Steven Cooke

I am a cultural and historical geographer and an expert in issues related to heritage, memory and identity, particularly the spatialities of difficult histories. I spent five years in Higher Education in the UK, first as a Research Fellow at the University of Stirling then as a Lecturer in Historical and Cultural Geography at the University of Hull. In 2002 I moved to Australia and worked in high level management positions in some of Victoria’s most significant places, including the Melbourne Maritime Museum – home of Polly Woodside and the Shrine of Remembrance. In 2011 I returned to academia at Deakin University where I am an Associate Professor of Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies. I was appointed by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as part of the expert delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance , where I sit on the Memorials and Museums Working Group.