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Professor Dom Alessio

Professor of History
Vice President International Programmes

Contact:
Email: alessid@richmond.ac.uk
School: School of Communications, Arts & Social Sciences
Research centres: International Visual Arts and Cultures and The State Power & Globalisation

About

I was born in Wales to Irish-Welsh and Italian parents, raised in Canada and studied in New Zealand after having been awarded a Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship. I have taught at McMaster University (Canada), St Thomas’s University (Canada), Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) and Trinity St David’ University (Wales). I have additionally been a Visiting Professor: in the School of Arts at the University of Northampton; at Franklin University (Switzerland); and at Randolph Macon College (USA). I have also been a Research Associate for the Centre for Fascist/Anti-Fascist and Post-Fascist Studies, Teesside University (UK) and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Analysis for the Radical Right (CARR). I have been invited to give numerous lectures throughout the world and am also a fellow of Royal Historical Society, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, and am a former Vice Chair of the New Zealand Studies Association.

I am a postcolonial, political and cultural historian of imperialism with additional interests in the history of the extreme right. I am currently working on an ambitious political history investigating definitions of empire and diverse methods of empire formation. This includes the buying and renting of imperial territory as a means of expansion and the role of non-state actors, such as filibusters, corporate players and religious organisations, in the imperial process. I am also working on a project examining the relationship between the extreme right and the occult, Heathenism and Satanism. Entitled Folk, Faith and the Far Right, this work is to be published by Manchester University Press. My interests are hiking, fencing and canoeing, and in 2018 I made a successful attempt, with my friend and colleague Mark Horne, to obtain a Guinness World Record for canoeing the length of the River Thames in a double canoe.

Research interests

  • Theories of empire
  • The occult and the far right
  • Science fiction/Fantasy/Horror film and television

  • Ph.D. (History) Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 1989 – 1993
  • MA (History) McMaster University, Canada, 1988 – 1989
  • BA Combined Honor’s First Class (English & History) McMaster University, Canada, 1985 – 1988
  • HST 5105 Rise of the Right: A History of Fascisms
  • HST 6106 Culture, Power, Empire
  1. “Empires, Corporations and the Second Scramble for Africa” (With Wesley Renfro). Journal of World History (18-3 October/November 2021)
  2. “The Radical Impact of Canada’s Fringe Parties“, Imogen Alessio & Dominic Alessio, Fair Observer (February 17, 2022)
  3. “The Music is Political: Black Metal and the Extreme Right”, Fair Observer (August 10, 2021)
  4. Dominic Alessio & Wesley Renfro, “Empires, Corporations and the Second Scramble for Africa”, Journal of World History (18 October – 3 November 2021)
  5. “Building Empires Literally in the South China Sea: Artificial Islands and Contesting Definitions of Imperialism” (with Wesley Renfro). International Politics. Palgrave (July 2021)
  6. “Racist Occultism in the UK: behind the Order of None Angles (O9A)” (with Robert Wallis), Open Democracy/Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (23 July, 2020)
  7. “From the Hospitallers to ISIS: Non-State Religious Organisations and Empire” (with Lucas Villegas-Aristizabal), Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, (22, 5, 2020)
  8. “Ares: A Dutch Netflix Postcolonial Horror Story”, with Yaffa Caswell, Charlie Klucker, Yeats McDonald, and Emma Nourry, Centre for imperial and Global History, University of Essex (November 18, 2020)
