Department of Archaeology and History Leadership

Associate Professor Katherine Ellinghaus

Associate Professor Katherine Ellinghaus is Head of the Department of Archaeology and History. After completing her PhD at The University of Melbourne, she undertook postdoctoral fellowships there and at Monash University, before joining La Trobe in 2019. Associate Professor Ellinghaus has published two books on the history of Indigenous assimilation policies in Australia and the United States, and is currently part of teams researching the impact of Aboriginal exemption policies and the history of Indigenous mobilities. She is also co-editing a four-volume collection, Ngura Ninti: A History of Documents 1770-2000, to be published by Routledge in 2025. Associate Professor Ellinghaus’ research explores the possibilities of writing history based on collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, people and communities.

Professor Timothy Minchin

Professor Timothy Minchin is Graduate Research Coordinator in the Department of Archaeology and History. Professor Minchin joined the Department in 2004 as a Senior Lecturer, was promoted to Reader and Associate Professor in 2006 and Professor in 2010. His research interests are in 20th-century United States history, particularly the history of the southern states, civil rights and labour history. His books include Labor Under Fire: A History of the AFL-CIO since 1979 (University of North Carolina Press, 2017) and America's Other Automakers: A History of the Foreign-Owned Automotive Sector in the United States (University of Georgia Press, 2021). He is currently researching a history of the car industry in the United States that is funded by the Australian Research Council.

Associate Professor Jennifer Jones is Discipline Convenor of History and Associate Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies based at La Trobe University’s Albury-Wodonga campus. She is a non-Indigenous woman who was raised on Wiradjuri country in southern New South Wales. Jennifer’s research interests include Indigenous Australian history, rural and religious history, and histories of childhood and education. Her most recent monograph, On Taungurung Land: Sharing History and Culture, was co-authored with Taungurung Elder Uncle Roy Patterson and the won the Diversity Award in the Victorian Community History Awards, 2021. Jennifer teaches Australian environmental history, global migration history and rural studies. Her approach to teaching was recognised by an Australian Award for University Teaching citation (2022), based upon the rural studies subject ‘Gone Bush’ which is taught in partnership with the Man From Snowy River Bush Festival in the remote North East Victorian town of Corryong. Jennifer is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Dr Keir Strickland

Dr Keir Strickland is Discipline Convenor of Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology and History. After completing his undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Bradford (United Kingdom), Dr Strickland spent several years working in the British commercial archaeological sector – working on sites of every possible period across the United Kingdom and Ireland. After bailing out yet another near frozen trench, he decided to return to academia, where it was warmer and there were chairs. Following an immensely enjoyable fellowship at the Library of Congress (Washington D.C.), several field seasons spent crawling through dense jungle, and one unfortunate incident with a dugout canoe in a crocodile infested lake, he received his PhD from Durham University (United Kingdom) for an examination of the collapse of the Anuradhapura Kingdom, Sri Lanka. Dr Strickland subsequently worked as a Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of the Highlands and Islands (United Kingdom) for several years, before joining La Trobe University in 2016. In addition to his work in Sri Lanka and his commercial sector work, he has also excavated on sites across Nepal, Iran, Belize, and the Scottish Highlands and Islands.