Professor Laurajane Smith
Research interests
Key to Laurajane's interests is the understanding of heritage studies as an area of policy analysis and as a cultural process worthy of critical examination. Her work challenges the idea of heritage as primarily or simply an 'object' or 'site', and re-theorises heritage as a cultural process of meaning and memory making. More particularly, her research interests include understanding the way heritage is used as a cultural tool in the process of remembering, forgetting and identity construction; the re-theorisation of heritage; the politics of heritage; the interplay between class and heritage; multiculturalism and heritage representation; community heritage; heritage tourism and heritage public policy and the cultural politics of identity.
Biography
Laurajane works in the area of heritage studies, and is editor of the International Journal of Heritage Studies and series general editor with Professor William Logan of Key Issues in Cultural Heritage (Routledge). Prior to arriving at the ANU in 2010, she held the position of Reader in heritage studies at the University of York, UK, where she directed the MA in Cultural Heritage Management for nine years. Originally from Sydney, she taught Indigenous Studies at the University of New South Wales (1995-2000), and heritage and archaeology at Charles Sturt University (1990-1995). She also worked as a heritage consultant in south-eastern Australia for a number of years.
Researcher's projects
Cultural heritage and the mediation of identity, memory and historical narratives (ARC Future Fellowship). The aim of this work is to document the way museum exhibitions and heritage sites are used to construct and negotiate social and cultural values and meanings. It is accepted that museum and heritage site audiences are not simply passive receptors of the curator's or interpreter's messages, but how audiences actually engage with exhibitions and heritages and what they do with the messages they take away is neither documented or understood. By charting and comparing the way heritage is used by heritage professionals, community groups and audiences in Australia, USA and England, the project will reveal the cultural and social 'work' that heritage does in society.
Recently Completed/Completing Projects:
1807 Commemorated 2007-9 (AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship, UK). The central aim of the 1807 Commemorated project was to both map and analyse the responses of museums and their audiences to the 2007 bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade act of 1807. Publications from this project are still underway, up dates and outcomes from this project can be found on the project's main web site and the resource website funded by the Museums Libraries and Archive Council (MLA), UK.
Heritage and memory in Castleford, West Yorkshire (British Academy funded). This project documented the ways in which collective memories of work and place were renegotiated using discourses of 'heritage' in the context of deindustrialization and community regeneration. Laurajane is in the process of writing up aspects of this research. For more information about Castleford heritage, see Castleford Heritage Trust web site.
Publications
- McDavid, C, Rizvi, U & Smith, L 2016, 'Community Archaeology and Heritage in Africa: Conversations inspired by a workshop', in Peter R. Schmidt, Innocent Pikirayi (ed.), Community Archaeology and Heritage in Africa, Routledge, UK.
- Smith, L 2016, 'Changing Views? Emotional Intelligence, Registers of Engagement and the Museum Visit', in Viviane Gosselin, Phaedra Livingstone (ed.), Museums and the Past - Constructing Historical Consciousness, UBC Press, Toronto Vancouver, pp. 101-121.
- Smith, L 2015, 'Theorizing Museum and Heritage Visiting', in Kylie Message and Andrea Witcomb (ed.), The International Handbooks of Museum Studies: Museum Theory, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, pp. 459-484.
- Smith, L & Campbell, G 2015, 'The elephant in the room: heritage, affect and emotion', in William Logan; Mairead Nic Craith; Ullrich Kockel; (ed.), A Companion to Heritage Studies, Wiley Blackwell, Oxford UK, pp. 443-460.
- Smith, L 2014, 'Domestic bliss or the great divide? Country houses and the perpetuation of social inequality', in Polly Harknett, Caitlin Heffernan, Matt Smith (ed.), Unravelling Uppark, Unravelled Arts Limited, England, pp. 48-54.
- Smith, L 2014, Patrimoni immaterial: un repte per al discurs de patrimoni autoritzat? (Intangible Heritage: A challenge to the authorised heritage discourse?), Revista d’etnologia de Catalunya 39:12-22.
- Smith, L 2014, 'Travellers' emotion and heritage production', GuiZhou Social Sciences, vol. 12, pp. 11-16.(published in Mandarin)
- Smith, L and Zhu, Y. 2014, 'Discourse and Process : A Perspective of Critical Heritage Studies', Journal of Baise University, vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 77-82. (published in Mandarin)
- Smith, L, Hou, S & Xie, J 2014, 'Reflection and Reconstruction: Rethinking Heritage and Museums: an interview with Prof. Laurajane Smith', Southeast Culture, vol. 2, no. 238, pp. 11-16.
- Smith, L 2013, "The Heritage Mirror": Narcissistic Illusion or multiple reflections?', Voprosy Muzeologii, vol. 2, no. 8, pp. 27-44.(published in Russian)
- Smith, L 2012, 'Discourses of heritage: implications for archaeological community practice', Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos. DOI : 10.4000/nuevomundo.64148
- Smith, L 2013, 'Taking the children: Children, childhood and heritage making', in Darian-Smith, K. and Pascoe, C. (ed.), Children, childhood and cultural heritage, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon and New York, pp. 107-125.
