Researcher

Professor Lisa Ford

Fields of Research (FoR)

Historical studies

Biography

A graduate of Columbia University in New York, Professor Ford is a legal historian whose work centres on ideas and practices of order in the post-1763 British Empire and the early national United States. She is the prize-winning author of three monographs: Settler Sovereignty: Jurisdiction and Indigenous People in America and Australia, 1788-1836 (Harvard UP, 2010); Rage for Order: The British Empire and the Origins of International Law,...view more

A graduate of Columbia University in New York, Professor Ford is a legal historian whose work centres on ideas and practices of order in the post-1763 British Empire and the early national United States. She is the prize-winning author of three monographs: Settler Sovereignty: Jurisdiction and Indigenous People in America and Australia, 1788-1836 (Harvard UP, 2010); Rage for Order: The British Empire and the Origins of International Law, 1800-1850 (Harvard UP, 2016), co-authored with Professor Lauren Benton; and The King's Peace: Law and Order in the British Empire (Harvard UP, 2021). Professor Ford has also co-edited two books: with Tim Rowse, Between Indigenous and Settler Governance (Routledge 2013); and with Peter Cane and Mark McMillan, The Cambridge Legal History of Australia (Cambridge UP, 2022).

She is currently working on two ARC-funded projects: a collaborative study of British Imperial Commissions of Inquiry, from 1819-1840 (DP180100537) and a pan-imperial study of declarations of martial law, 1700-1900 (FT190100232).

My Grants

FT190100232, Empire of Emergency (2020-2024) (future fellow), a study of martial law in the British Empire from 1700-1900
DP180100537, Inquiring into Empire (2018-2022) (lead CI), a study of the colonial commissions of inquiry that remade the British Empire after the Napoleonic Wars, 1819-1840
DE120100593, Protecting the Peace (2012-2017) (DECRA fellow), a study of protection and legal reform in the British Empire, 1800-1840
DP110103832, Convicts, Empire and Order (2011-2013) (sole CI), a study of peace keeping and everyday ordering in the British Empire, 1760-1840
LE180100048, Foundations of the Common Law Library (Austlii, 2018)
LE150100051, The Australasian Legal History Libraries, Stage II (Austlii, 2015)
LE120100062, The Australian Legal History Library (Austlii, 2012)
Australian Learning and Teaching Council, After Standards: The Future of History (2011-2012)

My Qualifications

BA(Hons 1)/LLB(Hons 1)/MA (UQ), MA, MPhil, PhD (Columbia)

My Awards

The Robert E. Dalton Award from the American Society of International Law for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Foreign Relations Law (2023)
The Dean's Monograph Award (2017)
The Crawford Medal for Outstanding Contribution to the Humanities by an Early Career Scholar (2012)
The Littleton-Griswold Prize awarded by the American Historical Association for the best book in any subject on the history of American Law and Society (2010)
The New South Wales Premier's History Award (General category) (2010)
The Thomas J. Wilson Prize for the best first book manuscript in any field to be published by Harvard University Press (2010)
The Bancroft Dissertation Prize for the best American Studies Dissertation submitted to Columbia University in 2007 (2008)

My Teaching

2023: Slavery and its Legacies
2022: Convenor of Honours, School of Humanities
2022: The Humanities, then and now
2022: Research Skills in the Humanities
2018: Deputy Head of School (Education)
2017: Convenor of History and Area Studies Group
2014-2015: Slavery and Freedom
2010-11: Australia: Protest & Memory
2009-11; 2018: Introduction to History: The Big Picture (World History)
2009: Winners & Losers
2009: Welfare & Poverty in Australian History

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