Graeme has gained national and international standing within the fields of museum anthropology, material culture and heritage studies.
His research has been recognised at the highest level, most notably in the prestigious invitation to present the biannual Curl Lecture by the Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute (UK) in 2011; the 2012 University of Queensland (UQ) Foundation Research Excellence Award for research on digital heritage, participatory design and cultural restitution; and a 2016 gold medal achievement award by the Vietnam Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism for his contribution to supporting Vietnamese cultural heritage.
Graeme’s most recent research has explored the relationship between museums, collections and social repair in Vietnam. Drawing on almost ten years of ethnographic fieldwork behind-the-scenes in key museums in north and central Vietnam, this research reveals the often unacknowledged role museums play in the process of social repair in socialist Vietnam. Through a study of a range of highly emotive objects, such as personal possessions, maps and charts, and pieces of plane fuselage, his research traces the way these objects play an instrumental role in supporting families who have suffered loss or injury in the conflicts against the French and Americans.
The work highlights the transformational nature of museums in the recovery of the past and how their collections seek to develop positive outcomes for individuals, families and communities, beyond the framework of the nation-state.
Imagining maritime conflict landscapes: Reactive exhibitions, sovereignty, and representation in Vietnam
Were, Graeme (2021). In: Saunders, Nicholas J., (eds.) and Cornish, Paul, (eds.), Conflict Landscapes: Materiality and Meaning in Contested Place. London: Routledge, pp 311-324
Returned not Remade: Visuality, Authority and Potentiality of Digital Objects in a Melanesian Society
Were, Graeme (2021). In: Fortis, Paolo, (eds.) and Küchler, Susanne, (eds.), Time and Its Object: A Perspective from Amerindian and Melanesian Societies on the Temporality of Images. London: Routledge
Were, Graeme (2019). In: Parkhurst, Aaron, (eds.) and Carroll, Timothy, (eds.), Medical Materialities: Toward a Material Culture of Medical Anthropology. London: Routledge
What's in a plant leaf? a case study of materials innovation in New Zealand
Were, Graeme (2015). In: Drazin, Adam, (eds.) and Küchler, Susanne, (eds.), The Social Life of Materials: Studies in Materials and Society. London: Routledge, pp 31-47
Of skin, blood and bone: the kapkap of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea
Were, Graeme (2013). In: Bolton, Lissant, (eds.), Thomas, Nicholas, (eds.), Bonshek, Elizabeth, (eds.), Adams, Julie, (eds.) and Burt, Ben, (eds.), Melanesia: Art and Encounter. Hawai'i: University of Hawaii Press
Extreme collecting: Dealing with difficult objects
Were, Graeme (2012). In: Were, Graeme, (eds.) and King, J. C. H., (eds.), Extreme Collecting Challenging Practices for 21st Century Museums. Oxford: Berghahn, pp 1-16
Küchler, Susanne and Were, Graeme (2010). In: Maynard, Margaret, (ed.), Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Volume 7: Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. London: Bloomsbury, pp 381-386
