Staff Profile - James Beattie

BA (Hons), PhD Otago

Programme Convenor

Telephone: +64 7 838 4466 ext 6459
Room: J3.05
Email: jbeattie@waikato.ac.nz

James Beattie specialises in environmental history, garden history and the history of science. He is particularly fascinated by the exchange of scientific, health and environmental ideas, particularly between Asia and Australasia, as well as the collection of Chinese art objects in New Zealand.

James supervises student research in environmental history; the history of science; imperial history; garden history; and health history.

CURRENT PROJECTS
East India Company settlers in nineteenth century New Zealand;
'Diasporic Chinese and the New Zealand Landscape': an Environmental history of Chinese settlers in New Zealand;
'Collecting China': with Duncan Campbell, Lauren Murray (Australian National University) and Richard Bullen (Canterbury University) on Chinese art collecting in New Zealand;
'Networks of Nature in the British Empire: New Perspectives on Imperial Environmental History';
'Illustrated Lan Yuan': Dunedin Chinese garden book project, with Duncan Campbell;
Settler conservation in 1840s and 1850s Otago;
'Climate and Empire in the Asia Pacific: Historial Perspectives': with Emily O’Gorman, University of Wollongong;
'Australasian Gardens and Landscapes': with K. Holmes, La Trobe University.

TEACHING
HIST100 World History: 600 - 1900CE
ARTS201 Eastern and Western Art Traditions
HIST206 History in Practice: Historical Methods and Research
HIST318 Science and Empire: 1760s - 1920s
HIST502 Historical Research Methodologies
HIST511 Gardens, Environments, Peoples

RECENT AND FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS and EDITING

      

BOOKS
with Edward Mellilo and Emily O’Gorman, ed., Networks of Nature in the British Empire, (New York; London: Continuum, forthcoming).

Empire and Environmental Anxiety: Health, Science, Art and Conservation in South Asia and Australia, 1800-1920, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2011) .

Listen to James' podcast on Empire and Environmental Anxiety:
http://www.eh-resources.org/podcast/podcast2010.html

Editor, 蘭園 Lan Yuan - The Garden of Enlightenment: Essays on the intellectual, cultural, and architectural background to the Dunedin Chinese Gardens, Hamilton: New Zealand Asian Studies Society; Dunedin Chinese Gardens Trust (2008).

JOURNAL EDITING
Guest Editor with K. Holmes, ‘Special Issue: Australasian Landscapes and Gardens’, Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, 31, 2 (2011), pp.75-166. (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/14601176.asp)

Associate Editor, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies (2007-current).

Founding editor, ENNZ: Environment and Nature in New Zealand (2006-current). (http://environmentalhistory-au-nz.org/)

Editorial Board, Environment and History (2009-current).

Guest Editor, 'Special Issue: Environment and Nature in Asia', New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies (June, 2007). (http://www.nzasia.org.nz/journal/volume9_1.html)

REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES
'Recent Directions in the Environmental Historiography of the British Empire’, History Compass, 10, 2 (2012), pp. 129–139

with Lauren Murray, ‘Mapping the Social Lives of Objects: Popular and Artistic Responses to the 1937 Exhibition of Chinese Art in New Zealand’, East Asian History, 37 (2011), pp. 39-58.

‘Natural History, Conservation, and Scottish-trained Doctors in New Zealand, 1790-1920’, Immigrants & Minorities, 29, 2 (2011), pp.281-307.

with Hiroki Oikawa, ‘Health and Biological Connections between Japan and New Zealand’, Journal of the Japan Society of Medical History (2011).

‘Wilderness Found, Lost and Restored: The Sublime and Picturesque in New Zealand, 1830s-2000s’, in Richard Reeve and Mick Abbott, eds, The Future of Wilderness in Aotearoa New Zealand (Dunedin: Otago University Press, October 2011)’, pp.91-105.

'Biological Invasion and Narratives of Environmental History in New Zealand, 1800-2000', in Ian D. Rotherham and Robert A. Lambert, eds., Invasive and Introduced Plants and Animals: Human Perceptions, Attitudes and Approaches to the Environment (London; Washington, D.C.: Earthscan, 2011), pp.343-352.

‘Making home, making identity: Asian garden-making in New Zealand, 1850s-1930s’, Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, 31, 2 (2011), pp. 139-159.

with K. Holmes, ‘Reflections on the history of Australasian gardens and landscapes’, Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, 31, 2 (2011), pp. 75-82 .

with Paul Star, 'Global Influences and Local Environments: Forestry and Forest Conservation in New Zealand, 1850s-1920s', British Scholar, 3,  1 &2 (September, 2010), pp.191-218.

'The Conservation Ethic of New Zealand', Chinese Social Sciences Today, 88, (13 May 2010), p.11.

