Research

The Department of History and Art History has a strong research tradition and has performed very well in both the 2003 and 2006 rounds of the Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF). Staff within the Department have established reputations in their areas of expertise and the department as a whole has an energetic research culture. Both our historians and art historians regularly host conferences and symposia, attend international scholarly events, and produce a substantial number of journal articles, book chapters, edited collections and monographs.

The department has a very strong record of collaborative research and has hosted a large number of research projects funded by large external grants. The Caversham Project and its successor Sites of Gender were supported by funding from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. More recently the department has had a remarkable track record of winning grants from the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Marsden Fund. Over the past seven years, scholars in the department have been Principal Investigators in five large multi-year Marsden Fund projects and have also received two Marsden Fast Start grants.

Marsden Projects

The Marsden Fund was established by the New Zealand government in 1994 to fund excellent fundamental research. The Marsden Fund is a contestable fund administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand on behalf of the Marsden Fund Council.  Marsden Fund research benefits society as a whole by contributing to the development of researchers with knowledge, skills and ideas.

The research is not subject to government’s socio-economic priorities, but is investigator initiated.  The Fund supports research excellence in science, technology, engineering and maths, social sciences and the humanities.  Competition for grants is intense.  Marsden is regarded as the hallmark of excellence for research in New Zealand.

• Empire of Grass: The reconstruction of the New Zealand grasslands 1850s-1950s (Professor Tom Brooking)
• Scottish Migration to New Zealand to 1950, and its contributions to the development of New Zealand society (Professor Tom Brooking)
• Migration, Ethnicity, and Insanity in New Zealand and Australia, 1860-1910 (Professor Angela McCarthy)
• A conquest of knowledge?: knowledge and the colonisation of Murihiku (Associate Professor Tony Ballantyne)
• Medicine and the Body Politic: An Approach to the Global History of Political Thought (Dr Takashi Shogimen)
• The Idea of Peace in the Age of Crusades (Dr Takashi Shogimen)
• Colonial Intimacies, Intimate Colonialism: Interracial Marriage in New Zealand, 1769-1969 (Dr Angela Wanhalla)
• Mothers' darlings: Children of indigenous women and World War Two American servicemen in New Zealand and South Pacific societies (Associate Professor Judy Bennett, Dr Angela Wanhalla)

Research Networks

Many members of the department are involved in inter-disciplinary research groupings within the University. These include:

• Asia-New Zealand Research Cluster
• Asian Studies
• Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies
• Centre for Public History
• Centre for Research on National Identity
• Cultures, Histories and Identities in Film, Media, and Literature
• Early Modern Thought
• History, Health and Hybridity: New Zealand and the Pacific
• History of the University Unit
• Medieval and Early Modern Studies
• Pacific Studies
• Russian Studies
• Sites of Gender (The Caversham Project)
• Sustainable Agriculture

Visitors

The department has regular visitors who contribute to our academic community.

Recent Books

Recent books written by members of the Department of History and Art History include:

• Tony Ballantyne and Antoinette Burton, eds. Moving Subjects: Gender, Mobility and Intimacy in an Age of Global Empire. Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009.
• Tony Ballantyne, ed. Textures of the Sikh Past: New Historical Interpretations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
• Judith Bennett. Natives and Exotics: World War II and Environment in the Southern Pacific. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2009.
• Barbara Brookes and Alison Holland, eds. Rethinking the Racial Moment: Essays on the Colonial Encounter. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011.
• Tom Brooking and Eric Pawson. Seeds of Empire: The Transformation of the New Zealand Environment. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011.
• Angela McCarthy. Personal Narratives of Irish and Scottish Migration, 1921-65: ‘For Spirit and Adventure’. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007.
• Angela McCarthy. Scottishness and Irishness in New Zealand since 1840. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011.
• Takashi Shogimen and Cary J. Nederman, eds. Western Political Thought in Dialogue with Asia. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.
• J. Stenhouse and B. Knowles, eds. Christianity in the Post-Secular West. Adelaide: ATF Press, 2007.
• Takashi Shogimen. Ockham and Political Discourse in the Late Middle Ages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
• Alexander Trapeznik. A. V. M. Chernov: Theorist, Leader, Politician. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007.
• Angela Wanhalla. In/visible sight: the mixed descent families of southern New Zealand. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2009.

Staff Research

A full list of areas of staff research expertise is available here and on individual staff pages.

Postgraduate Research

A full list of postgraduate students and their research topics is available here. The Department keeps a copy of all completed MA and PhD theses; catalogues are available to view upon request.

Journal of New Zealand Art History

The Art History and Theory Programme produces the Journal of New Zealand Art History in conjunction with the Hocken Collections.

Research Seminars

The Department holds regular research seminars during term time. A schedule of speakers and their topics can be found here.

Student Research Publications

When the Waves Rolled in Upon Us, a collection of essays by history students on 19th Century Maori history, was published in 1999.

Unfortunate Folk, Essays on Mental Health Treatment 1863 - 1992, a collection of essays by history students on mental health history, was published in 2001.

Building God's Own Country: Historical Essays on Religion in New Zealand, a collection of essays by history students on religious history, was published in 2004.

Landscape/Community: perspectives from New Zealand. A collection of papers arising from 'Passions of the Past', a postgraduate student conference, published in 2005.

Tower turmoil : characters & controversies at the University of Otago. A collection of papers arising out of a honours level research paper, published in 2005.

Culture of change : beginnings at the University of Otago. A collection of papers arising out of a honours level research paper, published in 2006.

Follow this link for an online a listing of history theses produced in the Department. Follow this link for an online a listing of art history and theory theses produced in the Department. Most of these theses are available for viewing in the departmental library.