Reeves, Keir Prof

Position: Director and Professor of Australian History
Study area: History
Location: SMB Campus, Room E116
Phone: 5327 9699
Email: k.reeves@federation.edu.au

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy - University of Melbourne
Master of Arts - University of Melbourne
Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and Bachelor of Economics - Monash University

Biography

Professor Keir Reeves is Co-Director of the Future Regions Research Centre at Federation University Australia. Keir’s current research works at the intersection heritage, cultural tourism, regional studies and history. Prior to joining Federation University his previous teaching and research positions were at the University of Melbourne and Monash University. He has also held visiting research fellowships/professorships at King’s College London, Clare Hall Cambridge, Ghent University, Utrecht University, University of Highlands and Islands and Wakayama University.

Keir has been a past chair of the University Professoriate, and he is particularly interested in enhancing the postgraduate research experience, and also mentoring early career researchers. Keenly interested in themes of regionalism and rurality, he works closely with the FRRC Horsham Research Hub based at the Wimmera Campus and the Ararat Jobs and Technology Precinct initiative.

Keir is currently an editorial board member of the Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development and the Journal of Heritage Tourism. Keir has been a APDI or Chief Investigator on seven Australian Research Council (ARC) funded projects. He was also an ARC funded PhD student on the Mount Alexander Diggings project.

Areas of expertise

Keir's current research concentrates on cultural heritage, Australian history, history and memory and research that considers the intersection of history, heritage and travel in Asia, Australia and the Pacific.

He is also committed to exploring how these trajectories can be applied to regional development policy to ensure viable communities in regional settings particularly in central Victoria. He is currently involved in a major Australian Research Council project that interrogates Australian war and memory. He is also interested in history, heritage in Asia and the Pacific.

Keir is a collaborative researcher by nature and works closely with Australian and international colleagues in a number of research areas particularly in Australia, Europe, Mainland South East Asia and Melanesia.

Research interests

• Australian, particularly regional, history
• Cultural heritage and historical records
• Research that considers the intersection of history, heritage and travel in Asia, Australia and the Pacific
• Mining history

Supervision

Kathryn Avery – “Peril in the near north: Australian responses to the Japanese threat during the 1930s”

Jennifer Barrera – “The Millers: portrait of an Australian colonial family”

Lauren Bourke - 'Tracing Trauma: Intergenerational Institutionalisation and the Victorian Welfare System in the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries'

Ian Boyle - "Historical Justice, Archival Systems and State Care"

Edward Coleridge – “Mapping Australia Felix or Maps, Myths and Mitchell”

Dan Eddy – “Alex Jesaulenko and the ever changing face of Australian football”

Graham Hannaford – “Settlers, Aborigines and the land of the limestone plains in early Colonial Australia”

Yvonne Horsfeld – “A Ballarat Chinese family history: an intergenerational study”

Janet Jones – “The work of midwives in Victoria from 1900-1970”

Alan Just - "Discovering Smeaton. People, trade and finance: a study of imperialism and its heritage

Kirsty Marshall – “Creative cuisine creating futures” – principal supervisor

Andrew Neal – “Bishop George Merrick Long: educator, ‘digger’, clergyman or Australian model of leadership”

Ember Parkin – “The social and economic impact of cultural and heritage industries in Australian and New Zealand regional areas” – principal supervisor

Shirley Strachan – “Thomas (Tom) Ambrose Bowen, a blue collar genius denied?”

Peter Taylor – “The Port Phillip Bay lime trade – its operations, craft and shipwrecks”

Michael Taffe – “Landscape, memory and identity: the Ballarat Avenue of Honour and the politics of heritage” – principal supervisor

Amy Tsilemanis – “Creative activation of the past through the arts”

Publications

Books

Gorman, S., Lusher, D., and Reeves, K. Reviewing the AFL’s Vilification Laws Rule 35, Reconciliation and Racial Harmony in Australian Football, Abingdon: Routledge, 2017.

Howard, L and Reeves, K. Looking back as well as forward: A Short History of Ballarat Community Health, BCH Publishing, 2017.

Scholarly books

Gorman, S., Lusher, D. and Reeves, K. Reviewing the AFL’ s Vilification Laws: Rule 35, Reconciliation and Racial Harmony in Australian Football (London: Taylor and Francis. Accepted, forthcoming December 2017).

Scates, B., McCosker, A., Reeves, K., Wheatley, R. and Williams, D. (2013) Anzac Journeys: Returning to the Battlefields of World War Two, Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

Edited books

Bird, G., Claxton, S. and Reeves, K. eds. Normandy’s War Heritage Tourism: Interpretations and Management as Part of Contemporary Geographies of Tourism, Leisure and Mobility, Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.

