Rate My Professor Alison Atkinson-Phillips

Atkinson-Phillips's research centres on memory studies, oral history, activism, commemoration, and community archives. She investigates the ways ordinary people mobilise the past to negotiate their present, employing oral history methods alongside visual and other sources. Notable projects include an ongoing collaboration with Dwellbeing Shieldfield, a community co-operative in northeast England, exploring 'messy archiving', which produced a small print booklet. Her scholarship has significantly contributed to understanding public memorials and survivor commemorations in Australia. Key publications include the book Survivor Memorials: Remembering Trauma and Loss in Contemporary Australia (University of Western Australia Press, 2019); 'On being moved: art, affect and activation in public commemorations of trauma' (Continuum, 2018); 'Commemoration as Witnessing: 20 Years of Remembering the Stolen Generations at Colebrook Reconciliation Park'; 'Remembering experience: Public memorials are not just about the dead anymore'; 'The Power of Place: Monuments and Memory'; and 'The Communities and Change exhibition' (2025). At Murdoch, she teaches courses on storytelling and collaboration in community development and supervises placement students. Her work bridges academic research with community practice, emphasising participatory approaches to history and memory.