Dr Karl James has been a historian at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, since 2006, and has been Head of the Military History Section from May 2019. A graduate of the University of Wollongong, his research focuses on Australia’s involvement in the Second World War. His publications include Kokoda: Beyond the Legend (editor), Double Diamonds: Australian Commandos in the Pacific War, 1941–45 and The Hard Slog: Australians in the Bougainville Campaign, 1944-45. He is a member of the editorial staff for the Memorial’s magazine Wartime.
He has worked on major exhibitions at the Memorial, including as lead curator for From the Shadows: Australia’s Special Forces (2017–18), the special anniversary exhibition Rats of Tobruk, 1941 (2011), and the refurbishment of the permanent Second World War Galleries (2010).
Dr James is currently working with Professor Peter Dean on the edited volume Australia in the Second World War. Dr James is also writing a new history of the 1941 siege of Tobruk and a popular history of the operations of HMAS Sydney’s (III) Carrier Air Group in 1951–52 during the Korean War.