Kylie Message

Kylie Message-Jones is a Professor of Public Humanities and Director of the ANU Humanities Research Centre. She is also a Research Fellow of the National Museum of Australia and an Advisory Board Member of the Vietnamese Museum of Australia. She works with and across both university and cultural sectors. She is equally committed to communicating humanities and related research to a broad public audience and analysing contemporary cultural events, organisations and policies in a scholarly context.

She is a frequent media commentator and adviser on issues including the changing nature of the university landscape in Australia and policies relating to the university sector. She comments widely on how the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (known as the “HASS” disciplines) are faring in this changing context, and how public perceptions of universities and HASS research can be understood. She also comments extensively on museums, heritage, collections and exhibitions, particularly on current topics, debates and controversies. Her documentation of curatorial and social activism within multicultural policy climates since the 1970s has made particularly significant contributions to the way various stakeholders understand the political history and impact of culture.

Primary areas of media contribution:
• The Museum, Galleries, Libraries and Archives (“GLAM”) sector, including individual museums, exhibitions, collections, etc
• Public perceptions of culture, the arts, and society
• Cultural policy
• Higher education policy
• Public perceptions of universities and HASS research fields

Professor Message-Jones is author of books including "Collecting Activism, Archiving Occupy Wall Street" (Routledge 2019), "The Disobedient Museum: Writing at the Edge" (Routledge 2018), "Museums and Racism" (Routledge 2018), "Museums and Social Activism: Engaged Protest" (Routledge 2014), "New Museums and the Making of Culture" (Berg 2006), and "Museum Theory: An Expanded Field" (edited, with Andrea Witcomb, Wiley Blackwell 2015, reprinted 2020).