My Profile

Paul Ashton is a leading advocate and practitioner of both public and Australian history. In 1999 he co-founded and subsequently co-directed the Australian Centre for Public History at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). It developed a national and international reputation for working at the cutting edge of what was then an emerging field. Paul has been an extremely active, productive and collegial member of Australia’s very broad history community. He has worked with local, community and family historians, academics, heritage practitioners, writers, producers of media and teachers of school history. He has adjunct professorial appointments at UTS, the University of Canberra and Macquarie University. He has recently written thirty-three short, creative non-fiction books for children (planned for publication by Halstead Press from 2022) and is currently working with a colleague on an edited collection about the history industry in Australia. He is a past President of the PNA/NSWACT and was the recipient in 2020 of the NSW History Council Annual Citation for outstanding contributions to public and Australian history. And he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW..