Dr. Gareth Knapman

Biography

Gareth Knapman is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies at the Australian National University. He previously served as a Research Associate for the ARC Discovery Project focused on the commercial trade of Indigenous human remains and is currently involved in researching the police collecting of ancestral remains and cultural property from 1825 to 1930. Before entering academia, Knapman worked as a curator and repatriation officer in the Indigenous Cultures Department at Museum Victoria. His published works extensively cover museum collections and collecting practices, contributing significantly to Australian historical scholarship. Knapman's recent work interrogates the legality of colonial plunder and examines the administrative regulations and bureaucratic processes of colonial regimes. He is recognized as a leading authority on nineteenth-century British colonialism in Southeast Asia. His book, 'Race and British Colonialism in Southeast Asia' (2017), offers a groundbreaking reinterpretation of race and empire in the region. In 2023, he published an analysis on the legality and consequences of the East India Company’s plunder in Java. He is currently writing a book on sovereignty and property in the British colonial world, developing a transcolonial narrative that connects British India, colonial settlements in Southeast Asia, and Australia.

Research Interests