Series 762 - Ann Curthoys papers

Ann Curthoys was born in Sydney in 1945 to Geoffrey Carlton Curthoys and Barbara Lindsay McCallum, both of whom were members of the Communist Party of Australia until 1970. Curthoys graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in 1967 and also holds a Diploma in Education from Sydney Teachers' College. While still an undergraduate she took part in the 1965 Student Action for Aborigines Survey and Demonstration Bus Tour (Freedom Ride) to examine racial discrimination in some New South Wales towns. She then undertook a PhD at Macquarie University on the history of race relations in New South Wales in the mid nineteenth century, comparing British colonists' attitudes to Chinese immigration with attitudes to Aboriginal people, graduating in 1973.

After graduation Curthoys worked overseas then began teaching and researching at Canberra College of Advanced Education, New South Wales Institute of Technology (Later UTS). In 1995 She took up the Chair of History at the Australian National Unversity where she taught on Aboriginal History, Australian History and Historiography. he was elected to the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 1997 and the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2003.