Scholarly in 2022. With Kate Darian-Smith he edited a collection on the interwar university professions, The First World War, the Universities and the Professions in Australia, 1914–1936 (MUP, 2019).

He has also published histories of lobby groups and professional and community organisations, including Improving Justice: A History of the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration (AIJA, 2014), Liberty: A History of Civil Liberties in Australia, with Stuart Macintyre (UNSW Press 2011), and The Family Club: A Short History (Carlton: The Family Club Cooperative, 2018) a history of Australia’s first university childcare centre. James is an investigator on the ‘Expert Nation’ and ‘Universities and Post-war Recovery’ research projects, tracing the careers of university graduates who served in the First and Second World Wars, funded by the Australian Research Council. Among his other work has been the production of two Witness Seminars on the University’s recent past, on the 1959–1960 Immigration Reform Group and the HIV/AIDS crisis in Australia in the 1980s.

Visiting Fellow

Dr. William A. Stoltz is a Visiting Fellow at the Robert Menzies Institute where his research focuses on the history of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service. Dr Stoltz is the Senior Adviser for Public Policy at the National Security College. He is responsible for mobilising the College’s research and resident expertise to influence and inform current public policy debates. Dr. Stoltz’s own research explores options for Australia to shape and influence international security, as well as Australia’s policy responses to a breadth of national security challenges. He joined the NSC after working across Australia’s defence, intelligence, and law enforcement communities, including strategic intelligence and advisory roles within the Department of Defence, the Australian Federal Police, the Royal Australian Air Force (Reserve), and the National Intelligence Community. He holds a PhD and Advanced Masters of National Security Policy from the Australian National University as well as a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne.

Geoffrey Hone holds an LLB (Hons) degree from the University of Melbourne. His degree was conferred by Sir Robert Menzies (then Chancellor of the University.)

He is admitted to practice as a barrister and solicitor in Victoria and other Australian jurisdictions.

He was a partner of the law firm, Ashurst (formerly Blake Dawson), for 37 years, and subsequently a senior consultant at that firm. He has acted as a director of, or adviser to, numerous public and private companies. His other current appointments include Chairman of the Institute of Public Affairs and Chairman of The Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Charitable Trust.