Associate Professor Janis Wilton

Adjunct Associate Professor - Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education; School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

Janis Wilton

Biography

Janis Wilton is a public and applied historian with a particular interest in oral history, local and family history, ethnic community history, and history and museums. Before her retirement in 2017, she coordinated and taught into the UNE’s courses on local, family and applied history, and supervised research work in these areas. Working as a sole researcher/author and as part of a team, she has communicated her work through books, monographs, reports, articles, book chapters, conference papers, guest talks, exhibitions, websites, online databases, an audio-tour, radio programs, an education resource kit and exhibitions. She has also, and with passion, shared her experiences and expertise through workshops and through working with community groups to develop their own public and applied history projects.

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy, University of New England, 1996

Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours, University of Sydney, 1974

Awards

(with Maitland Regional Art Gallery) MAGNA 2022 (Museums and Galleries National Awards), Highly commended -  Interpretation or Learning Initiative, Level 2 for  A Conspicuous Object: The Maitland Hospital, 2022.exhibition and website.

(with Maitland Regional Art Gallery) National Trust Heritage Award for Interpretation and Presentation (Corporate/Government) for Maitland Jewish Cemetery Project, 2010.

Hazel de Berg Award for Excellence in Oral History, 2009.

Honorary Life Membership, Oral History Australia, 2009.

Order of Australia in the General Division (OAM) for ‘service to the community as historian, author and researcher, to historical associations, and to the Chinese heritage of New South Wales’, 2006.

(with Joe Eisenberg) EnergyAustralia/National Trust Heritage Award for Cultural Heritage/Individuals for Golden Threads: The Chinese in Regional NSW Project, 2005.

Research Interests

  • oral history theory and practice
  • ethnic community and family histories
  • history and museums
  • local and community histories
  • public and applied history.

Publications

Books, Monographs & Reports

with Joe Eisenberg, Collected Memory Stage One, Report to NSW Health Infrastructure and Hunter and New England Local Health District, 2019.

with Joe Eisenberg, Open Museums, Open Minds, Report to Maitland CIty Council, 2018.

with Joe Eisenberg, Maitland Jewish Cemetery Interpretation Plan, Maitland City Council, 2018.

Maitland Showground Interpretation Plan, Hunter River Agricultural and Horticultural Association, Maitland, 2015.

Maitland Jewish Cemetery: A Monument to Dreams and Deeds, Maitland, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Maitland, 2010

Different Sights: Immigrants in New England, Sydney, NSW Migration Heritage Centre, 2009., NSW Migration Heritage Centre, Sydney, 2009.

Golden Threads: The Chinese in Regional NSW 1850-1950, Powerhouse Publishing, Sydney, 2004.

Museums and Memory, Museum of Antiquities Maurice Kelly Lecture, University of New England, Armidale, 2004.

with Jinx Miles and Kevin Brooks, Conservation and Management Plan for Wing Hing Long and Co Store, Tingha, National Trust of Queensland prepared for the NSW Heritage Office, 2000.

Immigrants in the Bush, NSW Department of Education Multicultural Education Coordinating Committee and Armidale CAE, Armidale, 1988/1989. (School resource package)

(ed.) Internment: The Diaries of Harry Seidler May 1940-October 1941, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1986.

with Richard Bosworth, Old Worlds and New Australia: The Post War Migrant Experience, Penguin, Melbourne, 1984.

Balancing the Books: Oral history for the community, Ethnic Affairs Commission of NSW, 1982.

Articles and Book Chapters (since 2000)

with Judith Godden,  ‘”She was indeed a strong-minded woman”: Elizabeth Morrow, from servant to matron, 1868-86’, Health and History, 24/1, 2022, pp 86-108.

'Aunty Olive's photographs' in Catherine Rogers (ed), A Country Life: the black and white photographs of Olive R. Odewahn, LhR Press, Sydney, 2020, pp. 32-40.

‘“The most beautiful  joss house”: Chinese temples in Emmaville and Tingha', Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies, 8, 2019, pp. 26-49.

'Histories of the Chinese in regional New South Wales 1850-1950', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 105/1, June 2019, pp. 49-69.

‘People and place: local history’ in Paul Ashton, Anna Clark and Robert Crawford (eds), Once Upon a Time: Australian Writers Using the Past, Australian Scholarly Press, Melbourne, 2016, pp. 178-193.

‘Imaging family memories: my Mum, her photographs, our memories’ in Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson (eds), The Oral History Reader, Third Edition, Routledge, London, 2016, pp. 267-280. (Reprint)

‘Multiculturism’ in Armidale 150 Years, Armidale City Council, Armidale, 2014, pp. 195-197.

'Local history in Australia’ in Carol Kammen and Amy H. Wilson (eds), Encyclopedia of Local History, Second Edition, Lanham, Altamira Press, 2012, pp.50-52.

‘Imaging family memories: my Mum, her photographs, our memories’ in Alexander Freund and Alistair Thomson (eds), Oral History and Photography, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp.61-76.

‘Oral history in universities: from margins to mainstream’ in Donald Ritchie (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Oral History, Oxford University Press, New York, 2011, pp.470-489.

with Joanne Scott, Al Stein and Alistair Thomson, ‘Teaching oral history in Australian universities’, Oral History Association of Australia Journal, 33, 2011, pp. 69-75.

'A cemetery and its stories', Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 19/4, 2010, pp. 43-68

‘Belongings: oral history, objects and an online exhibition’, Public History Review, 16, 2009, pp.1-19.

