Alistair Thomson completed a degree in Arts at Melbourne University, Melbourne, Victoria, in 1982, and subsequently moved to the United Kingdom where he completed an MA and DPhil in History at the University of Sussex. He taught for 16 years at the University of Sussex becoming Professor of Oral History, Director of the Centre for Life History Research and a Trustee of the Mass-Observation Archive. Between 1991 and 2007 he co-edited Oral History, the journal of the Oral History Society of Great Britain and also served as President of the International Oral History Association from 2006 - 2008.
In 2007 Thomson returned to Melbourne, Victoria, as Professor of History at Monash University and Director of the University's Institute for Public History.
Source: Monash University website, www.monash.edu.au (sighted 30/08/2011)