Contributors

Dr Jilda A. Andrews is a Yuwaalaraay cultural practitioner and museum ethnographer based in Canberra. Her work investigates the cultural ecologies surrounding objects in museum collections. By drawing from processes of country and culture, she pushes the concept of custodianship from one intent on the preservation of objects, to one that is active in maintaining connections between objects and the dynamic systems that produce them. She is a research fellow with the Research School of Humanities and the Arts at The Australian National University (ANU). Her recent museum projects include the conceptual development of the National Museum of Australia’s gallery of environmental history ‘Great Southern Land’ (2022). Her recent publications include ‘String Ecologies: Indigenous Country and Pastoral Empires’ in Ancestors, Artefacts, Empire: Indigenous Australia in British and Irish museums (2021) and ‘Value Creation and Museums from an Indigenous Perspective’ in Museums, Societies and the Creation of Value (2021).

Dr Joshua Black is a political historian based at ANU. He has written, published and presented research on the history of Australian political culture, and specifically the history of the political memoir genre, in a number of scholarly and public forums. He has contributed to the Conversation, Inside Story, Australian Book Review and ABC Radio. In 2021, he coedited a special issue of the Australian Journal of Biography and History with Stephen Wilks. Josh has taught undergraduate courses at ANU, the University of Wollongong, Australian Catholic University and University of New South Wales (UNSW). He is currently the administrative officer of the Australian Historical Association.

Dr Frank Bongiorno is professor of history at ANU, president of the Australian Historical Association and president of the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Australian Academy of Humanities and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and a Member of the Order of Australia. His most recent book is Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia (2022).

Dr Alex Burchmore is an art historian specialising in the study of Chinese art, past and present, with a broader focus on travel and mobility, trade and exchange, and interactions of the personal and material. He recently rejoined ANU, where he received his PhD in 2019, as a lecturer in art history and curatorship. His career prior to this included several roles in curatorial and provenance research, publication management for the globally distributed arts magazine Arts Monthly Australasia, and an appointment as a lecturer in museum and heritage studies at the University of Sydney (2021–23). His first monograph, New Export China: Translations across Time and Place in Contemporary Chinese Porcelain Art, published in 2023 by the University of California Press, traces the myriad ways in which artists from China have used porcelain from the 1990s to the present to shape their visions of personal and cultural identity.

Dr Manuel Burón is assistant professor in Latin American history at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He has been a visiting scholar at several universities in the South Pacific and Latin America while researching topics related to the study of museums, heritage, nations and indigenous communities. His most recent publications include the book El patrimonio recobrado. Museos indígenas en México y Nueva Zelanda (Recovered heritage: Indigenous museums in Mexico and New Zealand) (2019).

Daniel Casey is a PhD candidate in the School of Politics and International Relations at ANU. He has published in PS: Political Science & Politics, Policy Studies and the Public Law Review. His research focuses on the responsiveness of political elites to public opinion and how the political and public agenda are set. He is studying this by examining the letters of members of the public to Prime Minister Howard. His other research interests include government transparency and accountability, public administration, and the training and mentoring of PhD candidates. Prior to academia, he had an extensive career in the Australian Public Service, working across central and social policy agencies, where he worked on the establishment of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and the rollout of digital TV. He has also worked for members of parliament and peak non-government organisations.

Dr Elisa Cazzato is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. For her research project SPECTACLE, she was a visiting scholar at the CELLF of the Université Sorbonne and New York University’s Department of Art History. In 2021–22, she assisted Meredith Martin and Phil Chan on the international production of the Ballet des Porcelaines. In 2018, she completed her PhD at the University of Sydney with a thesis supervised by Professor Mark Ledbury and funded by the University of Sydney International Scholarship. Her publications include articles in the peer reviewed journals Studi Francesi and Dance Research.

Jennifer Coombes is an assistant director with the Territory Records Office and ArchivesACT. She has worked as curator and archivist at the Australian War Memorial, the National Gallery of Australia and, most recently, the National Film and Sound Archive. With Penny Grist, she co-curated Starstruck: Australian Movie Portraits (2017). Jen is also a PhD student at ANU with the Humanities Research Centre.