- Fouseki, K & Smith, L 2013, 'Community consultation in the museum: the 2007 bicentenary of Britain's abolition of the slave trade', in Viv Golding & Wayne Modest (ed.), Museums and Communities: Curators, Collections and Collaboration, Bloomsbury Academic, UK, pp. 232-245.
- Smith, L 2013, 'The 'patrimonial mirror': narcissistic illusion or multiple reflections?', Voprosy Muzeologii, vol. 2, no. 8, pp. 27-44.
- Smith, L 2013, 'Heritage and Social Media: Understanding Heritage in a Participatory Culture', Curator: the Museum journal, vol. 56, no. 4, pp. 461-464.
- Smith, L 2013, 'The Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention, a Challenge to the Authorised Heritage Discourse?', 2013 IRCI Meeting on ICH - Evaluating the Inscription Criteria for the Two Lists of UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention, ed. Misako Ohnuki, International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI), Tokyo, pp. 122-128.
- Watson, S, Waterton, E & Smith, L 2012, 'Introduction: Moments, instances and experiences', in Laurajane Smith, Emma Waterton, Steve Watson (ed.), The cultural moment in tourism, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Oxon, pp. 1-16.
- Smith, L 2012, 'The cultural 'work' of tourism', in Laurajane Smith, Emma Waterton, Steve Watson (ed.), The cultural moment in tourism, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Oxon, pp. 210-234.
- Smith, L & Waterton, E 2012, 'Constrained by commonsense: The authorized heritage discourse in contemporary debates', in Robin Skeates, Carol McDavid, John Carman (ed.), The Oxford handbook of public archaeology, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 153-171.
- Smith, L, Waterton, E & Watson, S, eds, 2012, The cultural moment in tourism, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Oxon.
- Smith, L 2012, 'A Pilgrimage of Masculinity: The Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre', Australian Historical Studies, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 472-482.
- Smith, L. 2012 Discourses of heritage: implications for archaeological community practice. Nuevos Mundos/Mundos Nuevos [En lÃnea], puesto en lÃnea el 05 octubre 2012. URL : http://nuevomundo.revues.org/64148 ; DOI : 10.4000/nuevomundo.64148
- Smith, L & Waterton, E 2011, 'Heritage and the Politics of Exclusion', Current Swedish Archaeology, vol. 19, pp. 53-57.
- Solli, B, Burström, M, Domanska, E et al 2011, 'Some Reflections on Heritage and Archaeology in the Anthropocene: Look! It's a Collection of Rocks!', Norwegian Archaeological Review, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 40-88.
- Shackel, P, Smith, L & Campbell G. 2011, 'Labour's heritage', International Journal of Heritage Studies, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 291-300.
- Smith, L 2011, 'El "espejo patrimonial". Ilusion narcisista o reflexiones multiples? [The "patrimonial mirror": narcissistic illusion or multiple reflections?]', Antipoda: revista de antropologia y arqueologia, vol. 12, pp. 39-63.
- Smith, L, Shackel, P & Campbell, G 2011, 'Introduction: Class still matters', in Laurajane Smith, Paul A. Shackel and Gary Campbell (ed.), Heritage, Labour and the Working Classes, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon UK, pp. 1-16.
- Smith, L, Shackel, P & Campbell, G, eds, 2011, Heritage, Labour and the Working Classes, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon UK.
- Smith, L & Campbell, G 2011, 'Don't mourn organise: heritage recognition and memory in Castleford, West Yorkshire', in Laurajane Smith, Paul A. Shackel and Gary Campbell (ed.), Heritage, Labour and the Working Classes, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon UK, pp. 85-105.
- Cubitt, G, Smith, L & Wilson, R 2011, 'Introduction: Anxiety and Ambiguity in the representation of Dissonant History', in Laurajane Smith, Geoffrey Cubitt, Ross Wilson and Kalliopi Fouseki (ed.), Representing Enslavement and Abolition in Museums: Ambiguous Engagements, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, new York, pp. 1-19.
- Smith, L, Cubitt, G, Wilson, R, and Fouseki, K. eds, 2011, Representing Enslavement and Abolition in Museums: Ambiguous Engagements, Routledge, new York.
- Smith, L 2011, 'Affect and Registers of Engagement: Navigating Emotional Responses to Dissonanant Heritage', in Laurajane Smith, Geoffrey Cubitt, Ross Wilson and Kalliopi Fouseki (ed.), Representing Enslavement and Abolition in Museums: Ambiguous Engagements, Routledge, new York, pp. 260-303.
- Smith, L & Fouseki, K 2011, 'The Role of Museums as 'Places of Social Justice': Community Consultation and the 1807 Bicentenary', in Laurajane Smith, Geoffrey Cubitt, Ross Wilson and Kalliopi Fouseki (ed.), Representing Enslavement and Abolition in Museums: Ambiguous Engagements, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, new York, pp. 97-115.
- Smith, L 2011, 'The 'Doing' of Heritage: Heritage as performance', in A. Jackson and J Kidd (ed.), Performing Heritage Research, practice and development in museum theatre and live interpretation, Manchester University Press, Manchester, pp. 69-81.
