Ms Justine Atkinson

Justine Atkinson has recently been awarded her PhD in History in the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Newcastle. Her current research focuses on nineteenth-century seafarers' missions in the British world, with a particular interest in these missions as contested spaces on the colonial frontier, and opportunities for expressing ideas of "home" and place within the empire.

Justine completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in 2001 and a Master of Arts in 2011, both at the University of Newcastle. Her Honours thesis considered Shakespeare's Richard III and the Tudor chroniclers. For her Masters, Justine's research moved to the Highlands of Scotland, examining the efforts of the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge to introduce charity schools there in the eighteenth century in order to convert Catholic/Gaelic fringe communities.

In 2012 Justine worked as a Research Assistant for various projects with the School of Drama, Fine Art and Music, and the Humanities Research Institute. This included research into nineteenth-century performance venues in and around Newcastle, NSW. Previous to this she volunteered as Research Officer for the Newcastle Family History Society between 2004 and 2005, and her interest in the city's social history continues to this day.

Conference Papers and Presentations

'Britain's Colonial Seamen's Missions'
Britain and the World Conference 2014, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom

'The Nineteenth-Century British Sailor: Caliban or Superman'
NewMac Humanities Postgraduate Symposium 2014, University of Newcastle, NSW Australia

'Seamen's Missions in the British World'
History Symposium 2013, University of Newcastle, NSW Australia