Claire Brennan

Dr Claire Brennan is a lecturer in History at JCU. She teaches and supervises at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and is an active researcher in environmental history.

Claire's honours project led her to an interest in the history of sport hunting, first in New Zealand, then globally. Her University of Melbourne PhD thesis looked at the history of hunting in New Zealand and Australia, and placed it in its global context. Since coming to Townsville Claire's interests have become more tropical. She continues to research the history of hunting (including the history of recreational fishing, of the safari, and of crocodile hunting in northern Australia) and her interest in animal history has extended to include the history of livestock breeding. Her teaching has led her to publish within global history, and her place at James Cook University has led her to an interest in the physical process of early European exploration within the Pacific and across the Australian continent.

Claire is currently working on the Coral Discovery project, and is engaged in digitally mapping all the European scientific voyages that entered the Pacific between 1768 and 1834. Mapping these voyages and providing connections to the journals kept by captains and scientific workers will help address questions about Pacific pasts, support identification of the origins of scientific specimens, and support the work of modern scientists interested in environmental baselines.

Claire is a successful supervisor, and supervises a wide range of topics at doctorate, masters, and honours levels. She is regularly interviewed by the media.