Victoria University is proud to see a respected alumnus take up one of the world’s top jobs in his field.
Professor James Belich has been appointed to the Beit Professorship of Commonwealth and Imperial History at Oxford University, and will begin work in the United Kingdom in October this year.
The former Victoria student who is currently Professor of History at the University’s Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies, is the seventh recipient of the Professorship since it was established in 1905. The position is awarded to a historian of outstanding local and global reputation.
Victoria University Vice-Chancellor Professor Pat Walsh says Professor Belich is worthy of the position thanks to his status as a world-class scholar in both New Zealand and global history.
“The appointment is richly deserved and is evidence that New Zealand history and perspectives are being taken seriously in a global context.”
Professor Belich has penned several prize-winning publications including the critically acclaimed Replenishing the Earth, as well as The New Zealand Wars, which was later turned into a prominent TV documentary series, and the two-volume history of New Zealand, Making Peoples and Paradise Reforged.
Much of Belich’s work concentrates on New Zealand history, but he describes his research interests as “increasingly global”. He looks forward to his academic endeavors in Oxford.