DrGeoffrey Robinson

I began my academic career as a labour historian and am now Senior Lecturer in Politics. I am particularly interested in relation between political ideas and practice and the balance between political agency and social structures in determining what governments can do, this concern makes the rise and fall of socialism is a particular fascination but I am also interested in liberal and conservative ideas and policy. My works blend intellectual and policy history. My first book When the Labor Party Dreams, examined Jack Lang's Depression-era NSW government, as an example of the limits of reformism under a capitalist economy. My next book Being Left-Wing in Australia examined the Australian left since the fall of Soviet Communism. I have recently published a book for on intellectuals within the Liberal Party of Australia, including figures such as David Kemp and Peter Coleman. I am currently developing a new book project on the relation between socialist and conservative political thought. I am a regular media commentator on Australian politics, and frequent contributor to The Conversation. I teach political ideologies, parties and social movements, governance and am Course Director of the Master of Politics and Policy. I am interested in supervising students in political and labour history in English-speaking world, the history of political ideas, and Marxist approaches to politics and history.