The shortlist for the Australian Historical Association’s prestigious Ernest Scott Prize has been announced. On the list is the Centre’s director, Professor Tony Ballantyne, for his book Entanglements of Empire: Missionaries, Māori and the Question of the Body (Auckland University Press, 2015). The Ernest Scott Prize is awarded to the book that has made the most distinguished contribution to Australian or New Zealand history or the history of colonisation.
The judges describe Entanglements of Empire as “a smart, engaging and intelligent new work, which carefully blends New Zealand historical research with new theoretical readings inspired by international scholarship. Pushing disciplinary boundaries, its novel approach in reading the early Missionary-Maori dynamic in a new light, makes this book a new spin on an ‘old’ topic. Employing new frames of reference, guided by a focus on spatial interaction and physical embodiment, this book will invite further re-readings of the early colonial encounter period in New Zealand. Elegantly written, grounded in solid primary research, Entanglements of Empire is focused on re-thinking the history of early colonial New Zealand.”
The winner will be announced at the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Lecture, University of Melbourne, on 26 April.
Congratulations Tony, and good luck!
