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Dr Emma Waterton

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School of Social Sciences and Psychology

Dr Emma Waterton

Lecturer, Tourism and Heritage Studies

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Biography
Qualifications
Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise
Grants / Current Projects
Awards and Recognition
Selected Publications
Activities

Biography

Emma Waterton is a Lecturer in Social Science and works in the area of Heritage Studies. Before taking up her post at UWS in 2010, she held an RCUK Academic Fellowship in the areas of History and Heritage at Keele University. Her research interests emphasize community heritage, representations of the past and the critical analysis public policy, especially those tackling social inclusion, multiculturalism and expressions of national identity. Together, these interests challenge the dominant conceptualizations of heritage found in policy, which tend to privilege the cultural symbols of a particular social group. In particular, her work attempts to illustrate how and why, despite attempts to mitigate instances of exclusion, recent policies continue to lean towards the predictable melding of cultural diversity with tendencies of assimilation. She is currently assistant editor of the International Journal of Heritage Studies(opens in a new window).

Qualifications

BA (Qld); MA; PhD (York).

Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise

Heritage Studies; Heritage Tourism; Cultural Policy

Grants / Current Projects

Photos of the Past: The negotiation of identity and belonging at Australian tourism sites
Funded by the ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award

This project offers a comparative analysis of the way Australia’s past is constructed and remembered at three categories of heritage tourism sites (six sites in total). The project will examine how the messages presented at each site are used to underpin present day constructions of national belonging and will do so by targeting ‘affect’ (felt responses to atmosphere, mood and message). Methodologically, the project will involve the ubiquitous touristic practice of ‘photographing’, which will allow the research to move beyond notions of representation and consider how processes of ‘taking photos’ can be used to access sensory experiences, recover memories and imbue touristic sites with meaning.

Memorialisation and Affect: Remembering Pearl Harbour
Funded by the University of Western Sydney Research Seed Grant Scheme

This project will explore the way visitors construct and express identity at a range of heritage tourism sites associated with Pearl Harbour. The project will examine how messages presented at such sites are used to underpin present day constructions of national belonging and will do so by targeting ‘affect’ (felt responses to atmosphere, mood and message). Methodologically, the project will attempt to move beyond notions of representation and consider how affective experiences at tourism sites work to shape collective, shared memories and imbue such sites with personal meaning.

Signs of a Distant Past: interpretive signage and the representation of Indigenous history in Australian protected areas (with Dr Annie Clarke)
Funded by the University of Sydney

This project will examine how Indigenous cultures are presented to the public in protected areas through a textual analysis of interpretive signage. In protected areas different representational tropes are used to interpret colonial/settler, natural heritage and indigenous places. Do these contrasting interpretive strategies signify to visitors a hierarchy of place value in protected areas? Does the signage at indigenous places alienate contemporary communities from country and history through a distant and detached view of culture, authorised via the template of scientific objectivity? These questions will be investigated through a comparative study at Carnarvon Gorge, Gariwerd, and Uluru National Parks.

Everyday geopolitics: Nationalist subjectivities and ANZAC thanatourism (with Dr Jason Dittmer)
Funded by the University of Western Sydney IRIS Scheme

This project explores the affective experiences of memorial visitors using methodological innovations that can open up collective experiences of place and related intensities of affect. The research questions are both theoretical and methodological: First, how are affective spaces of thanatourism produced via specific practices, materials & relations? Second, how do we best capture this affective dimension? Recovering the affective dimension requires the adoption of innovative methods capable of qualitatively investigating sensory experiences and the means by which people imbue touristic sites with meaning. This project engages in unobtrusive observation, supplemented with a form of performative ethnography advocated by Morgan and Pritchard (2005). Close description of bodily responses to the rituals and sites of memorials will be collected, such as participants’ posture, gestures, smiles, tears, spontaneous hand-holding, etc. (as per McCormack 2003). Close observation of the engagements and orientations of participants vis-à-vis landscape elements will be used to note the role of the non-human in co-producing affects.

Representation and Subjectivity: Heritage Tourism in Hiroshima
This project will analyze the role heritage tourism plays in representing identity and narratives of historical injustice within prepared touristic spaces using the example of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The relationship between represented narratives and the subjective responses of tourists will be explored, along with ideas of non-representational theory, which will be aided by the adoption of a performative ethnographic approach. A significant outcome will be the testing of a distinct combination of qualitative methods designed to capture the ‘non-representational’. The research will provide material that reflects upon the treatment of historical injustice in the international museum context, thereby contributing to national attempts to communicate issues of guilt and responsibility.

