Region: Wellington

About Me:

Kia ora

I've been a public historian since 1993 when I joined the Historical Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs as a historian. I've been chugging along there ever since, and have been Chief Historian (in the History Group of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, as the Branch became in 2000) since 2002.

As a public historian, I've published a few books (on welfare, photographs, a general NZ history work), a pile of articles/chapters on teh nature of public history, and have been heavily involved in the development of the best history website in NZ, www.NZhistory.net.nz.

Like many others, I also potter around in more academic history realms too, publishing books in this area as well as chapters etc.

I tend more to manage the production of public history now rather than producing a lot myself, but I do have on the go some new work on how history is used in and by the public, and some very long-term work on sex and the city (focusing mainly on crime and stories about that).

I have been a member of PHANZA since its founding (before, actually, being part of the pre-PHANZA organising group), was its founding President and done various other roles in the organisation.