University of Auckland staff and students have edited and produced academic and student journals since at least 1898 when the short-lived student magazine The Collegian first appeared.1
Numerous other publications have followed over the decades, including two which arose out of the History Department in 1967. The New Zealand Journal of History (NZJH) was established in April that year by founding editor Sir Keith Sinclair while the University of Auckland Historical Society Annual was first issued around mid-1967 and continues under the title Histeria! : Historical Society Annual.
The NZJH’s publishing milestone was celebrated with a panel discussion at the New Zealand Historical Association’s 2017 conference, Tāmaki Herenga Waka: Histories Meet.2 New Zealand historians Barbara Brookes, Raewyn Dalziel, Deborah Montgomerie and James Belich and Canadian Mary Jane McCallum took part in the discussion about the influential journal’s past, present and future. Brookes, Montgomerie and Dalziel have held editorial roles so offered particularly close insights. Panel chair Linda Bryder and Brookes and Dalziel also credited the NZJH for publishing their first academic articles. The discussion traversed the journal’s history, its editorial scope and focus, ongoing importance to the discipline, significant and high-interest articles, printing challenges, potential future developments and the nature of journal publishing.
Issued twice a year, the NZJH contains articles, book reviews, occasional news, correspondence and obituaries, and, since 1968, annual lists of completed and in-progress PhD and MA theses. The editorship passed to the University of Otago in 2013 which saw the introduction of a smaller format and illustrated covers. Sadly, only the covers for the 2014 issues onwards are intact in the 51 cloth-bound volumes of the journal in Special Collections. It is also available online.
The full print run of the University of Auckland Historical Society Annual and its successor Histeria! is also held in Special Collections. An outlet for a selection of the History Department’s best student papers, the 1967 annual was compiled by then Associate Professor Nicholas Tarling. The journal was renamed in 2002 and ceased print issues in favour of online PDFs in 2015.
Jo Birks, Special Collections
References
1 Sinclair, K. (1983). A history of the University of Auckland: 1883-1983. Auckland: Auckland University Press: Oxford University Press, pp.66, 251-252.
Auckland University College. (1898-1901). The Collegian. Auckland: The College.
2 New Zealand Historical Association. (2017). ‘Tāmaki Herenga Waka: Histories Meet’ conference, 28 November – 2 December 2017. Waipapa Marae, University of Auckland.
University of Auckland. (1967-). New Zealand Journal of History. Auckland: University of Auckland.
University of Auckland. Historical Society. (1967-). The University of Auckland Historical Society annual. Auckland: The Society.
University of Auckland. Historical Society. (2002-). Histeria! : Historical Society annual. Auckland: University of Auckland.