Dr Christine de Matos

Adjunct Senior Lecturer
BA Hons (UWS), Dip Ed (Sydney), PhD (UWS)

Email: christine.dematos@nd.edu.au

  • Biography

    Christine de Matos' primary research interest is the Australian role in the Allied Occupation of Japan (1946-1952), in particular using gender, race and class to elucidate the power dynamics of the occupier-occupied relationship. Her other research interests include Australian history, Japanese history, Australia-Asia relations, gender and history, and digital history. She has previously been a Japan Foundation Fellow (2004) and in 1999 was awarded the J.G. Crawford Award from the Australian-Japan Research Centre at the Australian National University.

    Christine has published widely on Australia and the Allied Occupation, including her book Imposing Peace and Prosperity: Australia, Social Justice and Labour Reform in Occupied Japan 1945-1949 (ASP, 2008). Her most recent book publication is Japan as the Occupier and the Occupied, coedited with Mark E. Caprio and published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2015, and most recent article ‘Forgotten Forced Migrants of War: Civilian internment of Japanese in British India, 1941–1946’, in the Journal of Contemporary History (2021) with Rowena Ward.

  • Research interests and current projects

    Research expertise

    • Australian history
    • Australia-Japan relations
    • Allied Occupation of Japan
    • Military occupations and power
    • Gender and history
    • Labour history
    • Digital history
    • Fiction and history

    Current projects:

    • Gender and (coerced) war labour
    • Forced migration in the Asia Pacific War
    • Civilian internment of Japanese in British India, 1941-1946
    • Comparative study on The Home and occupier/occupied relations in occupied Germany and Japan, 1945-1955
    • Representations of Australia's past in contemporary dance and ballet
    • Classical influences on post-WWI commemoration and culture in Australia

  • Research supervision

    Possible research topics:

    • Digital and creative histories
    • Transnational study of artistic representations of women and 'fraternisation', WWII
    • Australia-India historical relations
    • White hostesses and entertainers in 1980's Tokyo
    • Comparative studies of occupied Germany and Japan (1945-1950s)
    • Australians in Berlin in occupied Germany (1945-1950s)
    • Classical influences in Australian WWI soldier letters, diaries and memoir

    Current and recent supervision:

    PhDs

    • Ari Schipf, "Closing the culture gaps: Policies and codesign in remote northwestern Australia. A long time story of a community-based Kimberley Aboriginal organisation" (current)
    • Margaret Hampton, "Eris Michael O'Brien: Priest, Historian, Diplomat and Archbishop – A Critical Historical Biography" (until 2023)
    • Jocelyn Hedley, "‘On the side of the saints’: A history of the Sydney Catholic pro-life organisation Family Life International with reference to identity formation" (2017)
    • Emma Dalton, "The LDP and the Maintenance of Gender Inequality in Japanese Politics" (2011)

    Masters

    • Monica van Gend, "'That all may justice share': Sydney Catholics in the interwar years 1919-1929" (2023)
    • Beth Leong, "Raising the Curtain: A History of the Patch Theatre Company 1939–1950 (2023)
    • Alexander McClure, “For Ireland and Empire: The Irish in Perth and the Conscription Referendums of 1916 and 1917” (until 2023)
    • Emma Price, “Representations of femininity in Australian wartime drama” (until 2023)
    • Adrian Keri, "Australian Literary Fascists: Hughes, Wilson, Baylebridge" (2021)
    • Sarah Bell, "Liberation to legacy: Postwar lives of the Australian Army Nursing Service Prisoners of War" (2018)

    Honours

    • Adrian Keri, "For God, King and the Northern Rivers: On the New Guard’s forays in the country, 1931-1934" (2018)
    • Luke Beattie, "The Past is With Us and Yet to Come: A Thematic Analysis of Posthuman Hauntology in Tsutomu Mizushima’s Another" (2017)
    • Sarah Bell, "Problematic Viewing: Representations of Australian Army Nursing Service POWs in Australian News Media, Film, and Theatre" (2015)
    • Andrew Demayo, "'One Big Union': A Visual Study of Industrial Workers of the World Propaganda, 1905-1918" (2015)
    • Oliver O’Sullivan, "Piracy in the Australia-Pacific Region, 1788-1914" (2013)

  • Books

    • de Matos, Christine, with Mark E. Caprio (eds), Japan as the Occupier and the Occupied, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2015.
    • de Matos, Christine, with Rowena Ward (eds), Gender, Power and Military Occupation: Asia Pacific and the Middle East since 1945, New York: Routledge, 2012.
    • de Matos, Christine, with Noel Huggett, Love under occupation: A personal journey through war, marriage and White Australia, Glen Waverley, Vic: Sid Harta Press, 2010.
    • de Matos, Christine, with Robin Gerster (eds), Occupying the 'Other': Australia and military occupations from Japan to Iraq, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009
    • de Matos, Christine, Imposing Peace and Prosperity: Australia, social justice and labour reform in occupied Japan, Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2008.

