Collecting Institutions, cultural diversity and the making of citizenship in Australia since the 1970s

This project will advance our understanding of the role of the collecting sector in the social governance of cultural diversity by analysing and theorising relations between museological practices, policy developments in response to social change, changing understandings of citizenship and the emergence of new intellectual frameworks for curatorial work from the 1970s to the present. It aims to document and theorise these relations within an international perspective, producing the first large-scale study of this dynamic period in Australian collecting and exhibition practices. In so doing it will provide a platform from which to contribute to international discussions about the role of the collecting sector in culturally diverse societies.