Dr Alexander Morrison

Dr Alexander Morrison works on the history of the Russian Empire in Central Asia in the 19th and early 20th centuries, focusing on military, diplomatic and colonial history. His background and training was in South Asian History, and as a student at Oxford he was fascinated by the legacies of Britain’s Indian empire that were visible in College memorials and portraits, and above all the extraordinary collections of the (now sadly defunct) Indian Institute Library, whose building (complete with elephants) still stands on Broad Street.

He was an undergraduate at Oriel College, and in 2013 published a chapter in the College history which explored its many links with empire from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. His other publications include Russian Rule in Samarkand 1868 - 1910. A Comparison with British India (Oxford, 2008), The Central Asian Revolt of 1916. A Collapsing Empire in the Age of War and Revolution edited with Cloe Drieu and Aminat Chokobaeva (Manchester, 2020) and The Russian Conquest of Central Asia. A Study in Imperial Expansion, 1814 - 1914 which will be published by Cambridge University Press towards the end of 2020. Most of his publications can be found on my academia.edu page here. Dr Morrison also write occasional pieces for eurasianet.org which can be found here.

You can read a history of the Indian Institute building (which can be found on the site of the Oxford Martin School which currently occupies it) here.