About

Qualifications

• 1971-73 University of Oxford, Magdalen College (D.Phil.)
• 1970   University of Hamburg (German Academic Foreign Exchange scholar)
• 1966-69  University of Queensland, B.A. (Hons), First Class, University Medal
• 1956-1963  St Laurence's Christian Brothers College, South Brisbane
  

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Research

Research Interests

The Royal Society of New Zealand, Marsden Fund project on trans Tasman relations has received significant recognition through commissioning of background papers by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, the annual meeting of Trans-Tasman politicians, business people and public servants since 2004.  I was a delegate on behalf of the research team at three Forums 2004-2006.  The official government communiqué that emerged from the 2005 Forum deliberately used a concept and phrase that originated in our background papers - 'a trans Tasman community of interests' - to get its message across to the media and public of both Australia and New Zealand.  The University of Canterbury has established a research centre (New Zealand Australia Research Centre) based in the School of History which prepares commissioned papers, submits reports to parliamentary enquiries and trains postgraduate students in critical research method. The Marsden project has resulted  in a book (Remaking the Tasman World) authored by me and Philippa Mein Smith and Shaun Goldfinch, published by Canterbury University Press in December 2008.

Biography and its methods have been a focus of continuing research and teaching which started with my Burgmann biography.  This work has given me a reputation in Australian religious history which involves me in continuing research assessment and manuscript evaluations.

This work has broadened out into biographical work on a leading German politician and statesman of that era which is innovative in its interrogation of methodology for accessing and conveying life histories. The Lost Man.  Wilhelm Solf in German History (co-written with Prof. Paula Mochida, University of Hawaii, (Wiesbaden 2005), is a biographical exploration of Wilhelm Solf's life and place in German history.  Solf was colonial Governor of German Samoa, later Minister for Colonies 1910-18 and last Minister for Foreign Affairs in Imperial Germany.  He was Weimar Germany's Ambassador to Japan, and an active opponent of National Socialism.  His life and identity within the imperial power elite raise questions about the structure and culture of imperial Germany, with resonances for post-1945 Germany searching for exemplary models of civic virtue.

I am currently collecting material for a biography of Derek Freeman (Truth's Fool: Derek Freeman and the Future of Anthropology), the controversial New Zealand anthropologist who took on Margaret Mead and the north American social science establishment in the 1980s and was vilified for revealing the flaws in Mead's research.  Freeman was engaged in controversially trying to link anthropology as the study of humankind's cultural evolution with studies in biological evolution and genetics.  A biography of his life and work raises issues around ethical science as well as revealing the often ugly side of academic infighting. I have been working with the Freeman family on sensitive access matters, and have researched most of Freeman's papers in Canberra and the University of California, San Diego. A book outline has been drafted and the chapters sketched.

Though I am not a graduate of the school, in November 2007 I was chosen in national competition as the historian to write the centenary history of 'Churchie', the Anglican Grammar School of Brisbane, Queensland.  Churchie is one of Australia's largest and most eminent GPS schools with a distinguished record of scholarly, cultural and sporting achievement. This project begins on 1 March 2008 and will produce a 100,000 word history by November 2011.  I have free access to the extensive school archives as well as assistance with interviews of Old Boys.  I am approaching this enterprise as a cultural historian telling the story of a singular cultural community over a century of activity that parallels some of Australia's and Queensland's most dramatic 20th century changes.

Books and Monographs

2008 (P. Mein Smith, Peter Hempenstall & Shaun Goldfinch) Remaking the Tasman World. Christchurch, Canterbury University Press.  

2005 (with Paula Tanaka Mochida) The Lost Man. Wilhelm Solf in German History. (320pp).Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

1993 The meddlesome priest. A life of Ernest Burgmann. (411pp). Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

1991 (with Helmut Christmann & Dirk Ballendorf), Die Karolinen-Inseln  in deutscher Zeit.  Eine kolonialgeschichtliche Fallstudie [The Caroline Islands in German times.  A case study in colonialism] (270pp). Bremen: Ubersee Museum. Published in German and English.

1991 (with C. Hanson and Mary Hall), How to analyse social issues. A resource booklet (27pp). Newcastle, Hunter Justice & Peace Network, 1991.

1984   (with Noel Rutherford), Protest  and dissent in the colonial Pacific. (200pp). Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies.

