Russell McGregor

Russell McGregor is an Adjunct Professor of History in the College of Arts, Society and Education. Before his retirement in 2014, he taught modern world history, Australian history and historiographic theory at James Cook University.

His latest book, Enchantment by Birds: A History of Birdwatching in 22 Species, takes a fresh and imaginative approach to the writing of history, showing how the pastime evolved as a pathway for modern, urban people to connect with nature. His previous book, Idling in Green Places: A Life of Alec Chisholm, which tells the story of a pioneer conservationist and popular nature writer, was shortlisted for the 2020 National Biography Awards. Earlier publications include the award-winning books Indifferent Inclusion: Aboriginal People and the Australian Nation (winner of the 2012 NSW Premier's Prize for Australian History; shortlisted for the 2012 Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History) and Imagined Destinies: Aboriginal Australians and the Doomed Race Theory (winner of the 1998 WK Hancock Prize for History). Another book, Environment, Race and Nationhood in Australia: Revisiting the Empty North, explores the environmental history of the Australian tropics. Russell is also co-author of a history of a north Queensland Aboriginal group, Gugu Badhun: People of the Valley of Lagoons. As well as these, he has published numerous articles and chapters in both scholarly journals and popular magazines. Recent articles have been mostly on the history of birds and birdwatching, while earlier ones were mainly on environmental history and the histories of racial ideas, Aboriginal policy, Australian nationalism and northern Australia.

His current major research project is a biography of the great Australian field guide author and conservationist, Graham Pizzey.