Chapter 6: Plan your research for publishing public history

This chapter is based on resources I created to support students in HIS3MHI from around 2016 to 2023 while working as a librarian at La Trobe University by day and my experiences volunteering at the Australian Queer Archives (AQuA) around the same time. Supporting La Trobe University History academics and students and volunteering with the AQuA have both significantly changed the way I think about and support history, research, and open education and scholarship. At the AQuA, we preserve and make research and more knowledge available for and with LGBTIQA+ communities within and beyond the academy in multiple formats (from queer history walks and exhibitions to an Honours thesis prize and beyond). Our collection and work may not be open in traditional academic “Open Access” ways, and it is not safe for our collection to be completely open to all, but we are open in the inclusive sense of the word. La Trobe University History academics similarly make history knowledge open and accessible beyond the academy in diverse ways (from heritage reports, policy and podcasts to history talks, television and beyond). They have both helped me see that research can be collective, generative, and transformative and I hope this chapter helps others see and advocate for this too. I have used some examples from my experiences supporting and doing queer and trans history to help contextualise the advice and activities in this chapter.