Dr Thomas Richardson is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities & Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra, University of New South Wales, where he also serves as Director of Professional Education. He earned his BA (Hons) from Monash University in 2009 and completed his PhD at UNSW Canberra in 2014 with a thesis titled 'As if we'd never really been there? Pacification in Phuoc Tuy Province, Republic of Vietnam, 1966-1972'. Prior to his current appointment in July 2018, Richardson worked as a tutor and lecturer at UNSW Canberra from 2015 to 2016, served as a researcher on the Official History of Australian Peacekeeping in 2015, and contributed as a researcher to the Official History of Australian Operations in East Timor, Iraq, and Afghanistan from 2016 to 2018. His academic career focuses on advancing understanding of Australian military engagements through rigorous historical analysis.

Richardson's research specializations center on Australian military history, counterinsurgency, and their intersections, particularly in South-East Asia after 1945, as well as post-1945 conflicts including the Vietnam War(s) and the South African (Boer) War. His current project examines the operational history of Australia in the Second Anglo-Boer War. Key publications include his monograph Destroy and Build: Pacification in Phuoc Tuy, 1966–1972 (Cambridge University Press, 2017), Soldiers and Bushmen: The Australian Army in the South African War, 1899-1902 (Cambridge University Press, 2025), and contributions to edited volumes such as Fighting Australia’s Cold War: The Nexus of Strategy and Operations in a Multipolar Asia, 1945–1965 (ANU Press, 2021). He has co-edited Beyond Combat: Australian Military Activity Away From the Battlefield (NewSouth Publishing, 2018) and New Directions in War and History (Big Sky Publishing, 2016), alongside journal articles like '“It's Time for Action and Not Excuses”: Advisors and Leaders in Phuoc Tuy, 1968–1973' (Australian Journal of Politics and History, 2025). Richardson supervises postgraduate research in Australian military history, Asia-Pacific military history, counterinsurgency, and limited wars, contributing to the field's development through his editorial roles and historical scholarship.

Professional Email: tom.richardson@unsw.edu.au