Dr. Laurajane Smith

Biography

Laurajane Smith is a professor in Heritage Museum Studies and a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. She has a long career interest in the politics of heritage making and is the founder of the Association for Critical Heritage Studies and editor of the International Journal of Heritage Studies since 2009. Smith has been honored as a Doctor Honoris Causa for her scientific merit by the University of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2018, and she received the European Archaeology Association Heritage Prize in 2021. Smith held a position as Reader in heritage studies at the University of York, UK, where she directed the MA in Cultural Heritage Management for nine years prior to joining the Australian National University in 2010. Her academic journey began in Sydney, where she taught Indigenous Studies at the University of New South Wales and heritage archaeology at Charles Sturt University. Smith’s key publications include "Uses of Heritage" (2006) and "Emotional Heritage" (2021), among others. Her research interests revolve around understanding heritage as an area of policy analysis and cultural processes worthy of critical examination, challenging conventional notions of heritage as merely 'objects' and 'sites.'

Research Interests