James Belich, the author of Replenishing the Earth, has been appointed to one of the top history jobs in the world in his field. In October, he will take up the Beit Professorship of Commonwealth and Imperial History at Oxford University. He is currently Professor of History at Victoria University’s Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies.
The Beit Professorship provides research leadership in Commonwealth, imperial and global history and is awarded to a historian of exceptional and international reputation. The position is described here.
The position was established in 1905 and Belich will be the seventh historian to hold it. According to Wikipedia, Belich’s predecessors were:
- Hugh Egerton (1905–1920)
- Sir Reginald Coupland (1920–48)
- Vincent T. Harlow (1950–1963)
- John Andrew Gallagher (1963–1971)
- Ronald Robinson (1971–1987)
- Judith M. Brown (1990-2011)
As I have said in an earlier blog post, Replenishing the Earth is a wonderful and magisterial book. In my humble opinion, Oxford has just made a great hiring decision!
The Past Speaks 