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The National Museum of Australia has established a Centre for Historical Research to foster new thinking about Australian history and the Australian historical experience.
The Centre will help the Museum to develop the capacity for substantive national research and for academic interpretation of the subject areas represented by the Museum's collections.
The Museum's focus is on interdisciplinary research in three broad thematic areas:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories
- Australian history and society since 1788
- People's interaction with the environment.
Within this framework research projects may be grounded in a range of historical disciplines including environmental history, the history of science, material culture and the history of collections, economic history, social or cultural history, archaeology, anthropology, Indigenous history and historical geography.
The Centre's key research programs are:
- Australia in the Pacific
- Colonies and frontiers
- History of Australian science
- Human history and landscape
- Identity and biography
- Material histories.
The Centre for Historical Research is supported by a well-appointed research library and offers a range of visiting fellowships, including the
National Museum's Fellowship scheme.
Opportunities for the publication of research are provided through the National Museum of Australia Press and its scholarly journal,
reCollections.
New scholarship can also be presented through the Museum's exhibitions and events.
Material culture research is facilitated by the Museum's stewardship of the National Historical Collection and through collaborative projects with the Museum's curatorial and collections management staff.
The Museum is also developing a range of institutional partnerships. It supports collaborative partnerships with universities and academic centres through a range of Australian Research Council linkages projects. Research staff will be encouraged to develop new projects and to attract postgraduate students from the museums field.
As a relatively new National Museum venture, the Centre for Historical Research is still evolving. The Centre's members will develop and pursue new research projects. The Centre also plans to develop partnerships with kindred research centres in universities and museums in Australia and overseas.
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