Researcher biography
Research Areas:
1. The history of Australian communes and utopian visions
2. Brisbane history
3. Environmental history
Dr Metcalf has an Honours degree from University of Guelph, Canada (1967), a Masters Degree (by research) from UQ (1976) and a PhD from Griffith University (1987). The thesis for the Masters degree was an early study of what became known as ‘The Environmental Crisis’, while the PhD thesis was a study of communal groups and associated social movements.
He is the author or editor of eleven scholarly books, 25 chapters in edited books, seven articles in encyclopaedia, 41 articles in peer-reviewed journals plus numerous reviews and articles.
A major current project is the collecting of information about every intentional community that has ever existed in Australia. The database now has well over 700 entries and they are growing faster than they can be fully researched.
He has received numerous Australian and international awards for his research and writing.