Professor Alison Bashford
BA (Hons, University Medal) PhD, Syd; MA (Cantab)
Alison Bashford is Scientia Professor in History and Director of the. She also directs the .ĚýHer workĚýconnects the history of science, global history, and environmental history into new assessments of the modern world, from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Her most recent book is An Intimate History of Evolution: The Story of the Huxley Family (Random House, 2022), one of The Economist's top books of 2022, and shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize, 2023. Alison Bashford has recently focused on the geopolitics of world population, presented in two books: The New Worlds of Thomas Robert Malthus: Re-reading the Principle of Population, withĚýJoyce E. Chaplin (Princeton University Press, 2016) and Global Population: History, Geopolitics and Life on Earth (Columbia University Press, 2014).ĚýBefore taking up her Research Chair at UNSW, Alison Bashford was the Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and Trustee of Royal Museums, Greenwich, UK.ĚýIn 2009-10, she was the Whitlam and Fraser Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard Universityâs Department of the History of Science. Alison Bashford is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Australian Academy of Humanities. In May 2018, she presentedĚýtheĚýWiles Lectures at Queen's University, Belfast. Alison Bashford was awarded the Dan David Prize for her contribution to the history of health and medicine in 2021.Ěý
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Alison Bashford is currently Chief Investigator on the following projects
- Australian Research Council, Laureate Fellowship, 2020-26,Population Policy in Modern World History: Challenges from the Asia Pacific
- Australian Research Council Discovery Project, 2021-25, Antipodean Geology: A Modern History of Southern Hemisphere Earth with Alessandro Antonello (Flinders), Pratik Chakrabarti (Manchester), Saul Dubow (Cambridge), Greg Cushman (Kansas)
- Australian Research Council, Strategic Research Initiative, 2020-23, Rethinking Medico-Legal Border Control: From international to internal histories, with Jane McAdam (UNSW Law)
- Australian Research Council Discovery Project, 2019-21, The Huxleys and Global Science
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Shortlist, the Cundill History Prize (2023) forĚýTheĚýHuxley's
Dan David Prize for the History of Health and Medicine (2021)
The Royal Society of New South Wales Medal for the History of Science (2020)
The Cantemir Prize (2011)
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Books
A. Bashford, (Allen Lane, London, 2022). Published in the US as The Huxleys: An Intimate History of Evolution (University of Chicago Press, 2022).
A. Bashford and J.E. Chaplin, The New Worlds of Thomas Robert Malthus: Re-reading the Principle of Population (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016). Chinese translation forthcoming,ĚýThe Commercial Press: Beijing, 2020.
A. Bashford, Global Population: History, Geopolitics, and Life on Earth (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014).
A. Bashford and C. Strange, Griffith Taylor: Visionary, Environmentalist, Explorer (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008).
A. Bashford, Imperial Hygiene: A Critical History of Colonialism, Nationalism and Public Health (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). Second edn. 2014.
A. Bashford, Purity and Pollution: Gender, Embodiment and Victorian Medicine (London: Macmillan, 1998).
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Books Edited
A. Bashford, E. M. Kern and A. Bobbette (Des),(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2023).
D. Armitage, A. Bashford, S. Sivasundaram (eds), Oceanic Histories (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).Ěý
A. Bashford, Quarantine: Local and Global Histories (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2016)
D. Armitage and A. Bashford, Pacific Histories: Ocean, Land, People (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2014).
A. Bashford and S. Macintyre, The Cambridge History of Australia, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).
A. Bashford and P. Levine, The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
A. Bashford, Medicine at the Border: Disease, Globalization and Security from 1850 to the Present (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2006). Second edn. 2014.
A. Bashford and C. Strange, Isolation: Places and Practices of Exclusion (London: Routledge, 2003).
A. Bashford and C. Hooker, Contagion: Historical and Cultural Studies (London: Routledge, 2001). Second edition: Contagion: Epidemics, history and culture from smallpox to anthrax (Sydney: Pluto Press, 2003).
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Special Issues
A. Bashford, S. Fennell, D. Kelly (eds), âMalthusian Momentsâ, The Historical Journal, Inaugural Special Issue. 2019 online.
A. Bashford and S.W. Tracy (eds), âModern Airs, Waters, and Places.â Bulletin of the History of Medicine. Special issue: 86, 4, Winter 2012.
