Welcome! I am a historian at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. I specialize in the history of the eighteenth-century world, particularly the British Empire and the many indigenous societies it encountered. I also have interests in visual history, anthropological history, experimental uses of biography, and issues surrounding higher education and the humanities. On this site you’ll find links to my historical writing, reflections on my historical reading, and discussions of various historical engagements (oh, and an unlikely page on swimming).
Recent Posts
If the IPA video on Enlightenment in Australia had included more historians
Tamson provoked me with this recent 14-min video from the IPA. Bella: If you were starting a new society, how would you do it? How would you decide the government you wanted, the type of legal system you wanted to put in place and how to create wealth in your new society? The early Australian … Continue reading If the IPA video on Enlightenment in Australia had included more historians
Review of Britannia’s Auxiliaries
Kate Fullagar, STEPHEN CONWAY. Britannia’s Auxiliaries: Continental Europeans and the British Empire, 1740–1800., The American Historical Review, Volume 124, Issue 4, October 2019, Pages 1521–1522, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhz297 For a modest book—modest in its claims and its tone—Stephen Conway’s Britannia’s Auxiliaries: Continental Europeans and the British Empire, 1740–1800 is exceptionally moving. It is moving most of all for what it does not say. … Continue reading Review of Britannia’s Auxiliaries
Three Portraits in the State Library of NSW
This summer, as the State Library celebrates its new permanent exhibition of paintings — many from the early days of the colony — the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra is rejigging its own ‘early Australian’ rooms. Its Robert Oatley Gallery usually presents the faces of our so-called Founding Fathers, with James Cook taking centre stage … Continue reading Three Portraits in the State Library of NSW
Rethinking Foundational Histories
A little booster I wrote for our exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery last summer (only now online). Includes cartoon image of me at end as well! “The National Portrait Gallery rehangs its permanent galleries at least twice a year. This summer, the Robert Oatley gallery, which typically displays the ‘earliest works from the NPG … Continue reading Rethinking Foundational Histories