Recently Completed Projects

Overcoming Obsolescence? Museums, Heritage and Identity in the Potteries (funded by the British Academy)
Recent New Labour government policies charged with sponsoring community regeneration and social inclusion have associated deindustrialised areas with a negative and dismissive construction of 'heritage'. This project aims to challenge this association by proposing that important and meaningful cultural work is undertaken in such areas, not only in terms of understanding the past, but in engendering expressions of place, identity and belonging in the present. To do so, the project attempts to understand the ways in which people actively and critically engage with identity work at industrial-era social history museums/visitor centres in the Potteries. As part of the project, I am working closely with a number of museums, and the data collected includes interview material with museum staff, educational officers and museum visitors.

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Awards and Recognition

2012-2014 ARC Discovery Early Career Research Grant

2010 Internal Research Scheme Grants, Seed Grant for Early Career Researchers, University of Western Sydney

2008–2010 British Academy Small Grant

2006-2010 Research Councils United Kingdom (RCUK) Academic Fellow in History and Heritage

2002–2003 University of York Masters Scholarship

Selected Publications

Books

Waterton, E. (2010) Politics, Policy and the Discourses of Heritage.(opens in a new window) Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Smith, L. and Waterton E. (2009) Heritage, Communities and Archaeology.(opens in a new window) London: Gerald Duckworth and Co.

Edited Books

Howard, P., Thompson, I. and Waterton, E. (eds) (in press, 2012) Routledge Companion to Landscape Studies. London: Routledge.

Smith, L. Waterton, E. and Watson, S. (eds)(in press, 2012) The Cultural Moment in Heritage Tourism. London: Routledge.

Waterton, E. and Watson S. (eds) (2010) Heritage and Community Development: Collaboration or Contestation?(opens in a new window) London: Routledge.

Waterton, E. and Watson S. (eds) (2010) Culture, Heritage and Representations.(opens in a new window) Aldershot: Ashgate Publishers.

Smith, L. and Waterton, E. (eds) (2009) Taking Archaeology out of Heritage.(opens in a new window) Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press.

Hull, D, Grabow S. and Waterton E. (eds) (2007) Which Past, Whose Future? Treatments of the Past at the Start of the 21st Century,(opens in a new window) Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.

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Book Chapters

Waterton, E. (in press, 2012) Landscape and Non-Representational Theories. In P. Howard, I. Thompson and E. Waterton (eds) The Routledge Companion to Landscape Studies, London: Routledge.

Watson, S., E. Waterton and L. Smith (in press, 2012) Moments, Instances and Experiences. In L. Smith, E. Waterton and S. Watson (eds) The Cultural Moment in Tourism, London: Routledge.

Waterton, E. and S. Watson (in press, 2012) Shades of the Caliphate: The Cultural Moment in Southern Spain. In L. Smith, E. Waterton and S. Watson (eds) The Cultural Moment in Tourism, London: Routledge.

Smith, L. and E. Waterton (2012) Constrained by Commonsense: The Authorised Heritage Discourse in Contemporary Debates. In J. Carman, R. Skeates and C. McDavid(eds) The Oxford Handbook of Public Archaeology, (opens in a new window) Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Waterton, E. (2011) The Burden of Knowing Versus the Privilege of Unknowing. In L. Smith, G. Cubitt, R. Wilson and K. Fouseki (eds) Representing Enslavement and Abolition in Museums: Ambiguous Engagements, London: Routledge.

Waterton, E. and L. Smith (2011) The Recognition and the Misrecognition of Community Heritage. In. Waterton, E. and S. Watson (eds) Heritage and Community Development: Collaboration or Contestation? London: Routledge.

Waterton, E. and Watson, S. (2011) Heritage and Community Development: Collaboration or Contestation? In. Waterton, E. and S. Watson (eds) Heritage and Community Development: Collaboration or Contestation?(opens in a new window) London: Routledge.

Watson, S. and Waterton, E. (2010) The Visuality of the Past. In E. Waterton and S. Watson (eds) Culture, Heritage and Representation: Perspectives on Visuality and the Past. (opens in a new window) Aldershot: Ashgate Publishers.

Waterton, E. (2010) Branding the Past: The Visual Imagery of England's Heritage. In E. Waterton and S. Watson (eds) Culture, Heritage and Representations: Perspectives on Visuality and the Past. (opens in a new window) Aldershot: Ashgate Publishers.

Waterton, E. and. Smith L. (2009) There is No Such Thing as Heritage. In E. Waterton and L. Smith (eds) Taking Archaeology out of Heritage.(opens in a new window) Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press.

Smith, L. and Waterton, E. (2009) 'The Envy of the World: Intangible Heritage in the United Kingdom. In L. Smith and N. Akagawa (eds) Intangible Heritage.(opens in a new window) London: Routledge.