Dr Rob Cover is professor of digital communication at RMIT University. His research focuses on social belonging, LGBTQ+ young people, wellbeing and resilience in media and digital cultures. He is chief investigator on several Australian Research Council (ARC) projects, including one examining gender/sexuality in Australian screen cultures and another investigating the culture of digital hostility and online abuse in Australia, and is a chief investigator on an ARC Linkage Project with the History Trust of South Australia examining minority migration experiences. The author of 10 books and more than 100 journal articles, Rob’s recent books include Emergent Identities: New Sexualities, Gender and Relationships in a Digital Era (2019), Fake News in Digital Cultures (2022), Identity and Digital Communication: Concepts, Theories, Practices (2023) and the forthcoming Identity in the Covid-19 Years: Communication, Crisis and Ethics.

Jade Croft is a writer from Innisfail, far north Queensland. She has a bachelor of arts, majoring in English from James Cook University. After some trial and error, Jade found her interests and values firmly grounded in the humanities where her research and writing are shaped by aspects of her identity, including her Indigeneity, and lived experiences. Due to this, her passions and personality shine through her writing. Some of Jade’s writing covers culture, issues of climate change, literature, education and even creative pieces about human experiences and emotions.

Dr James L. Flexner is associate professor of historical archaeology and heritage at the University of Sydney. His main research interests are in landscape archaeology and historical archaeology, with a geographic focus on Oceania. His research projects involve fieldwork, artefact analysis, archival research and studying historical ethnographic collections. James is also involved in developing close partnerships with local communities in the Pacific region, as well as broader public outreach efforts to make archaeology accessible to many audiences. He has led archaeological research projects in Hawaii, Virginia, Vanuatu, Tasmania and Queensland. His current fieldwork is in the Sydney area, and the Mangareva Islands of French Polynesia, the latter supported by an ARC Future Fellowship. His latest book, appearing in the Cambridge Elements Global Middle Ages Series, is Oceania, 800–1800CE: A Millennium of Interactions in a Sea of Islands.

Eleanor Foster is completing her MPhil in social anthropology at the University of Cambridge and will begin a PhD in social anthropology with the support of a Cambridge Australia Fulton Scholarship in October 2023. In 2021, she graduated with first class honours in history and the University Medal from ANU. Eleanor researches Indigenous Australian colonial-era museum collections in Britain and Europe and explores the histories, cross-cultural relationships and potential for community reconnections embodied by material culture. Her PhD will investigate the pastoral origins of overseas collections and she hopes to build knowledge about Indigenous Australia’s material heritage located overseas.

Dr Catherine J. Frieman is associate professor in European archaeology in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at ANU. Her research interests include relationships between people and technology, prehistoric mobility, innovation and ancient genetics. She is a specialist in ancient technology studies, especially prehistoric Eurasian stone and flint technology; skeuomorphism; the spread of metal and metal technology; flint daggers; and the maintenance of technological traditions. Her research crosses numerous periods and regions, including the archaeology of prehistoric and Roman Europe; Australian historical archaeology; and technological developments in prehistoric Southeast Asia. Her current publications explore cross-disciplinary approaches to archaeological data and meaning-making, including the impact of genetic data on archaeological narratives and models, as well as the methodological and ethical implications of this research. Her most recent book is Archaeology as History: Telling Stories from a Fragmented Past, published in the Cambridge Elements in Historical Theory and Practice series.

Dr Megan Gooch is head of the Centre of Digital Scholarship at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. Previously, at Historic Royal Palaces, she led an 18-month project researching the role of the Tower of London’s World War I centenary event in shaping and reflecting wider cultural understandings of history through the lens of a heritage installation. She has worked as a curator in coins and medals at the British Museum and completed her PhD on medieval numismatics.

Stephen Valambras Graham is a librarian at the University of South Australia (UniSA), supporting the teaching, learning and research activities of the university. He was recipient of the 2021 Australian Library and Information Association Prize for highest academic achievement in the Master of Information Management program at UniSA. Stephen is a writer, researcher and trained art historian, and was awarded the History Council of South Australia’s 2022 Wakefield Press Essay Prize for best essay on a topic relating to the history of South Australia. His articles and essays have been published in Meanjin, Portrait: Magazine of Australian and International Portraiture and scholarly journals.

Dr Katrina Grant is an interdisciplinary researcher who works across art history and digital humanities. She is a senior lecturer in digital humanities at ANU. Her research looks at the art history and visual culture of early modern Europe, the use of digital methodologies and technologies in the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) sector and digital humanities pedagogy.

Penelope Grist OAM curated exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery between 2013 and 2023 and is currently Assistant Director, Programs and Engagement, Art Collections, at Australian Parliament House. Penny holds a master of liberal arts (museums and collections) from ANU and honours degrees in law and art history from the University of Sydney. She was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to community history, and to the arts in 2023.

