History research

The historians at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington specialise in the early modern and modern periods.

Deploying various methodologies and historical approaches, we research topics as diverse as Australian nurses in the Great War, Dutch Golden Age lens-making, Empires and intimacy, European clothing and nationalism, French colonial rule in New Caledonia, Holocaust history in film, Māori literature, radical Scottish Presbyterianism, New Zealand settler capitalism, trade unions and indigenous rights, the transatlantic slave trade, and US surveillance and counter-surveillance.

Close to the sources

Several colleagues have particular research interests in New Zealand history, taking advantage of the rich holdings of the capital’s national archives and libraries.

At our doorstep are Archives New Zealand, the National Library, the Alexander Turnbull Library, the Wellington City Archives, Te Papa Tongarewa (the Museum of New Zealand), Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision (The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television, and Sound), and many other local and regional archives and galleries.

Top-ranked research

We publicise our research nationally and internationally, and our research has placed at or near the top of New Zealand’s History rankings in each of the four Quality Evaluation Rounds (PBRF): 2003, 2006, 2012 and 2018.

Our students follow our lead in producing high-quality research—several recent PhD theses have become books, and Honours dissertations or chapters from several MA theses have been published in academic journals.