Dr Naomi Parkinson

Naomi is a historian of the 19th century British Empire, specialising in histories of colonial law and governance in southern Africa, Australia and the Caribbean. She is currently working on a book that analyses changing policies of citizenship and enfranchisement in the post-emancipation British Empire c. 1840-1865, based on her PhD (Cambridge, 2018). At UNSW, Naomi is also investigating a series of pan-imperial Royal Commissions of Inquiry that sought to investigate systems of law and unfree labour within almost every British colony between 1819 and 1835.  With an international team of scholars, she is co-authoring the first monograph to comprehensively analyse evidence submitted to these vast inquiries, which spans testimony from slaves, settlers, colonial officials and legal practitioners.

Prior to her current postdoctoral position at UNSW, Naomi was based at the University of Cambridge (PhD, 2018; MPhil, 2013) and the University of Sydney (BA Hons, 2012).