1978  Pacific Islanders under German rule: a study in the meaning of colonial resistance. (264pp). Canberra: ANU press.

Edited Books

2006  The Social Structure of a Samoan Village Community (by J.D. Freeman), Canberra, Target Oceania (200pp).[Edited, annotated, introduction]

2001 (with Brij. V. Lal) Pacific Lives, Pacific Places.  Bursting boundaries in Pacific History . (190pp). (Introduction, co- editing after panel refereeing, one chapter). Canberra: Journal of Pacific History.

Book Chapters

Forthcoming 'Derek Freeman at War', in Geoffrey Gray & Doug Munro (eds.), Scholars at War 

Forthcoming 'Historical Moments in the Transformation of Cultural Traditions', in Elfriede Hermann (ed.), Cultural Transformations in Oceania, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

2010 (with T. Wesley Smith & R. Nicole) 'E-Learning and the Remaking of Pacific Studies: An Evolutionary Tale', in T. Wesley Smith et al, (eds.), Remaking Area Studies: Teaching and Learning across Asia and the Pacific. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

2006  'Bismarck Archipelago', in Benjamin, Thomas, ed. The Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450. Michigan: Macmillan/Gale.

2001 'Introduction', in Brij Lal & Peter Hempenstall (eds.) Pacific Lives, Pacific Places: bursting Boundaries in Pacific History, (1-9).  Canberra: The Journal of Pacific History.

2001  'Sniffing the Person: writing Lives in Pacific History', in Brij Lal & Peter Hempenstall (eds.) Pacific Lives, Pacific Places: bursting Boundaries in Pacific History, (34-47). Canberra: The Journal of Pacific History.

2001 'Mikronesier und Deutsche', in H. Hiery (ed.), Handbuch der Deutschen Südsee,. (581-601). Stuttgart: Schöningh.

2001  'Grundzuge der samoanischen Geschichte in der Zeit der deutschen Herrschaft', in H. Hiery (ed.),  Handbuch der Deutschen Südsee, (686-707), Stuttgart: Schöningh.

2001  The Pacific Islands. An Encyclopedia, in Brij Lal and Kate Fortune (eds.), Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Entries:
     'Lauaki Namulau'ulu Mamoe' : 145
     'Te'o Tuvale' : 146
     'Colonial rule:administrative styles and practices' :229-31.
     'German colonial administration 1884-1914' : 235-36.
     'I'iga Pisa' : 277
     'Protest, proto nationalist movements' : 300-02.

2000 "A wider scope of mind": Wilhelm Solf, the German Colonial System and the world crisis', in J.A. Moses & C. Pugsley (eds.), The German Empire and Britain's Pacific Dominions 1871-1919.  (339-56).  Claremont: Regina Books.
 
2000   'Releasing the voices: historicising colonial encounters in the Pacific', In R. Borofsky (ed), Remembrance of Pacific pasts: an invitation to remake History. (43-62). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
 
1997 'The colonial imagination and the making and remaking of the Samoan people', in H. Hiery & J. Mackenzie (eds), European impact and Pacific influence: British and German colonial policy in the Pacific Islands and the indigenous response. (65-81). London: Tauris Press.

1996   'Recreating the life of Wilhelm Solf: the politics of the search for immortality', in A. Bonnell (ed.), Power, Conscience and Opposition. Essays in German history in honour of John A. Moses. (25-44). New York: Peter Lang, 1996.

1994 'Imperial manoeuvres', in Kerry Howe & Brij Lal (eds.), Tides of  history: the Pacific Islands in the twentieth century. (3-21).  Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.

1993   'BURGMANN, Ernest Henry', Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1940 - 1980, volume 13, Canberra.

1992  '"My Place": finding a voice within Pacific colonial studies', in Brij V. Lal. (ed.), Pacific Islands history. Journeys and transformations, (60-78). Canberra: Journal of Pacific History.

1989 Zwei Menschenalter der Kolonialgeschichte des Pazifiks: ein Überblick', in H. Christmann (Hrsg.), Kolonisation und Dekolonisation.  Referate des internationalen kolonialgeschichtlichen Symposiums '89. (37-51). Schwäbisch Gmünd: Gmünder Hochschulreihe, Band 8.

1989 'An Anglican strategy for social responsibility: the Burgmann solution', in J.A. Moses (ed.), Anglican social strategies from Burgmann to the present. (1-13). Brisbane: Broughton Press.

1988  'The superstructure of the colonial state in German Melanesia', in A. Knoll & L. Gann (eds.),  Germans in the tropics. (93-118).  Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
 
1987 'Ernest Henry Burgmann', in G.Aplin et al (eds.), Australians.  A Historical Dictionary. (61). Sydney: Fairfax Syme & Weldon.

