Staff Profiles
Dr Alison Atkinson-Phillips
Lecturer in Public History
- Email: alison.atkinson-phillips@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: 01912084601
- Address: Newcastle University
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
I am Newcastle University's first lecturer in public history, and am working with colleagues from across the School of History, Classics and Archaeology (HCA) to design new public history teaching at all study levels.
As a public historian, I am interested in the past in the present. My research interests include memory activism and activist memories. I am interested in how difficult pasts are dealt with in the present, public art and place-based memory work.
I joined HCA originally in January 2018 as an oral history research associate, and was instrumental in the formation of the Newcastle University Oral History Unit & Collective.
Before coming to Newcastle, I worked as a casual tutor and lecturer in Community Development and Professional Writing at the Faculty of Arts at Murdoch University, and in History at the University of Western Australia.
I completed my BA(Hons) undergraduate degree in Communication & Cultural Studies at Curtin University in the 1990s, before spending a decade working as a communications professional. I re-entered academic life to complete a graduate diploma in Community Development at Murdoch University, Perth and then followed this up with a PhD at the Australian Centre for Public History at the University of Technology, Sydney supervised by Professor Paula Hamilton. My PhD, titled 'Reasons to Remember: Public Memorials to Lived Experiences of Loss in Australia, 1985-2015', was completed in 2017.
Outside of academia, I have had a long involvement in social justice advocacy at a community level, including being involved in campaigns on prison justice and responses to asylum seekers in Australia. I spend my spare time hiking, knitting and hanging out with my family.
Area of Expertise
Public history, oral history, co-production, memory studies, memorialisation, public art, food poverty, deindustrialisation
I am a public historian who works across disciplinary boundaries, including cultural memory studies, oral history and cultural geography. My research brings together two important fields: historical dialogue and deindustrialisation studies. My research practice uses oral history along with visual and other sources. Below are some of the ongoing projects I am involved with.
Covid-19 Mutual Aid Pilot
Investigating the localised mutual aid response to the Covid-I9 lockdown, this project is a collaboration between Northern Cultural Projects and the Oral History Unit & Collective. Read more at https://research.ncl.ac.uk/oralhistory/fundedprojects/covid-19andmutualaid.html.
Foodbank Histories
I am the academic lead on Foodbank Histories, a collaboration between Northern Cultural Projects, Newcastle West End Foodbank, and the Oral History Unit & Collective. Read more at https://research.ncl.ac.uk/oralhistory/fundedprojects/foodbankhistories.html.
Memories of Shipbuilding in North East England
I am exploring histories of deindustrialisation in the North East, with a focus on the experiences of people connected to the shipbuilding industry. Working with associate researcher Rosie Bush, I created the We Made Ships public history website. Produced in consultation with secondary teaching staff, it is designed to be of use for students, teachers and local historians.
Survivor Memorials
My PhD My previous research used oral history to understand the cultural 'work' of memorials to lived experience in Australia. The findings of this research were published as Survivor Memorials (although unfortunately not everyone who lived through a difficult experience ultimately survives). I continue to be interested in both the history of public commemorative practices and the people who often have to fight to have their histories remembered.
Module leader:
HIS1104 Public History
HIS3030 History and Society
Contributions:
HIS2219 Oral History and Memory
- Atkinson-Phillips Alison. (Re)Commemoration: What other stories can we tell?. In: Gensburger S; Wustenberg J, ed. De-Commemoration : Making Sense of Contemporary Calls for Tearing Down Statues and Renaming Places. Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2021. In Press.
- Atkinson-Phillips A. Australian Welcome Walls and Other Sites of Networked Migrant Memory. In: Capdepón U; Dornhof S, ed. Contested Urban Spaces: Monuments, Traces, and Decentered Memories. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. In Press.
- Atkinson-Phillips A. Commemorating childhood loss and trauma: survivor memorials in Australia. Historic Environment 2021, 32(2), 54-67.
- Atkinson-Phillips Alison. The Power of Place: Monuments and Memory. In: Ashton P; Hamilton P, ed. The History Industry in Australia. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2021. In Press.
- Atkinson-Phillips A, Fisch S, Hepworth J. Experiences of place and loss at Newcastle West End Foodbank. North East History 2020, 51, 163-179.
- Atkinson-Phillips A, Fisch S, Hepworth J, Smith G. Foodbank histories: solidarity and mutual aid in the past and the present. King’s College London, 2020. History & Policy.
- Atkinson-Phillips A. Remembering experience: Public memorials are not just about the dead anymore. Memory Studies 2022, 15(5), 947-962.
- Hepworth J, Atkinson-Philllips A, Fisch S, Smith G. “I was not aware of the hardship”: Foodbank Histories from North-East England. Public History Review 2019, 26, 1-25.
- Atkinson-Phillips A, Capdepon U, Strauss J, Lopez Badell O. Mapping Historical Dialogue: Remembering for the Future. Kritika Kultura 2019, 33/34, 786-805.
- Atkinson-Phillips A. Material Testimony: Memorials Bearing Witness to Experiences of Loss and Trauma. In: Santos, C; Spahr, A; Crowe Morey, T, ed. Testimony and Trauma: Engaging Common Ground. Leiden: Brill, 2019, pp.13-35.
- Atkinson-Phillips A. Settled and Unsettled: The Spirit of Enterprise Project as (Post)Settler-Colonial Memory Activism. In: Darian-Smith, K; Hamilton, P, ed. Remembering Migration: Oral Histories and Heritage in Australia. Melbourne: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, pp.271-283.
- Atkinson-Phillips A. Survivor Memorials: Remembering Trauma and Loss in Contemporary Australia. Perth, Western Australia: University of Western Australia Publishing, 2019.
- Atkinson-Phillips A. Commemorating a rape: Mary’s Place 1997 and 2010. Outskirts 2018, 38, 1-17.
- Atkinson-Phillips A. Commemoration as Witnessing: 20 years of remembering the stolen generations at Colebrook Reconciliation Park. De Arte 2018, 53(2-3), 103-121.
- Atkinson-Phillips A. On being moved: art, affect and activation in public commemorations of trauma. Continuum 2018, 32(3), 381-392.
- Atkinson-Phillips A. Re-remembering Australia: Public memorials sharing difficult knowledge. Coolabah 2018, 24&25, 76-93.
- Atkinson-Phillips A. Beyond the ANZAC spirit: Commemorating civilian experience of war. Studies in Western Australian History 2017, (32), 135-147.
- Atkinson-Phillips A. Telling stories, bearing witness: Public memorials and oral history. Oral History Australia Journal 2016, 38, 43-50.