Reeves, K., Ponsford, M. and Gorman, S. eds. Managing Expectations and Policy Responses to Racism in Sport: Codes Combined, Abingdon: Routledge, 2015.

Reeves, K., Stichelbaut, B., Bird, G., James, L. and Bourgeois, J. eds. Battlefield Events: Landscape, Commemoration and Heritage Abingdon: Routledge, 2015.

Carr, G. and Reeves, K. eds. Heritage and Memory of War: Responses from Small Islands, New York: Routledge, 2015. Co-contributed two chapters.

Logan, W., Reeves, K. eds. Places of Pain and Shame: Dealing with ‘Difficult’ Heritage. London: Routledge, 2009. Co-contributed three chapters.

Reeves, K., Nichols, D. eds. Deeper Leads: New Approaches in Victorian Goldfields History. Ballarat: BHS Publishing, 2007. Co-contributed three chapters.

Book chapters

Wilson, J.Z and Reeves, K. “Personalised Narratives of War: A Learning Strategy for Teaching Engaging History” in Anna Clark ed. Allen and Unwin, 2018.

Wilson, J Z. and Reeves, K.  in What Is Public History Globally?: Working with the Past in the Present Bloomsbury, 2018.

Reeves, K., “Sites of Memory” in Sutcliffe, A., Maerker, A. A., and Sleight, S., The Past in the Present: History, Memory and Public Life, Abingdon: Routledge Abingdon 2017.

Reeves, K. “Sites of memory” in Sutcliffe, A., Maerker, A. A. and Sleight, S. The Past in the Present: History, Memory and Public Life, Abingdon: Routledge, 2017.

Reeves, K. and Sivanandamoorthy, S. “Tourism, history, identity, and community resilience in the World Heritage City of Kandy, Sri Lanka”, in Cheer, J. and Lew, A. Tourism and Resilience: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives, New York: Routledge, 2017.

Fayad, S. and Reeves, K. “Ballarat. Australia: people, culture and place”, in The HUL Guidebook Managing Heritage in Dynamic and Constantly Changing Urban Environments a Practical Guide to UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape, Shanghai: WHITRAP, UNESCO, 2016.

McConville, C., Reeves, K. and Reeves A. ‘“Tasman world’: investigating the gold rush era linkages and subsequent regional development between Otago and Victoria”, in Carpenter, L. and Fraser, L. Rushing for Gold: Nineteenth Century Trans-Tasman Society, Mining and Enterprise, Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2016.

Reeves, K., Bird, G. and Stichelbaut, B. “Introduction: landscape, commemoration and heritage”, in Reeves, K. et. al. Battlefield Events: Landscape, Commemoration and Heritage, Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.

Reeves, K. and Cheer J. “Examining Vanuatu’s World War II memorial places and events” in Reeves, K. et. al. Battlefield Events: Landscape, Commemoration and Heritage, Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.

Cheer, J. M., Reeves, K. and Laing, J. “Debunking Paradise: Chief Roi Mata’s domain and the reimagining of place in Vanuatu”, in Harrison, D. and Pratt, S. eds. Tourism in Small Island States, London: Routledge, 2015.

Reeves, K. and Plets, G. “Cultural heritage as a strategy for social needs and community identity”, in Logan, W., Craith, M. N. and Kockel, U. eds. A Companion to Heritage Studies, London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015.

Carr, G. and Reeves, K. “Islands of war, islands of memory”, in Carr, G. and Reeves, K. eds. Heritage and Memory of War: Responses from Small Islands, New York: Routledge, 2015.

Reeves, K. and Cheer, J. “‘Tingbaot Wol Wo II Long Pasifik Aelan’: managing memories of World War Two heritage in the Pacific”, in Carr, G. and Reeves, K. eds. Heritage and Memory of War: Responses from Small Islands, New York: Routledge, 2015.

Reeves, K. “Off to the mystery picnic: mobilising young engineers in Victoria 1941-1961”, in Reeves, A. and Detmer, A. Organise Educate and Control: the AMWU in Australia, 1852-2012, Clayton, Monash University Publishing, 2013.

Reeves, K. “Echoes on a cultural landscape: glimpses of Chinese community life in Castlemaine”, in Fahey, C. and Mayne, A. eds. Gold Tailings: Forgotten Histories of Family and Community on the Central Victorian Goldfields, Melbourne: ASP, 2010.

Mountford, B. and Reeves. K. “Reworking the tailings: new gold histories and the cultural landscape”, in Carey, J. and McClisky, C. eds. ReOrienting Whiteness, Sydney: University of Sydney Press, 2009.