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Articles and review essays
A. Bashford, 'The Disenchantment of Chiromancy: Reading Modern Hands from Palmistry to Genetics',ĚýPast & Present, 2023 (online advance).
A.Bashford, 'Malthus and Gender',ĚýAustralian Economic History Review, 62, 3 (2022): 198-210.
C.C. Huang andĚýA.Bashford, 'Vaccine Requirements Predate theĚýCOVID Pandemic by More than a Century',ĚýMigration Policy,Ěý6 April 2022.
A.Bashford,Ěý P. Chakrabarti, J. Hore, 'Towards a Modern History of Gondwanaland',ĚýJournal of the British AcademyĚý9(s1) (2021)
A. Bashford,ĚýĚý'World History and the Tasman Sea',ĚýAmerican Historical Review,Ěý126, 3 (2021): 922-948;
A. Bashford, âThe Family of Man: Cosmopolitanism and the Huxleysâ, Humanity (2021). Special issue âCosmopolitanismâ ed. Valeska Huber.
A. Bashford, âMalthus and Chinaâ, The Historical Journal (2019): 1-27 online.
A.Bashford, D. Kelly, S. Fennell, âMalthusian Moments: Introductionâ, The Historical Journal (2019): 1-13 online.
A. Bashford, âDeep Genetics: Universal History & the Speciesâ, History and Theory, 57, 2 (2018): 313-22.
A. Bashford, âTerraqueous Historiesâ, The Historical Journal, 60, 1 (2017): 1â20.
A. Bashford, P. Hobbins, A. Clarke, U. Frederick, âGeographies of Commemoration: Angel Island, San Francisco and North Head, Sydneyâ, Journal of Historical Geography, 52 (2016): 15â25.
A. Bashford, âBioscapes: Gendering the Global History of Medicineâ, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 89 (2015): 690â95.
A. Bashford and P. Hobbins, âRethinking Quarantine: Pacific History at Australiaâs Edgeâ, Australian Historical Studies, 46, 3 (2015): 392â409.
A. Bashford and J. McAdam, âThe Right to Asylum: The 1905 Aliens Act and the Evolution of Refugee Law,â Law and History Review, 32, 2 (2014): 309â50.
A. Bashford, âImmigration Restriction: Rethinking Period and Place from Settler Colonies to Postcolonial Nationsâ, Journal of Global History, 9, 1 (2014): 26â48.
A. Bashford, âThe Anthropocene is Modern History: Reflections on Climate and Australian Deep Time,â Australian Historical Studies, 44 (2013): 341â49.
A. Bashford, âAnti-Colonial Climates: Physiology, Ecology, and Global Population, 1920sâ50sâ, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 86 (2012): 595â626.
A. Bashford and C. Gilchrist, âThe Colonial History of the 1905 Aliens Actâ, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 40 (2012): 409â37.
A. Bashford, âMalthus and Colonial Historyâ, Journal of Australian Studies, 36 (2012): 99â110.
A. Bashford, âLiving with Tuberculosis: The Prehistory of HIV/AIDSâ, The Lancet, 375, no. 9728 (2010): 1774Ââ75.
A. Bashford, âPopulation, Geopolitics and International Organizations in the Mid Twentieth Centuryâ, Journal of World History, 19 (2008): 327â47. Translated and republished. âPopulação, Geopolitica e organizaçoes internacionais em meados do sĂŠculo XXâ, Miguel Bandeira JerĂłnimo, JosĂŠ Pedro Monteiro (orgs), Os Passados do Presente. Internacionalismo, imperialismo e a construção do mundo contemporâneo (Almedina: Coimbra, 2015), 271â94.
A. Bashford, âWorld Population, World Health and Security: 20th century trendsâ, Journal of Epidemiology and Population Health, 62 (2008): 187â90.
A. Bashford, âWorld Population and Australian Land: Demography and Sovereignty in the Twentieth Centuryâ, Australian Historical Studies, 130 (2007): 211â27.
A. Bashford, âNation, Empire, Globe: The Spaces of Population Debate in the Interwar Yearsâ, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 49 (2007): 170â201.