'Climate Change, Forest Conservation and Science: A Case Study of New Zealand, 1840-1920', History of Meteorology, 5, (2009), pp.1-18.

'Exploring Trans-Tasman environmental connections, 1850s-1900s, through the imperial careering of Alfred Sharpe', ENNZ: Environment and Nature in New Zealand, 4, 1 (April, 2009), pp.37-57.

'Seeing the wood for the trees: Empire, nation-making and forest management', New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies. 10, 2 (December, 2008), pp.111-120.

with J. Heinzen and J.P. Adam, 'Japanese Gardens in New Zealand, 1850-1950: Transculturation and Transmission', Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, 28, 2 (April-June, 2008), pp. 219-236.

'Colonial Geographies of Settlement: Vegetation, Towns, Disease and Well-Being in Aotearoa/New Zealand, 1830s-1930s', Environment and History, 14, 4 (November, 2008), pp.583-610.

with John Stenhouse, 'Empire, Environment and Religion: God and Nature in nineteenth-century New Zealand', Environment and History, 13, 4 (November, 2007), pp.413-446.

'Introduction: Asian Environments', New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 9, 1 (June, 2007), 1-8.

'Growing Chinese Influences in New Zealand: Chinese Gardens, Identity and Meaning', New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 9, 1 (June, 2007), 38-60.

'Alfred Sharpe, Australasia, and Ruskin', Journal of New Zealand Art History, 27 (December, 2006), pp.38-56.

"Rethinking Science, Religion and Nature in Environmental History: Drought in Early Twentieth-Century New Zealand", "Special Issue: The Frontiers of Environmental History"/"Sonderheft: Umweltgeschichte in der Erweiterung", Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung , 29, 3 (November, 2004), pp.82-103.

"Environmental Anxiety in New Zealand, 1840-1941: Climate Change, Soil Erosion, Sand Drift, Flooding and Forest Conservation", Environment and History, 9, 4 (2003), pp.379-392.

"Dam Building, Dissent, and Development: the emergence of the Three Gorges Project, China", New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 4, 1 (June, 2002), pp.138-158.

REFEREED BOOK CHAPTERS
'Wilderness Found, Lost and Restored: The Sublime and Picturesque in New Zealand, 1830s-2000s', in Richard Reeve and Mick Abbott, eds, The Future of Wilderness in Aotearoa New Zealand (Nelson: Craig Potton Publishing, forthcoming).

'Looking for a Lost Arcadia: European Environmental Perception in the Dunedin area, 1840-1860', in Tom Brooking and Neil Clayton, eds, title not yet confirmed (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, forthcoming).

'Biological Invasion and Narratives of Environmental History in New Zealand, 1800-2000', in ed. by Ian D. Rotherham and Robert A. Lambert, Invasive and Introduced Plants and Animals: Human Perceptions, Attitudes and Approaches to the Environment (London; Washington, D.C.: Earthscan, 2011), pp.343-352.

'Japan-New Zealand Cultural Contacts, 1880s-1920', in Machiko Aoyagi, ed., 63 Chapters to Know New Zealand (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 2008), p.271-274. ISBN: 978-4-7503-2826-3

with Jasper Heinzen and John Adam, Japanese Gardens in New Zealand, in Machiko Aoyagi, ed., 63 Chapters to Know New Zealand (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 2008), pp.278-279. ISBN: 978-4-7503-2826-3

'Tropical Asia and Temperate New Zealand: Health and Conservation Connections, 1840-1920', in Brian Moloughney and Henry Johnson, eds., Asia in Making of New Zealand , Auckland, 2007, pp.36-57.

with Nanyan Guo and Paul Star, 'Tsugaru to Otago no shizen hogo' ['The Preservation of Tsugaru and Otago's Nature'] in Nanyan Guo, ed., Kita Nihon to Minami Nyuuji-rando no hikakukenkyuu [Comparative Research on Northern Japan and Southern New Zealand], University of Hirosaki Press, 2006).

"W.L. Lindsay, Scottish environmentalism, and the 'improvement' of nineteenth-century New Zealand", in Tony Ballantyne and Judith A. Bennett, eds., Landscape/Community: Perspectives from New Zealand History, Dunedin, 2005, pp.43-56.

with Paul Star, "State Forest Conservation and the New Zealand Landscape: Origins and Influences, 1850-1914", in Landscape/Community, pp.17-29.

with John Stenhouse, "God and the natural world in nineteenth-century New Zealand", in John Stenhouse, ed., assisted by Antony Wood, Christianity, Modernity and Culture: New Perspectives of New Zealand History, Adelaide, 2005, pp.180-203.

"Alfred Sharpe's forest consciousness in New Zealand and Australia, 1859-1908", in Michael Calver et al., eds., Proceedings of the 6 th National Conference of the Australian Forest History Society Inc., Rotterdam, 2005, pp.17-25.

