Rate My Professor Alex Trapeznik

Alexander Trapeznik is Associate Professor of History in the Department of History at the University of Otago, where he served from 1993 until his retirement in 2023 after 30 years of dedicated service. During his tenure, he made significant contributions to the undergraduate curriculum by teaching courses in Russian history, public history, twentieth-century world history, and the history of war and revolution. As a supervisor, he guided numerous postgraduate students on theses covering topics such as the evolution of national identity in nineteenth-century New Zealand, Scottish diasporic identities, environmental history of rivers in Otago and Southland, and the milk supply to Dunedin in the nineteenth century. Trapeznik also engaged in public outreach, delivering lectures including a 2017 presentation at the University Club on Dunedin's adoption and adaptation to the motor car from 1901 to 1930.

Trapeznik's research specializations include historical and cultural heritage management, public history, urban history with a focus on motoring in New Zealand, and Russian industrial history. His project 'Driving Change: New Zealand Motorists, 1900–1930' explores how motor cars influenced urban environments, noting New Zealand's high per capita car ownership and relatively low congestion compared to Europe and North America, using Dunedin as a case study. Key publications feature 'Common Ground?: Heritage and Public Places in New Zealand' (editor, University of Otago Press, 2000), a foundational text for public history in New Zealand; 'Lenin's Legacy Down Under: New Zealand's Cold War' (co-editor with Aaron Fox, University of Otago Press, 2004); 'Laying the Victorians to Rest: Funerals, Memorials, and the Funeral Business in Nineteenth-Century Otago' (2016); 'The Tula Imperial Armaments Factory in Russia' (2009); collaborative works with Austin Gee including 'Accommodating the motor car: Dunedin, New Zealand, 1901-30' (Journal of Transport History, 2017), 'The Motoring Lobby in New Zealand, 1898-1930' (Journal of New Zealand Studies, 2018), and ''The madding Wheeles of brazen Chariots rag'd; dire was the noise': Motoring and the Environment in New Zealand Before the Second World War' (International Review of Environmental History, 2020); and 'A New Zeal for History: Public History in New Zealand' (2023). Previously, he served as executive director of the University's Centre for Public History.