Dr. Elizabeth Malcolm has studied and taught at universities in Australia, Ireland, England and Norway.

She took her Ph.D. in Irish history from Trinity College, Dublin, and in 2000, after working for many years in Belfast and Liverpool, was appointed the first professor of Irish Studies in Australia.

At the University of Melbourne she teaches, with the help of colleagues, a variety of courses on Irish history and supervises the Irish studies department, which offers courses on everything from Irish history to the Diaspora.

Malcolm has published extensively on topics including alcoholism, pop culture, and mental illness. She is the product of four generations of Irish immigrants and has family in Ireland, England, Australia and Canada. Her mother’s family came from Dublin city and Co. Kildare; one member was sent from an Irish workhouse during the Famine, arriving in Sydney in 1848. Her father grew up in Co. Fermanagh and immigrated with his family to Sydney in 1925. She returned to Ireland as a student in 1974 and worked there for nearly 15 years.

In recent years she has been a visiting professor at Trinity College, Dublin, and Queen’s University, Belfast.

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