Vesna Drapac

Dr Vesna Drapac

Associate Professor

School of Humanities

Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


Vesna Drapač is an Australian of Croatian background. She was an undergraduate at the University of Adelaide and undertook postgraduate studies as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford where she completed her Doctorate. Her research interests include modern French religious and cultural history, the history of Yugoslavia and the social history of the Second World War. She has a secondary research interest in Australian immigration history. Her publications include the books War and Religion: Catholics in the Churches of Occupied Paris, Constructing Yugoslavia: A Transnational History and, with Gareth Pritchard, Resistance and Collaboration in Hitler's Empire. She is Associate Professor of History at the University of Adelaide.

The undergraduate courses I have developed and convene include Fascism and Natonal Socialism, Reel History: World War II in film, Ethnic Cleansing and Genoicde in World History, and Modern France: From Revolution to Resistance.

HIST 2057 - Fascism and National Socialism

Extreme right wing ideologies of the twentieth century and European social movements or parties that claimed to be based on them provide the focus of this course. Broadly, it covers the period 1900-1945. Major themes discussed in lectures and seminars include the intellectual and cultural origins of fascism; political and social dislocation following World War I; Italian fascism, its nature, its appeal and its leaders; the distinguishing features of National Socialism in Germany (notably anti-Semitism and policies of exclusion and repression); social and cultural life in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany (with particular emphasis on young people, women and the Churches); and degrees of cooperation, collaboration and resistance in occupied Europe. We will also discuss the changing perceptions of Fascism over time and current debates on its nature.

HIST 2054 - Reel History: World War II in Film

The aim of this course is to explore the relationship between the past and its representation on film with particular emphasis on World War II. It takes various themes in the history of the war to examine how film has represented, reconstructed and interpreted the mid-twentieth century crisis. The course compares feature and documentary films with more traditional historical texts and sources in order to chart how filmmakers have approached the war. Why did some aspects of the war draw more attention than others? How did different people address the same subjects? Who has been responsible for shaping our understanding of the war and why was so much invested in its recreation on the screen? Students will address such questions and should complete the course with an understanding of the influence of film on popular perceptions of the war and an awareness of the dynamic process of remembering and forgetting history that is inherent in the production of historical films.

HIST 2058 - Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide in History

This course will explore the nature of ethnic cleansing and genocide and seek to discover the common historical, political and sociological threads that unite these tragedies. Students will analyse and discuss a series of case studies including, among others: the near extermination of First Nations people by colonisers of the New World, the Armenian genocide, the man-made famine in Ukraine, the Holocaust, the displacement of peoples in the aftermath of the Second World War in Europe and Africa, the Cambodian genocide and the case of ethnic cleansing and genocide during the wars of Yugoslav succession.

The Honours courses I convene include, Resistance and Collaboration in World War II and Living the Second World War in Europe.

  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2022 Co-Supervisor Antisemitism in modern Australia Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Jasmine Louise Beinart
    2021 Co-Supervisor Artistic Communities and Non-Profit Responses to the HIV/AIDS Crisis in New York City Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Caitlin Amy Merlin
  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2020 - 2024 Co-Supervisor An Inquiry into Responses to Bushfires in South Australia from the 1820s to Federation Master of Philosophy Master Part Time Ms Elizabeth Mary Bor
    2019 - 2023 Principal Supervisor ‘Three Great Forces are at Work Trying to Control Events’: Australian Anglican Views on the League of Nations, Communism, and Fascism, 1927-1939 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Alexander Charles Parsons
    2019 - 2021 Principal Supervisor “I will not maintain you”: Understanding Economic Abuse in South Australia,
    1859-1893
    Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Miss Claire Elizabeth Morey
    2019 - 2024 Principal Supervisor Ludohistorical Thinking: Gaming the Gap between Academic and Popular Histories Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Tamika Glouftsis
    2018 - 2020 Co-Supervisor Anglo-American Responses to German War Technology in World War II Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Thomas Stephen East
    2017 - 2021 Principal Supervisor Hear the Lion Roar: Trade Unionism at General Motors-Holden's in South Australia, 1930-1980 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr David Justin Chadwick
    2015 - 2018 Principal Supervisor 'Everybody's Favourite Fascist': An Examination of the Figure of José Antonio Primo de Rivera within the Historiography of Spanish Fascism Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Alexander Charles Parsons
    2013 - 2015 Co-Supervisor British Migrants in Post-War South Australia: Expectations and Lived Experiences Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Justin Anthony Madden
    2012 - 2015 Co-Supervisor The political role of the Catholic Church in Poland under Martial Law, 1981-1983 Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Jessica Jocher
    2012 - 2018 Principal Supervisor Communist Women's Resistance in Occupied Paris: Engagement, Activism and Continuities from the 1930s to 1945 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Amy Victoria Morrison
    2011 - 2017 Co-Supervisor Anglo-American Discourse About the USSR, 1984-1986 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Melody Watson
    2004 - 2009 Co-Supervisor War, Politics and Morality, The Spanish Catholic Church and World War II Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Gerald Varley
    2004 - 2013 Principal Supervisor Australian Immigration and Migrant Assimilation 1945 to 1960 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Kristy Ann Kokegei
    2003 - 2009 Principal Supervisor 'You Can't Make Owt from Nowt': Official Responses to the Impact of Unemployment Upon the Community in the Lancashire Weaving Area in the Early 1930's Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Ellen Hall
    2001 - 2007 Principal Supervisor Pan-German Identity and the Press in Austria, 1933-1938 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Julie Thorpe
    2000 - 2005 Principal Supervisor ANZAC CULTURE: A South Australian case study of Australian identity and commemoration of war dead Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Janice Gwenllian Pavils
    2000 - 2010 Principal Supervisor Utopian Aspirations in Fascist Ideology: English and French Literary Perspectives 1914-1945 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Ashley Thomas
  • Board Memberships

    Date Role Board name Institution name Country
    2019 - ongoing Board Member History Trust of South Australia History Trust of South Australia Australia
    2012 - 2015 - South Australian Ethnic Affairs Commission - -
    2010 - ongoing Board Member Croatian Studies Review Macquarie University Australia
    2006 - 2012 Member Aquinas College Council - -
  • Position: Associate Professor
  • Phone: 83135821
  • Email: vesna.drapac@adelaide.edu.au
  • Fax: 83134341
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Napier, floor 3
  • Org Unit: School of Humanities

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