Waterton, E. (2008) 'Declining Communities'. In R. Rakoczy (ed) The Archaeology of Destruction,(opens in a new window) 107-127. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Waterton, E. (2007) Heritage as Discourse: An Institutionalised Construction of the Past in the UK. In Hull, D, S. Grabow and E. Waterton (eds) Which Past, Whose Future? Treatments of the Past at the Start of the 21st Century,(opens in a new window) 31–39. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.

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Edited Journal Volumes

Smith, L., Cubitt, G. and E. Waterton (eds)(2010) Special Volume: Museums and the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Museum and Society (opens in a new window) 8(3).

Waterton, E. and Watson S. (2010) Special Volume: Heritage and Community Engagement (opens in a new window): Collaboration or Contestation? International Journal of Heritage Studies 16(1&2).

Atha M. and Waterton, E. (2008) Recovering Landscape as a Cultural Practice (opens in a new window) – Special Section, Journal of Landscape Research , 33(5): 509–510.

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Journal Articles

Smith, L. and E. Waterton (2011) ‘Heritage and the Politics of Exclusion’, Current Swedish Archaeology, 19: 45–49.

Waterton, E. (2011) ‘In the Spirit of Self-Mockery? Labour Heritage and Identity in the Potteries’. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 17(4): 344–363.

Watson, S. and E. Waterton (2010) Reading the Visual: Representation and Narrative in the Construction of Heritage, Material Culture Review, (opens in a new window) 71 (Spring): 84-97.

Waterton, E. (2010) Humiliated Silence: Multiculturalism, Blame and the Trope of 'Moving On', (opens in a new window) Museum and Society, (opens in a new window) 8(3): 128-157.

Waterton, E. (2010) Commentary Article: The Advent of New Digital Technologies. Museum Management and Curatorship.(opens in a new window) 25(1): 5–11.

Waterton, E. and Smith L. (2010) The Recognition and the Misrecognition of Community Heritage, International Journal of Heritage Studies,(opens in a new window) 16(1&2): 4–15.

Waterton, E., Smith L., Wilson R. and Fouseki, K. (2010) Forgetting to Heal: Remembering the Abolition Act of 1807. European Journal of English Studies,(opens in a new window) 14(1): 23–36.

Waterton, E. and Wilson R. (2009) Talking the Talk: Policy, Popular and Media Responses to the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade using the "Abolition Discourse". Discourse and Society,(opens in a new window) 20(3): 381-399.

Waterton, E. (2009) Sites of Sights: Picturing Heritage, Power and Exclusion. Journal of Heritage Tourism,(opens in a new window) 4(1): 37-56.

Waterton, E. and Atha, M. (2008) Introduction: Recovering Landscape as a Cultural Practice. Landscape Research,(opens in a new window) 33(5): 509-510.

Waterton, E. and Smith L. (2008) Grey Literature Review: Heritage Protection at the Start of the 21st Century. Cultural Trends,(opens in a new window) 17(3): 197-203.

Waterton, E. (2006) The Meaning of 'Heritage': Mapping Discursive Perspectives with Q Methodology. Operant Subjectivity, 29(3&4): 138–181.

Waterton, E., Smith L. and Campbell G. (2006) The Utility of Discourse Analysis to Heritage Studies: The Burra Charter and Social Inclusion. International Journal of Heritage Studies,(opens in a new window) 12(4): 339-355.

Waterton, E. (2005) Whose Sense of Place? Reconciling Archaeological Perspectives with Community Values: Cultural Landscapes in England. International Journal of Heritage Studies,(opens in a new window) 11(4): 309-326.

Book Reviews

Waterton, E. (2011) Porter, L. Unlearning the Colonial Cultures of Planning. Aldershot: Ashgate. Landscape Research.

Waterton, E. (2011) Nyseth, T. & Viken, A. (eds) Place Reinvention. Aldershot: Ashgate. Urban Studies 48(14).

Waterton, E. (2011) Ashton, P. & Kean, H. (eds) People and their Pasts. Aldershot: Ashgate. International Journal of Heritage Studies 17(2): 195-196.

Waterton, E. (2010) Sørensen, M.S. & Carman, J. (eds)Heritage Studies:Methods and Approaches. London: Routledge. Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites, 12(4): 363-364.

Waterton, E. (2007) Casella, E.C. and Fowler, C. (ed.). The Archaeology of Plural and Changing Identities: Beyond Identification. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum. Antiquity,(opens in a new window) 81(313): 800-801.

Waterton, E. (2006) Smiles, S. and Moser, S. (eds) Envisiong the Past: Archaeology and the Image. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. Antiquity,(opens in a new window) 80(310): 1009-1010.