  9. “Connecting Trump in Greenland with Germany’s Second and Third Reich”, Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right (September 7, 2019)
  10. “Empire?” (with Wesley Renfro), European Journal of American Studies (15-2 Summer 2020)
  11. ‘The Island of Thieves’: Rethinking Empire and the United States in the South Pacific” (with Wesley Renfro). (Foreign Policy Analysis) (Oxford University Press) [Journal article]
  12. “Spain, Germany and the United States in the Marshall Islands: Re-imagining the imperial in the Pacific” (with Patricia Olle Tejero and Katherine Arnold). Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies 4, 2 (2017): 115-136 (Intellect) [Co-authored article]
  13. Filibustering from Africa to the Americas: Re-thinking Empire and the Origins of Fascism”, Small Wars & Insurgencies (27, 6, 2016) (Taylor & Francis) [Journal article]
  14. “The Voldemort of Empires: Rethinking the Relationship between Empire and United States History” (with Wesley Renfro), International Studies Perspectives 17, no. 3 (2016): 250-66. (Oxford University Press) [Co-authored article]
  15. “Easter Island and the Lost Continent of Mu”, Easter Island: Cultural and Historical Perspectives, edited by Ian Conrich (Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2016) [Authored chapter in book]
  16. “The Dragon Is Not Always Red: The Welsh Defence League and Extreme Nationalism in Wales”, National Identity (2015) (Taylor & Francis) DOI: 10.1080/14608944.2014.987658 [Journal article]
  17. “… territorial acquisitions are among the landmarks of our history”: the buying and leasing of imperial territory”, The Crisis of the Twenty-First Century: Empire in the Age of Austerity, eds. Russell Foster, Matthew Johnson & Mark Edward (London: Routledge, 2014). ISBN 978-0-415-73187-4 [Authored chapter in book]
  18. “Indian Science Fiction Film”, Liverpool Companion to World Science Fiction Film, ed. Sonja Fritzsche (with Jessica Langer). (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2014). HB ISBN: 9781781380383 [co-authored book chapter]
  19. “Blackshirts for the Twenty-First Century? Fascism and the English Defence League” (with Kristen Meredith), Social Identities. Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture (Winter 2013) (Routledge) [Co-authored article]
  20. “Arctic ‘Concessions’ and Icebreaker Diplomacy? Chinese Tourism Development in Iceland” (with Edward H. Huijbens), Current Issues in Tourism (Fall 2013) (Routledge). [Co-authored article]
  21. ‘…territorial acquisitions are among the landmarks of our history’: the buying and leasing of imperial territory”, Global Discourse, 3, I (Summer 2013) (Routledge). [Journal article]
  22. “Decolonising James Cameron’s Pandora: Imperial History and Science Fiction” (with Kristen Meredith), Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 13, 2 (Fall 2012) (The John Hopkins University Press). [Co-authored journal article]
  23. Birtingarmyndir kyngervis og þversagnir í markaðsefni íslenskrar ferðaþjónustu (with Edward H. Huijbens, Anna Lísa Jóhannsdóttir, and Lusine Margaryan), Íslenska þjóðfélagið/the Journal of the Icelandic Sociological Association, 3 (2012). [Co-authored journal article]
  24. Small Nations/Big Neighbours. Co-edited with Ian Conrich (Nottingham: Kakapo Books 2012) [Co-edited book]
  25. “Geysirs and ‘Girls’: Gender, Politics and Tourism in Modern Iceland” (with Anna Lisa Johannsdottir), European Journal of Women’s Studies, 18, 1 (Sage: 2011), 35-50. [Co-authored journal article]
  26. New Zealand, France and the Pacific. Co-edited with Ian Conrich (Nottingham: Kakapo Books, 2011) ISBN: 978 0 9557564 5 0. [Co-edited book]
  27. “Total Recall Pacific Style: Science Fiction, Colonialism and Pacific Literature”, Exploring Science Fiction: Text and Pedagogy, edited by Geetha B. and Amit Sarwal(New Delhi: CLC Series/SSS Publications, 2011). ISBN No. 81-902282-8-5, 16-36. [Authored chapter in book]
