James Belich (historian)

Not to be confused with James Belich (mayor).
James Belich

James Belich in 2010
Born 1956
Wellington, New Zealand
Residence Oxford
Nationality New Zealander
Fields History
Alma mater
Notable awards
Website
Staff profile at Oxford University

James Christopher Belich, ONZM (born 1956), is a New Zealand historian, known for his work on the New Zealand Wars and on New Zealand history more generally. One of his major works on the 19th-century clash between Māori and Pākehā, the "revisionist" study The New Zealand Wars (1986), was also published in an American edition and adapted into a television series and DVD.[1][2]

Since 2013 Belich has been the Beit Professor of Imperial and Commonwealth History[3] and as the Director of the Oxford Centre for Global History at the University of Oxford.

Background

Of Croatian descent, he was born in Wellington in 1956, the son of Sir James Belich, who later became Mayor of Wellington. He attended Onslow College.

He gained an M.A. in history at Victoria University before being awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1978 and travelling to Oxford to complete his D.Phil at Nuffield College.

Academic career

He lectured at Victoria University of Wellington for several years before moving to the University of Auckland. In 2007 he was appointed Professor of History at the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies at Victoria University.

The New Zealand Wars (1986) was based on his DPhil thesis, and won the international Trevor Reese Memorial Prize. It was later turned into a major documentary series for Television New Zealand.

I Shall Not Die': Titokowaru's War (1990), based on his MA thesis, was also highly praised, winning the Adam Award for New Zealand literature.

Belich has written a two-volume work A History of the New Zealanders, consisting of Making Peoples (1996) and Paradise Reforged (2001).

Belich was made an Officer of New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2006 Queen's Birthday Honours List for service to historic research.

He expanded his area of research to colonial societies in general and the place of settler colonialism in world history with Replenishing the earth (2009).[4]

In 2011 Belich was appointed Beit Professor of Commonwealth History at Oxford University.[3][5]

Awards and honours

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Works

See also

References

  1. ↑ Belich, James (1998). The New Zealand Wars (1998 ed.). Auckland: Penguin. pp. 10, 11. ISBN 0-14-027504-5.
  2. ↑ "The New Zealand Wars". NZ On Screen. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Professor James Belich". Faculty of History website. Oxford University. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  4. ↑ Belich, James (2009). Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Anglo-world, 1783–1939. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 573. ISBN 978-0-19-929727-6. Retrieved 18 December 2009.
  5. ↑ "Historian James Belich heads to Oxford". stuff.co.nz. 9 May 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  6. ↑ "Previous winners". Creative New Zealand. Retrieved October 24, 2013.
  7. ↑ "Catalogue". victoria.lconz.ac.nz. 2011. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
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