A. Bashford and C. Strange, âThinking Historically about Public Healthâ, Medical Humanities 33 (2007): 87â92.
A. Bashford, âGlobal Biopolitics and the History of World Healthâ, History of the Human Sciences, 19 (2006): 67â88.
A. Bashford and J. Welshman, âTuberculosis, Migration, and Medical examination: Lessons from Historyâ, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 60 (2006): 282â84.
A. Bashford and B. Power, âImmigration and Health: Law and Regulation in Australia, 1958-2004â, Health and History, 7, no. 1 (2005): 86-101.
A. Bashford and S. Howard, âImmigration and Health: Law and Regulation in Australia, 1901-1958â, Health and History, 6, no. 1, (2004): 97-112.
A. Bashford and C. Strange, âPublic Pedagogy: Sex Education and Mass Communication in the Mid Twentieth Centuryâ, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 13 (2004): 71â99.
A. Bashford, âAt the Border: Contagion, Immigration, Nationâ, Australian Historical Studies, 120 (2002): 344â58.
A. Bashford, âTuberculosis and Economy: Public Health and Labour in the Early Welfare Stateâ, Health and History, 4, no. 2 (2002): 19â40.
A. Bashford and C. Hooker, âDiphtheria and Australian Public Health: Bacteriology and its Complex Applications, 1890-1930â, Medical History, 46 (2002): 41â64.
A. Bashford and C. Strange, âAsylum-seekers and National Histories of Detentionâ, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 48 (2002): 509-27.
A. Bashford, âDomestic Scientists: The Negotiation of Science and Gender in Early Twentieth Century Nursingâ, Journal of Womenâs History, 12 (2000): 127â46.
A. Bashford, â âIs White Australia Possible?â race, colonialism and tropical medicine in the early twentieth centuryâ, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 23 (2000): 112â35.
A. Bashford, âEpidemic and Governmentality: Smallpox in Sydney, 1881â, Critical Public Health, 12 (1999): 301â16.
A. Bashford, âQuarantine and the Imagining of the Australian Nationâ, Health, 2 (1998): 387â402.
A. Bashford, âFemale Bodies at Work: Gender and the Re-forming of Colonial Hospitalsâ, Australian Cultural History, 13 (1994): 65â81.
A. Bashford, âFrances Gillam Holden and the Childrenâs Hospital Dispute, 1887: Womanâs Sphere, Feminism and Nursingâ, Womenâs History Review, 2 (1993): 319â30.
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Chapters
A. Bashford, âEmpire in Oceania: Knowing the Sea of Islandsâ in Islands and the British Empire in the Age of Sail, Douglas Hamilton and John Macaleer (eds). (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
A. Bashford, âPopulation Planning for a Global Middle Classâ in Christof Dejung, JĂźrgen Osterhammel, David Motadel (eds), The Global Bourgeoisie:â¨The Rise of the Middle Classes in the Age of Empire (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019), 85â101.
A. Bashford, âWorld Population from Eugenics to Climate Changeâ in Nick Hopwood, Rebecca Flemming and Lauren Kassell (eds), Reproduction: From Antiquity to the Present Day (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 505â520.
A. Bashford, âThe Pacific Oceanâ in David Armitage, Alison Bashford and Sujit Sivasundaram (eds), Oceanic Histories (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 62â84.
A. Bashford, âHistory of Public Health during Colonialismâ in S.R. Quah and W.C. Cockerham (eds.) The International Encyclopedia of Public Health, 2nd edition, vol. 4, (Oxford: Academic Press, 2017), 13â18.
A. Bashford, âMaritime Quarantine: Linking old world and new world historiesâ, in Alison Bashford (ed.), Quarantine: local and global histories (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2016), 1â14.
A. Bashford and J.E. Chaplin, âMalthus and the new worldâ in Robert J. Mayhew (ed.), New Perspectives on Malthus (Cambridge University Press, 2016), 105â127.
A. Bashford, âPopulation Politics since 1750â in Kenneth Pomeranz and John McNeill (eds), The Cambridge World History, vol. 7 (Cambridge University Press, 2015), 212â236.
A. Bashford, âPanicâs Past and Global Futuresâ in Robert Peckham (ed.), Empires of Panic: Epidemics and Colonial Anxieties (Hong Kong University Press, 2014).