  28. “From Body Snatchers to Mind Snatchers: Indigenous Science Fiction, Postcolonialism, and Aotearoa/New Zealand History”, Journal of Postcolonial Writing (Taylor Francis: July 2011), 257-269. [Journal article]
  29. “Travel, Tourism and Booster Literature: New Zealand’s Cities and Towns at the Turn of the 20th Century”, Studies in Travel Writing, 14, 4 (Routledge: December 2010), 383-396. [Journal article]
  30. “Science Fiction, Hindu Nationalism and Modernity: Bollywood’s Koi… Mil Gaya”, in Ericka Hoagland & Reema Sarwal, eds., Science Fiction, Imperialism, and the Third World: Essays on Postcolonial Literature and Film (Jefferson: McFarland Press, 2010), 156-170. [Authored chapter in book]
  31. “‘Monopoly Imperialism’: How Empires Can be Bought and Leased”, Social Europe Journal, http://www.social-europe.eu/2010/05/monopoly-imperialism-how-empires-can-be-bought-and-leased, May 21, 2010. [Journal article]
  32. Introduction and editor, The Great Romance. A Rediscovered Utopian Adventure. (University of Nebraska Press, 2008) ISBN-13: 978-0-8032-5996-6 pbk. [Book]
  33. “Promoting Paradise: Utopianism and National Identity in New Zealand”, New Zealand Journal of History, 42. 1, 2008, 22-40. [Journal article]
  34. “Hindu Nationalism and Postcolonialism in Indian Science Fiction: Koi… Mil Gaya (2003)” (with Jessica Langer), New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, 5, no.3, 2007, 217-229. [co-authored journal article]
  35. “2006-2008 – the Years of the Pacific? Some Thoughts after Pasifika Styles (University of Cambridge) and Power and Taboo (The British Museum), British Review of New Zealand Studies, 16 (2007), 207-217. [Journal article]
  36. “Redemption, ‘Race’, The Far Right, Religion and Reality: Science Fiction Film Adaptations of Philip K. Dick”, in Will Brooker, ed., The Blade Runner Experience: The Legacy of a Science Fiction Classic (London: Wallflower, 2005), 59-75. [Authored chapter in book]
  37. “A Conservative Utopia?: Anthony Trollope’s The Fixed Period (1881)”, Journal of New Zealand Literature, 22, (May, 2004), 73-94. [Journal article]
  38. “Race, Gender and Proto-Nationalism in Julius Vogel’s Anno Domini 2000”, Foundation, 91, (2004), 36-54. [Journal article]
  39. “Close Encounters of the Earliest Kind: A Postcolonial Sighting of the First Aliens and Colony in Science Fiction (1881)”, for the special edition of ARIEL: A Post-Colonial Odyssey, 33, no.1, (2002/2003), 15-36. [Journal article]
  40. “Things are Different Now”?: A Postcolonial Analysis of Buffy the Vampire Slayer“, The European Legacy, 6, no.6 (2001), 731-740. [Journal article]
  41. “Gender, Spiritualism and Reform in Late 19th Century New Zealand: Lotti Wilmot’s New Zealand Beds“, British Review of New Zealand Studies, 12 (2000), 55-85. [Journal article]
  42. “Civilisation, Control and Co-operation: Picturing the Natives in the British Settlement Colonies (1870- 1930)”, Journal of Imperial and Post-Colonial Historical Studies 1, no.1 (Spring 2000), 71-112. [Journal article]
  43. “The Great Romance, by The Inhabitant”, Kotare: New Zealand Notes and Queries, 2, no.2, (November, 1999), pp.3-17. [Journal piece reproducing a lost text]
  44. “The Great Romance: a science-fiction/utopian novelette. Part Two.”, Kotare: New Zealand Notes and Queries, 2, no.1 (May, 1999), pp.48-79. [Journal piece reproducing a lost text]
  45. “’A startling apparteness’: Race, Imperialism and Popular Culture in British Palestine, 1918-1936″, Proceedings of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, (2000) [Article on ECPR CD-Rom)
  46. “The Great Romance: a science-fiction/utopian novelette”, Kotare: New Zealand Notes and Queries, (October, 1998), 59-101. [Journal article]
  47. “Domesticating `the Heart of the Wild’: Female Personifications of the Colonies, 1886-1940″, Women’s History Review, (August, 1997), 239-269. [Journal article]
