About Alice Garner

I am a historian, teacher and performer with a PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia. I have published three books: A Shifting Shore: Locals, Outsiders and the Transformation of a French fishing town, 1823-2000 (Cornell University Press, 2005), a memoir of my undergraduate years (The Student Chronicles, Melbourne University Press, 2006) and a co-authored history of the Australian-American Fulbright program (Manchester University Press, 2019). I'm currently part of an interdisciplinary team researching the history of trade union education in Australia. I have acted professionally since I was a child (on all media, including radio), am a practised oral historian (with interviews in the National Library of Australia's collection) and am currently editing a series of audio narratives drawing on interviews recorded for the trade union project. I have set up a home studio for music and voice work, and see contributing to the New Books podcast(s) as a great opportunity to bring together my various interests and skills in the interests of scholarly community-building.

Alice Garner is a historian, teacher and performer with a PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Alice's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Alice:

Miriam Plotinsky, "Hover Less, Teach More: How to Stop Micromanaging Your Secondary Classroom" (Norton, 2022)

October 13, 2022

Hover Less, Teach More

Miriam Plotinsky
Hosted by Alice Garner

What does it take to create a classroom environment in which students take the initiative in their learning and teachers can let go of the 'exhaustive…

Tarez Samra Graban and Wendy Hayden, "Teaching Through the Archives: Text, Collaboration, and Activism" (Southern Illinois UP, 2022)

August 9, 2022

Teaching Through the Archives

Tarez Samra Graban and Wendy Hayden
Hosted by Alice Garner

Archives are much more than silent repositories of historical material. They are rich sites for teaching and learning, for collaboration and for creat…

Sheila L. Macrine and Jennifer M. B. Fugate, "Movement Matters: How Embodied Cognition Informs Teaching and Learning" (MIT Press, 2022)

June 3, 2022

Movement Matters

Sheila L. Macrine and Jennifer M.B. Fugate
Hosted by Alice Garner

In Movement Matters: How Embodied Cognition Informs Teaching and Learning (MIT, 2022), Sheila L. Macrine (Professor in Cognitive Science, UMass Dartmo…

Tom Greenwell and Chris Bonnor, "Waiting for Gonski: How Australia Failed Its Schools" (UNSW Press, 2022)

March 21, 2022

Waiting for Gonski

Tom Greenwell and Chris Bonnor
Hosted by Alice Garner

Anyone interested in how education policy is made and unmade, in school funding models, their historical and contemporary development and their effect…

Kate Henley Averett, "The Homeschool Choice: Parents and the Privatization of Education" (NYU Press, 2021)

February 16, 2022

The Homeschool Choice

Kate Henley Averett
Hosted by Alice Garner

Homeschooling has skyrocketed in popularity in the United States: in 2019, a record-breaking 2.5 million children were being homeschooled, within an i…

Joanne W. Golann, "Scripting the Moves: Culture and Control in a "No-Excuses" Charter School" (Princeton UP, 2021)

December 17, 2021

Scripting the Moves

Joanne W. Golann
Hosted by Alice Garner

Ethnographer and sociologist Joanne Golann spent 18 months observing the day-to-day life of students and teachers in a “no-excuses” charter school. In…

Jean Hopman, "Surviving Emotional Work for Teachers: Improving Wellbeing and Professional Learning Through Reflexive Practice" (Routledge, 2020)

October 22, 2021

Surviving Emotional Work for Teachers

Jean Hopman
Hosted by Alice Garner

Jean Hopman’s book Surviving Emotional Work for Teachers: Improving Wellbeing and Professional Learning Through Reflexive Practice (Routledge, 2020), …