About PMRC

The Public Memory Research Cluster coordinates a multi and trans-disciplinary group of researchers working across the humanities from areas such as art, music, theatre, anthropology, history, English, communications, cultural and gender studies, sociology and international relations.

The Public Memory Research Cluster investigates the ways in which the past is utilized in contemporary culture. This investigation is interested in:

• the representational forms and institutions which remember the past
• the processes by which the past is transmitted to the present for consumption and exchange
• the ways in which contemporary public culture invests in different versions of the past
• the reorganization of public memory through historical rediscovery
• the influence of space, visual culture and the built environment on public memory
• myth, symbol, monument, ritual and the museum
• the location of the subject in memory
• individual, social, and political memory
• regional memories, cosmopolitanism and globalization
• narrative, memory and history
• alternative memories and the possibilities of future
• historical tourism and regional development
• new technologies of remembering
• memory in popular and official culture.

This site is an initiative of the Public Memory Research Cluster at the University of Southern Queensland and represents a collaboration between researchers in the Creative Arts, Music, Theatre, English, Multimedia Studies, Anthropology, History and Communications disciplines.

'Public Memory is a body of beliefs and ideas about the past that help a public or society understand both its past, present, and by implication, its future.' John Bodnar

Please contact Chris Lee if you are interested in contributing or participating in the Public Memory Research Cluster.