Leading historian accepts Waikato professorship

university-of-waikato

Thu Mar 01 2007 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Leading historian accepts Waikato professorship

Thursday, 1 March 2007, 1:52 pm
Press Release: University of Waikato

Media Release

1 March 2007

One of the country's leading historians and editor of the forthcoming Oxford history of New Zealand has accepted an appointment as Professor of History at the University of Waikato.

Professor Giselle Byrnes, who recently returned from six months as a Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor in New Zealand Studies at Georgetown University in the United States, is general editor of The New Oxford History of New Zealand.

The 300,000 word book, which will have 28 contributors, is due to be published by Oxford University Press, Melbourne, in 2008. As well as editing the book, which has involved establishing an advisory board of eminent historians, Professor Byrnes is also contributing two chapters.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waikato, Professor Roy Crawford, welcomed her appointment.

"Professor Byrnes has an outstanding academic record. Her appointment as general editor of the new Oxford history of New Zealand, and the award last year of a prestigious Fulbright scholarship, are just two examples of the high esteem in which she is held by her peers internationally. We are delighted she has accepted a professorship at Waikato," he said.

Professor Byrnes is currently a senior lecturer in the School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations at Victoria University, Wellington. She was elected in 2005 for a two-year term as national president of the New Zealand Historical Association.

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Her teaching and research fields cover a wide range of topics in New Zealand history, and trans-national and comparative histories, especially in colonial contexts. Other areas of expertise include Maori and iwi histories, and the Treaty of Waitangi. Her most recent book, The Waitangi Tribunal and New Zealand History, published by Oxford University Press, Melbourne, in 2004, was described by the pre-eminent American Historical Review as "a truly seminal work".

"To date, there is no other book that even comes close to being such a robust, detailed and insightful critique of the Tribunal's sweeping foray into New Zealand's history over the past 170 years," the review said.

Professor Byrnes' forthcoming publications include: Paying for the Past? History, Reparation and Guilt, a comparative study of apology and restitution in New Zealand and elsewhere; and A collective biography of Stephenson Percy Smith, Elsdon Best and Edward Tregear, a study of cultural and intellectual history in New Zealand which aims to illuminate the lives and work of these 19th century ethnographers.

Professor Byrnes completed her MA in History at the University of Waikato in 1990. Her PhD was conferred by The University of Auckland in 1995. Before joining Victoria University in 1997, she was a senior research officer with the Waitangi Tribunal within the Department of Justice.

ENDS

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