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Professor Kirsten McKenzie

Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities BA (Hons) MA Cape Town DPhil Oxon
Professor of History

A18 - Brennan MacCallum Building
The University of Sydney

Telephone +61 2 9351 6668
Fax +61 2 9351 3918

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Biographical details

Kirsten McKenzie began teaching Australian History in the Department in 2002. She has a BA (Hons) and an MA from the University of Cape Town and completed her DPhil as a Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford in 1997. She moved to Australia in 1998, taking up a post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Queensland and later teaching at the University of New South Wales.

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Research interests

Kirsten researches broadly within British imperial history, specifically by connecting British, South African and Australian history in the period 1780 – 1850. She employs the perspectives of cultural history to ask questions about the relationship between identity, social status and political liberties.

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Teaching and supervision

Teaching

Kirsten teaches units of study in nineteenth and twentieth century Australian history as well as thematic units that situate Australia within broader British Imperial developments. She guides students in developing original research projects through the advanced unit HSTY3901 'History in the Making'

  • HSTY2304 Imperialism 1815-2000
  • HSTY2614 Australian Social History 1919-1998
  • HSTY2619 Living in Colonial Australia
  • HSTY2629 Sex And Scandal
  • HSTY2678 Race Around the World
  • HSTY3901 History in the Making

Supervision

Topics in Australian history generally, particularly social and cultural history, gender history, and colonial Australia

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Awards and honours

In 2004 Kirsten McKenzie was awarded the Crawford Medal by the Australian Academy of the Humanities. The medal is awarded every two years to an Australian-based scholar in the early stages of their career whose work contributes towards an understanding of their discipline by the general public.

A Swindler’s Progress: Nobles and Convicts in the Age of Liberty was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History, 2011 and the Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-Fiction, Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, 2010.

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PhD and master's project opportunities

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Selected grants

2018

  • Remaking the British world after 1815; McKenzie K, Ford L, Roberts D, Doherty S, Lester A, Laidlaw Z, Halliday P, Stern P; Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Projects (DP).

2011

  • Personal Liberty, British Identity and Surveillance in the Antipodes, 1780s - 1830s; McKenzie K; Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Projects (DP).

2007

  • Social status and political power at the Cape of Good Hope: the cross-colonial connections of William Edwards/Alexander Lockaye.; McKenzie K; University of Sydney/Research & Development.

2006

  • University of Sydney - Near Miss Scheme; McKenzie K; University of Sydney (CHASS)/Bridging Support.

2005

  • John Dow, convict impostor, and the social hierarchies of colonial Australia; McKenzie K; University of Sydney/Research & Development.

2003

  • Scandal in the press: changing gender relations in Sydney 1880-1930; McKenzie K; DVC Research/Research and Development Scheme: Newly Appointed Staff (NAS).
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Selected publications

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Books

  • McKenzie, K. (2016). Imperial Underworld: An Escaped Convict and the Transformation of the British Colonial Order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
  • McKenzie, K. (2010). A Swindler's Progress: Nobles and Convicts in the Age of Liberty. New York: Harvard University Press.
  • McKenzie, K. (2009). A Swindlers Progress: Nobles and convicts in the Age of Liberty. Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales (UNSW) Press.
  • McKenzie, K. (2004). Scandal In The Colonies: Sydney And Cape Town, 1820 - 1850. Carlton, Australia: Melbourne University Press.

Edited Books

  • Aldrich, R., McKenzie, K. (2013). The Routledge History of Western Empires. London: Routledge. [More Information]

