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Tony Ballantyne profile photo.Academic Subject Adviser (History)
Māori Students' Liaison Officer
Pacific Students' Liaison Officer

Contact details

Room 2S12, Arts 1 (Burns) Building
Email tony.ballantyne@otago.ac.nz

Academic qualifications

1999: PhD, Cambridge
1993: BA(Hons), University of Otago

Notable award

Distinguished Chair (Poutoko Taiea)

Research interests

Tony was born and raised in Dunedin. His parents were Southlanders and his family has lived within the rohe of Kāi Tahu Whānui since the 1860s. A proud graduate of History at Otago, he completed his PhD at Cambridge under the supervision of Chris Bayly.

He has worked extensively on the modern British empire: particularly, the development of colonial knowledge; the production of cultural difference; missionaries and humanitarianism; and cultures of mobility. He is well known for developing an approach to the history of empire that focuses on the uneven 'webs' of exchange and connection that gave the empire shape and for highlighting the enduring cultural ‘entanglements’ that resulted from empire-building.

His latest publication is Captain Cook and the Unsettled Afterlives of Empire (Bridget Williams Books), which examines the politics of historical writing and memory from the 1780s to the present. History and memory are central in his current work on the collector, ethnographer, and historian Herries Beattie and on the development of historical writing in New Zealand, within the context of the empire and Commonwealth, from the mid-nineteenth century until the 1960s. He is also completing a monograph on the maritime dimensions of New Zealand’s colonisation.

Tony has often worked collaboratively and has a particularly significant and long-standing collaboration with Antoinette Burton at the University of Illinois.

Tony previously served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Humanities and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, External Engagement at Otago and has sat on the boards of a number of institutions in New Zealand that have supported the Humanities, Asian Studies and Pacific Studies. Earlier in his career he held faculty positions at the National University of Ireland, Galway, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Washington University in St Louis.

Editorial responsibilities

Tony is currently on the editorial boards of:

  • Journal of British Studies
  • History Australia
  • Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History

Areas of research supervision

  • The modern British empire, especially imperial networks and histories of mobility
  • Colonial knowledge
  • Cultural and intellectual life in 19th century New Zealand, especially Otago and Southland
  • Missionaries, empire and Christianity

Publications

Ballantyne, T. (2025, December). Religion and empire, again: The c19th debates around Captain Cook. The Christianity and Social Change in the Global South (CSCGS) seminar, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. [Research Presentation]. Other Research Output

Ballantyne, T. (2025). Threads, entanglements, and the work of empire. Slavic Review, 84(2), 274-277. doi: 10.1017/slr.2025.10203 Journal - Research Other

Ballantyne. T. (2025, August). Otago's tradition of firsts. Auckland Alumni Event, Deloitte Centre Whiria Te Kaha, Auckland, New Zealand. [Public Lecture]. Other Research Output

Ballantyne, T., Ellison, E., McDonald, E., & Wanhalla, A. (2025, August). Where were my tīpuna in this city. Panel discussion at the H.K.Taiaroa celebrations in association with the exhibition “Kua marara hoki ngā mana o tōna kaha ki runga i te katoa”, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand. [Public Discussion]. Other Research Output

Ballantyne, T. (2025, July). On the move: Mobility and media in a missionary knowledge order. Keynote presentation at the Missionary Sources Conference: The Making, Movement, and Materiality of Knowledge, Cambridge, UK. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

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