Kylie Message-Jones

Professor Kylie Message-Jones is a leading figure in Public Humanities and holds the position of Director at the ANU Humanities Research Centre. She is affiliated with the Research School of Humanities & the Arts within ANU's College of Arts and Social Sciences. Her research focuses on museums as sites of political exchange, citizenship, and activism, with significant contributions to understanding racism in cultural institutions and multicultural policy impacts. She holds additional roles as Research Fellow at the National Museum of Australia and chairs multiple academic boards globally.

Message-Jones has held prestigious roles including Deputy Chair of ANU's University Research Committee, Director of the Australasian Consortium of Humanities Researchers and Centres, and Head of the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology. Her qualifications include a PhD and BA(Hons) from the University of Melbourne, complemented by an Oxford Cultural Leaders fellowship. She has held visiting fellowships at Indiana University, University of Copenhagen, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Her research outputs include seminal books like Museums and Racism (2018) and Collecting Activism, Archiving Occupy Wall Street (2019), alongside editorial leadership in journals such as Humanities Research. Her work bridges academia and public engagement through media commentary on cultural policy and university reform. Current projects include the Cultural History of Protest anthology and the Global Humanities Institute on Indigenous Mobilities.

Message-Jones actively shapes scholarly networks through her roles with the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes, Routledge's Museums in Focus series, and the Vietnamese Museum of Australia’s advisory board. Her research emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration between universities and cultural institutions, particularly in documenting activism and decolonizing museum practices.