Book Chapters

  • McKenzie, K. (2017). Resembling "The More Racy Type of Comic Opera": Scandal and the Cultural history of Imperial Politics. In Iva Peša and Jan-Bart Gewald (Eds.), Magnifying Perspectives: Contributions to History. A Festschrift for Robert Ross, (pp. 131-148). Leiden: African Studies Centre Leiden.
  • McKenzie, K. (2016). Defining and defending honour in law. In Penny Russell and Nigel Worden (Eds.), Honourable Intentions? Violence and Virtue in Australian and Cape Colonies, c. 1750 to 1850, (pp. 17-30). Abingdon: Routledge.
  • Aldrich, R., McKenzie, K. (2014). Introduction. In Robert Aldrich, Kirsten McKenzie (Eds.), The Routledge History of Western Empires, (pp. 1-2). London: Routledge. [More Information]
  • Aldrich, R., McKenzie, K. (2014). Why Colonialism? In Robert Aldrich, Kirsten McKenzie (Eds.), The Routledge History of Western Empires, (pp. 3-13). London: Routledge. [More Information]
  • McCreery, C., McKenzie, K. (2013). The Australian colonies in a maritime world. In Alison Bashford, Stuart Macintyre (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Australia: Volume 1: Indigenous and Colonial Australia, (pp. 560-584). New York: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
  • McKenzie, K. (2010). Opportunists and Imposters in the British Imperial World: The Tale of John Dow, Convict, and Edward, Viscount Lascelles. In Desley Deacon, Penny Russell and Angela Woollacott (Eds.), Transnational Lives: Biographies of Global Modernity, 1700-present, (pp. 69-81). Houndsmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • McKenzie, K. (2009). Social mobilities at the Cape of Good Hope: Lady Anne Barnard, Samuel Hudson and the opportunities of empire, c. 1797 - 1824. In Tony Ballantyne and Antoinette Burton (Eds.), Moving Subjects: Gender, Mobility and Intimacy in an Age of Global Empire, (pp. 274-295). Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
  • McKenzie, K. (2007). Britain: Ruling the Waves. In Robert Aldrich (Eds.), The Age of Empires, (pp. 128-151). London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
  • McKenzie, K. (2007). Dogs and the Public Sphere: The Ordering of Social Space in Early Nineteenth Century Cape Town. In Lance van Sittert and Sandra Swart (Eds.), Canis Africanis: A Dog History of Southern Africa, (pp. 91-110). Leiden, Boston: Brill. [More Information]
  • McKenzie, K. (2002). Women's Talk and the Colonial State: The Wylde Scandal, 1831-1833. In W Woodward, P Hayes, G Minkley (Eds.), Deep hiStories: Gender and Colonialism in Southern Africa, (pp. 85-115). The Netherlands: Rodopi.

Journals

  • McKenzie, K. (2016). Exit pursued by a bear: Oliver the Spy and the imperial context of British political history. History Australia, 13(1), 80-94. [More Information]
  • McKenzie, K. (2015). 'The Laws of his Own Country': Defamation, Banishment and the Problem of Legal Pluralism in the 1820s Cape Colony. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 43(5), 787-806. [More Information]
  • McKenzie, K. (2015). Comment: A Field Divided. Journal of British Studies, 54(4), 983-987. [More Information]
  • McKenzie, K. (2013). The vanished source: gossip and absence in the Cape of Good Hope 'Placard Scandal' of 1824. Australia and New Zealand Law and History E-Journal, 2013, 1-11.
  • McKenzie, K. (2010). Being Modern on a Slender Income: "Picture Show" and "Photoplayer" in early 1920s Sydney. Journal of Women's History, 22(4), 114-136.
  • McKenzie, K. (2009). The Daemon behind the Curtain: William Edwards and the Theatre of Liberty. South African Historical Journal, 61(3), 482-504. [More Information]
  • McKenzie, K. (2007). 'My voice is sold, & I must be a slave': Abolition rhetoric, British liberty and the Yorkshire elections of 1806 and 1807. History Workshop Journal, 64(64), 49-73. [More Information]
  • McKenzie, K. (2007). Connected worlds: History in transnational perspective. Australian Journal of Politics and History, 53(3), 501-502.
  • McKenzie, K. (2004). Performing The Peer: Status, Empire And Impersonation. History Australia, 1(2), 209-228.
  • McKenzie, K. (2003). Discourses of Scandal: Bourgeois Respectability and the End of Slavery and Transportation at the Cape and New South Wales, 1830-1850. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 4(3), 1-56.
  • McKenzie, K. (2003). Dogs and the public sphere: the ordering of social space in early nineteenth-century Cape Town. South African Historical Journal, 48, 235-251.
  • McKenzie, K. (2002). Of Convicts and Capitalists: Honour and Colonial Commerce in 1830s Cape Town and Sydney. Australian Historical Studies, 33(118), 199-222. [More Information]

2017

  • McKenzie, K. (2017). Resembling "The More Racy Type of Comic Opera": Scandal and the Cultural history of Imperial Politics. In Iva Peša and Jan-Bart Gewald (Eds.), Magnifying Perspectives: Contributions to History. A Festschrift for Robert Ross, (pp. 131-148). Leiden: African Studies Centre Leiden.