  • Book chapters

    • de Matos, Christine, 'Labor under military occupation: Allied POWs and the Allied Occupation of Japan' in de Matos and Caprio (eds), Japan as the Occupier and the Occupied, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2015: 65-87.
    • de Matos, Christine, with M.E. Caprio, 'Before and After Defeat: Crossing the Great 1945 Divide' in de Matos and Caprio (eds), Japan as the Occupier and the Occupied, forthcoming Palgrave Macmillan 2015.
    • de Matos, Christine, 'Occupation masculinities: The residues of colonial power in Australian occupied Japan' in de Matos and Ward (eds), Gender, Power and Military Occupation: Asia Pacific and the Middle East since 1945, New York: Routledge, 2012: 23-42.
    • de Matos, Christine, with R. Ward, 'Analysing gendered occupation power' in de Matos and Ward (eds), Gender, Power and Military Occupation: Asia Pacific and the Middle East since 1945, New York: Routledge, 2012: 1-21.
    • de Matos, Christine, 'Living the Colonial Lifestyle: Australian women and domestic labour in occupied Japan 1945-1952' in Hans Hägerdal (ed), Responding to the West: Essays on colonial dominance and Asian agency, 18th to 20th centuries, Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam Press, 2009: 137-149.
    • de Matos, Christine, 'Ideology, Orientalism and Conflict: Australian and US policies in occupied Japan' in de Matos and Gerster (eds), Occupying the 'Other': Australia and Military Occupations from Japan to Iraq, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009: 43-62.
    • de Matos, Christine, 'Gender, Nation and Power in Occupied Japan' in de Matos and Gerster (eds), Occupying the 'Other': Australia and military occupations from Japan to Iraq, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009: 143-167.
    • de Matos, Christine, with R. Gerster, 'Introduction' in de Matos and Gerster (eds), Occupying the 'Other': Australia and military occupations from Japan to Iraq, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009:1-11.
    • 'Australian and New Zealand History Web Sites' in D.A Trinkle and S.A. Merriman (eds), The 21st Century History Highway: A guide to internet resources 4th Edition, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2006: 136-145.

  • Journal articles and proceedings

    • J. Heinemann, C. de Matos, F. Sundevall & A. Ahlbäck, "Unpacking Coercion in Gendered War Labor" in special issue "Gender, War and Coerced Labor", edited by Heinemann, de Matos, Sundevall and Ahlbäck, Labor History, 64, no. 3 (2023): 225-237.
    • de Matos, C and R. Ward, ‘Forgotten Forced Migrants of War: Civilian internment of Japanese in British India, 1941–1946’, Journal of Contemporary History, 56, no 4 (2021): 1102-1125.
    • de Matos, C. 'Three Domestic Workers, Two Internment Camps and a War: A Journey from Singapore to British India', Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 93 Part 1, no. 318 (2020): 23–42.
    • de Matos, C. 'Dance as Performative Public History?: A journey through Spartacus'. Circa: The Journal of Professional Historians, no. 7 (2020): 27-33. Winner of the Circa Prize for best article.
    • de Matos, Christine, with Camilla Nelson (eds), 'Fictional histories and historical fictions: Writing history in the twenty-first century', TEXT: Special Issue Website Series, no 28 (April 2015): www.textjournal.com.au/speciss/issue28/content.htm
    • de Matos, Christine, 'Fictorians: Historians who "lie" about the past, and like it', TEXT: Special Issue Website Series, no 28 (April 2015): http://www.textjournal.com.au/speciss/issue28/deMatos.pdf.
    • de Matos, Christine, with Camilla Nelson, 'Fictional histories and historical fictions',TEXT: Special Issue Website Series, no 28 (April 2015): http://www.textjournal.com.au/speciss/issue28/Nelson&deMatos.pdf.
    • de Matos, Christine, 'A Very Gendered Occupation: Australian women as "conquerors" and "liberators"', US-Japan Women's Journal, No 33, 2007: 87-107.
    • de Matos, 'Diplomacy Interrupted?: Macmahon Ball, Evatt and Labor's policies in occupied Japan', Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol 52, No 2, 2006: 188-201.
    • de Matos, Christine, 'The Case of Nikko jiken: Occupation, reform, power and conflict' in Adrian Vickers and Margaret Hanlon (eds), Asia Reconstructed: Proceedings of the16th Biennial Conference of the ASAA, 2006, Wollongong, Australia, Canberra: Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) Inc and Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS), The Australian National University, 2006. Available online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers/111/
    • de Matos, Christine, 'The Allied Occupation of Japan—an Australian view', The Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 27 July 2005, available online: http://www.japanfocus.org/-Christine_de-Matos/1765.
    • de Matos, Christine, 'From the "People's War" to the "People's Occupation": Australian and Japanese communists, 1945-52' in Greg Patmore, John Shields and Nikola Balnave (eds), The Past is Before Us: Proceedings of the Ninth National Labour History Conference, The University of Sydney, 30 June-2 July 2005, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History with the Business and Labour History Group, The University of Sydney, 2005: 107-113.
    • 'Contesting the "Will of the People": Australia and constitutional reform in occupied Japan', Japanese Studies, Vol 24, No 2, (September 2004): 181-200.
    • de Matos, Christine, '"For Good or for Evil": Australia, Labour Reform and the Military Occupation of Japan' in Peer-reviewed Proceedings of the 15th Biennial Conference of the ASAA, 2004, Canberra, Australia, 2004, available online: http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/ASAA/biennial-conference/2004/DeMatos-C-ASAA2004.pdf.
    • de Matos, Christine, 'Encouraging "Democracy" in a Cold War Climate: The Dual-Platform Policy approach of Evatt and Labor toward the Allied Occupation of Japan 1945-1949', Pacific Economic Papers, No 313, (March 2001): 1-30.
    • de Matos, Christine, 'The Search for Peace and Prosperity: Idealism and pragmatism in Australian policies towards the Japanese labour movement, 1945-49' in Melbourne Historical Journal, Proceedings of the Mass Historia! Postgraduate Conference, University of Melbourne 2001: 120-126.
    • de Matos, Christine, with R. Lawson, 'Information Technology Skills in the Workplace: Implications for Bachelor of Arts degrees' in Australian Journal of Education Technology, Vol 16, No 2, (Winter 2000): 87-103.
    • de Matos, Christine, with Harvey, John, Margaret Chan, Paul Lambert and David Reid, 'IT Support in an M.Teach Program,' ASCILITE 95 conference proceedings, 1996, available online: www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/adelaide96/papers/09.html.