Dr Julia Horne is professor of history at the University of Sydney. She works on the history and politics of Australian higher education. Her books include Australian Universities—A Conversation about Public Good (2022, coedited with Matthew A. M. Thomas), Preserving the Past: The University of Sydney and the Unified National System of Higher Education 1987–96 (2017, co-authored with Stephen Garton) and Sydney: The Making of a Public University (2012, co-authored with Geoffrey Sherington). She is currently working on the postwar Curtin–Chifley higher education reforms that reimagined Australian higher education as a national sector. The research project is funded by the ARC and is in collaboration with chief investigators from the universities of Sydney, Tasmania and Melbourne.

Dr Kim Huynh is a teacher, writer, researcher and broadcaster who helps everyday people tell their extraordinary stories. His latest book analyses Australia’s Refugee Politics in the 21st Century (2023) and develops ways to enhance national security, refugee rights and social cohesion. Kim’s published a collection of stories about contemporary Vietnam is entitled Vietnam as If... (2015). His biography of his parents, Where the Sea Takes Us (2008), attracted academic and literary attention. He co-authored Children and Global Conflict and coedited The Culture Wars. He facilitates discussions on culture and ideas with the Vietnamese Australia Forum, coordinates a current affairs discussion group for rough sleepers and writes essays on a wide range of topics for news outlets. Kim ran as independent candidate in the 2016 Australian Capital Territory election and in the 2022 federal election. He is a presenter at ABC Radio Canberra and deputy director of the ANU Humanities Research Centre.

Dr Mike Jones is an archivist, historian, collections consultant and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tasmania. His research and practice explores the history of museums, archives and collections-based knowledge, and the ways in which contemporary technologies and public history initiatives can help to develop and maintain relationships within and between collections, communities and their histories. His first book, Artefacts, Archives, and Documentation in the Relational Museum was published by Routledge in 2021.

Dr Jan Láníček is associate professor in modern European and Jewish history at UNSW, Sydney, and an honorary associate professor at the Humanities Research Centre, ANU. He is currently completing a study of post-Holocaust judicial retribution in Czechoslovakia and also researches Jewish migration to Australia before World War II. He is the author of Czechs, Slovaks and the Jews, 1938–1948 (2013), Arnošt Frischer and the Jewish Politics of Early 20th-Century Europe (2016) and The Jew in Czech and Slovak Imagination, 1938–89 (together with Hana Kubátová, 2018), among other works.

Dr Anna Lawrenson is director of art curating at the University of Sydney. Her career has spanned critical museology and applied practice, having worked in academia and the arts sector. Her research considers how the history, funding and administration of museums and galleries shapes their approach to public engagement. Her research has been published in academic journals including Museum Management and Curatorship and Museums and Society. She authored an important monograph on blockbuster exhibitions in Australian museums and galleries with Dr C. O’Reilly in 2019. She has been commissioned to conduct research within the museum sector resulting in a range of reports that have been used for advocacy and funding. Together with O’Reilly she is associate editor for exhibition reviews for Curator: The Museum Journal.

Dr Ariella Van Luyn is a creative writer-academic and senior lecturer in writing at the University of New England, Australia. She is the author of a novel, Treading Air, and many works of short fiction in Island, Southerly and Overland, among others. Ariella uses a practice-led research methodology to understand the construction and effect of acts of speculation and imagination, with a focus on historical fiction and bio-fiction. Her current research investigates queer historical fiction. Her research is published in TEXT and New Writing and elsewhere.

Dr Meredith Martin is professor of art history at New York University and a founding editor of Journal18. A specialist in early modern French art, she is the co-author (with Gillian Weiss) of the prize-winning book The Sun King at Sea: Maritime Art and Gallery Slavery in Louis XIV’s France (2022). She is also the author of Dairy Queens: The Politics of Pastoral Architecture from Catherine de’ Medici to Marie-Antoinette (2011), and co-author of Meltdown: Picturing the World’s First Bubble Economy (2020), which accompanies an exhibition that she co-curated for the New York Public Library. Together with the choreographer Phil Chan, Meredith reimagined and restaged a lost French ballet from 1739 known as the Ballet des Porcelaines, which toured the US and Europe in 2021–22.

Dr Kylie Message is director of the Humanities Research Centre at ANU and a research fellow of the National Museum of Australia. A professor of public humanities, she is an advisory board member of the International Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes and a former director of the Australasian Consortium of Humanities Researchers and Centres. Her sole-authored books include Collecting Activism, Archiving Occupy Wall Street (2019), The Disobedient Museum: Writing at the Edge (2018), Museums and Racism (2018), Museums and Social Activism: Engaged Protest (2014), and New Museums and the Making of Culture (2006).