2016

  • McKenzie, K. (2016). Defining and defending honour in law. In Penny Russell and Nigel Worden (Eds.), Honourable Intentions? Violence and Virtue in Australian and Cape Colonies, c. 1750 to 1850, (pp. 17-30). Abingdon: Routledge.
  • McKenzie, K. (2016). Exit pursued by a bear: Oliver the Spy and the imperial context of British political history. History Australia, 13(1), 80-94. [More Information]
  • McKenzie, K. (2016). Imperial Underworld: An Escaped Convict and the Transformation of the British Colonial Order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]

2015

  • McKenzie, K. (2015). 'The Laws of his Own Country': Defamation, Banishment and the Problem of Legal Pluralism in the 1820s Cape Colony. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 43(5), 787-806. [More Information]
  • McKenzie, K. (2015). Comment: A Field Divided. Journal of British Studies, 54(4), 983-987. [More Information]

2014

  • Aldrich, R., McKenzie, K. (2014). Introduction. In Robert Aldrich, Kirsten McKenzie (Eds.), The Routledge History of Western Empires, (pp. 1-2). London: Routledge. [More Information]
  • Aldrich, R., McKenzie, K. (2014). Why Colonialism? In Robert Aldrich, Kirsten McKenzie (Eds.), The Routledge History of Western Empires, (pp. 3-13). London: Routledge. [More Information]

2013

  • McCreery, C., McKenzie, K. (2013). The Australian colonies in a maritime world. In Alison Bashford, Stuart Macintyre (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Australia: Volume 1: Indigenous and Colonial Australia, (pp. 560-584). New York: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
  • Aldrich, R., McKenzie, K. (2013). The Routledge History of Western Empires. London: Routledge. [More Information]
  • McKenzie, K. (2013). The vanished source: gossip and absence in the Cape of Good Hope 'Placard Scandal' of 1824. Australia and New Zealand Law and History E-Journal, 2013, 1-11.

2010

  • McKenzie, K. (2010). A Swindler's Progress: Nobles and Convicts in the Age of Liberty. New York: Harvard University Press.
  • McKenzie, K. (2010). Being Modern on a Slender Income: "Picture Show" and "Photoplayer" in early 1920s Sydney. Journal of Women's History, 22(4), 114-136.
  • McKenzie, K. (2010). Opportunists and Imposters in the British Imperial World: The Tale of John Dow, Convict, and Edward, Viscount Lascelles. In Desley Deacon, Penny Russell and Angela Woollacott (Eds.), Transnational Lives: Biographies of Global Modernity, 1700-present, (pp. 69-81). Houndsmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

2009

  • McKenzie, K. (2009). A Swindlers Progress: Nobles and convicts in the Age of Liberty. Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales (UNSW) Press.
  • McKenzie, K. (2009). Social mobilities at the Cape of Good Hope: Lady Anne Barnard, Samuel Hudson and the opportunities of empire, c. 1797 - 1824. In Tony Ballantyne and Antoinette Burton (Eds.), Moving Subjects: Gender, Mobility and Intimacy in an Age of Global Empire, (pp. 274-295). Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
  • McKenzie, K. (2009). The Daemon behind the Curtain: William Edwards and the Theatre of Liberty. South African Historical Journal, 61(3), 482-504. [More Information]

2007

  • McKenzie, K. (2007). 'My voice is sold, & I must be a slave': Abolition rhetoric, British liberty and the Yorkshire elections of 1806 and 1807. History Workshop Journal, 64(64), 49-73. [More Information]
  • McKenzie, K. (2007). Britain: Ruling the Waves. In Robert Aldrich (Eds.), The Age of Empires, (pp. 128-151). London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
  • McKenzie, K. (2007). Connected worlds: History in transnational perspective. Australian Journal of Politics and History, 53(3), 501-502.
  • McKenzie, K. (2007). Dogs and the Public Sphere: The Ordering of Social Space in Early Nineteenth Century Cape Town. In Lance van Sittert and Sandra Swart (Eds.), Canis Africanis: A Dog History of Southern Africa, (pp. 91-110). Leiden, Boston: Brill. [More Information]

2004

  • McKenzie, K. (2004). Performing The Peer: Status, Empire And Impersonation. History Australia, 1(2), 209-228.
  • McKenzie, K. (2004). Scandal In The Colonies: Sydney And Cape Town, 1820 - 1850. Carlton, Australia: Melbourne University Press.

2003

  • McKenzie, K. (2003). Discourses of Scandal: Bourgeois Respectability and the End of Slavery and Transportation at the Cape and New South Wales, 1830-1850. Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 4(3), 1-56.
  • McKenzie, K. (2003). Dogs and the public sphere: the ordering of social space in early nineteenth-century Cape Town. South African Historical Journal, 48, 235-251.

2002

  • McKenzie, K. (2002). Of Convicts and Capitalists: Honour and Colonial Commerce in 1830s Cape Town and Sydney. Australian Historical Studies, 33(118), 199-222. [More Information]
  • McKenzie, K. (2002). Women's Talk and the Colonial State: The Wylde Scandal, 1831-1833. In W Woodward, P Hayes, G Minkley (Eds.), Deep hiStories: Gender and Colonialism in Southern Africa, (pp. 85-115). The Netherlands: Rodopi.
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