Mobilising Dutch East India Company collections for new global stories

Project Team

Chief Investigators

Professor Alistair Paterson - The University of Western Australia   

Professor Alistair Paterson is Discipline Chair of Archaeology at The University of Western Australia. His research specialises in historical archaeology, maritime archaeology, industrialisation and critical collections studies. 

Professor Susan Broomhall - Australian Catholic University

Professor Susan Broomhall is the Director of Gender and Women’s History Research Centre at the Australian Catholic University. She specialises in the heritage of the Early Modern world, and current research focuses on women’s activities and the role of gender ideologies in shaping experiences in the Dutch East India Company.

A/Prof Wendy Van Duivenvoorde - Flinders University

Professor Wendy van Duivenvoorde is a maritime archaeologist and research section head at Flinders University. She is a leading expert in seafaring, shipbuilding, technology and knowledge transfer, cultural contact, and maritime archaeology, especially related to Western Australia’s Early European shipwrecks.

A/Prof Shino Konishi - The University of Western Australia

Associate Professor Shino Konishi is a researcher with The University of Western Australia in the disciplines of History in the School of Humanities and School of Indigenous Studies. She is concerned with cross-cultural encounters in the 18th and 19th century, especially in regards to European exploration of Australia and the Pacific, and representations of Aboriginal people and gender relations.

Dr Jeremy Green - The University of Western Australia

Dr Jeremy Green is the former Head of Maritime Archaeology at the WA Museum, who has excavated and been instrumental in capacity building in historic shipwreck excavation and study in Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean and Australia, including the excavation of the Dutch East Indiaman Batavia.

Professor Andrea Witcomb - Deakin University

Professor Andrea Witcomb, Deakin University, is a museum and heritage specialist interested in the intersection of museums and communities, and the influence of media culture on the interpretation strategies and communication in museums.

Professor Daniel Franklin - The University of Western Australia

Professor Daniel Franklin is the Director of the Centre for Forensic Anthropology at The University of Western Australia. He is currently developing alternate techniques to facilitate the identification of unknown skeletal remains and is involved in the ongoing analysis of the human skeletal remains associated with the Batavia mutiny, held by the WA Museum.

Dr Killian Quigley - Australian Catholic University

Dr Killian Quigley is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University. He is interested in the intersections of the environmental humanities and literary studies, particularly in the interpretation of shipwrecks and drowned materials.

Dr Kristie Flannery - Australian Catholic University

Dr Kristie Flannery is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University. She is an expert in the history of the global Spanish empire, and more broadly empire and colonialism in the early modern Atlantic and Pacific worlds.

Dr Alexandra Suvorova - The University of Western Australia

Dr Alexandra Suvorova is a Senior Research Officer at the Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis at the University of Western Australia. She provides research support and actively collaborates with researchers on a diverse range of projects, including archaeology.

Asst Prof Arvi Wattel - The University of Western Australia

Assistant Professor Arvi Wattel is a lecturer in the History of Art at the School of Design, The University of Western Australia. He is particularly interested in Dutch 17th century encounters with Australia and Asia.

A/Prof Andrew Woods - Curtin University

Associate Professor Andrew Woods is Manager of Curtin University’s Hub for Immersive Visualisation and eResearch (HIVE). He has a wealth of experience in immersive 3D visualisation, shipwreck imaging, underwater cameras and underwater vehicles, plus applications in research and development, and maritime archaeology.

A/Prof Jacqueline Van Gent - The University of Western Australia

Associate Professor Jacqueline Van Gent is a historian at The University of Western Australia, interested in religion and colonial encounters. Recent projects have focused on Indigenous responses to European missions, global movements of objects and collecting in the early modern and late colonial world, and the gendered nature of objects and materiality.

A/Prof Paul Uhlmann - Edith Cowan University

Associate Professor Paul Uhlmann is a visual artist and lecturer at Edith Cowan University. Paul has exhibited nationally and internationally. His work which explores concepts of impermanence and embodiment, especially in relation to place, was featured in the exhibition Batavia: Giving Voice to the Voiceless at Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery (2017).

Dr John McCarthy - Flinders University

Dr John McCarthy is a Research Fellow at Flinders University. He is an expert in digital 3D techniques for maritime archaeology and a scientific diver who has worked across Scotland, the Netherlands, Israel and Western Australia.

 

Partner Investigators

Dr Widya Nayati - Gadjah Mada University   

Dr Widya Nayati is a Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at Gadjah Mada University. She is an advocate for cultural policy and practices in Indonesia and her research interest includes the historical maritime trade and markets in the Indonesian Archipelago. 

Dr Toby Burrows - University of Oxford, UK, The University of Western Australia

Dr Toby Burrows is a Senior Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Humanities at The University of Western Australia who uses digital humanities methodologies to study the history of cultural heritage collections and collecting.

A/Prof Charles Jeurgens - University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, National Archives of the Netherlands

Professor Charles Jeurgens is a specialist in archival studies at the University of Amsterdam, and an advisor at the Nationaal Archief, Nederlands. He is particularly interested in the colonial archives of the Dutch East Indies.

Professor Dr Ben Krause-Kyora - Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel

Professor Ben Krause-Kyora is a specialist in Ancient DNA Research, interested in how pathogens and changes in nutrition have shaped our genome over time. He is head of the Kiel aDNA Laboratory which can now perform analyses on the smallest amount of highly degraded DNA.

