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:

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

Current projects:

The Wheat Project
The Backyard Project

Ordering information

Representative Publications

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

L. Head & P Muir - Suburban life and the boundaries of nature: resilience and rupture in Australian backyard gardens: Trans Inst Br Geogr NS 31:505-524. 2006.

I.A.K. Ward, R.L.K. Fullagar, T. Boer-Mah, L.M. Head, P.S.C. Tacon & K. Mulvaney - Comparison of Sedimentation and Occupation Histories inside and outside rock shelters, Keep-River Region, northwestern Australia: Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, Vol. 21, No.1, 1-27 (2006) (Paper in pdf 586KB)

L. Head & P Muir - Edges of connection: reconceptualising the human role in urgan biogeography, Australian Geographer, Vol. 37, No.1, pp.87-101, March 2006 (Paper in pdf 445 KB)

L. Head, D Trigger & J Mulcock - Culture as concept and influence in environmental research and management: Conservation and Society, Vol. 3, No.2, pp 251-264(2005) (Paper in pdf)

Head, L. and Muir, P. 2005 Living with trees – Perspectives from the suburbs. In M. Calver, H, Bigler-Cole, G. Bolton, J. Dargavel, A. Gaynor, P. Horwitz, J. Mills and G. Wardell-Johnson (eds) A Forest Conscienceness. Proceedings 6th National Conference of the Australian Forest History Society Inc, 12-17 September 2004, Augusta, Western Australia. pp. 84-95 (Paper in pdf  309k)

Atchison, J., Head, L. and Fullagar R. 2005 Archaeobotany of fruit seed processing in a monsoon savanna environment: evidence from the Keep River region, Northern Territory, Australia Journal of Archaeological Science 32: 167-181 (Paper in pdf  471k)

Head, L. and Muir, P. 2004 Nativeness, invasiveness and nation in Australian plants. The Geographical Review 94 (2): 199-217 (Paper in pdf  3812k)

Head, L. 2004 Landscape and Culture. In J. Matthews and D. Herbert (eds) Common Heritage, Shared Future? Perspectives on the Unity of Geography. Routledge, London. Pp. 240-258

Waitt, G., Lane, R. and Head, L. 2003 The Boundaries of Nature Tourism. Annals of Tourism Research 30:523-545 (Paper in pdf  255k)

Head, L., Atchison, J. and Fullagar, R. 2002 Country and garden: ethnobotany, archaeobotany and Aboriginal landscapes near the Keep River, northwestern Australia. Journal of Social Archaeology 2: 173-196

Waitt, G.R. and Head, L. 2002 Postcards and Frontier Mythologies. Sustaining views of the Kimberley as timeless. Environment and Planning D 20: 319-344
http://www.envplan.com/epd/abstracts/d20/d269t.html

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
Rich Olmo (PhD)	Prehistoric cultural ecology of Guam
Kate Roggeveen (MSc)	Keeping the vegetables on the table
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)

 

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: 6 May, 2008