Research Partners

Research team

Dr Fiona Cameron is a Research Fellow in History, School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, University of Sydney. Fiona heads the research team, working with all investigators to design and manage the research projects, as well as undertaking an extensive review of museological theory and practice. Fiona's expertise is both curatorial and academic in areas covering new museology, material culture interpretation, exhibitions as forums for representation and audience research.

Linda Ferguson is the Audience Advocate at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, with extensive experience in audience research and evaluation, particularly in quantitative methodologies. Linda is currently President of the Evaluation and Visitor Research Special Interest Group of Museums Australia.

Lynda Kelly is the head of the Australian Museum Audience Research Centre (AMARC), Sydney. Lynda has extensive expertise in audience and visitor research, museum learning research and organisational learning theory. The AMARC website contains comprehensive information and resources related to museum evaluation, audience research and learning.

Project team

Professor Stephen Garton is the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Sydney. Stephen is an internationally recognised expert in the field of new histories. His major research interests include crime and war which are of particular relevance to this project.

Dr Paul Tacon is a senior research scientist in the Anthropology Branch of the Australian Museum, Sydney, and has conducted archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork since 1980 with over 56 months field experience in remote parts of Australia, Canada, southern Africa and the USA. Paul has also supervised the development of a number of exhibitions on sensitive and controversial topics, and has considerable experience in dealing with the media.

Professor Frank Talbot, Adjunct Professor, Graduate School of the Environment, Macquarie University, was previously the Director of the Australian Museum and of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. In this latter role Frank was centrally involved with the controversial Enola Gay and Exxon Valdez exhibitions and, through this, brings valuable international perspectives to the overall framework of the project.

Helen Withnell is the Assistant Director of Public Programs at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. Helen is the key person responsible for the public face of the Memorial and brings an understanding of stakeholder and management issues, as well as experience in media management.

Consultant researchers

Jennifer Ellison is currently a doctoral student at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Jennifer completed a six-month internship as part of the Canadian Government's Young Professionals International Program in 2002-2003. Jennifer's project was to review the role of the media in museum controversies. Jennifer is extending this work through a grant received from the Canadian Museums Association 2002 Research Scholarships. A report of Jennifer's work was published in Volume 6 of the Open Museum Journal.

Adrienne Gollop is currently working as an intern as part of the Canadian Government's Young Professionals International Program. Adrienne is working on the art museum component of the project and has conducted visitor interviews at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney) and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.