‘Telling objects: material culture and memory in oral history interviews’, Oral History Association of Australia Journal, 30, 2008, pp.41-49.

'A white Australia?' in Deborah Gare and David Ritter (eds), Making Australian History: Perspectives on the Past since 1788, Thomson, Melbourne, 2007, pp.272-279.

‘Migration stories, international oral history and transnational networks: a (very personal) view from ‘down under’, BIOS: Zeitschrift für Biographieforschung, Oral History und Lebensverlaufsanalysen, 2007, pp. 230-234

‘Twentieth-century immigrants’ in Alan Atkinson et.al. (eds), High Lean Country: Land, People and Memory in New England, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2006, pp.196-208.

‘Museums and memories: remembering the past in local and community museums’, Public History Review, 12, 2006, pp.58-79.

‘Generations of journeys’ in J.A. Hammerton and Eric Richards (eds.) Speaking to Immigrants: Oral Testimony and the History of Australian Migration, History Program and Centre for Immigration and Multicultural Studies, ANU, 2002, pp. 149-169.

‘The Chinese history and heritage of regional NSW’ in Ann Curthoys, Henry Chan, Nora Chiang (eds), The Overseas Chinese in Australasia: History, Settlement and Interactions, National Taiwan University and Centre for the Study of the Chinese Diaspora, ANU, Canberra, 2001, pp. 91-101.

‘Chinese immigrants in Australia’ in Daniel Snowman ed., Past Masters: The Best of History Today, Sutton Publishing and History Today, London, 2001, pp.425-434.

‘The walls speak, don’t they? – Heritage places and contested memories: a case study’, OHAA Journal, 22, pp. 16-23.

Non Traditional Research Outcomes   (since 2000)

Significance assessements for Maitland Libraries, 2022.

co-curator, A Conspicuous Object - The Maitland Hospital (exhibition), Maitland Regional Art Gallery, 16 October 2021 to 6 February 2022.

A Conspicuous Object - The Maitland Hospital (website), 2021 ongoing.

co-curator, Passchendaele: photography and the moving image in battle (exhibition and catalogue), Maitland Regional Art Gallery, 14 October 2017- 28 January 2018

co-curator, Maitland’s Own (exhibition), Brough House/Maitland Regional Museum, 29 September-26 November 2017.

Encounters with Maitland's early Jewish community (walking tour brochure), Maitland City Council, 2017.

with Kay Delahunt, Shiralee Franks, Amanda Burke, Megan Pitt and Kerrie Shaw, Goonoo Goonoo Station Oral History Project, Central Northern Regional Library, Tamworth, 2015. (Outcomes: workshop notes, report, oral history manual, oral history interviews and accompanying material catalogued and accessible online).

Maitland Regional Art Gallery: Art and Heritage Tour (app and audio tour), Maitland Regional Art Gallery and Acoustiguide Australia, Maitland and Sydney, 2014. Available as free downloads from iTunes and Google Play.

Views of Maitland (online research database), Heritage Futures Research Centre, UNE, 2009 – (ongoing).

Different Sights: Immigrants in New England (online research database), Heritage Futures Research Centre, UNE, 2008

Golden Threads: The Chinese in Regional NSW 1850-1950 (website), 2001-2006. (Archived copy; many links no longer work).

co-curator, Golden Threads: The Chinese in Regional NSW 1850-1950,  (travelling exhibition, 2001 to 2004. 17 venues in regional and metropolitan NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. Funded by Visions Australia)

'Wing Hing Long' in Sites and Scenes (CD-Rom), NSW Department of Education and Training and NSW Heritage Office, Sydney, 2000.

Book reviews (since 2005)

‘Visions of colonial grandeur: John Twycross at Melbourne’s international exhibitions [Book Review]’, Journal of Australian Colonial History, 18, 2016, pp.218-220.

‘Kay Dreyfus, Silences and Secrets: The Australian Experience of the Weintraubs Syncopators, Melbourne, Monash University Publishing, 2013’, Australian Historical Studies, 45/2, 2014, pp.289-290.

'Alistair Thomson, Moving Stories: An intimate history of four women across two countries, Sydney, University of New South Wales Press, 2011’, Oral History Association of Australia Journal, 34, 2012, pp.76-77.

'Nathalie Nguyen, Memory is Another Country: Women of the Vietnamese Diaspora, Santa Barbara, Praeger, 2009’, Oral History (UK), 40/2, 2012, pp.120-121

'Peta Stephenson, The Outsiders Within: Telling Australia’s Indigenous-Asian Story, Sydney, University of NSW Press, 2007’, Oral History Review, 35/2, 2007, pp.241-243.

'Sophie Couchman, John Fitzgerald and Paul Macgregor (eds), After the Rush: Regulation, Participation and Chinese Communities in Australia 1860-1940, Melbourne, 2004’, Journal of Australian Colonial History, 9, 2007.

'Rob Perks and Alistair Thomson (eds), The Oral History Reader 2nd Edition, Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge, 2006’, Oral History, 35/1, 2007, pp.107-108.

'Paul Jones, Chinese-Australian journeys: Records on travel, migration and settlement 1860-1975, Canberra, National Archives of Australia, 2005’, History Australia, 3/1, 2006, pp.22.1+.

Memberships

International Oral History Association (incl. former Council member, Vice President and President)
Maitland and District Historical Society (research committee)
Maitland Jewish Cemetery Advisory Committee

External Profiles