Dr Jette Linaa - Aarhus University, Denmark, Moesgaard Museum

Dr Jette Linaa is an affiliate Associate Professor at Aarhus University. She is a historical archaeologist and an experience researcher on projects focused on cultural encounters and migration. Her major works has focused on Dutch-Danish connections in the 16th and 17th century.

Ms Erica Persak - Australian Capital Equity Pty Ltd

Ms Erica Persak is the Senior Collection Researcher for the Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, one of the most extensive private collections in Australia.

Ms Corioli Souter - Western Australian Museum

Ms Corioli Souter is the Head of Maritime Heritage at the WA Museum. She is a curator and practicing archaeologist undertaking archaeological fieldwork, collection research, exhibition development, capacity building and teaching in Australia and abroad.  Her current research includes place-based, collaborative interpretation of maritime archaeological sites in Western Australia and the Indian Ocean region and related collection research.

Dr Ross Anderson - Western Australian Museum

Dr Ross Anderson is a Curator of Maritime Archaeology at the WA Museum. He has worked on capacity building projects in Underwater Cultural Heritage across projects in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Portugal and Indonesia. His research interests include underwater cultural heritage excavation, site management and museology across the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Indian Ocean maritime landscapes.

Dr Deb Shefi - Western Australian Museum

Dr Deb Shefi is a Curator of Maritime Heritage at the WA Museum, acting as both a maritime archaeologist and maritime archaeology collections manager. She is currently involved in efforts to provenance glass and coins associated with shipwrecks, and the review of the Maritime Archaeology Act 1973 (WA).

Dr James Hunter - Australian National Maritime Museum

Dr James Hunter is the Curator of Naval Heritage and Archaeology at the Australian National Maritime Museum. He has worked on maritime archaeology projects in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Caribbean, and the Northern Mariana Islands, and is an expert in ship construction and underwater site recording. His research interests include the design and development of auxiliary naval vessels between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

 

Ms Agata Rostek-Robak - Australian National Maritime Museum

Ms Agata Rostek-Robak is the Conservation Manager at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Ms Maggie Patton - State Library of New South Wales

Ms Maggie Patton is the Head of Collection Acquisition and Curation at the State Library of New South Wales, managing the development of the collections and leading the curatorial team in activities that interpret and profile the Library’s collections. She is a specialist in rare books and maps.

Mr Jaco Boshoff - Iziko Museums of South Africa

Mr Jaco Boshoff is a Maritime Archaeologist at Iziko Museums of South Africa. He has participated in several excavations as archaeologist as well as museum representative and inspector for shipwrecks, including the Dutch East Indiamen Brederode (1785). He was the principal investigator in the search for the VOC slave shipwreck Meermin that wrecked on the South African coast in 1766.

Dr Frederick Hocker - National Maritime and Transport Museums of Sweden

Dr Frederik Hocker is the Director of Research at the Vasa Museum. He is interested in the maritime archaeological study of ships and seafaring, particularly ship building.

Dr Anna Maria Forssberg - Vasa Museum, Stockholm, Sweden

Dr Anna Maria Forssberg is a researcher at the Vasa Museum.

Dr Martijn Manders - University of Leiden, Cultural Heritage Agency of The Netherlands

Professor Martijn Manders is coordinator of International Maritime Heritage at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, a department of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. He is also Professor of underwater archaeology and cultural heritage management at the University of Leiden.

Dr Jeremy Hill - British Museum

Dr J D Hill is the Head of Research at The British Museum, and oversees the broad range of research across disciplines at the museum. His research interests interface between archaeology, world history and the sea.

Ms Lidwien Jansen - National Archives of the Netherlands

Ms Lidwien Jansen is a Project Manager International Heritage Cooperation at the Nationaal Archief, Netherlands, for Australia, Japan, South Africa and Sri Lanka, which coordinates projects between Dutch organisations and partner countries.

Ms Tamar Davidowitz - Rijksmuseum

Ms Tamar Davidowitz is a metal conservator at the Rijksmuseum, who has worked extensively on the conservation and analysis of metal objects recovered from the wrecks of Dutch East India Company ships across the Rijksmuseum and WA Museum collections.

Mr Jeroen ter Brugge - Rijksmuseum

Mr Jeroen ter Brugge is the Curator for Maritime Collections at the Rijksmuseum, which includes an extensive collection of finds retrieved from the wrecks of Dutch East Indiamen.

Mr Alec Ewing - Stichting Texels Museum

Mr Alec Ewing is a historian and museum curator at Museum Kaap Skil, particularly interested in early modern social history and material culture.

PhD

Isabel Di Lollo   

Isabel Di Lollo is a PhD candidate and academic tutor at The University of Western Australia. Her research is studying the curation and exhibition of Dutch East India Company collections. 

Danielle Brooks

Danielle Brooks is an archaeologist, and a PhD student at the University of Western Australia. Her research is focusing on the potential of Dutch East India Company collections to contribute to knowledge of the histories and experiences of the labouring classes.

Dondy Ramos

Dondy Ramos is a PhD candidate in History at the Australian Catholic University. His research will examine how early modern maritime empires are memorialised in a post-colonial world.

Michael Reidy

Michael Reidy is a PhD candidate at the Australian Catholic University. His research is looking at contested sites of contact during VOC slave trading voyages in the Indian Ocean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Sumera Saleem

Sumera Saleem is a PhD candidate at the Australian Catholic University. Her current research focuses on the representation of the Dutch East India Company in literature, complementing her wider research interest in colonialism, environment and religious identity in Anglophone and South Asian literature.