Long, C. and Reeves, K. “Healing the wounds: heritage practice at Toul Sleng and Choeung Ek, Cambodia”, in Logan, W. and Reeves, K. eds. Places of Pain and Shame: Dealing with ‘Difficult’ Heritage, London: Routledge, 2009.

Reeves, K. “A golden legacy: the historical implications of Edmond Hammond Hargreaves’ discovery of gold in May 1851”, in Crotty, M. and Roberts, D. eds. Crucial Moments in Australian History, Sydney: UNSW Press, 2008.

Nichols, D., McKinnon, D. and Reeves, K. “Rural asylums and the goldfields civic project”, in Reeves K. and Nichols D. eds. Deeper Leads: New Approaches in Victorian Goldfields History. Ballarat: BHS Publishing, 2007.

Refereed journal articles

Gorman, S., Judd, B., Reeves, K., Osmond, G., Klugman, M., McCarthy, G. “Aboriginal Rules: the black history of Australian football” International Journal of the History of Sport, 1-17, 2016.
DOI:10.1080/09523367.2015.1124861

Cheer, J. M. and Reeves, K. “Colonial heritage and tourism: ethnic landscape perspectives” Journal of Heritage Tourism, 10 (2): 151-166, 2015.Special issue on historic hotels and heritage accommodation.

Reeves, K., Ponsford, M. and Gorman S. “Codes combined: managing expectations and policy responses to racism in sport” Sport and Society, 18 (5): 519-528, 2015.

Laing, J., Wheeler, F., Reeves, K. and Frost, W. “Assessing the experiential value of heritage assets: a case study of a Chinese heritage precinct, Bendigo, Australia”, Tourism Management, 40: 180-192, 2014.

Cheer, J. M., Reeves, K. and Laing, J. “Tourism and traditional culture: land diving in Vanuatu”, Annals of Tourism Research, 43(1): 435-455, 2013.

Cheer, J. M. and Reeves, K. “Roots tourism: blackbirding and the South Sea Islander Diaspora”, Tourism Analysis, 18: 245-257, 2013.

Reeves, K. “Reviewing Chinese-Australian heritage: history, people and place, local and international”, Historic Environment, vol 24:1: 2-6, 2012.

Scates, B., Frances, R., Reeves, K. et. al. “Anzac Day at home and abroad: towards a history of Australia’s national day”, History Compass, vol 10: 523-536, 2012.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2012.00862.x

Reeves, K., Khoo, T. “Dragon tails: re-interpreting Chinese Australian history”, Australian Historical Studies, vol 42:1: 3-8, 2011.

Reeves, K., Mountford, B. “Sojourning and settling: locating Chinese Australian history”, Australian Historical Studies, vol 42:1: 111-125, 2011.

Reeves, K., Eklund, E., Reeves, A., Peel, V. and Scates, B. “Broken Hill: rethinking the significance of the material culture and intangible heritage of the Australian labour movement”, International Journal of Heritage Studies, vol 17:4: 301-317, 2011.

Reeves, K., McConville, C. “Cultural landscape and goldfield heritage: towards a land management framework for the historic south-west Pacific gold mining landscapes”, Landscape Research, vol 36:2, 191-207, 2011.

Reeves, K., Long, C. “Unbearable pressures on paradise? Tourism and heritage management Luang Prabang, a World Heritage Site”, Critical Asian Studies, vol 43:1, 3-20, 2011.

Reeves, K. “Sojourners or a new diaspora? Economic implications of the movement of Chinese miners to the south-west Pacific goldfields”, Australian Economic History Review, vol 50:2 July: 178-192, 2010.

Reeves, K., Frost, L. and Fahey, C. “Integrating the historiography of the nineteenth-century gold rushes”, Australian Economic History Review, vol 50:2 July: 111-128, 2010.

Reeves, K., Sanders E. R. and Chisholm, G.F. “Oral histories of a layered landscape: the Rushworth oral history project”, Public History Review, August: 114-127, 2007.

Key external competitive grants

ARC Discovery Project DP170100198 “Rights in records by design”. This project aims to design and develop a Lifelong Living Archive for children who experience out-of-home care. Children cared for out-of-home need quality record-keeping systems to develop and nurture their sense of identity and connectedness; account for their care experiences throughout their lives; and detect, report, investigate and take action against child neglect and abuse. This research is expected to support children experiencing family dislocation through efficient, effective, and responsive record-keeping systems to ensure the highest standards and continuity of care.