1987 (with Sheilah Gray), 'The Unemployed', in Bill Gammage & Peter Spearritt (eds.), Australians 1938, Australians: A Historical Library, (327-38). Sydney: Fairfax Syme & Weldon.

1982 'Europaische Missionsgesellschaften und christlicher Einfluss in der deutschen Sudsee', in Klaus J. Bade (ed.), Imperialismus und Kolonialmission. (226-42). Wiesbaden: Steiner Verlag.

1981 'The German colonial empire', in F.P. King & D.N. Craig (eds.), Historical Dictionary of Oceania. (106-08). Westport, Conn: Greenwood.

1977 'Native resistance and German control policy in the Pacific', in J. Moses and P.M. Kennedy, (eds.), Germany in the Pacific and Far East, (209-33). Brisbane: University of Queensland Press.

Articles in Refereed Journals

2008   (with P. Mein Smith) 'Islands, Empires, Edges: New Zealand's Worlds', Thesis 11, Nr 92, Feb 2008, pp.1-10.

2007  'Overcoming Separate Histories:  Historians as 'Ideas Traders'   in the Australasian Region', History Australia. 4/1, June 2007, 4.1-4.16.

2006  'Tasman Epiphanies: the Participant History of A.D. Ward', Journal of New Zealand Studies, NS4-5, Oct 2005-Oct 2006, 65-80.

2005  (with P. Mein Smith)  Changing Community Attitudes to the New Zealand/Australia Relationship. A paper prepared for the NZ Australia Leadership Forum April 2005.(16pp). Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Available here 

2005   'The Biographer's Bifocal Lens' in 'Forum: Malinowski: Odyssey of an Anthropologist', (with H. Kuklik, H. Morphy, L. Digim'rima, M. Young), Journal of Pacific History, 40/2, Sept 2005,237-53 [237-41].

2004    'On Missionaries and Cultural Change: Derek Freeman preparing for a heretical Life', Journal of Pacific History, 39, 2, 241-51.

2003 (with P. Mein Smith) 'Australia and New Zealand: Turning Shared Pasts into a Shared History', Blackwells Compass, October 2003, 1-8. Available here  

2002 'Reclaiming the Burgmann Vision for the Twenty First Century', St Marks Review, 191/4, 20-27.

1998  (with Paula Mochida) 'The Yin and Yang of Wilhelm Solf: reconstructing colonial Superman', Journal of Pacific History, 33, 2, 153-162.

1997   'Recreating lives: techniques for the writing of biography', Locality, (Journal of the Centre for Community History), 8,  3, Spring 1997, 3-8.

1997  'Editor's introduction', Locality, (Journal of the Centre for Community History), 8, 3, Spring 1997. [Author guest editor of a Special Issue on Biography]

1995  'The line of descent: creating Pacific histories in Australasia', in Australian Journal of Politics and History: Special Issue: Historical cultures and disciplines in Australia: Themes, Problems and Debates, 41, 1995, 157-71.

1995   'Atoll diary', Meanjin, 53, 4, Summer 1994, 723-34.

1989  'Reading a soul: an earthbound problem for biographers', Southern  Review. Literary and interdisciplinary essays, 22, 1, March, 1989, 17- 24. (Special issue for writers' week on biography and autobiography)

1981 'The Bush Legend and the red bishop: the autobiography of E.H. Burgmann, Historical Studies, 19, 77, October 1981, 567-591.

1981  Protest or experiment? Theories of cargo cults.  Research Centre for Southwest Pacific Studies, Occasional Paper 2, La Trobe University, 1981, 10pp.

1981  '"This turbulent priest": E.H. Burgmann during the Great Depression', Australian Journal of Politics and History, 27, 3, 1981, 330-343.

1975  'The reception of European missions in the German Pacific empire: the case of New Guinea', The Journal of Pacific History, 10, 1975, 46-64.

1975   'Resistance in the German Pacific empire: towards a theory of early colonial response', Journal of the Polynesian Society, 84, March 1975, 5-24.

Official Reports



2006 'The Australia New Zealand Leadership Forums', New Zealand Australia Connections (NZAC) Research Centre, Occasional Paper, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. 10pp. www.nzac.canterbury.ac.nz

2006 (with P. Mein Smith) 'Australia and New Zealand Closer Economic Relations (CER): Advancing the Agenda', Submission to Australian Parliament, Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Inquiry into CER. 31 May 2006. 15 pp.

