Dr Brad Patterson

Dr Brad Patterson

Brad has had a long association with the Stout Research Centre, initially as a resident, then as a staff member, and as founding Director of the linked Irish-Scottish Studies Programme. In the latter role he worked closely with units at the Universities of Ulster and Aberdeen. He has taught widely in New Zealand tertiary education, punctuated by spells in the public service.

His current research is largely focused on the dynamics of settler capitalism in nineteenth-century New Zealand, bringing to completion a long-term study of the economic foundations of the New Zealand Company’s Wellington settlement. He also continues to be involved in research into the Irish and Scottish diasporas in New Zealand, in particular the survival of migrant identity and the nature and dimensions of Ulster migration.

The author or editor of 11 books, major publications include The Irish in New Zealand: Historical Contexts and Perspectives (2002), Ulster-New Zealand Migration and Cultural Transfers (2006), with Kathryn Patterson, Ireland and the Irish Antipodes: One World or World Apart? (2010), and with Richard S Hill and Kathryn Patterson, After the Treaty: The Settler State, Race Relations, and the Exercise of Power in Colonial New Zealand (2016). He was the leader of a Marsden financed research team which in 2013 produced Unpacking the Kists: The Scots in New Zealand, the first extended study of this ethnic group. He is also the author of numerous chapters, articles, and book reviews.

Member of the editorial board of Journal of New Zealand Studies, and regular co-supervision of Stout Centre based PhD and Masters theses.

Current Research Projects

• ‘The Wellington people are much occupied with money making’: A Study in the Dynamics of Settler Capitalism
• Survival of 19^th century migrant identity with reference to New Zealand’s Ulster settlements.

Selected Publications since 2010

‘” A most cruel and bitter campaign of slander and vituperation”: Easter Week 1916 and the Rise of the Protestant Political Association’, in Peter Kuch and Lisa Marr (eds) New Zealand’s Responses to the 1916 Uprising, Cork: Cork University Press, 2020, pp 137-158.   (with Richard S Hill and Kathryn Patterson, eds) After the Treaty: The Settler State, Race Relations and the Exercise of Power in Colonial New Zealand, Wellington: Steele Roberts Aotearoa, 2016, 356pp.

‘” Unquestionably one of the most efficient branches of the Civil Service”: Theophilus Heale and the Inspectorate of Surveys, 1867-1876’, in Brad Patterson, Richard S Hill and Kathryn Patterson (eds) After the Treaty: The Settler State, Race Relations and the Exercise of Power in Colonial New Zealand, Wellington: Steele Roberts Aotearoa, 2016, pp 228-62.

‘We stand for the Protestant religion, the (Protestant) King and the Empire’: The Rise of the Protestant Political Association in World War One,’ in Steven Loveridge (ed.) New Zealand Society at War 1914-1918, Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2016, pp 235-51.

'"We love one country, one Queen, and one flag": Loyalism in Early Colonial New Zealand, 1840- 1880', in Allan Blackstock and Frank O'Gorman (eds) Loyalism and the Formation of the British World 1775-1914, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2014, pp 241-62.

(with Tom Brooking and Jim McAloon) Unpacking the Kists: The Scots in New Zealand, Montreal/Dunedin: McGill-Queen's University Press/Otago University Press, 2013, 412pp.

'"It is curious how keenly allied in character are the Scotch Highlander and theMāori": Encounters in a New Zealand Colonial Settlement', in David A Wilson and Graeme Morton (eds) Irish and Scottish Encounters with Indigenous Peoples, Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2013, 144-69.

(with Rosalind McClean and David Swain, eds) Counting Stories, Moving Ethnicities:  Studies from Aotearoa New Zealand, Hamilton: University of Waikato, 2012, 254pp.

'Cousin Jacks, New Chums and Ten Pound Poms: Locating New Zealand's English Diaspora,’ in Tanja Bueltmann, David T Gleeson and Donald M MacRaild (eds) Locating the English Diaspora, 1500-2010, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012, pp 150-68.

(with Richard S Hill, eds) S Percy Smith: The Reminiscences of a Pioneer Surveyor, Treaty of Waitangi Research Unit Historical Document Series 5, Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington, 2011, 233pp.

‘''Every man his own landlord": Mr Massey and the Fight for the Freehold, 1894-1912', in  James Watson and Lachy Paterson (eds) A Great New Zealand Prime Minister?Reappraising William Ferguson Massey, Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2011, pp 49-60.

‘Maintaining a Gaelic tradition? Turakina’s Highland Games,’ Immigrants & Minorities, 30/1, March 2012, pp 98-117.

(with John MacKenzie, eds) Scots Abroad: The New Zealand Scots in International Perspective published as 3 special issues of Immigrants and Minorities, 29/30, 2011-12, 314pp.

(with John M MacKenzie) ‘The New Zealand Scots in International Perspective,’ Immigrants & Minorities, 29/2, July 2011, pp 147-153.

(ed) Nations, Diasporas, Identities (special issue of Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies, 4/1, Summer 2010, 224pp.

(ed) Ireland and the Irish Antipodes: One World or Worlds Apart? Sydney: Anchor Press, 2010, 306pp.

'"A class equal to any for making prosperous colonists...": Ulster Protestant migrants in the Antipodes', in Pamela O'Neill (ed) Celts in Legend and Reality, Series in Celtic Studies 9, Sydney: University of Sydney, 2010, pp 415-43.

‘“Be you an Orangeman, you shall meet Orangemen”: New Zealand’s Ulster plantation revisited,’ in Lawrence Geary and Andrew McCarthy (eds) Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2008, pp46-58.

'" It is curious how keenly allied in character are the Scotch Highlander and the Māori": Encounters in a New Zealand Colonial Settlement', Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies, 4(1), Autumn 2010, pp163-184.

General Information

• Research Associate, Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Otago, 2013-20.
• William Ferguson Massey Fellow, Massey University/University of Ulster, 2010.
• Hon Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Ulster Scots Studies, University of Ulster, 2003-2010; Visiting Professor, 2009-2010.
• Vice-President, Irish Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand, 2005-20; co-opted member of management committee, 2020-
• Series Historical Consultant, Brave New World – New Zealand, BBC Two Northern Ireland, 2014
• Co-Principal Investigator, ‘Scots in New Zealand’ Marsden Project, 2005-2009
• (with Kathryn Patterson) John Harris Award, Library and Information Association of New Zealand-Aotearoa, 2000 [for distinguished contribution to New Zealand bibliography]
• Hon Life Member, Archives & Records Association of New Zealand, 1980
• Member, Editorial Advisory Boards, Irish Studies Review, Journal of Irish & Scottish Studies, Australasian Journal of Irish Studies