Tanya Evans

I am a public historian who specializes in family history, the history of the family, cultural heritage, history and sport, gender in sport, community, local and regional history, memory and life-stories, histories of charities and NGOs, history and the media and history in tourism.

As President of the International Federation of Public History I am committed to revealing the value and significance of history for individuals and society to everyone.

I analyse how history works in everyday life. I am passionate about researching ordinary people and places in the past and co-creating historical knowledge with diverse communities. Past consultancies include the areas of: history and sport, gender in sport, family, history in the GLAM sector, cultural heritage, community, local and regional history, histories of charities and NGOs, history and the media.

I am currently working on an Australian Research Council funded project on the History of Grandparenting in Australia since 1945 (2025-2028) and the history of fitness in Australia.

I recently finished research for my last Australian Research Council-funded Linkage project entitled 'History, heritage and environmental change in a deindustrialised landscape' with archaeologists, heritage consultants, historians and industry partners. This was a collaborative public history project and we're producing a walking tour of abandoned shale mining settlements in the Blue Mountains https://mq-cah.github.io/BlueMntARC/about/.

My first three books were about the history of 'illegitimacy', poverty and philanthropy. My third prize-winning book Fractured Families: Life on the Margins in Colonial New South Wales was a history of Australia's oldest surviving charity The Benevolent Society and I wrote this in collaboration with family historians and the charity. I love teaching and producing public history and working in teams. I curate exhibitions, write for general as well as academic readers, politicians and social policy makers and I make radio and television programs based on my scholarship. I pitch my work at a variety of audiences because my research is targeted at disrupting people's assumptions about the history of the family. It questions supposedly 'authoritative' or 'commonsensical' knowledge about family life in the past. I am committed to the democratization of historical knowledge. My last book Family History, Historical Consciousness and Citizenship: a new social history was published by Bloomsbury in early 2022.