The research team is led by CI Dr Joanne Evans along with Associate Professor Jacqueline Wilson; Professor Susan McKemmish; Associate Professor Philip Mendes; Professor Keir Reeves and Dr Jane Bone. $542,500.00

Australian Research Council Linkage project. CI on project titled Anzac Day at home and abroad: a centenary history of Australia's national day. Other CIs include Prof Bruce Scates, Prof Raelene (Rae) Frances, A/Prof Martin Crotty, Prof Graham Seal, Dr Tim Soutphommasane, Dr Frank Bongiorno, A/Prof Kevin Blackburn, Dr Stephen Clarke, Dr Peter Stanley and Prof Andrew Hoskins. This is a major historical research project that has $662,630 ARC funding and strong partner cash and in-kind support. Partner Organisations include Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Historial de la Grande Guerre, King’s College London, Legacy Australia Council, National Archives of Australia, National Museum of Australia and the Shrine of Remembrance. This project will investigate how Australia is fast approaching the centenary of Anzac Day and many believe this is the one day of the year that captures the spirit of the nation. This project examines Anzac Day’s complex and much contested history, retrieving private and collective memories of war through archival research and novel and participatory public history.

Australian Research Council Linkage Project 2011-2014. Assessing the Australian Football League’s (AFL) racial and religious vilification laws to promote community harmony, multiculturalism and reconciliation. Reeves is a Chief Investigator. This interdisciplinary project analyses the effectiveness of AFL corporate management policy on racial and religious vilification with a view to providing recommendations for further policy actions. A better understanding of how ethnic harmony, diversity and toleration can be achieved will help strengthen the social fabric of the Australian community. As the AFL is one of the largest corporate employers of Indigenous and multicultural Australians, the lessons learned from the operation of its policies and education programs will have important implications for a wide range of Australians across many sectors. Benefits will include recommendations to develop policy frameworks, cross‑cultural training and community capacity building.

Australian Research Council Discovery Project 2010-2013. Chief investigator on a project titled Revisiting Australia’s war: international perspectives on heritage, memory and ANZAC pilgrimages to the cemeteries, sites and battlefields of World War Two (WW2). Included Associate Professor Kevin Blackburn as a Chief Investigator. This project, valued at $207,000 over four years, investigates how war has assumed an iconographic status in Australia and New Zealand; for many the spirit of Anzac defines the values of both nations. A study of WW2 pilgrimage will explore ways the Anzac legend has been revisited, reinvented and revitalised by successive generations through tourism and war pilgrimage related travel. This project retrieves the memory of war from those who suffered it, empowers communities of mourners on both sides of the Tasman and helps to explain why the Anzac mythology captivates such a diverse cross-section of society. It explores a neglected dimension of Australasia's relationship with the world and the Asia/Pacific region in particular. Reeves' role built on heritage in Asia research that he undertook with Dr Colin Long and other Laos and Thai researchers.

Monash Research Fellowship 2009-2014. Worked on a research intensive project titled Heritage tourism and the historical landscapes of Australia, Asia and the Pacific. This fellowship was valued at $850,000 over five years. Utilises the under-theorised, but broadly defined field of heritage studies, this project will analyse how heritage sites can be best thematically interpreted and developed for their sustainable heritage tourism potential. Drawing on a number of research disciplines including history, cultural heritage, tourism and sustainable ecology studies Reeves’ research will contribute to Australia’s reputation as a source of innovative research and ideas in the area of cultural heritage and tourism studies, areas where there is growing international momentum.

Australian Research Council Linkage 2006-2009. ARC Linkage Grants Scheme. First named Chief Investigator and APDI LP0667552, Layers of meaning: historical studies in central Victoria’s regional heritage 1834-1950. The main research outcome of this project was to write the cultural histories of the communities of the central Victorian region. Reeves was the postdoctoral research fellow. Working closely with the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment and Heritage Victoria Keir constructed a layered history and cultural heritage analysis of the region.

Australian Research Council Discovery 2006-2009. Chief Investigator DP0666276, Remembering places of pain and shame: conservation of the Asia-Pacific region’s ‘difficult’ heritage of imprisonment sites. This ARC funded Discovery project contributes to theoretical and practical discourses relevant to Australia’s cultural heritage industry. Its findings have implications for the work of national and state industry bodies (Australian Heritage Council, Australian Department of Environment and Heritage, Heritage Victoria) and professional organisations (Australia ICOMOS). The project findings may lead to concrete results such as the addition of new places to international, national and state heritage registers and their protection for the benefit of the community at large.

Internal competitive grants

2011 Australian and International Tourism Research Unit, Monash University (with Joseph Cheer project leader) Sustainable livelihoods in the Pacific ($25,000).

