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Consultant Historian, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland

I completed my PhD thesis on colonial era Queensland funeral, burial and mourning practices, particularly investigating the transmission and modification of the predominate British burial culture to the tropical environment. I have read numerous contemporary reports of the grief expressed by the populace at large at the demise of the great and good; and countless newspaper column inches describing the deaths of the notorious, the unfortunate and those whose passing was somehow out of the ordinary.
I have been struck how, after the internalization of public grief resulting from the mass carnage of two World Wars that mourning has returned to the public stage. Since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, there has been a resurgence of displays of grief, mourning and remembrance ranging from simple road-side memorials to large audiences viewing live television broadcasts of funerals. I am investigating the physical shift of focus of this grief from the place of burial (as in a bygone era) to the place of death.

Experience

  • 2013–present
    Consultant Historian, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland

Education

  • 2015 
    University of Queensland, PhD
  • 1999 
    Queensland University of Technology, MEd
  • 1989 
    University of New England, Dip Ed
  • 1986 
    Canberra College of Advanced Education, BA

Professional Memberships

  • Member Professional Historians Association of Australia