Relationality; historical and contemporary collections and collections documentation; digital humanities approaches to history, deep time, and archives; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and collections; and the management and dissemination of collections-based knowledge, with a particular focus on research documentation (such as field books) and anthropological and ethnographic knowledge.

Dr Mike Jones is an archivist, historian, and collections consultant. He has a background in art history, and over a decade of experience working with the GLAM sector (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) on digital, archival, and public history projects. In December 2018 he completed his PhD in History at the University of Melbourne's School of Historical and Philosophical Studies (conferred in April 2019). The resulting thesis, Documenting Artefacts and Archives in the Relational Museum, is an interdisciplinary look at the history of computerisation in museums, the interconnectedness of archives and museum collections, and the ways in which collections-based knowledge is conceptualised, captured, and managed by large collecting institutions.

As of July 2019, Mike is based in the School of History at the Australian National University, Canberra, working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Program, Rediscovering the Deep Human Past (ARC FL170100121). The project aims to develop a deeper understanding of Australia’s pre-1788 history, transforming the scale and scope of history through the analysis of Australia’s epic Indigenous narratives alongside relevant new scientific evidence to create new approaches to the history of Greater Australia/Sahul.

FL170100121 Rediscovering the Deep Human Past: Global Networks, Future Opportunities (led by Professor Ann McGrath).

This project will analyse Australia's epic Indigenous narratives alongside relevant new scientific evidence in order to create a big picture history of Greater Australia/Sahul, and as a result transform the scale and scope of history. Fresh periodisations and understandings will reorient this history in its wider global context. Through critiquing the evolution of disciplines, especially the world history/prehistory divide and the Cambridge training nexus, the project will develop future-oriented transdisciplinary techniques for researching the deep human past. As part of the project, a diverse generation of early career scholars will join top international networks and be trained in digital research techniques and delivery platforms for researching this exceptional human history.