Refereed Conference Proceedings

1995 'Biography: imaging Pacific lives', in Max Quanchi & Alaima Talu (eds.), Messy entanglements.  Proceedings of the 10th Pacific History Association Conference, Kiribati July 1994. (3-5). Brisbane.

Major Conference Papers

Following is a list of papers which I have been invited to give at national and international conferences on my main research areas.  I have not included smaller, local conferences and symposia.

'Following the Stars: Religious Education networks of exchange between New Zealand and Australia'. Sydney: Australian Historical Association Conference, 4-7 Jul 2005.

'An Australasian Community of Ideas? Historians as Ideas Traders in the Australasian region'. Newcastle: Australian Historical Association Conference, 6-9 Jul 2004.

'Reclaiming the Burgmann vision: a millennial reflection', Inaugural address, Burgmann Foundation, Charles Sturt University,  Faculty of Theology, St Marks College, Canberra, April 17 2001.

Convenor: 'New Biography', Bursting the Boundaries: millennial Pacific History Association Conference, ANU, Canberra, July 2000.

'Net Gains? Pacific Studies in Cyberspace', panel presenter and discussant, Pacific Studies 2000, University of Hawaii November 2000.

'Deconstructing Colonial Superman: the yin and the yang of Wilhelm Solf' (with Paula Mochida), 11th Pacific History Association Conference, University of Hawaii, Hilo, July 1996.

'Biography: Imaging Pacific Lives', Convenor and Chair, Biography panel, 10th Pacific History Association Conference, Kiribati, July 1994.

'The colonial imagination and the making and remaking of the Samoan people', German Historical Institute London Conference, Kloster Andechs, June  1994.

(with Klaus Neumann), 'The Past - Negations and Celebrations', The politics of Tradition Workshop, Medlow Bath, 1991.

'Colonialism: a new research agenda', Pacific Islands History Workshop II, Australian National Univ, Dec 1991.

'Zwei Menschenalter der Geschichte des Pazifiks', 1st International Symposium on the History of Colonialism, Padagogische Hochschule, Schwabisch Gmund,Germany,1989.

'The colonial experience in the Pacific', Pacific History Association Conference, Australian National University, 1987.

'The historiography of protest', Pacific History Association Conference, Sorrento, 1983.

'People's History', Pacific History Association Conference, Katoomba, 1982.

Editorial Work

Co-editor, The Journal of Pacific History, 1984-1987, the doyen of historical journals in the field.  I was the first editor from outside the Australian National University's Research School of Pacific Studies since the Journal's inception in 1966.  Some 88 manuscripts evaluated and discussed with authors.  I introduced the Comment section of the Journal and initiated a special issue on 'Contemporary issues in the Pacific', in 1985.  I have been a continuing member of the Editorial Board and manuscript evaluator since 1999.

Editor, Pacific History Association Bulletin, 1984-1987.  The professional organ of the Association of Pacific scholars, which is designed to keep historians in touch and to provide both professional and scholarly data.

I have been a member of the editorial board of the international, refereed Journal of Religious History since 1998.

Grants and Funding

2008 Anglican Church Grammar School, Brisbane, Queensland, Centenary History Project: AUD$45,000 plus expenses
2006 Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade (NZ) supplementary grant to 'Remaking' Project: $15,000.
2003-05 (with P. Mein Smith) Royal Society New Zealand, Marsden Fund Grant, 'Remaking the Tasman World':  $345,000.
2000 Invited co-teacher, Internet based  'Moving Cultures' project, Ford Foundation and University of Hawaii, Center of Pacific Island Studies USA: US$350,000.
1999 University of Canterbury Teaching Development Grant. For further development and teaching of On Line course in Pacific History with University of Hawaii and University of South Pacific Fiji, second semester 2000 : $5,000.
1997 Australian Research Council (ARC) Grant, University of Newcastle (with Dr Robert Cantwell, Faculty of Education). Project: 'Thinking like a historian'. A Longitudinal study of students studying University History to ascertain shifts in understanding and acquisition of historical skills: $5,000. 
1992 ARC Renewal Grant for project (Neumann/Hempenstall): $15,000. 
1991 Australian Research Council Grant: $15,000.  For joint project with Dr Klaus Neumann on forms of biography as ways of structuring histories cross culturally. Project also awarded $5,000 from university infrastructure grant to set up a dedicated computer with networking links to national and international databases in history and the social sciences. 
1987-91 University of Newcastle Research Committee grant-in-aid ($2,000) and University Scholarship ($13,000 pa) for PhD student working under my supervision on Labour history ('A history of May Day and other labour demonstrations').
1987-91 University Research Committee grants for Studies in Australian Religious History: $10,250.  For a team based research programme with Prof D. Wright and Dr Hilary Carey.  Two books and several articles resulted.
1978-79 Australian Research Grants Scheme (with N. Rutherford) for joint project on colonial protest movements in the Pacific: $10,000.  For work on a general theory of colonial protest.  Field work for several case studies in the Pacific was funded.
1978 University Research Committee Grant: $2,000.  Funded field research work in Papua New Guinea on cargo cults for the above project.

