DR. MATTHEW ALLEN is an Historical Criminologist whose diverse research is focused on the eighteenth and nineteenth-century British world and particularly colonial New South Wales. He is currently writing a history of alcohol in the colony which will explore the political symbolism of both celebratory drinking rituals and the regulation of public drunkenness in the period 1788–1856. Another major project examines the changing nature of deviance in New South Wales through a quantitative and qualitative study of magistrates and summary justice in the era of gubernatorial government, c.1810–1850. He is also researching secularisation and the role of religious faith, and especially protestant dissent, in the emerging colonial public sphere, c.1820–1840. All of these projects share an interest in understanding the unique and extraordinary transition of New South Wales from penal colony to responsible democracy, and the way that this process was shaped by the conflict between liberal ideals and authoritarian controls within the British world.
Publications
- “Samuel Marsden: A Contested Life,” St. John’s Cemetery Project, (2020), https://stjohnscemeteryproject.org/bio/samuel-marsden/
- “The Myth of the Flogging Parson: Samuel Marsden and Severity of Punishment in the Age of Reform,” Australian Historical Studies, Vol. 48, Issue 4, (2017): 486–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2017.1377269
- ‘”The Underside of Responsible Government – Review of: Angela Woollacott, Settler Society in the Australian Colonies: Self-Government and Imperial Culture (Oxford University Press, 2015),” History Australia, 14 (2017): 296–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/14490854.2017.1321050
- “The Politics of the Pew: Faith, Liberty, and Authority in a Sydney Church in 1828,” Journal of Religious History, Vol. 42, Issue 1, (2016): 84–98 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9809.12407
- “Grog by Tom Gilling: Building a Boozy Nation,” The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 December 2016. http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/grog-by-tom-gilling-building-a-boozy-nation-20161205-gt49bo.html
- “Curfews and Lockouts: Battles over Drinking Time Have a Long History in NSW,” The Conversation, 4 June 2016. http://theconversation.com/curfews-and-lockouts-battles-over-drinking-time-have-a-long-history-in-nsw-58220
- “Policing a free society: Drunkenness and liberty in colonial New South Wales,” History Australia, Vol. 12, No. 2 (2015), 144–165. https://doi.org/10.1080/14490854.2015.11668574
- “Alcohol in Australia and New Zealand,” in Scott C. Martin (ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Alcohol: Social, Cultural, and Historical Perspectives, Thousand Oaks, (California: SAGE Publications, 2015), Vol. 1: 195–197.
- “Alcohol and Authority in Early New South Wales: The Symbolic Significance of the Spirit Trade, 1788–1808,” History Australia, Vol. 9, No. 3 (2012). https://doi.org/10.2104/ha-v9n3p
- “Sectarianism, Respectability and Cultural Identity: The St Patrick’s Total Abstinence Society and Irish Catholic Temperance in mid Nineteenth-Century Sydney,” Journal of Religious History, Vol. 35, No. 3 (September 2011), 374–392. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9809.2011.01076.x
Qualifications
- PhD (History), University of Sydney
- BA (Hons), History, University of Sydney
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