Lesley HEAD Position:   Professor Room:   41.G14 Phone No:   +61 2 4221 3124 Email:   lhead@uow.edu.au

Research Interests

My research interests focus on long term changes in the Australian landscape and the interactions of both prehistoric and contemporary peoples with these environments. In this work I am using a range of analytical tools from cultural geography, archaeology and palaeoecology.  Themes include:

-  Conceptual debates about culture and nature
-  Sustainability and Climate Change adaptation
-  Urban natures
-  Aboriginal land use, past and present
-  Cultural landscapes
-  Australian prehistoric environments and human interactions

Current projects:

Making Less Space for Carbon: Cultural research for climate change mitigation and adaptation
The Wheat Project
The Backyard Project

Ordering information

Representative Publications

Head, L., Allen, H., Denham, T., Fullagar, R. 2009 In B. Cunliffe, C. Gosden, and R. Joyce (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 866-897

Denham, T., Fullagar, R. and Head, L. 2009 Plant exploitation on Sahul: from colonisation to the emergence of regional specialisation during the Holocene. Quaternary International
202: 29-40

Waitt, G., Gill, N. and Head, L. 2009 Walking practice and suburban nature-talk. Social and Cultural Geography 10: 41-60

Head, L. and Atchison, J. 2009 Cultural ecology: emerging human-plant geographies. Progress in Human Geography 33: 236-245

Head, L. 2008 Geographical scale in understanding human landscapes. In B. David and J.Thomas (eds) Handbook of Landscape Archaeology. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast
Press. Pp. 379-385

Head, L. 2008 Nature, networks and desire - changing cultures of water in Australia. In P. Troy (ed.) Troubled Waters. Confronting the Water Crisis in Australia’s Cities. ANU E-Press. Pp. 67-80

Parker, K., Head, L., Chisholm, L.A., Feneley, N. (2008) A conceptual model of ecological connectivity in the Shellharbour Local Government Area, New South Wales, Australia,Landscape and Urban Planning, 86:47-59 (Paper in pdf)

Castree, N. and Head, L. (eds) 2008 Culture, nature and landscape in the Australian region. Themed issue of Geoforum 39 (3)

Head, L. 2008 Is the concept of human impacts past its use by date? The Holocene 18: 373-7 (Paper in pdf)

Head, L. and Muir, P. 2007 Changing cultures of water in eastern Australian backyard gardens. Social and Cultural Geography 8: 889-906 (Paper in pdf)

Head, L. 2007 Cultural ecology: the problematic human and the terms of engagement. Progress in Human Geography 31: 837-846 (Paper in pdf)

L. Head & P. Muir. 2007.  Backyard.   Nature and Culture in Suburban Australia.   University of Wollongong Press. Wollongong.  192pp. 

Head, L. 2000 Cultural Landscapes and Environmental Change. Arnold, London, 179pp.

Head, L. 2000 Second Nature. The history and implications of Australia as Aboriginal landscape. Syracuse University Press, New York. 272pp.

 Searchable Publication List

Current Students

Pat Macquarie (PhD)	The Illawarra escarpment as a cultural landscape
Christine Eriksen (PhD)	The production of 'Local' knowledge for bushfire management in new rural landscapes
Rich Olmo (PhD)	Prehistoric cultural ecology of Guam
Kate Roggeveen (MSc)	Keeping the vegetables on the table
Vanessa Organo (BIntSc Hons)	Gender, time and sustainable households
Bridget Edmunds (BSc Hons)	Indigenous fisheries in the Batemans Bay Marine Park
David Virtue (BEnvSc Hons)	Calculation of ecosystem services (with Shoalhaven City Council)
Nicolas Peffer (BEnvSc Hons)	Environmental sustainability in small business (with Sutherland Shire Council)
Bethany Saville (BEnvSc Hons)	Human-fauna interactions in Royal National Park

Abbreviated CV

In 2004 Lesley Head was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities

2005-2006  King Carl XVI Gustaf Visiting Professorship in Environmental Sciences Kristianstad University, Sweden.  

Last reviewed: 2 July, 2009