Zoë Laidlaw

Zoë Laidlaw is a historian of the nineteenth-century British Empire, with a particular interest in the connections between slavery and settler colonialism. Her latest book is Protecting the Empire’s Humanity: Thomas Hodgkin and British Colonial Activism 1830-1870 (Cambridge University Press, 2021). A non-Indigenous Australian, Zoë grew up in western Victoria and is a Professor of History at the University of Melbourne.   

Zoë Laidlaw reviews ‘The Truth About Empire: Real histories of British colonialism’ edited by Alan Lester

August 2024, no. 467 • 23 July 2024

Increasingly, public understanding of issues vital to humanity’s well-being and future – climate change, health policy, international relations – is informed by debate that pits specious prejudice, masquerading as opinion, against expertise. Communicating with a lay audience, experts on complex yet politically charged subjects confront twin challenges: they must present evidence that is mult ... (read more)

Zoë Laidlaw on the Indigenous history of the University of Melbourne

October 2023, no. 458 • 24 September 2023

Like the nation at large, the University of Melbourne has a troubling history. Stretching back to Victoria’s early colonisation, that history is entwined with the oppression and dispossession of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. Indigenous people in Australia experience the consequences of that history daily, but the #blacklivesmatter and #blaklivesmatter protests of 2020 pushed questions about ... (read more)