This theme is widely explored and includes individuals and organisations, personal stories and biographies, human intelligence and espionage, popular culture and social history, public perceptions and human impact.

• Dr Bryony Norburn – The Road to Bletchley Park: Female Cryptanalysts from 1914 to 1946 

• Dr Helen Fry – Women in Intelligence 

• Prof Michael Goodman – The Rise and Fall of Commander Eric Welsh, MI6’s Atomic Man 

• Dr Vin Arthey – The Life, Work and Posthumous Role of KGB Colonel William Fisher 

• Dr Melanie Brand – The Media and “Mrs Petrov”: Press Representations of Australia’s Most Famous Spy 

• Dr Eric Bergelin – SSLP: Swedish ‘Hybrid’ Intelligence During the Cold War 

• Chris Pocock – U-2 History and the late Bob Ericson, U-2 Pilot 

• Col Pollyanna Padden – “Intelligence from an unexpected source”: A Polish Officer’s Contribution to Operation TORCH 
• Michal Nemecek – Activities of British Military Diplomats: Through the Eyes of Czechoslovak Intelligence and Security Forces in Post-War Czechoslovakia 
• Prof Rudiger Bergien – No ear for Pullach? The West German Chancellors and their BND presidents
• Brenda McIntire – The life and cryptologic work of Robert Orestes Ferner

• KEYNOTE SPEAKER Prof Richard Aldrich – Spies, secret intelligence and British Prime Ministers
• Clare Mulley – Overlooked and Underestimated: Polish Women in Second World War Intelligence 

• Berry Burnett – Jane Archer: the First Female Intelligence Officer 

• Krystel von Kumberg – Russian/Soviet Women in Intelligence 

• Kiera Fitzgerald – “Allah, for which country do I die?”: A Case Study of Noor Inayat Khan and Britain’s Special Operations Executive 

• Prof Paulette Pepin – Nicolas Bodington – SOE Traitor or Not? 

• Dr Tony Cowan – A Lost Opportunity? German Intelligence on the 1917 French Mutinies 

• Dr Markus Pohlmann – Spying the Spas: The Brandon-Trench Intelligence Mission of 1910 

• Prof James Crossland – Understanding Intelligence Failure: Robert Bruce Lockhart, the Man Behind the Plot to Bring Down Lenin in 1918 

• Sir Dermot Turing – Didn’t Your Best Friend Tell You? British Warnings of American Cryptological Compromises in World War 2 

• Dr John Fox – Ultra and American Counterintelligence: Bureaucratic Battles in the Midst of War 

• Prof Mary Kathryn Barbier – The Cost of Doing Business in the Intelligence Game During World War II 

• Ian Piper – John Franklyn Venner FCA: An Orthodox Chartered Accountant Working in an Unorthodox Organisation 

• Katherine Quinlan-Flatter – Gestapo and Counterintelligence in the Third Reich 

• Elijah Woodward – Declassify Your Way to Deterrence: Historical Insights and Contemporary Implications 

• Dr Dafydd Townley – Senator Frank Church and the Transformation of Intelligence Studies 

• Dr Tom Maguire – The Intelligence-Propaganda Nexus: the United Kingdom, the Cold War and Disclosing Intelligence for Influence 

• Jakob Muhle – Signals revolution: Radio Relay Interception as a Resource for the Bundesnachrichtendienst’s Political Espionage Against the GDR, 1967-1982  

• Prof Katrin Paehler – Negotiating Involvement in Intelligence: Hildegard Beetz and US Intelligence Efforts in Germany, 1945-1970 

• Alex Branger – The CIA’s Vienna Operations Base and the Vienna Choir Boys (and Girls) 

• Dr Christian Rossé – Tracing Lucie’s Sources: Investigating Rudolf Roessler’s Network 

• Nigel West – OTP Mythology 

• Dr Jonathan Ludwig – For ‘The Greater Good’: Espionage History and Ethics in Australian Spy Fiction 

