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Dr Jennifer Harris

Image of Staff Member
    • Role:
    • Senior Lecturer
    • Department:
    • School of Built Environment
    • Location:
    • Humanities
    • Telephone:
    • +61 8 9266 4135

Jennifer is Lecturer in Cultural Heritage with the faculty of the Built Environment, Art and Design.  She started her career as a newspaper and television journalist in Perth and London before entering academia. She gained her Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1997 from Murdoch University.

Following an Honours degree in Literature from the University of Western Australia Jennifer began her career in journalism.  In 1983 she began a Masters degree with the School of English at what was then the Western Australian Institute of Technology - later Curtin University of Technology.  In 1984 she began to teach in that department.

In 1991 Jennifer began her studies of cultural heritage from the perspective of Cultural Studies and was one of the first people in Australia to have a doctorate in the field.

From 1995 to 1999 she was the Curator of Subiaco Museum.  This was the first time that the museum had engaged a professional curator.  Jennifer was responsible for professionalising what had been a mostly volunteer run organisation.

In 1998 she began her involvement with the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage at Curtin.  

Jennifer is the only Australian member of the International Museology Committee (ICOFOM) which is one of the expert committees of ICOM, the International Council of Museums.   She is also a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the National Trust (WA). 

Research Interests

Jennifer’s doctorate had as one of its main focuses the popular culture aspects of cultural heritage and this interest has continued in her later research. She is the convenor of a book writing group of Curtin academics which is examining the role of “foreigners” or the illicit production of goods in the factory environment.

In her work with the International Museology Committee of ICOM she has written about emerging changes to understandings of the definition of museums.  She has also written on the role of audiences in museums which is one of the key areas of analysis in recent years.

Publications

Book Chapters (Authored, Research Quality)

  • Harris, J. 2011. Dialogism: The Ideal and Reality for Museum Visitors. In The Dialogic Museum and the Visitor Experience, 87-96. Taipei, Taiwan: International Council of Museums, UNESCO, Paris.
  • Harris, J. 2011. Grappling with the Concept of the Muesum. In What is a Museum?, eds Ann Davis, Francois Mairesse, Andre Desvallees, 132-139. Munich: Verlag Dr. C. Muller-Straten Muchen.
  • Harris, J. 2010. Institutional Identity, Communities and Deaccession. In 33rd ICOFOM Annual Symposium - Deaccession and Return of Cultural Heritage: A New Global Ethics, eds Andre Desvallees, 123-134. Zhejiang Provincial Museum, China: International Committee for Museology.
  • Harris, J. 2010. Memorials and Trauma: Pinjarra 1834. In Trauma, Media, Art: New Perspectives, eds Mick Broderick and Antonio Traverso, 36-57. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Harris, J. 2009. The Grey World of Foreigner Production. In Foreigners Secret Artefacts of Industraialism, 5-13. Curtin University of Technology: Black Swan Press.
  • Harris, J. 2009. Resistance? Foreigner Production in the Midland Railway Workshops. In Foreigners Secret Artefacts of Industrialism, 62-71. Curtin University of Technology: Black Swan Press.
  • Harris, J. 2007. La definition du musee. In Vers une redefinition de musee?, eds Francois Mairesse & Andre' Desuallies, 61-68. Paris: L'Harmattan.

Refereed Articles (Scholarly Journals)

  • Harris, J. 2011. Guerilla art, social value and absent heritage fabric. International Journal of Heritage Studies 17(3): 214-229.
  • Harris, J. 2011. Our sadness, our fragile courage: the museal and the new museology. The Problems of Museology 1(3): 31-41.

Fully written papers (Refereed Conference proceedings)

  • Harris, J. 2009. Eliza: Guerilla Art Supports Heritage Value. National State of Australian Cities Conference, 24/11/2009. Perth: Promaco.
  • Harris, J. 2009. ICOFOM Study Series. XXXII ICOFOM Annual Symposium, 01/07/2009. Belgium: International Committee for Museology in ICOM/UNESCO.
  • Harris, J. 2008. Globalisation, Post-Colonialism and Museums. Museums, Museology and Global Communication, 14/09/2008. Changsha, China: International Committee for Museology in ICOM/UNESCO.
  • Harris, J. 2006. The Muesum is not transparent: Engaging the museum in examination of its own role in the production of history. ICOM International Symposium: Museology and History - a Field of Knowledge, 05/10/2006. University of Cordoba, Argentina: Museo Nacional Estancia Jesuitica de Alta Gracia y Casa del Virrey Liniers 2006.
  • Harris, J. 2001. A Response to Heritage Needs: The Swan Bells in Perth, Western Australia. Icomos International Millennium Congress, 01/09/2001. Paris, France: UNESCO (ICOMOS) in conjunction with Bethlehem 2000 Project Authority.

Minor Creative Works

  • Dearle, J, Czerw, C, Cross, L, Wallace, V, Paddon, S, Pickering, G, Ragan, S, and Harris, J. 2004. under the lap, over the fence: foreigner production at the midland railway workshops. Western Australia: Midland Railway Workshops History.

Curating an Exhibition

  • Czerw, C, Cross, L, Wallace, V, Ragan, S, Harris, J, Derle, J, Pickering, G, and Paddon, S. 2004. Under the Lap, Over the Fence: Foreigner Production at the Midland Workshops. Western Australia: Midland Railway Workshops History Project.