- Waterton, E & Smith, L 2010, 'The recognition and misrecognition of community heritage', International Journal of Heritage Studies, vol. 16, no. 1-2, pp. 4-15.
- Smith, L 2010, 'Ethics or social justice? Heritage and the politics of recognition', Australian Aboriginal Studies, vol. 2010, no. 2, pp. 60-68.
- Waterton, E, Smith, L, Wilson, R & Fouseki, K. 2010, 'Forgetting to Heal; Remembering the abolition act of 1807', European Journal of English Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 23-36.
- Smith, L 2010, ''Man's inhumanity to man' and other platitudes of avoidance and misrecognition: an analysis of visitor responses to exhibitions marking the 1807 bicentenary', Museum and Society, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 193-214.
- Smith, L & Akagawa, N, eds, 2009, Intangible Heritage, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon, UK and New York, USA.
- Smith, L 2009, 'Theorizing Heritage: Legislators, interpreters, and facilitators', in Lena Mortensen & Julie Hollowell (ed.), Ethnographies and Archaeologies: Iterations of the past, University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA, pp. 120-130.
- Smith, L & Waterton, E 2009, Heritage, Communities and Archaeology, Duckworth Academic, London UK.
- Waterton, E & Smith, L 2009, 'There is no such thing as heritage', in Emma Waterton and Laurajane Smith (ed.), Taking Archaeology out of Heritage, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle on Tyne, UK, pp. 10-27.
- Waterton, E & Smith, L, eds, 2009, Taking Archaeology out of Heritage, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle on Tyne, UK.
- Smith, L & Waterton, E 2009, 'Introduction: Heritage and Archaeology', in Emma Waterton and Laurajane Smith (ed.), Taking Archaeology out of Heritage, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle on Tyne, UK, pp. 1-7.
- Smith, L & Akagawa, N 2009, 'Introduction', in Laurajane Smith and Natsuko Akagawa (ed.), Intangible Heritage, Routledge, Abingdon, England, pp. 1-9.
- Smith, L & Waterton, E 2009, '"The envy of the world" Intangible heritage in England', in Laurajane Smith and Natsuko Akagawa (ed.), Intangible Heritage, Routledge, Abingdon, England, pp. 289-291.
- Smith, L 2009, 'Deference and Humility: the Social Values of the Country House', in Lisanne Gibson and John Pendlbury (ed.), Valuing Historic Environments, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Farnham, Surrey, UK, pp. 33-50.
- Waterton, E & Smith, L 2008, 'Heritage protection for the 21st century', Cultural Trends, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 197-203.
- Smith, L 2008, 'Governing Kennewick', in Heather Burke, Claire Smith, Dorothy Lippert, Joe Watkins, Larry Zimmerman (ed.), Kennewick Man: Perspectives on the Ancient One, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, California, pp. 178-181.
- Smith, L 2008, 'Towards a Theoretical framework for Archaeological Heritage Management', in G Fairclough, R Harrison, J Jameson and J Schofield (ed.), The Heritage Reader, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon, pp. 62-74.
- Smith, L 2008, 'Heritage, Gender and Identity', in Brian Graham and Peter Howard (ed.), The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Aldershot, pp. 159-178.
- Smith, L 2007, 'General Introduction (Cultural heritage)', in Laurajane Smith (ed.), Cultural heritage: Critical concepts in Media and Cultural studies, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London, pp. 1-21.
- Smith, L 2007, 'Introduction to Volume II (Cultural Heritage Vol II Critical Concepts in heritage)', in Laurajane Smith (ed.), Cultural heritage: Critical concepts in Media and Cultural studies, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London, pp. 1-5.
- Smith, L, ed., 2007, Cultural heritage: Critical Concepts in media and Cultural Studies, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London.
- Smith, L 2007, 'Empty gestures? heritage and the politics of recognition', in helaine Silverman & D Fairchild Ruggles (ed.), Cultural Heritage and Human Rights, Springer, New York, pp. 159-171.
- Smith, L 2007, 'Introduction. Cultural Heritage (Vol III heritage as an Industry)', in Laurajane Smith (ed.), Cultural heritage: Critical concepts in Media and Cultural studies, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London, pp. 1-5.
- Smith, L 2007, 'The Discourse of the past', in Sven Grabow, Daniel Hull and Emma Waterton (ed.), Which Past, Whose Future? treatments of the past at the start of the 21st century, Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 5-14.
- Smith, L 2007, 'Introduction. Cultural Heritage (Volume IV Interpretation and Community)', in Laurajane Smith (ed.), Cultural heritage: Critical concepts in Media and Cultural studies, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London, pp. 1-6.
- Waterton, E, Smith, L & Campbell, G 2006, 'The Utility of Discourse Analysis to Heritage Studies: The Burra Charter and Social Inclusion', International Journal of Heritage Studies, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 339-355.
- Smith, L 2006, Uses of Heritage, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon, UK.
Projects and Grants
Grants are drawn from ARIES. To add Projects or Grants please contact your College Research Office.
- Cultural heritage and the mediation of identity, memory and historical narratives (Primary Investigator)