  48. “An Atlantis of the Antipodes? Utopianism and New Zealand”, The Journal of Unconventional History, 7, no.3, (Spring, 1996), pp.53-83. [Journal article]
  49. “Document in the History of Science-Fiction: The Great Romance, by The Inhabitant”, Science Fiction Studies, 20, no.3, (1993), pp.305-340. [Journal article]
  50. “Capitalist Realist Art: Industrial Images of Hamilton, Ontario, 1884-1910”, The Journal of Urban History, 18, no.4, (1992), pp.442-469. [Journal article]
  51. “A Tale of Twenty Cities: the Urban Environment in American Science-Fiction of the 1950s and 1960s”, The Journal of Unconventional History, 2, no.2 (1991), pp. 59-74. [Journal article]
  52. “James Churchward and the Lost Continent of Mu”, Moai Myths: Easter Island Myths and Popular Culture (to be published in a forthcoming book called Moai Culture with Frank & Timme)
  • 2023: Keynote Speaker at the New Zealand and South Pacific Studies Conference: “The Role of the United Nations in the Indonesian Occupation of West Papua” (Jointly hosted between Stockholm, Sweden & University of Turku, Finland)
  • July 2022: (with Robert Wallis) “Faith, Folk and the Far Right: Visual Cultures of Anti-Racist Heathenry on Instagram”, Inform, King’s College, London
  • February 2022: “Empires, Corporations and the Second Scramble for Africa”, Environmental Politics Workshop, Richmond, the American International University in London
  • July 2021: “Heathen Occultism and the Far Right”, Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right/Richmond, the American International University in London
  • May 2020: “From the Dutch East India Company to Daewoo: Empires, Corporations and the Second Scramble for Africa”, Decolonization Workshop (Institute of Commonwealth Studies)
  • November 2019: “The Extreme Right and the Occult: Monsters that Refuse to Die”, Eighth Fantasy Symposium (University of Northampton)
  • September 2019: “From the Dutch East India Company to Daewoo: Empires, Corporations & the Second Scramble for Africa”, Postcolonial Studies Conference (Manchester University)
  • May 2019: “The Appropriation of Norse Religion by the New Right” (Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, London, UK)
  • February 2019: “US bases in the Pacific”, Imperial and World History Seminar, (Institute of Historical Research, UK)
  • October 2018: “From the Dutch East India Company to Daewoo: Empires, Corporations and the Second Scramble for Africa”, Settler Colonialism at the Bar: an Interdisciplinary Workshop on Law, Race and Colonial History (University of Utrecht, Netherlands)
  • February 2018: “The Silent Violence: The Buying and Leasing of Colonial Territory”, Violence in the Postcolonial and Neocolonial World (University of Liège, Belgium)
  • June 2017: “From the Hospitallers to ISIS: Non-State Religious Organisations and Empire”, Richmond University Symposium 2017 (Rome, Italy)
  • December 2016: “Science Fiction and Empire: Verne and Re-Defining Imperialism”, The Dark Fantastic” (The University of Northampton, UK)
  • October 2016: “Re-thinking the Pacific’s ‘Bermuda Triangle’: Spanish, German and United States Imperialism in Micronesia”, State, Power and Globalisation Seminar (Richmond the American International University in London)
  • July 2016: “Re-thinking the Pacific’s ‘Bermuda Triangle’: Spanish, German and United States Imperialism in Micronesia”, New Zealand and South Pacific Studies Annual Conference (Franklin University, Lugano, Switzerland)
  • October 2015: “Filibustering form Africa to the Americas: Rethinking Empire and the Origins of Fascism”, Imperial and World History Seminar, (Institute of Historical Research, UK)
  • September 2015: “Re-imagining Empire and Proto-Fascism Through Utopia” at Utopias Conference (University of Brighton, UK)
  • July 2014: “Lost World Literature and Easter Island”, New Zealand and South Pacific Studies Annual Conference (National Maritime Museum/Kon-Tiki Museum, Oslo, Norway)
  • March 2014: “Easter Island, Atlantis and the Lost continent of Mu” at the Inaugural Colloquium of the International Visual Arts & cultures Research Cluster (Richmond University, London, UK)
  • November 2013: “Decolonising James Cameron’s Pandora”, Fantastic Worlds Symposium (Northampton University, UK)
  • September 2013: “The Buying and Leasing of Imperial Territory”, Postcolonial Studies Association Conference (Kingston University, UK)
  • July 2013: Fascist Ideologues Past and Present (Teeside University, UK)
  • September 2012: “English Blackshirts for the 21st Century? Comparing the English Defence League and the Italian Squadristi (with Kristen Meredith), “A Special Relationship of Hate? 50 years of the Anglo-American Far-Right” (Northampton University, UK)
  • May 2012: “Postcolonialism and Science Fiction Film: James Cameron’s Avatar”, “Seeing and Being Seen. Postcolonial Visual Culture and Performance” (Northampton University, UK)
  • May 2012: Monopoly Imperialism: The Buying and Selling of Empires”, “Post-Empire Imaginaries? Anglophone Literature, History and the Demise of Empires” (University of Bern, Switzerland)
  • Feb 2012: “Monopoly Imperialism: The Buying and Selling of Empires”, British Association for Canadian Studies: Aboriginal Studies Circle Colloquium (Centre for Canadian Studies, University of Leeds, UK)
  • Sept. 2011: “Politics, Gender and Tourism in Iceland”, Women’s History Network Conference (The Women’s Library, London Metropolitan University, UK)
  • July 2011: “Utopia, Empire and the End of the World: James Cameron’s Avatar (2009)”, Utopian Studies Conference, (University of Cyprus, Cyprus)
  • May-June 2011: NAFSA 2011 Annual Conference (Vancouver, Canada)
  • November 2010: Easter Island: Cultural and Historical Perspectives, Embassy of Chile (London, UK). Presented Grant McCall’s “The End of the World at the End of the World: Retrospective Eschatology on Rapanui”.
  • November 2010: “Decolonising Pandora: The Politics of Anti-Imperialism in James Cameron’s Avatar (2009)”, Popular Culture and World Politics Conference (York University, Toronto, Canada)
  • October 2010: Invited speaker at Bahceshir University, Istanbul, on “Decolonising Pandora: The Politics of Anti-Imperialism in James Cameron’s Avatar (2009)”
  • May 2010: “London Debates 2010: How does Europe in the 21st century address the legacy of colonialism”, School of Advanced Study (Senate House, London, UK)
  • September 2009: “New Zealand as New Europe: The Urban Image at the Turn of the 19th Century”, EASA biennial conference (Palma, Spain)
  • July 2009: “The Science Fiction Writing of M K Joseph”, “New Zealand, Germany and the Post Colonial Pacific”, the 16th annual NZSA conference (Frankfurt, Germany)
  • May 2009: Symposium on “The Queen’s Other Realms: The Crown and its Legacy in Australia, Canada and New Zealand”, Institute of Commonwealth History, University of London (UK)
  • May 2009: “Recovering Stolen Generation”, University of London (UK)
  • July 2008: “New Zealand and the Mediterranean”, the 15th annual NZSA conference (Florence, Italy)
  • December 2007: Invited speaker for a seminar on New Zealand Utopianism and Science Fiction at Northampton University (UK)
  • May 2007: Invited speaker for a seminar on New Zealand Science Fiction, Centre for New Zealand Studies, Birkbeck College (London, UK)
  • May 2007: Between Worlds: Culture, Biographies, Spectacle, National Portrait Gallery Conference (London, UK)
  • July 2006: “Promoting Paradise: Utopia and National Identity in New Zealand, 1879-1930”, Annual Conference of the Utopian Studies Society (Tarragona, Spain)
  • June 2006: “Race, Utopia and National Identity in Colonial New Zealand”, at “New Zealand, France and the Pacific” Conference (Paris, France)
  • July 2005: “States and Empires” at the Institute of Historical Research (School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK). Attended day 1 only due to bombing incident.