Sean Minney completed a masters in digital humanities and public culture at ANU in 2020. His research interests include the interactions and boundaries between technology and human ways of being with a focus on GLAM sector. He completed a BA (hons) in philosophy in 1996 looking at the work of Gadamer in relation to how understanding and meaning arises, with a focus on artistic artifacts.

Dr Eleanor O’Keeffe is a historian and researcher interested in how culture and cultural spaces interface with wider social and political trajectories in modern and contemporary Britain. Her work has focused on contemporary pilgrimage practices, including virtual pilgrimage, and the impact of the pandemic on rituals of memorialisation. She is currently leading a British Academy and Leverhulme project on data collaboration and stakeholder approaches to studying contemporary pilgrimage practices.

Dr Chiara O’Reilly is director of the museum and heritage studies program at the University of Sydney. Her research examines cultural institutions (e.g. galleries, science museums and social history museums) to critically consider their history, contemporary role and how their function changes over time with a particular emphasis on exhibitions and audiences. She has published in a wide range of journals, including Journal of the History of Collections, Museum Management and Curatorship, Museum History and the Journal of Chemical Education. She co-authored a chapter with Professor N. Parish in Places of Traumatic Memories in a Global Context, published as part of the Palgrave Memory Studies Series. In 2019, with Dr A. Lawrenson, she co-authored The Rise of the Must-See Exhibition: Blockbusters in Australian Museums and Galleries, the first study of blockbuster exhibitions across Australian museums and galleries.

Dr Irina Podgorny is permanent researcher of the Argentine Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas (CONICET). She works on the history of natural history collections in Argentina and Europe, contributing to make visible the Latin American production of knowledge and its transnational entanglements with the wider world. In addition to her academic research, she collaborates with Argentine cultural weeklies and Latin American artists. Her current work includes a history of palaeontology, historic extinctions and animal remedies.

Dr Peter Read is a historian and honorary professor in the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, ANU. He is the author of several books of public and Aboriginal history including Returning to Nothing: The Meaning of Lost Places (1996). With his collaborator Marivic Wyndham he has published many articles on the public history of Cuba and Chile.

Dr Nathalie Richard is professor of modern history at Le Mans University (France), and a member of the research team TEMOS (CNRS UMR 9016). Her research focuses on the intellectual and cultural history of nineteenth-century France, the history of the human sciences (including archaeology), and the sciences and their audiences. Together with Irina Podgorny, she is the scientific coordinator of the European H2020 RISE MSCA program, ‘SciCoMove—Scientific Collections on the Move: Provincial Museums, Archives, and Collecting Practices (1800–1950)’.

Dr Daniel Stoljar is professor of philosophy at ANU, a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and a former president of the Australasian Association of Philosophy. He is the author of many articles on philosophical issues about consciousness, language, epistemology and the nature of philosophy itself, as well as the books Ignorance and Imagination: The Epistemic Origin of the Problem of Consciousness (2006), Physicalism (2010), Philosophical Progress: In Defence of a Reasonable Optimism (017) and What is Consciousness? (2023, co-authored with Amy Kind).

Dr Robert Wellington is associate professor and director of the Centre for Art History and Art Theory, ANU, coeditor of Humanities Research Journal and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He has published in English and French on the art and culture of Louis XIV’s France. Robert is a member of the advisory panel to the Bloomsbury Academic book series, The Material Culture of Art and Design. He was an ARC DECRA Fellow (2019–22) and is the lead chief investigator on the ARC Discovery Project, ‘Performing Transdisciplinarity’.

Dr Beck Wise is a medical rhetorician and technical writing scholar at the University of Queensland, where they are a lecturer in professional writing. Beck’s research investigates expertise, ethics and communication at the sites where individuals meet institutions, bringing together rhetorics of science, literacy studies and feminist theory to build better understandings of how writing shapes culture and equips writers across contexts to work towards justice. Beck’s work has appeared in TEXT and Rhetoric of Health & Medicine, among others.

Dr Marivic Wyndham is an honorary member at the School of International Studies and Education, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney. Her historical interests in Latin America include human rights, memorialisation, place studies and testimony. She has also published in Australian cultural history, including A World-Proof Life: Eleanor Dark, a Writer in Her Times (2007). With Peter Read, she published Narrow but Endlessly Deep. Memorialisation in Post-Pinochet Chile (2016).