As of 2015, I am working full-time on a PhD at the University of Melbourne’s School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, with the involvement of Museum Victoria; and I’ve got one foot planted in the world of archives. It’s a history/museums/archives thing.

For six and a half years (mid-2008 to the end of 2014) I was at the University of Melbourne’s eScholarship Research Centre, which is part of the University Library, ending up in the role of Senior Research Archivist. While studying I am still there about a day a week, but now as an academic casual. We do mainly post-custodial archival projects and social/cultural informatics work focused on documenting, preserving and disseminating research and developing sustainable public knowledge resources. Our hope is always that what we do contributes to the public good by making information and resources freely available and understandable to the community – not just to academics and researchers – and in pursuing this aim we find our work often crosses paths with digital, public and open humanities.

Before all that (apart from some – admittedly valuable – time in corporate purgatory) I completed a Masters by Research in Art History, with my main focus being post-World War II practice, theory and the social history of art; and that followed a BA(Hons) in Art History with quite a bit of English Lit and Philosophy thrown in. I spent time looking at body imagery, artists who were Other in established art scenes, post-World War II art, performance, feminist and queer art and theory, and similar stuff.

And I’m a museum and gallery goer; fiction junky, book lover, compulsive reader and undisciplined writer; a musician (piano and keyboards, and a little bit of guitar), music fan and occasional DJ; and a whole lot more.

The usual disclaimer applies: except where explicitly stated otherwise, the views expressed are my own and do not represent those of my university, employers, funders, colleagues or collaborators.

For more (with occasional rude words thrown in) visit me on Twitter: @mikejonesmelb