Alan Thomas Atkinson, FAHA (born 1946) is an Australian historian, academic and author. He is emeritus Professor at the University of Western Australia. Atkinson is the only historian to have won the Ernest Scott Prize more than twice (four in total). He has been described as "one of Australia's greatest ever historians".^[1]

Atkinson grew up on a cattle station in Southern Queensland.^[2] He attended Queensland Primary Correspondence School and The Armidale School. Atkinson is married to a lawyer, Catherine Pound, with whom he has three children.

Atkinson began a Bachelor of Arts in 1964 and went on to complete a Master of Arts (with first class honours) thesis at the University of Sydney in 1971, writing a dissertation entitled "The Position of John Macarthur and His Family in New South Wales before 1842" under supervision of John Manning Ward.^[3] He also received a Master of Education from Trinity College Dublin, writing a thesis entitled "A Review of Main Principles of History Teaching Applied in British and Irish Schools", in 1973.^[4]

For 27 years, Atkinson was a historian at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales. He was an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow from 2003 to 2008 and a tutor at St Paul's College, University of Sydney. He has had visiting fellowships at the University of London, University of Cambridge and the University of Melbourne.