  • Conference proceedings

    • de Matos, Christine, 'The Case of Nikko jiken: Occupation, reform, power and conflict' in Adrian Vickers and Margaret Hanlon (eds), Asia Reconstructed: Proceedings of the16th Biennial Conference of the ASAA, 2006, Wollongong, Australia, Canberra: Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) Inc and Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS), The Australian National University, 2006. Available online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers/111/
    • de Matos, Christine, 'From the "People's War" to the "People's Occupation": Australian and Japanese communists, 1945-52' in Greg Patmore, John Shields and Nikola Balnave (eds), The Past is Before Us: Proceedings of the Ninth National Labour History Conference, The University of Sydney, 30 June-2 July 2005, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History with the Business and Labour History Group, The University of Sydney, 2005: 107-113.
    • de Matos, Christine, 'The Search for Peace and Prosperity: Idealism and pragmatism in Australian policies towards the Japanese labour movement, 1945-49' in Melbourne Historical Journal, Proceedings of the Mass Historia! Postgraduate Conference, University of Melbourne 2001: 120-126.
    • de Matos, Christine, '"For Good or for Evil": Australia, Labour Reform and the Military Occupation of Japan' in Peer-reviewed Proceedings of the 15th Biennial Conference of the ASAA, 2004, Canberra, Australia, 2004, available online: http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/ASAA/biennial-conference/2004/DeMatos-C-ASAA2004.pdf.
    • de Matos, C and Rowena Ward, ‘Forgotten Forced Migrants of War: Civilian internment of Japanese in British India, 1941–1946’, Journal of Contemporary History (Q1), Vol 56, No 4: 1102-1125.

  • In the media

  • Professional affiliations

    • Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA)
    • Professional Historians Association NSW & ACT (Inc)
    • Australian Historical Association
    • Co-coordinator Military Labour History Working Group, European Labour History Network

  • Grants

    • 2022 DORA Community Engagement Grant (with Annette Pierdziwol and Gerard Hoyne)
    • 2021 ASAA Event Grant (with Yasuko Hassall Kobayashi and Rowena Ward)
    • 2020 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Grant to Support the Initiation of International Collaboration, €15,560 for project: “Occupied spaces: A comparative historical analysis of transnational encounters in private spaces in occupied Japan and (West) Germany, 1945-1955”, with Bettina Blum (U.Paderborn) and Kazuto Oshio (Sophia.U)
    • 2016 Chingari Small Grants Scheme, Australia India Institute
    • 2011 Japan Foundation Grant Program for Intellectual Exchange Conference
    • 2010 Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Research Scholarship
    • 2009 Ernst Keller European Travelling Fellowship
    • 2009 Asia Pacific Futures Research Network (APFRN) Grant
    • 2007 Japan Foundation Grant Program for Intellectual Exchange Conference
    • 2004 Japan Foundation Fellowship

  • Awards

    • 2020 Circa Prize for best article in Circa: The Journal of Professional Historians
    • 1999 J.G. Crawford Award (Excellence in new research on Japan and Australia)
    • 1997 Research Excellence Award, Faculty of Education, University of Sydney
    • 1995 University Medal, University of Western Sydney, Macarthur