Research Supervision

Examiner, MA & PhD theses, Universities of Sydney, Queensland, ANU, Macquarie, Deakin, Papua New Guinea, Canterbury, Auckland, Otago.

Supervised over twenty Honours research theses 1975-1998, 10 Masters, 6 PhDs.

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Teaching

Teaching Interests

Selected courses coordinated, lectured and examined in professional career:

• Modern World History, 1945-present, 2007. First year.
• The Rise and Fall of Empires, 2007. 2nd/3rd year.
• Coordinator Honours Programme, University of Canterbury, 2007.
• History as a Discipline: Theory and Method, 2007. Honours.
• The History and Nature of Biography.
• The Australian Experience, 1998-2007. 2nd/3rd year.
• The South Pacific: History and Culture, 1998-2007. 2nd/3rd year.
• The South Pacific in Recent Times, 1988-1997.
• Colonialism and culture change: the South Pacific, 1988-1997.
• Themes in Australian History 1975-1997.
• International Relations 1976-1979 .
  

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Other

Appointments

2008             Professor Emeritus, University of Canterbury
                      Conjoint Professor, University of Newcastle, NSW Australia
2007             Chair, B.A. Review panel, College of Arts, University of Canterbury
2005-            Co-Director NZAC Research Centre, University of Canterbury
2005-2008   Member University of Canterbury Council, elected Academic Board
2004-2005   Chair, Diplomacy Programme (Law, History, Political Science)
2003-2005   Head of School
2000-2005   Chair, Governing Board, Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies
2000-01        Acting Director Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies 
1998-             Professor of History, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
1995-97        Head, Department of History, University of Newcastle
1992-97        Associate Professor in History, University of Newcastle
1980-1991    Senior Lecturer in History, University of Newcastle
1975-1979    Lecturer in History, University of Newcastle
1974-75        Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept Pacific & SEAsian History, Australian National University
1971-73        D.Phil. Scholar, Magdalen College, University of Oxford
1970              Research Scholar, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, University of Hamburg

Academic distinctions

2004-06 Delegate, Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, Government House Wellington, Melbourne, Auckland. 
1994 Research Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Universität Marburg.  [To complete research into the state papers and family archives for the biography of Wilhelm Solf and to work with Professor Gerd Hardach, Marburg, on 20th century German history.]
1993 The meddlesome priest shortlisted, National Book Council Banjo Paterson Awards, Book of the Year, Non Fiction category.
1991 Feodor Lynen Fellowship from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for Dr Klaus Neumann, Frankfurt University to work at University of Newcastle.  [A prestigious award for young German postdoctoral scholars to work with former Humboldt Fellows in their home countries.]
1985-86 Research Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Kommission für Geschichte des Parliamentarismus, Bonn. Germany  To facilitate final research on a history of the German empire in Micronesia with a German colleague, and initial research on a major biographical study of Dr Wilhelm Solf,  German Minister for Colonies.
1985 Visiting Fellowship, History Department, Research School of Social Sciences, A.N.U., January-June.  [For research and writing into Burgmann biography.]
1984 Summer Fellowship, Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University.  [For initial research into biographical project on Bishop Burgmann.]
1978-79 Research Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Universities of Hamburg and Hannover. [Humboldt Fellowships are a prestigious award for postdoctoral scholars with an international reputation in their research field.
Six month Fellowship for research into protest movements in the colonial Pacific.]
1972 Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (D.A.A.D.) Research award forD.Phil. research in East German archives.
Beit Fund Award, University of Oxford for D.Phil. research in Germany.
1970 D.A.A.D. Research Scholar, Universität Hamburg.
Rhodes Scholar, Queensland, Australia.
University Medal in History, University of Queensland.