JOURNAL ARTICLES (NOT REFEREED)
'Acclimatisation and the "Europeanisation" of New Zealand, 1830s-1920s', ENNZ: Environment, Nature and New Zealand, 3, 1 (February, 2008), 1-25.

'Romanticism, Art, Health and Conservation in Otago, 1840-186 0', Settlers' Newsletter , 81, 1, (March, 2007), pp.1-4.

with Henry Johnson, 'Report on the Asia in New Zealand Research Cluster, University of Otago', Journal of the New Zealand Studies Society - Japan , 13 (December, 2006).

'Greener Pastures? Future Research Topics on New Zealand's Environment', ENNZ: Environment and Nature in New Zealand, 1, 2 (August 2006), pp.8-13.

'Environment, Settlement and Land 'Improvement': the early years of the European colonisation of Otago, 1840-60', Otago Settlers' Newsletter , 80, 1, (March, 2006), pp.1-2.

'Come rain or shine: climate change and health in Otago and New Zealand in the nineteenth century', Otago Settlers' Newsletter, 77, 1, (March, 2003), pp.4-5.

SEMINARS, TALKS AND CONFERENCE PAPERS: 2007-10
'Ecological Imperialism in New Zealand: A Reconsideration', Nature, Empire and Power, 9-10 December, University of Waikato, New Zealand.

'Environmental Anxiety and Desertification: Colonial South Asian and Australasian Responses', The Eighth National Conference of the Australian Forest History Society Inc.,7–11 June 2010 Lismore, New South Wales, Australia.

''[A] nursery of strong, able-bodied men and women': Japan and the health and garden ideas of Bella and Frederic Truby King', The 18th New Zealand Asian Studies Society International Conference 2009, Victoria University of Wellington, 6-8 July 2009.

'Reconsidering Ecological Imperialism in New Zealand: Luxury Plants and the Case of Asia, 1850-1920', First World Congress of Environmental History 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark, 4-8 August 2009.

with Margie Smith, 'A Garden History of The Elms: Aspects of Garden-Making of Rev A.N. Brown 1830s-1860s', University of Waikato, Tauranga Campus, 30 September 2009.

'Wilderness, Tourism and Conservation', Tourism Department Seminar Series, University of Otago, 15 October 2009.

'Health Anxieties, Empire and Conservation: South Asia and Australasia, 1800-1920', University of Auckland Department of History Seminar Series, 5 November 2009.

'Exploring Trans-Tasman Environmental Connections, 1800-1920s', Developing Trans-Tasman Perspectives: Historical Geography Workshop, Palmerston North: Massey University, 19 November 2008.

'German science, conservation and imperialism in nineteenth century New Zealand', Ferdinand Hochstetter and the Contribution of German-Speaking Scientists to New Zealand Natural History in the 19th Century, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, 1-2 September 2008.

'Japanese Gardens and Plants in New Zealand, 1850s-1950s', Japan/New Zealand International Symposium, The University of Waikato, 23 August 2008.

' “An incongruous combination of unnatural associations': Chinese Plants and Gardens in Europe and New Zealand, 1700s-1920s', 17th New Zealand Asian Studies Society International Conference 2007, University of Otago, 22- 25 November 2007.

'Japanese Gardens and Plants in New Zealand, 1850-1950: Transculturation and Transmission', Department of History Seminar Series, University of Waikato, 13 September 2007.

'Colonial Geographies of Settlement: Plants, Health and Conservation in New Zealand, 1830-1920', New Zealand Historic Places Trust Open Lecture, Waikato Museum, Hamilton, 29 July 2007.

'Empire, Medicine and Natural History: the Role of Scottish-trained Doctors in India and New Zealand, 1790-1920', 6th Celtic Studies Conference, 18 July to 21 July 2007, University of Sydney, Australia

'South Asian and New Zealand Conservation Connections, 1800-1920', Trans-Tasman Forest History: Seventh Conference of the Australian Forest History Society, 29 January to 2 February 2007, Christchurch, New Zealand.

'Geographies of Settlement: Plants, Health and Conservation in New Zealand, 1830-1920', Trans-Tasman Forest History: Seventh Conference of the Australian Forest History Society, 29 January to 2 February 2007, Christchurch, New Zealand.

RESEARCH ASSOCIATIONS
Centre for World Environmental History, University of Sussex;
'Asia New Zealand' Research Cluster', University of Otago;
Biodiversity Asian Strategy, Yokohama National University.

USEFUL LINKS
Environment and Nature in New Zealand Newsletter (hosted by CRES, Australian National University).
Australian Forest History Society
Australian Garden History Society
Environmental History Timeline
Environment and History British-based journal of environmental history
New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies
Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes