By /

Donna Brunero

Donna Brunero - 06 - Halfbody

Profile: https://discovery.nus.edu.sg/3214-donna-brunero

I grew up in suburban Sydney and my schooling and university years were in Australia.

I completed my BA(Hons) at the University of Western Sydney, Macarthur. And after securing an Australian Postgraduate Award, I pursued my Doctoral studies at the University of Adelaide.

While in Adelaide I worked as Vice Principal at one of the university’s Residential Colleges. I also had a stint as an archivist; this was a great opportunity to see how the ‘other side’ of the research process worked.

A Postdoctoral fellowship brought me to Singapore in late 2001. Since then, I’ve been teaching, researching and writing.

My research specialisation is the history of the British Empire in Asia, particularly in the maritime realm and the port cities of Asia. I am fascinated by the dynamics of trade and trading communities in ports such as Singapore and Hong Kong. And I have an interest in the lives of Britons and other Westerners who had careers either within Empire or at the edges of it.

As a result of my archival experience, I also have an interest in public history, archival studies and heritage.

TEACHING AREAS:

  • Imperial History
  • Maritime History (Piracy in World History)
  • Singapore Studies
  • Business History

CURRENT RESEARCH AREAS:

  • British colonial legacies in Asia (maritime history and port cities): including Raffles, royal tours, and maritime ethnography
  • Family history as business history
  • Popular conceptions of piracy in Asia

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Monograph

  • Britain’s Imperial Cornerstone in China: The Chinese Maritime Customs Service, 1854-1949. London: Routledge, 2006. (Released in paperback in 2011)

Edited Volumes

  • Co-editor with Brian P. Farrell (National University of Singapore), Empire in Asia: A New Global History Vol.2 The Long Nineteenth Century, (London and New York: Bloomsbury press, 2018). Introduction and a Chapter titled: “Maritime Goes Global: The British Maritime Empire in Asia”
  • Co-editor with Stephanie Villalta-Puig (University of Hull), Life in Treaty Port China and Japan (London, Palgrave, 2018). Introduction and a chapter titled, “Amahs, ponies and all that: Family lives on the China Coast”.

Chapters in edited volumes:

  • “Beyond Tariffs and Duties: The Chinese Maritime Customs Service and its Representations of China’s Maritime World c.1860-1949” in Voyages, Migration, and the Maritime World: On China’s Global Historical Role. (De Gruyter Press, forthcoming in 2018)

Articles

  • “To Capture a Vanishing Era: The Development of the Maze Collection of Chinese Junk Models, 1929-1948” Journal for Maritime Research, Vol 17.1, April 2015.
  • “Archives and Heritage in Singapore: The Development of ‘Reflections at Bukit Chandu’, World War II Interpretive Centre” International Journal of Heritage Studies, Volume 12 (5) September 2006.