Alexis Bergantz

Dr Alexis Bergantz is a Senior Lecturer in Global & Language Studies in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University.

 

Alexis is a historian of Australia’s relationships with France, the Francophone Pacific, and the broader Indo-Pacific region. His first book, French Connection: Australia’s Cosmopolitan Ambitions (NewSouth, 2021), won the 2022 NSW Premier’s Australian History Award.

 

His current research examines Australia’s historical relationships with France and the Pacific region, with a particular focus on New Caledonia, regional institutions, and questions of sovereignty and knowledge production. He is a Chief Investigator on the La Trobe-led Australian Research Council Discovery Project Cultivating Connections: A Transregional History of Australian Rice (2026–2028) and is currently working towards a history of Australia, France and the Pacific Community (SPC). In 2025 he held a National Library of Australia Fellowship, supported by the Stokes Family.

 

Alexis holds a PhD in History from the Australian National University (2016), for which he was awarded the J. G. Crawford Prize for Academic Excellence and the John Molony Prize for the best thesis in History, and was shortlisted for the Serle Award of the Australian Historical Association.

 

He has held leadership roles in a number of scholarly organisations. He serves as Vice-President of the Institute for the Study of French-Australian Relations (ISFAR), Secretary of the Australian Society for French Studies, General Editor of the French-Australian Dictionary of Biography, and is a member of the Editorial Committee of The French Australian Review. He also serves on the Standing Assessment Committee of the Australia–France Indo-Pacific Studies Program (AFIPS), administered by the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and part of the France–Australia Roadmap.

 

Alexis regularly contributes to public debate through publications, public talks, and media commentary. His writing has appeared in The Conversation, Inside Story, Meanjin, The Canberra Times, and the Australian Policy and History Network. He has provided expert commentary on Australia–France relations, the Pacific region, and historical issues for SBS, ABC Radio National, ABC Local Radio, SBS French, and other media outlets.

At RMIT, Alexis coordinates the French program, teaches across all levels of French and teaches the core subject Global History in the Bachelor of International Studies.