Joan Beaumont is an internationally recognized historian of Australia in the two world wars, Australian defence and foreign policy, the history of prisoners of war and the memory and heritage of war.

Her publications include the critically acclaimed Broken Nation: Australians and the Great War (Allen & Unwin, 2013), joint winner of the 2014 winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award (Australian History), the 2014 NSW Premier's Prize (Australian History), the 2014 Queensland Literary Award for History, and the Australian Society of Authors' 2015 Asher Award; and shortlisted for the 2014 WA Premier's Prize (non-fiction) and the 2014 Council for the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences Prize for a Book.

Other publications include (with Matt Jordan), Australia and the World: A Festshrift for Neville Meaney (2013);  ‘Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum, the Thai-Burma Railway’, in Bart Ziino and M. Wegner (eds), The Heritage of War: Cultural Heritage after Conflict,  2011, pp. 19-40; ; Ministers, Mandarins and Diplomats: The Making of Australian Foreign 1941-69 (ed. (2003); Australia's War, 1939-45 (ed.) (1996);  Gull Force: Survival and Leadership in Captivity, 1941-1945 (1988); and Comrades in Arms: British Aid to Russia, 1941-45 (1980).  In 2011-13 she led the research team for the Department of Veterans' Affairs commemorative web site, Hellfire Pass <hellfire-pass.commemoration.gov.au>, translated in Thai as http://hellfire-pass.commemoration.gov.au/thai/index.php

Past appointments include Dean of Arts and Social Sciences at The ANU (2010-11) and Dean of Arts  at Deakin University Victoria (1998-2008). She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs; a member of the APSI Council and the Editorial Advisory Board of DFAT, The Netherlands Institute for War and Holocaust Studies international advisory board; and the University of Alabama Press (War, Memory and culture series).  She graduated from the University of Adelaide (BA Hons 1969) and the University of London (King's College) (PhD 1975).

Australia during the Great Depression; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the defence of Australia; Australia in the two world wars; War memory and heritage, including the Anzac 'legend'; History of Australian foreign policy and diplomacy; Prisoners of war, including the Thai-Burma railway, 1942-45; History of international humanitarian law.