Patricia A. O?Brien

Patricia A. O’Brien is a historian and analyst on Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, and the U.S.. She is the author of Errol Flynn: The True Story of Australia's Hollywood Icon (2026); Tautai: Sāmoa, World History and the Life and Ta’isi O. F. Nelson (2017), The Pacific Muse: Exotic Femininity and the Colonial Pacific (2006), and is co-editor of League of Nations: Histories, Legacies and Impact (2018) and numerous other works. She has taught Australian and Pacific history at Georgetown University, Washington DC since 2000 and held the Jay I. Kislak Fellow in American Studies at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress in 2011, the J. D. Stout Fellow in New Zealand Studies at Victoria University Wellington in 2012 and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the School of History from 2014 to 2019, and is currently an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Pacific Affairs, both at the Australian National University, Canberra. She has written extensively on regional issues for The Conversation and a leading Washington D.C.-based foreign affairs publication, The Diplomat, and appeared regularly in the international media as a commentator on Australian and Pacific issues. She holds a B.A. Hons with a University Medal in History and her PhD from The University of Sydney.