Humanities and Social Sciences

History Program

Staff Profiles

Dr Robert Robertson

Associate Professor Room: Arts Building 2.04a Tel: (61 3) 5444 7563 Fax: (61 3) 5444 7970 Email: r.robertson@latrobe.edu.au Qualifications: BA Cant, PGDA Otago, PhD Otago

After teaching at the University of Otago and the University of the South Pacific, Robbie Robertson joined La Trobe University in 1988 as Head of the Department of Social Sciences, a position he held until being seconded as a teaching fellow to the Politics Department at ANU during 1994. In 1995 he became head of La Trobe’s School of Arts, and in 1997 Postgraduate Coordinator for the School of Arts & Education, a position he held until 2004 when he became Professor & Director of Development Studies at the University of the South Pacific (2004-2006).

Robbie’s research & postgraduate supervision interests include the history of globalization, development history, trade & development strategies, multiculturalism, military coups, and postcolonial history in Fiji & the Pacific.

Research Projects

• Military rule and ethnocentrism
  
• Trade policies, civil society & development strategies
  
• Globalization & social policy in world development
  
• Rural communities project (Fiji)

Research Publications

Books

• The Contemporary Era: An Introductory History. Suva: USP, 1984, 292 pp.
  
• The Making of the Modern World. London & New Jersey: Zed Books, 1986: 212 pp.
  
• Fiji: Shattered Coups. Sydney: Pluto Press, 1988: 198 pp (with A. Tamanisau).
  
• Multiculturalism & Reconciliation in an Indulgent Republic: Fiji after the Coups. 1987-1998. Suva: Fiji Institute of Applied Studies, 1998: 260 pp.
  
• Government by the Gun: The Unfinished Business of Fiji's 2000 Coup, Sydney: Pluto Press, 2001. [Also published by Zed Books (London & New Jersey)] with William Sutherland.

Selected Recent Articles

• “The Pacific Plan as a development strategy”, Development Bulletin, 70: April 2006.
  
• “Political Economy Survey of Fiji: Fiji-Futuring: Connectivity and Development”, Pacific Economic Bulletin, Canberra, 21: 2, 2006.
  Utilizing Economic Integration for Reform: Opportunities and Dangers”, The Asia Pacific Economic Journal, 4: 2 (March 2007).
  
• “Elections and Nation Building: The Long Road since 1970” in J. Fraenkel & S. Firth (eds), From Election to Coup in Fiji: the 2006 Campaign and its Aftermath. Suva & Canberra, Institute of Pacific Studies & Asia Pacific Press, 2007.
  
• “The Pacific Plan & Labour Mobility”, in Prasad B & Roy KC  (eds), Development Problems and Prospects in Pacific Island States, New York, Nova Science, 2007, pp. 23-30.
  
• “Ethnicity, Development & Coups: a History of Postcolonial Frustration” in B.V. Lal & G. Chand (eds) 1987 And All That: Fiji Twenty Years Later, Lautoka, FIAS, 2008.
  
• “Coups & Development: The more things change the more they stay the same”, in B.V. Lal & G. Chand (eds) 1987 And All That: Fiji Twenty Years Later, Lautoka, FIAS, 2008.

Graduate Supervision Areas and Topics

• Sally Reilly, "Periodizing Globalization: Oversimplification and Eurocentrism in Contemporary Globalization Theory", PhD.
  
• Mike Butcher, “Donald Gilbert Kennedy: A Flawed Pacific Visionary 1898-1976”, MA.
  
• Ray Wallace, “The Whipstick Forest”, MA - associate supervisor.
  
• Penny Davies, “Beyond Campus to Canvas: Ultimately a University”, PhD - associate supervisor.
• Neil Crowe, “The Irish during the American Civil War”, MA - associate supervisor.

Professional and Community Engagement:
Convenor and moderator of the community development projects listed above.
2004-2006 Professor & Director of Development Studies, Pacific Institute for Advanced Studies in Development & Governance, University of the South Pacific (on leave from La Trobe University)
Editorial Board member, Fijian Studies: A Journal of Contemporary Fiji, FIAS; Journal of Pacific Studies, USP.
Developer of Development Internships, a 400-level project-based course at USP, to place students into civil society organizations, NGOs, government departments, parliaments, and regional and international institutions.