Dr Ashley Barnwell is Senior Research Fellow in Sociology in the School of Social and Political Sciences. Her research focuses on the politics of truth-telling and sharing stories in public and private life.
Ashley is interested in sociological aspects of emotions, memory, and narrative, and the role of life writing, personal archives, and literature in sociological research. From 2019–2022, she will be an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow working on the project ‘Family Secrets, National Silences: Intergenerational Memory in Settler Colonial Australia’. This project aims to investigate the inherited family secrets, stories, and memories that inform Australian's understandings of colonial history.
Ashley is author of Critical Affect: The Politics of Method (Edinburgh University Press 2020), co-author of Reckoning with the Past: Family Historiographies in Postcolonial Australian Literature (with Joseph Cummins, Routledge 2018), and co-editor of Research Methodologies for Auto/Biography Studies (with Kate Douglas, Routledge 2019). She has published papers in journals including Sociology, The Sociological Review, Memory Studies, Emotions and Society, Cultural Sociology, Journal of Classical Sociology, Life Writing, and Cultural Studies. Ashley was the 2014 Seymour Scholar for Biography and a 2019 Research Fellow at the National Library of Australia. She has also been a Visiting Scholar at The Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives, University of Manchester, at the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh, and at the National Centre for Biography at the ANU.
With Dr Signe Ravn, Ashley co-directs the Narrative Network, an interdisciplinary forum for scholars working with narrative methods. With A/Prof Kris Natalier, she is co-convener of The Australian Sociological Association's Families & Relationships Thematic Group. She also serves on the steering committee of the AHRC-funded research network, Inheriting the Family, which investigates the role of family inheritances in producing national and cultural heritage in Britain and Australia.
Find out more about Ashley Barnwell's experience
Ashley Barnwell's highlights
FEATURED Journal article
What Is "Publicly Available Data"? Exploring Blurred Public-Private Boundaries and Ethical Practices Through a Case Study on Instagram
Read moreAshley Barnwell's selected work
Family Secrets, National Silences: Intergenerational Memory in Australia
Research Grant
The Secret River, silences and our nation's history
NEWS ARTICLE
Family History Collaborators in Conversation
Journal article
Family Secrets, National Silences: Intergenerational Memory in Australia
Internal Research Grant
Friday essay: Can you keep a secret? Family memoirs break taboos – and trust
NEWS ARTICLE
Critical Affect: The Politics of Method
Book
Ashley Barnwell's selected work
Projects
Displaying the 4 most recent projects by Ashley Barnwell.
Project Types
3
Internal Research Grant
1
Research Grant
Additional Information
2016 Faculty Research Grant, 'Family Secrets, National Silences: A Sociological Study of Intergenerational Storytelling'
2017 Faculty Research Grant, 'Captured and Captioned: Representing Family Lives on Instagram', with Dr Signe Ravn and Dr Barbara Barbosa Neves
2018 Peter McMullin Centre for Statelessness Seed-funding Grant, 'Voices of Statelessness', with Dr Timnah Baker, A/Prof Jennifer Balint, André Dao, and Michael Green
2018 University Of Melbourne + University of Manchester Collaboration Grant, 'International Family History Research', with Dr Jerome de Groot
Scholarly Works
Displaying the 10 most recent scholarly works by Ashley Barnwell.
News
Displaying the 2 most recent news articles by Ashley Barnwell.
Honours, Awards and Fellowships
The Seymour Scholarship for Biography
Dean's Leadership Award
Research Excellence Award 2011 - 2014
University Medal for Sociology
The Sol Encel Prize for Sociology
Credentials
Positions
Positions
Arc Early Career Researcher
Social And Political Sciences
Member
Advisory Committee, Centre for Applied History, Macquarie University
Member
Family and Emotions Research Group, ARC Centre for Excellence on the History of Emotions.
Affiliate Researcher
Affiliate Researcher, SELMA: Centre for the Study of Storytelling, Experientiality and Memory, University of Turku
Member
International Auto/Biography Association Asia Pacific Chapter
Member
The Australian Sociological Association
Education
Education
Bachelor of Arts (Sociology)
University of New South Wales
Doctor of Philosophy (Sociology)
University of New South Wales