{{short description|Australian sociologist, historian and biographer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=October 2020}} {{Infobox scholar |education = University of Queensland<br>Australian National University |thesis_year = 1986 |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|FASSA|size=100}} |thesis_title = Managing Gender: The State, the New Middle Class, and Women Workers 1830–1930 |workplaces = Australian National University |birth_place = Pomona, Queensland, Australia |birth_date = {{birth_year_and_age|1941}} |birth_name = Desley Straker |discipline = Sociology, Women's and Gender Studies, History }} '''Desley Deacon''' {{post-nominals|country=AUS|FASSA}} (born 1941) is an Australian sociologist, historian and biographer. She has been professor emeritus at the Australian National University since 2009.
== Early life and education == Deacon was born in Pomona, Queensland in 1941.<ref>{{cite web |title=Deacon, Desley |language=en-gb |url=http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE5050b.htm |website=The Australian Women's Register |access-date=2020-10-16 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150911164127/http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE5050b.htm |archive-date=11 September 2015 }}</ref> She is the daughter of Molly (née Head) and Frank Straker. She boarded at St Margaret's Anglican Girls School in Brisbane for her high school education. In 1963 she graduated from the University of Queensland with a BA (Hons).<ref name=":1">{{cite web |last=Harrison |first=Sharon M. |title=Deacon, Desley |language=en-gb |website=The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia |url=http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0667b.htm |url-status=live |access-date=2020-10-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924151741/http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0667b.htm |archive-date=24 September 2015 }}</ref> She was awarded a PhD in Sociology in 1986 by the Australian National University.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=Academy Fellow: Professor Desley Deacon, FASSA |language=en-US |website=Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia |url=https://socialsciences.org.au/academy-fellow/?sId=0032v000033l9POAAY |access-date=2020-10-16 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211043919/https://socialsciences.org.au/academy-fellow/?sId=0032v000033l9POAAY |archive-date=11 December 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Professor Desley Deacon |url=https://www.stmargarets.qld.edu.au/125/125-notables/professor-desley-deacon |access-date=2025-07-16 |website=St Margaret's}}</ref>
== Career == Following her graduation, in 1964 Deacon won a place in the Administrative Training Program established by the Commonwealth Public Service Board. Her career there was, however, interrupted when she married Allan Deacon, a diplomat and accompanied him on postings to Cairo, Malta and Saigon.<ref name=":1" /> Returning to Canberra in 1975 she was employed as a research assistant at the ANU's Research School of Social Sciences. Moving to the Sociology Department at the ANU as tutor in 1979, she enrolled in PhD studies.<ref name=":1" />
Deacon married John Higley in 1985 and moved to the University of Texas at Austin, working initially as a lecturer in government and later assistant professor. She was co-director of the Clark Center for Australian Studies there from 1988 to 1991 and in 1999 was appointed director of women's and gender studies.<ref name=":1" />
Returning to the Research School of Social Sciences in Canberra in 2001, she was appointed professor of gender history. As head of the Department of History for two terms, 2002–2004 and 2007–2008, she oversaw the foundation of both the Australian Centre for Indigenous Studies (2003) and the National Centre of Biography (2008).<ref name=":1" />
Deacon was elected Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 2002.<ref name=":0" />
Deacon has served on a number of editorial boards, including of three journals ''Genders,'' ''History Australia'' and ''ANU Lives'', and the University of Texas Press and ANU E-Press.<ref name=":1" />
On her retirement from the Australian National University in 2009 she was appointed professor emeritus.<ref name=":1" /> A two-day symposium, organised by the ANU School of History, with the title "Entitled Gender, Biography, Modernity & Film", honoured Deacon's career.<ref>{{cite web |title=02 Apr 2018 - Honouring the career of Professor Desley Deacon {{!}} ANU School... - Archived Website |website=Trove |date=21 May 2010 |url=http://history.cass.anu.edu.au/news/honouring-career-professor-desley-deacon |access-date=2020-10-16 |archive-date=2 April 2018 |archive-url=http://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20180402061513/http://history.cass.anu.edu.au/news/honouring-career-professor-desley-deacon |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>
She lives in Sydney, New South Wales and is a reviewer for the Australian Book Review.<ref>{{cite web |title=Desley Deacon |language=en-gb |website=Australian Book Review |url=https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/about/author/1844-desleydeacon |url-status=live |access-date=2020-10-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018081608/https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/about/author/1844-desleydeacon |archive-date=18 October 2020 }}</ref>
Her biography of Judith Anderson was shortlisted for the 2019 George Freedley Memorial Award by the Theatre Library Association in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |date=2020-10-16 |title=Deacon in the running for US award |language=en-AU |website=Books+Publishing |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2020/10/16/158077/deacon-in-the-running-for-us-award/ |access-date=2020-10-16 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019233415/https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2020/10/16/158077/deacon-in-the-running-for-us-award/ |archive-date=19 October 2020 }}</ref>
== Works == {{Scholia}} * {{cite book |last1=Higley |first1=John |last2=Deacon|first2=Desley |last3=Smart |first3=Don |title=Elites in Australia |date=1979 |publisher=London Routledge & K. Paul |isbn=978-0-7100-0222-8}} * {{cite book |last=Deacon |first=Desley |date=1989 |title=Managing Gender: The state, the new middle class and women workers 1830–1930 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-554817-4}} * {{cite book |last=Deacon |first=Desley |date=1997 |title=Elsie Clews Parsons: Inventing modern life |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-13908-1}} * {{cite book |editor1-last=Damousi |editor1-first=Joy |editor2-last=Deacon |editor2-first=Desley |date=2007 |title=Talking and Listening in the Age of Modernity: Essays on the history of sound |publisher=ANU E Press |isbn=978-1-921313-47-9}} * {{cite book |editor1-last=Deacon |editor1-first=Desley |editor2-last=Russell |editor2-first=Penny |editor3-last=Woollacott |editor3-first=Angela |date=2008 |title=Transnational Ties: Australian lives in the world |publisher=ANU E Press |isbn=978-1-921536-20-5 }} * {{cite book |editor1-last=Deacon |editor1-first=Desley |editor2-last=Russell |editor2-first=Penny |editor3-last=Woollacott |editor3-first=Angela |date=2010 |title=Transnational Lives: Biographies of global modernity, 1700–present |publisher=Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-23870-1}} * {{cite book |last=Deacon |first=Desley |date=2019 |title=Judith Anderson: Australian Star, First Lady of the American Stage |publisher=Kerr Publishing |isbn=978-1-875703-18-0}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Twitter|DesleyDeacon}} * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRAKcgkQGms 2013 interview] with Katie Valenta * [https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/deacon-da Desley Deacon] at Australian National University
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Deacon, Desley}} Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:University of Queensland alumni Category:Australian National University alumni Category:Academic staff of the Australian National University Category:Australian sociologists Category:Australian women historians Category:Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Category:People educated at St Margaret's Anglican Girls' School