Philippa Mein Smith

Philippa Mein Smith is a New Zealand-Australian academic and historian who specialises in Australian history, New Zealand history, the history of Australia-New Zealand relations and health history.

Education Mein Smith completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Canterbury in 1977 and worked briefly as an accountant before returning to the university for a postgraduate study. She graduated with a Master of Arts degree in History in 1983. Her thesis was titled The State and Maternity in New Zealand. Mein Smith completed her Ph.D. at the Australian National University in Canberra, in 1990; her thesis was titled Reformers, Mothers and Babies. She then moved to a position in the History Department at the University of Canterbury, where she remained for 21 years. Warwick Roger for North & South was less enthused, comparing it unfavourably to Michael King's successful A Penguin History of New Zealand and noting that Mein Smith took "a more feminist view of history" than King. A reviewer for Monash University noted that Mein Smith "argues persuasively and consistently for an acknowledgment of the role of radical women in the nation’s past and present", although felt King's work was stronger on racial relations in New Zealand.

From 2003 to 2006, Mein Smith was the recipient of a Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund Grant, awarded to her to study the historical development of connections between Australia and New Zealand. This project was known as the "Anzac Neighbours" project. As a result, Mein Smith and her colleague Peter Hempenstall established the New Zealand Australia Connections Research Centre (NZAC) at the University of Canterbury in 2005.

In 2008, the centre was replaced with a larger New Zealand Australia Research Centre (NZARC), with Mein Smith as the director.

In March 2013, Mein Smith took up a position as Professor of History at the University of Tasmania.