Dr Miranda Johnson
Email address: miranda.johnson@otago.ac.nz
Institutional Affiliation: University of Otago
Bio:
I am a historian of the modern Pacific world with a focus on issues of race, indigeneity, sovereignty and citizenship. My first book The Land Is Our History: Law, Indigeneity and the Settler State (2016) examined the rise of indigenous rights claims in three settler states (Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa New Zealand) in the 1970s and their effect on national identity. With Warwick Anderson and Barbara Brookes, I co-edited Pacific Futures: Past and Present (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2018). Before joining the staff at Otago, I taught at the University of Sydney and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Current research projects on modern monarchy:
With a collaborator, Dr. Emma Powell (U of Otago) I am currently working on a project on New Zealand’s empire and its transformation into the “New Zealand realm”. This is a constitutional entity which refers to the distinct relationships between New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau and the Ross Dependency. As part of that project, I am exploring the dynamics of diplomacy in the nineteenth century South Pacific world, particularly as it involves Pacific leaders who styled themselves monarchs in their interactions with Europeans, and other Indigenous peoples.
Forthcoming, current or recent research publications on modern monarchy:
Links: