Dr Tanja Bueltmann

PhD, MA
Lecturer in History

Biography

Tanja studied at the universities of Bielefeld and Edinburgh for her MA in British Cultural Studies, History and Sociology. With a strong background in Scottish History, she then moved to New Zealand to pursue her doctoral research on the country’s Scottish immigrant community. Funded by the New Zealand government, Tanja completed her PhD at the end of 2008. Returning to Europe in early 2009, she was then appointed to join the History team at Northumbria as senior research assistant, taking up a Lectureship in International History when that position ended. 

Qualifications

PhD, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 2008
MA, Bielefeld University, Germany, 2005   

Teaching Interests

Tanja co-ordinates and teaches 'Making the British World’ at level 6, and 'Persistent Imperialists: British Overseas Expansion Before 1800' at level 5. Moreover, she also teaches on the team-taught 'Cultures, Structures and Ideas' and 'Historians and History', as well as contributing to the MRes. 

Research Interests

Tanja’s research interests are in transnational / British World history, especially the cultural and social history of Scottish and English immigrant communities. She is particularly interested in the two immigrant communities' associational life in New Zealand, Canada and the US. Tanja is involved in the English Diaspora project, a collaborative research project of four Northumbria historians that investigates the hidden English Diaspora in North America. Moreover, Tanja has been awarded a small research grant from the British Academy for her project 'Ethnicity, Associationalism and Civility: The Scots in Singapore and Hong Kong in Comparative Perspective'. Currently, she is also working on a number of articles, exploring, for instance, forms of associationalism among female Scottish immigrants in New Plymouth, New Zealand.   

Research Students

Tanja has supervised a number of dissertations in British World history and welcomes enquiries from students wishing to pursue postgraduate work in this field. In particular, areas of interest are associational culture of ethnic groups; cultural transfer, especially in terms of collective memory; roots-tourism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; themes relating to the settlement of New Zeland and Canada.

Affiliations and Memberships

Reviews Editor, Immigrants & Minorities, 2010- 
International Society for Cultural History, 2008- (founding member)
Society for the Study of Labour History, 2010- (member)  
New Zealand Studies Association, 2009- (member)  

Publications

Books:
Scottish Ethnicity and the Making of New Zealand Society, 1850 to 1930 (Forthcoming, Scottish Historical Review Monograph Series, Edinburgh University Press).

[as editor with Andrew Hinson and Graeme Morton] Ties of Bluid, Kin and Countrie: Scottish Associational Culture in the Diaspora (Guelph, 2009).

Chapters and Articles:
‘Manly Games, Athletic Sports and the Commodification of Scottish Identity: Caledonian Gatherings in New Zealand to 1915’, Scottish Historical Review (Forthcoming).

[with Gerard Horn] 'Migration and Ethnic Associational Culture: A Comparative Study of New Zealand's Irish and Scottish Migrant Communities to 1905', in Vincent Comerford and Jennifer Kelly (eds), Associational Culture in Ireland and Abroad (Forthcoming, Irish Academic Press). 

“‘The Image of Scotland which We Cherish in Our Hearts”: Burns Anniversary Celebrations as a Site of Memory in Colonial Otago’, in J. MacKenzie and B. Patterson (eds), Scots Abroad: The New Zealand Scots in International Perspective (Forthcoming). 

‘Remembering the Homeland: St Patrick’s Day Celebrations in New Zealand to 1910’, in O. Frawley (ed), Irish Cultural Memory, vol. 2 (Forthcoming, Syracuse University Press).

“‘No Colonists are more Imbued with their National Sympathies than Scotchmen”: The Nation as an Analytical Tool in the Study of Migrant Communities’, New Zealand Journal of History 43, 2 (2009), pp. 169-181.

‘Ethnic Identity, Sporting Caledonia and Respectability: Scottish Associational Life in New Zealand to 1910’, in T. Bueltmann, A. Hinson and G. Morton (eds), Ties of Bluid, Kin and Countrie: Scottish Associational Culture in the Diaspora (Guelph, 2009).

“‘Where the Measureless Ocean between us will Roar”: Scottish Emigration to New Zealand, Personal Correspondence and Epistolary Practices, c1850-1920’, Immigrants & Minorities 26, 3 (2008), pp. 242-65.

[review] Settlers: New Zealand Immigrants from England, Ireland and Scotland 1800-1945, by Jock Phillips and Terry Hearn, Immigrants & Minorities 28, 1 (2010), pp. 86-9.

[review] Personal Narratives of Irish and Scottish Migration, 1921-65: ‘For Spirit and Adventure’, by Angela McCarthy, Immigrants & Minorities, 26, 3 (2008), pp. 322-24.

[review] The State of the Union: Scotland 1707-2007, by Jørgen Sevaldsen and Jens Rahbek Rasmussen (eds), International Review of Irish and Scottish Studies 33 (2008), pp. 133-35.

[proceedings] “‘The Lion of Scotland Waved Rampant from a Lofty Pole”: Caledonian Games and Robert Burns Anniversaries in New Zealand as Loci of Collective Memory, c1860 to 1910’, Journeys of Expressions VI Conference Proceedings, York (2007).