Biography

Despite the difficulties associated with contract and casual academic employment prior to my full time appointment in 2010, I have remained research oriented for a number of years. I worked with Prof. Graham Maddox at UNE and then with Prof. James Walter at Monash before coming to Newcastle. Articles in A journals (both sole and co-authored), book chapters, and refereed conference papers, all demonstrate a high level of commitment to scholarship in Australian political ideas, Australian politics, history of political thought, and sovereignty theory. Current work combines sovereignty research with history of political thought to examine the nature and significance of liberal imperialism across time. Since 2009 I have been responsible for establishing and coordinating our POLI3001 capstone course for the Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Commerce degrees in the Business School, teaching across three campuses and averaging approximately a thousand students per annum. I am also involved in HONS and RHD supervision.

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy, University of New England, 1998

Research

Research keywords

• Australian political thought
• history of political thought
• sovereignty theory

Research expertise

History of political thought, History of Australian political thought, Puritanism and politics in the 1640s, sovereignty theory, Australian political bibliography, Australian politics, international relations theory, Australian constitutionalism, Australian liberalism and socialism, religion and politics, liberalism & imperialism.

Collaboration

The following topic areas are of interest: history of political thought, history of Australian political thought, Puritanism and politics in the 1640s, sovereignty theory, Australian political bibliography, Australian politics, international relations theory, Australian constitutionalism, Australian liberalism and socialism. I am currently researching liberal intellectual groups in Australia and elsewhere in the early twentieth century, looking at their approaches to ideas of imperial intervention.

Fields of Research

Administrative

Administrative expertise

Participation in discipline meetings; course assessment and course design.

Teaching

Teaching keywords

• Australian politics
• comparative politics
• international relations
• politics & business

Teaching expertise

international relations, comparative politics, business and politics, Australian politics, Australian political culture, Marxism.