Dr Laurajane Smith,
ARC Future Fellow, School of Archaeology & Anthropology,
The Australian National University,

Larry Saha Room 2175 Haydon-Allen Building

The aim of this work is to document the way museum exhibitions and heritage sites are used to construct and negotiate social and cultural values and meanings. It is accepted that museum and heritage site audiences are not simply passive receptors of the curator's or interpreter's messages, but how audiences actually engage with exhibitions and heritages and what they do with the messages they take away is neither well documented or understood. By charting and comparing the way heritage is used by heritage professionals, community groups and audiences in Australia, USA and England, the project will reveal the cultural and social ‘work' that heritage does in society. The study, a 4 year Future Fellowship, is coming to the end of the 3rd year and the seminar will discuss research results obtained thus far.