Senior Fellow

Environmental History, Museum studies, History of Biodiversity Sciences, Conservation in Arid Zone Australia, World History, History of Australian Science, Ecological Humanities

Phone: +61 (0)2 612 55016

E-mail: Libby.Robin@anu.edu.au

Libby Robin has a joint appointment in the Fenner School and as Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Historical Research, National Museum of Australia. She completed a doctorate in the History of Ecology at the University of Melbourne in 1993, and has worked at the University of Melbourne (Landscape Architecture), LaTrobe University (Politics), the University of London (Menzies Centre for Australian Studies), and the Australian National University (first at the Humanities Research Centre, then later at the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies). In 1998 she joined the National Museum of Australia’s curatorial team Land and People that designed the first environmental history gallery at the new museum. She joined CRES (now Fenner School) in 1999.

Professional Activities

Board Member and Book Reviews Editor, Historical Records of Australian Science (CSIRO publishing for the Australian Academy of Science); and Environment and History (UK)

Board Member reCollections (Journal of the National Museum of Australia), Australian Humanities Review and Landscapes (UK); Co-Editor (with Deborah Rose) of the Ecological Humanities Corner at the Australian Humanities Review.

Australian Academy of Science’s National Committee for the History and Philosophy of Science.

Academic Highlights

2003 Victorian Premier's Literary Prize for Science Writing for her book: Robin, Libby The Flight of the Emu: A Centenary History of Ornithology in Australia, (Melbourne University Press, 2001)

2007, 9th Oct NSW Premier's Australian History Prize ($15,000) for her book: Robin, Libby How a Continent Created a Nation, (UNSW Press, February 2007), 272pp

Selected Publications

Books (solo-author unless otherwise indicated)

How a continent created a nation (UNSW Press, 2007).
See: http://fennerschool.anu.edu.au/publications/books/robin_libby_hccn.php

A change in the weather: climate and culture in Australia, (National Museum of Australia Press 2005) (co-edited with Tim Sherratt and Tom Griffiths)

Strata: deserts past, present and future (Mandy Martin, 2005)(with Mandy Martin and Mike Smith)
See: http://fennerschool.anu.edu.au/publications/books/strata.php

Understanding the Environment: Bridging the Disciplinary Divides (UNSW Press 2005) (co-edited with R.Q. Grafton and R.J. Wasson)

The Flight of the Emu: A Centenary History of Ornithology in Australia, (Melbourne University Press, 2001)

Defending the Little Desert: The Rise of Ecological Consciousness in Australia, (Melbourne University Press, 1998)

Ecology and Empire: Environmental History of Settler Societies, (Keele University Press, 1997; Melbourne University Press, 1997; University of Natal Press, 1997; University of Washington Press 1998). (co-edited with Tom Griffiths)

Articles

Robin, Libby and Will Steffen, ‘History for the Anthropocene’ History Compass 2007
See: http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/history/

Robin, Libby 'New science for sustainability in an ancient land', in Sverker Sörlin and Paul Warde (eds) Spaces, Connections, Boundaries: Reconsidering environmental history, London and New York, Palgrave MacMillan 2007.

Robin, Libby 'Back home to ecology', Australian Humanities Review, Issue 41, February 2007
http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/archive/Issue-February-2007/EcoIntro.html

Robin, Libby 'Home and away: Australian sense of place', Australian Humanities Review, Issue 41, February 2007
See: http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/archive/Issue-February-2007/EcoRobin.html

Robin, Libby 'Weird and wonderful: The first objects of the National Historical Collection' reCollections 1(2) September 2006
See: http://recollections.nma.gov.au/issues/vol_1_no_2/papers/weird_and_wonderful/

Robin, Libby, 'Migrants and Nomads' in Sherratt, Tim, Tom Griffiths and Libby Robin (eds). A change in the weather: climate and culture in Australia, Canberra, NMA Press 2005.

Robin, Libby and Daniel Connell, 'History of the environment', in Grafton, Robin and Wasson (eds) Understanding the Environment: 8-22.

Grafton, R. Quentin and Libby Robin, 'Towards an understanding of the environment', in Grafton, Robin and Wasson (eds) Understanding the environment: 1-7.

Grafton, R. Quentin and Libby Robin, 'Bridging the divides', in Grafton, Robin and Wasson (eds) Understanding the environment: 184-201.

Robin, Libby and Tom Griffiths, 'Environmental History in Australia', Environment and History 10(4), 2004, 439-74.

Robin, Libby, 'Science and history in National Museums', Historical Records of Australian Science 14(3), 2003, pp 251-89.

Robin, Libby 'Nationalising Nature' in The Dog of War Special Issue of Journal of Australian Studies, Vol 73, 2002, pp 13-26 and notes, 219-23.