Dr Fredric Zuckerman

Biography/ Background

A Queen's (borough, not monarch) boy, Ric completed his education in New York before taking his first university job in California, whence he moved on to Adelaide. Ric completed a term as Head of Department at the end of 2000 and is currently Deputy Head. Ric teaches Russian history at Levels 2 and 3, and first-year modern European history. His definitive study of the Tsarist Secret Police in Russian Society 1880-1917 has recently published by Macmillan & The Tsarist Secret Police Abroad: Policing Europe in a Modernizing World, Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2003. Despite his research interests, he claims not to be a conspiracy theorist.

Post-Graduate Supervision

In 2008/2009 two of my Ph.D. students were granted their Ph.D. degrees and both thesis were recommended for publications by their examiners:

 

Sean Turner, "Containment and Engagement: US China Policy in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations," 2008.

Gerry Varley, "War, Politics and Morality: The Spanish Catholic Church and World War Two," 2009.

 

Another one of my students has recently submitted his Ph.D. thesis for examination:

 

Daniel McCarthy, "Getting the Job Done? The Design and Development of American Medium and Heavy Tanks in the Second World War,1940-1945".  

 

Currently I am supervising a thesis closer to my own research interest--political police history:

 

Viorela Papuc, "The CIA's Cold War in Nicolae Ceausescu's Roumania, 1965-1986.

 

As can be seen from the above list Ric has successfully supervised Ph.D. thesis across several areas of history.

Publications

Ric has written articles and book chapters on Russian and European political police history as well as other fields (on the culture of Russian industrialization)  and two monographs:

The Tsarist Secret Police in Russian Society, 1880-1996. In association with the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, Studies in Russia and East Europe. Basingstoke: Macmillan Pty Ltd., 1996.

The Tsarist Secret Police Abroad: Policing Europe in a Modernising World. Basingstoke; Palgrave/Macmillan, 2003.

 Research

Ric is currently researching a book on the development of the modern state and the evolution of the political police. 

Entry last updated: Friday, 5 Jun 2009