Robert Kenny

Dr. Robert Kenny is a Visiting Professor at Deakin University's School of Humanities and Social Sciences within the Faculty of Arts and Education. Previously, he served as a Research Fellow at La Trobe University (2008–2015). He holds a PhD in History from La Trobe University (1999–2004). His research focuses on historical studies, heritage, and the history and philosophy of specific disciplinary fields. Key interests include colonial history, Indigenous responses to colonization, psychoanalysis, and the intellectual intersections between anthropology and colonialism.

His work spans analyses of treaty negotiations, settler colonialism, and the legacy of figures like Freud and Boas. Recent publications (2015–2019) address colonial anthropology critiques, Indigenous resistance narratives, and psychoanalytic theory. He has contributed to journals such as ISIS and Oceania, and authored books like Gardens of Fire (2013) and The Lamb Enters the Dreaming (2010).

Kenny’s scholarship bridges historical analysis with interdisciplinary perspectives, emphasizing the socio-political dimensions of colonialism and Indigenous knowledge systems.