  • May 2005: “The Politics of Indian Science Fiction Film” at “Truth, Presentation & Politics Symposium”, Arts and Politics ECPR Standing Group (Verona, Italy)
  • April 2004: “Promoting Paradise: Utopian New Zealand, 1870-1930”at “Small Nations, Big Neighbors”: The Joint Annual Conference of the New Zealand Studies Association (NZSA) and the British Association for Canadian Studies (BACS), (University of Kent, Canterbury, UK)
  • May 2004: “The Extreme Right, Religion and Hollywood in Bollywood”, at Globalization, Americanization and Contemporary Popular Culture (Istanbul, University of Bahçesehir, Turkey)
  • February 2004: “Trollope, Empire and Nationalism” at Empire and Imperial Cultures, CSU Stanislaus (California, USA)
  • October 2003: Race and Empire (Institute of Historical Rsearch, London, UK)
  • June 2003: The Urban and the Rural at the New Zealand Studies Association Conference (New Zealand High Commission, London, UK)
  • June 2002: Re-Writing the Past: The 71st Anglo-American Conference (London, UK)
  • June 2002: “Gender, Race and Proto-Nationalism in Julius Vogel’s Anno Domini 2000 Or Woman’s Destiny (1889)” at Utopia in Dark Times: Annual Conference of the Utopian Studies Society (Nottingham, UK)
  • March 2002: Generations of Genocide (Weiner Library, London, UK)
  • August 2001: “Things are different now”? A Postcolonial Analysis of Buffy the Vampire Slayer” at European Consortium for Political Research (Arts & Politics Section) (Canterbury, UK)
  • July 2001 “Close Encounters of the Earliest Kind: A Postcolonial Sighting of the First Aliens and Colony in Science Fiction (1881)” at New Zealand Studies Association Conference (New Zealand High Commission, London, UK)
  • October 2000: “Close Encounters of the Earliest Kind: A Postcolonial Sighting of the First Aliens and Colony in Science Fiction (1881)” Society of Utopian Studies (Vancouver, B.C., Canada)
  • February 2000: “‘Unsexing’ Lotti Down Under” at The Popular Culture/American Cultural Conference (Alburqurque, New Mexico, USA).
  • February 2000: “The Great Romance by the Inhabitant” at The Popular Culture/American Culture Conference (Alburqurque, New Mexico, USA)
  • February 13, 1999: “Race, Empire and Photography in the British Settlement Colonies (1870-1930)”, at Imperial and Post-Colonial Historical Studies Conference (Michigan State University, USA)
  • February 14, 1999: Canadian Studies in Wales Group: Quebec and Canada (Gregynog, Wales)
  • February 15-17, 1999: Welsh in a Great Britain (Gregynog, Wales)
  • October, 1998: The History of Education in Wales (Trinity College, Wales).
  • August, 1998: “British Race Policy and the Palestine Mandate” at Politics and the Arts (University of Haifa, Israel).
  • May/June, 1998: “Empire, Race and Photography” at The Association of Canadian Studies Aboriginal Identity Conference (University of Ottawa, Canada).
  • February, 1998: “Empire, Race and Photography” at the Canadian Studies in Wales Group (Gregynog, Wales)
  • October, 1997: “Images of Indigenous Peoples and the British Empire, 1880- 1914” at Politics and the Arts (Finnish Institute, London, UK)
  • March, 1997: British Association for Canadian Studies Annual Conference (University of Wales, Swansea, Wales)
  • October, 1996: Screening Culture: Constructing Image and Identity (University College of Ripon and York, UK).
  • July, 1996: “Female Personifications of Nationhood” at Crossroads in Culture (University of Tampere, Finland).
  • April, 1996: Apologias For the Nation State (University of Wales, Cardiff, Wales).
  • July, 1995: The Victorians & Race (Leicester University, UK).
  • September, 1991: Australia-New Zealand: Aspects of a Relationship (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
  • 2020- present FRGS – Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society (UK)
  • 2018-present Senior Fellow with the Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR)
  • 2017-present SFHEA – Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Association (UK)
  • 2009-present FRHistS – Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (UK)
  • 2014-2017 Research Associate, Centre for Fascist. Anti-Fascist and Post-Fascist Studies, Teesside University (UK)
  • 2003-2009 Vice-Chair of the New Zealand Studies Association (NZSA) (UK)
  • 1989-1993 Canadian Commonwealth Scholar to New Zealand