Professor Bashford researches the connections between the history of science, imperial history and world history. She has taught at the University of Sydney, Harvard University, and the Australian National University. In 2013 Alison Bashford was elected Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge. Recently, she has co-edited The Cambridge History of Australia with Stuart Macintyre (2013) and Pacific Histories: Ocean, Land, People (Palgrave, 2014) with David Armitage. Her longstanding work on medical history and environmental history has come together in Global Population: History, Geopolitics, and Life on Earth (Columbia University Press, 2014).