2009 Faculty of Business & Economics Seeding Grant, Monash University. The Grampian Winemakers Inc: heritage tourism & regional sustainability of an iconic winemaking region ($10,000).

2008 University of Melbourne, Faculty of Arts, Arts Research Seeding Grant Heritage tourism and sustainable development in Laos ($5000).

2007 Faculty of Arts, Arts Research Seeding Grant. Project title: Problematising historical cultural landscapes: new approaches to an old scene ($5000).

2007 University of Melbourne, Early Career Researcher Scheme. Project title: Laos: Heritage and the memory of the Indo-Chinese Wars 1940-1976 ($12,500).

2007 University of Melbourne Publications Committee, Publication subvention for Deeper leads: new approaches to Victorian goldfields history ($5000).

Public engagement, prizes, fellowships, awards and select invited presentations

2017 Invited to give the joint RHSV and La Trobe Society AGL Shaw lecture.

2015 "Exploring the regional and international historical connections of the nineteenth century South-West Pacific gold rushes" Gold Rush Imperialism: Gold Mining and Global History in the Age of Imperialism, c. 1848-1914 Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford 16-17 April. Also invited guest chair of Professor Mae Ngai's keynote presentation.

2015 Commentary ABC regional radio on Historic Urban Landscapes on the FedUni, City of Ballarat and UNESCO international workshop.

2015 Member of AusHeritage cultural services delegation as part of the Austrade Australian Trade Mission to India in Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur (January 2015). Presented on managing heritage landscapes in a transnational context.

2014 Australian Army History Unit Award on a project titled Mapping the Darwin Mobile Force: Historical and aerial archaeology of the Darwin bombings working with Professor Birger Stichelbaut - Ghent University and Dr Gertjan Plets from Stanford University.

2014-2015 Visiting Researcher, Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

2014 Anzac Journeys: Walking the Battlefields of World War Two (Port Melbourne, Cambridge University Press 2013) short listed for the Australian Historical Association 2014 Ernest Scott Prize.

2013 Clare Hall Cambridge Visiting Fellow, University of Cambridge.

2013 Visiting Researcher, Heritage Research Group, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and in the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge.

2013, Invited speaker, In Flanders Fields Museum and Ghent University.

2013, Invited speaker, Centre for Research in Memory, Narrative and Histories, University of Brighton.

Invited keynote panellist, 150 Years of Riches: The Central Otago Gold Rush, 1862 - 2012 Conference, Cromwell, Central Otago, New Zealand August 31, 2012 Hosted by University of Canterbury.

26 January 2012. Reeves provided television commentary for BBC World News on the 2012 Australia Day ceremonies and associated public debate regarding the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. Keir also provided comment for a television interview with Zeinab Badawi on the Australian federal political situation for the World News Today programme on BBC World News on the 27th of February 2012.

16 February 2012 Invited speaker University of Cambridge, Department of Archaeology, Cambridge Heritage Research Group, seminar paper titled "Approaches to Understanding Difficult and Contested Heritage in an International Comparative Context".

12 February 2012. Briefed the incoming Australian Ambassador Noel White at SOAS on contemporary Australian politics and the structure and recent performance of the Australian economy.

Invited speaker and guest lecturer School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) 7 February 2012, seminar paper titled "Cultural Heritage Tourism & Development in Laos".

2011/2012 Senior Rydon Fellowship, Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King's College, University of London, United Kingdom.

18 January 2012 King's College London seminar paper titled "Anzac Day at Home and Abroad: Towards a History of Australia's National Day".

February 2012, Visiting Fellow to School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) London, United Kingdom.

2011 Australian Senior Bicentennial Fellowship, Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King's College, University of London, United Kingdom.

Invited speaker to the Donald Horne Institute, Canberra University.

Invited speaker to the Australian Academy of Humanities in Adelaide November 2010 as part of their symposium titled "Sharing Our Common Wealth: Cultural Institutions".

Co-awarded best paper at the 2nd UNESCO-ICCROM Asian Academy for Heritage Management Conference, held at the Institute for Tourism Studies in Macau, December 1-3, 2009.

The Victorian Finalist for the Fulbright Award Australia Postdoctoral Fellowship 2008.

Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Australia-China Council Hong Kong Fellowship, 2008. (For research into nineteenth century historical mining connections between Australia and China.)

The Australian Academy for the Humanities Early Career Travelling Fellowship 2007.

Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship Industry, 2006.

Faculty of Arts Fieldwork Scheme Award, 2004.

Lloyd Robson Memorial Travelling Prize, 2004.

APAI PhD scholarship for ARC SPIRT project "The Mt Alexander Diggings Project" 2001-2004.

Ian Robertson Memorial Travelling Prize, 2003.