• Prof Juliette Pattinson – The Not-so-secret War: Reconstructing the SOE in Print, Film and Stone 

• Ashleigh Percival-Borley – “An Appetite for Action”: the Impact of Popular Culture on SOE Agents’ Personal Testimonies 
• Dr David Cox – “An Elusinian Mystery Revealed”: the Intelligence Activities of the Bow Street Runners, 1792-1839 
• Glenn Johnston – The Evolution of the Private Intelligence Industry 
• Dr Lewis Sage-Passant – A History of Private Sector Intelligence 
• Joey Crozier – Spy, Diplomat and Secretary: Reconstructing the Clandestine Career of James Johnstone in the Era of the Glorious Revolution (1687-97) 
• Mark Dunton – Harry and Ethel – the Unlikely Spies
• Prof James Smith and Guy Woodward – The Woburn Estate and the Secret War
• Dr Steven Wagner – Hajj Amin al-Husayni as an intelligence target
• Saoud Al-Eshaq – The evolution of Israeli Intelligence within Israeli foreign policy decision-making
• Jakob Mühle – The “Laus” Revolution. On the technification of West Germany’s political espionage against the GDR (1970s-80s)
• Prof Philip Davies – Counterespionage, Counterintelligence and Security Intelligence: Evolution of a Lexicon 1922-2023
• Dr Christian Rossé – Tracing Lucie’s Sources – Investigating Rudolf Roessler’s Network
• Ashleigh Percival-Borley – ‘An Appetite for Action’: the impact of popular culture on SOE agents’ personal testimonies
• Dr David Cox – ‘An Elusinian mystery revealed’ – the intelligence activities of the Bow Street Runners, 1792-1839

• Vanessa Falcone – Mary Oliver: Canada’s First GCHQ Liaison 

• Dr Niccolo Petrelli – US-Italian Intelligence Relations during the Cold War: Turf Wars, Cooperation and Competition 

• Prof Richard Damms – “Beyond the capabilities, if not the imagination, of our adversaries”: James R. Killian, Jr. and the integration of Science and Technology into American Intelligence 

• Dr Jeffrey Rogg – The Spy and the State…and the American People: Centering the American People in U.S. Intelligence History 

• Carrissa Anderson – Operation STAGE 1951-1957 

• Dr Daniel Salisbury – Feeding Putin’s War Machine: Lessons from Soviet Science and Technology (S&T) Intelligence Efforts During the Long Cold War 

• Dr Matthew Hefler – Putting the ‘People’ in Intelligence: Using British COMINT to Explore the Personal Relationships in Diplomacy and Espionage, 1943-45 

• Steve Jaskoski – Ultra in Transition: The Challenges of Ultra Dissemination to the Army Level in the Mediterranean Ground Campaigns in 1943 

• Dr John Tokar – Long Overdue: Accolades for Colonel Alva Brian “Red” Lasswell, USMC 

• Matthew Day-Lopes – Cipher Power: Cryptography as the Great Equalizer in the Vietnam Wars 

• Dr Marta Garcia-Cabrera – Allied Intelligence in the Canary Islands during the Second World War: Operational Information, Sabotage and Counterintelligence 

• Aidan Jones – Royal Spies: Victoria, Intelligence Gatherer, Blunt, Covert Operator 

• Ian B. Anderson – Medical Intelligence: the Role in Military Operations 

• Dr Nicholas Reynolds – “Pete Ortiz’s Secret Sauce”: How to Make Special Ops Really Come Together 

• Dave Roberts – “Armed and Expert Looters”- 30 Commando: Their Origins, Achievements and Legacy  

• Ronan Mainprize – A Sinking Ship: William Raborn as Director of Central Intelligence 
• Prof John Blaxland and Clare Birgin – How Britain brought Australia into the Five Eyes (and made AUKUS possible)
• Dr Ksensia Wesolowska – Soviet Bloc Espionage and Human Intelligence in Cold War Turkey