A. Bashford, âGeorge Knibbsâ, in Libby Robin, Sverker Sørlin, and Paul Warde (eds), The Future of Nature: Documents of Global Change (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013).
A. Bashford, âInsanity and Immigration Restrictionâ in Catherine Cox and Hilary Marland (eds) Migration, Health, and Ethnicity in the Modern World (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2013), 14â35.
A. Bashford and P. Hobbins, âScience and Medicine in Twentieth Century Australiaâ, in Alison Bashford and Stuart Macintyre (eds) Cambridge History of Australia vol. 2 (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 263â83.
A. Bashford, âJulian Huxleyâs Transhumanismâ, in Marius Turda (eds) Crafting Humans: from genesis to eugenics and beyond (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013), 153â68.
A. Bashford, âKarl Haushoferâs Geopolitics of the Pacific Oceanâ, in Kate Fullager (ed.) The Atlantic World in a Pacific Field: Effects and Transformation since the Eighteenth Century (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholarsâ Press, 2012), 120â43.
A. Bashford, âThe Great White Plague Turns Alien: tuberculosis and immigration in Australia 1901-2001â in M. Worboys and F. Condrau (eds), Tuberculosis Then and Now: Perspectives on the History of an Infectious Disease (Montreal: McGill Queens University Press, 2010), 100â122.
A. Bashford, âInternationalism, Cosmopolitanism, and Eugenicsâ in A. Bashford and P. Levine (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 154â72.
A. Bashford, âWhere Did Eugenics Go?â in A. Bashford and P. Levine (eds) The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 539â58.
A. Bashford, âAustralasia and Oceaniaâ in H. Cook, A. Hardy and S. Bhattacharya (eds), History and the Social Determinants of Health (Delhi: Orient Longman, 2008), 9â26.
A. Bashford, âThe Age of Universal Contagion: history, disease and globalizationâ in A. Bashford (ed.) Medicine at the Border: Disease, Globalization and Security (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2006), 1-19.
A. Bashford, I. Convery and J. Welshman, âWhere is the Border? Tuberculosis Screening in Australia and the UK 1950-2000â in A. Bashford (ed.) Medicine at the Border: Disease, globalization and security, (Basingstoke: Palgrave), 97-115.
A. Bashford, âGender, Medicine and Empireâ in Philippa Levine (ed.) Gender and Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 112â33.
A. Bashford, âCultures of Confinement: tuberculosis, isolation and the sanatoriumâ in C. Strange and A. Bashford (eds) Isolation: places and practices of exclusion, (London: Routledge, 2003), 133â50.
A. Bashford and C. Strange. âIsolation and exclusion in the Modern World: an Introductory Essayâ in C. Strange and A. Bashford (eds) Isolation: places and practices of exclusion, (Routledge, 2003), 1â20.
A. Bashford and C. Hooker, âDisinfecting Mail â from smallpox to anthraxâ in A. Bashford and C. Hooker (eds) Contagion: Epidemics, history and culture from smallpox to anthrax, (Pluto Press, 2003), 226â31.
A. Bashford, âForeign Bodies: vaccination, contagion and colonialism in the nineteenth centuryâ in A. Bashford and C. Hooker (eds) Contagion: Historical and Cultural Studies (London: Routledge, 2001), 39â60.
A. Bashford and M. Nugent, âLeprosy and the Management of Race and Sexualityâ in A. Bashford and C. Hooker (eds) Contagion (London: Routledge, 2001), 106â28.
A. Bashford, âSeparatist Health: Meanings of Womenâs Hospitals, c. 1870-1930â in L. R. Furst (ed.), Climbing a Long Hill: Women Healers and Physicians (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1997), 198â220.
Comments and Roundtables
A.Bashford, ĚýâPandemic Narratives and the Historianâ, Los Angeles Review of Books,Ěý18 May 2020.
A.Bashford, âBeyond Quarantine Critiqueâ, Somatosphere,Ěý6 March 2020.
A. Bashford, âOn nations and states: a reflection on âThinking the Empire Wholeâ, History Australia. 2019. .
C. Otter, A. Bashford, J.L. Brooke, F.A. Jonsson, J.M. Kelly, âThe Anthropocene in British History,â Journal of British Studies 57(2018): 1â29.
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