Donna Brunero

I have research specialisations in the history of the British Empire in Asia, particularly in the maritime realm. I am fascinated by the dynamics of trade and trading communities in ports such as Singapore. 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. Much of my research, teaching and student supervision (Honours, MA, PhD) reflects these interests.

Moving beyond the university, I often contribute to heritage projects, providing training for museum docents and supporting history enthusiasts in various maritime projects. I’ve been involved in a number of documentaries relating to local history, providing perspectives on colonial Singapore’s maritime past.  The most memorable of these was exploring the long disused military bunkers in Sentosa (Fort Serapong) as part of the Hidden Histories series.

Before arriving in Singapore (in the early 2000s), I grew up in Sydney, Australia. I completed my BA(Hons) at the University of Western Sydney, Macarthur. And after securing an Australian Postgraduate Award, I pursued Doctoral studies at the University of Adelaide.

TEACHING AREAS:

• Imperial History
• Maritime History (Piracy in World History, Port cities of Asia)
• Singapore’s Business history
• Archives and knowledge making

CURRENT RESEARCH AREAS:

• British colonial legacies in Asia (maritime history and port cities): including Raffles, royal tours, and maritime ethnography
• Imperial celebrations and ephemera in colonial Southeast Asia
• 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”.
• Forthcoming edited volume: Tariffs, Trade, and the Shaping of East Asian Economies in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century. co-edited with Weipin Tsai,  Hong Kong University Press. Co-authored the introduction, and contributed a chapter on “The Lure of the China Market: The ‘expert’s view’ on conducting trade in the Far East”. (In production, due for release in late 2026).
• Chapters and articles
• “From a “Man in the Middle” to a man on the margins: George E. Morrison, journalist, advisor, British imperial advocate.” In Men in the Middle: Shaping Great Power-China Relationships 1842-1949, edited by  Charles J. Burgess and  Brian P. Farrell.  Berlin: De Gruyter Brill, 2025.
• “Beyond Changi: Australians, Singapore, and World War II Films” in Writing n Australian History On-screen. Television and Film Period Dramas “ Down Under” edited by Jo Parnell and Julie Anne Taddeo. New York: Lexington, 2023. (Co-authored with Leong Yew).
• “From Boy Emperors to Business Opportunities: Glimpses of the Meiji Restoration from the China Coast Press c.1868-70” In Revisiting Japan’s Restoration: New Approaches to the Study of the Meiji Transformation  edited by Timothy D. Amos and Akiko Masuda, London and New York: Routledge, 2021.
• “In Service of John Company: Reflections on life in the English East India Company” in Encounters and Connected Histories, Singapore: National Museum of Singapore, 2020.
• “Celebrating the World’s Most Ideal State: Sarawak and the Brooke Dynasty’s Centenary of 1941”. In Monarchies and Decolonization in Asia (Studies in Imperialism Series), edited by Robert Aldrich and Cindy McCreery. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020.
• “Visiting the ‘Liverpool of the East’: Singapore’s Place in Tours of Empire”. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 50 (4) 2019. 562-578.
• “To Capture a Vanishing Era: The Development of the Maze Collection of Chinese Junk Models, 1929-1948”. Journal for Maritime Research 17, no. 1 (2015): 35-48.