HistoryAtWork is a professional history and heritage consultancy working with Communities, Places and Collections. We can be engaged as a Consultant Historian for a particular project, or as Historian-in-Residence (on call), but will always give as much time as needed to discuss your projects beforehand. In all commissions our goal is to fulfil the brief, but also to inspire an engagement with, and enrich an understanding of, your community; and assist you to make meaningful and constructive use of your history and cultural heritage.
For over twenty years this work has included:
Commissioned histories, journal and magazine articles , encyclopaedia entries, editing
Interpretive histories, exhibitions, online and digital stories
Oral histories , life stories and memoirs, witness seminars, community consultations and surveys
Collection management and policy development, cultural heritage significance and preservation needs assessments
Histories, heritage reports and interpretations of all manner of places
Several roles on the executive, committees and judging panels of professional organisations
A dual appointment to the Heritage Council of Victoria as alternate historian
Commendations for digital, community and oral history projects
We appreciate clients have different motives for engaging a historian, and audiences have different expectations. We consider the best way to tell your story, engage with your audience, and ensure the final result is meaningful for you and for them.
For us this means carefully researching your history and heritage and communicating its relevance. We do this using oral, digital, interpretive or written history formats to give you a final result that is scholarly, appealing, engaging and accessible.
You can read more about the way we work. Referees & work examples can be provided for any project or role and we look forward to discussing your next project with you.
Our historians
HistoryAtWork is passionate about community history in its many forms, and together we bring a wide range of experiences and expertise to our projects. We collaborate with many like-minded associates and have a network of colleagues for digital work | photography | publishing | exhibitions | interpretations | editing | archives.
Emma Russell
Emma Russell founded HistoryAtWork in 1997 after receiving her MA (Public History) from Monash University. Her aspirations for meaningful, scholarly and enriching community history have been realised through written, oral and digital histories, life stories and cultural heritage assessments. Emma’s work with community cultural heritage led to a two-term appointment to the Heritage Council of Victoria (2009-2015). She has incorporated oral history into most of her projects over the last twenty years, runs workshops for community groups on oral history and collection management, and has received commendations for her interpretive, oral and digital histories.
E | erussell@historyatwork.com.au
M | 0414 530 880
Susan Faine
Susan Faine is a historian, curator and collection manager interested in the lives of ordinary people and the objects of their everyday. She records stories, researches in archives and curates community social history exhibitions where objects and oral histories are in conversation. Susan develops and manages object collections, paper, photographic and oral history archives, often working in community, and with people whose first language is not English. Accredited with the Professional Historians’ Association (Victoria) Susan is President of Oral History Victoria (OHV) this year, a member of the OHV Innovation Awards selection panel and the Victorian Local History Grants Program panel.
E | sfaine@historyatwork.com.au
M | 0407 045 090
The Value of History
HistoryAtWork endorses The Value of History, a statement adopted by the History Councils of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia in July 2019. In keeping with our values, the Statement declares that:
‘The study of the past and telling its stories are critical to our sense of belonging, to our community and to our shared future’
Our Credentials
Code of practice
As accredited, professional historians our practice is informed by a commitment to rigorous research, sensitive engagement with community and clients, and accessible history and heritage. We adhere to the ethical guidelines of the
Professional Historians Australia
Oral History Victoria
ICOMOS Australia Charter for Places of Cultural Significance, the Burra Charter 2013
Awards
2016 Oral History Victoria Community Innovation Awards,
Project: Australian College of Dermatologists Victoria ‘Who are we now?’2014 Commendation, Digital History of Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Building
2008 Inaugural Australia ICOMOS Victorian Scholarship
2008 Victorian Community History Awards: Best Collaborative Project, Collingwood Plaques Project team member
Memberships
Professional Historians Australia
Oral History Victoria Museums Australia Australia
ICOMOS (International Council of Monuments and Sites)
ICOM (International Council of Museums)