Alan Thomas Atkinson (born 1946) is an Australian historian, academic and author.

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.