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Associate Professor Kirsten McKenzie

BA (Hons) MA Cape Town Dphil Oxon
Associate Professor

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.

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

Supervision

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

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Current projects

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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

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. (2010). A Swindler’s Progress: Nobles and Convicts in the Age of Liberty. New York: Harvard University Press.
  • McKenzie, K. (2009). A Swindler's 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 Publishing.

Edited Books

  • Aldrich, R., McKenzie, K. (2013). The Routledge History of Western Empires. Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge.

Book Chapters

  • Aldrich, R., McKenzie, K. (2014). Introduction. In Robert Aldrich, Kirsten McKenzie (Eds.), The Routledge History of Western Empires, (pp. 1-2). Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge.
  • Aldrich, R., McKenzie, K. (2014). Why Colonialism? In Robert Aldrich, Kirsten McKenzie (Eds.), The Routledge History of Western Empires, (pp. 3-13). Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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. (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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

2014

  • Aldrich, R., McKenzie, K. (2014). Introduction. In Robert Aldrich, Kirsten McKenzie (Eds.), The Routledge History of Western Empires, (pp. 1-2). Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge.
  • Aldrich, R., McKenzie, K. (2014). Why Colonialism? In Robert Aldrich, Kirsten McKenzie (Eds.), The Routledge History of Western Empires, (pp. 3-13). Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge.

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.
  • Aldrich, R., McKenzie, K. (2013). The Routledge History of Western Empires. Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge.
  • 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 Swindler's 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.

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.
  • 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.

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 Publishing.

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.
  • 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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