Brett M. Bennett is an Associate Professor in Modern History at Western Sydney University. He is also a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa and a School-based member of the Institute for Culture and Society and the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment. His research uses historical methods to investigate how the interaction of human actions and natural processes created contemporary ecosystems, scientific ideas, and conservation policies. A new strain of his research focuses on the environmental and political history of golf in Asia and Africa.

Bennett is the author of three books: Plantations and protected areas: a global history of forest management (Cambridge [MA]: The MIT Press, 2015), Forestry and water conservation in South Africa: history, science, policy (Canberra: ANU Press, 2015) co-authored with Frederick Kruger, and Saving the world: how forests inspired global efforts to stop climate change (London: Reaktion Press, 2024) with Gregory Barton. Saving the world tells the exciting story of the rise, fall and revival of the scientific idea that forests influence rainfall. He has authored over 25 articles, two edited books and seven chapters focused on the history of forestry and forests from regional (especially Asian, African and Australian) and global perspectives, the history and ecology of invasive species in Africa and globally, the history of water conservation policies in South Africa, and past and present scientific ideas about the atmospheric recycling of moisture. This work has been featured in numerous national and international media outlets including The New Republic, ABC National Radio's The Science Show and Hindsight, The Australian, The Mail and Guardian (South Africa), and The Canberra Times.

Bennett's ongoing research focuses on three projects relating to environmental change. First, he is collaborating with colleagues at University of New South Wales, Australia and Sun Yat-sen University, China to trace the history of Australia’s forestry aid, which helped to reshape the ecology of millions of hectares in Asian and African countries. Second, he is working with ecologists at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment to analyse a dataset Bennett compiled of approximately 40,000 species sold by native nurseries in Australia from the 1850s to the 1980s. Third, he is working individually on an archive-based project exploring the environmental and political history of golf in Asia and Africa from the colonial era to the present. All three of these projects are pursued in collaboration with scholars in a range of fields, including history, geography, ecology and urban planning.