HDR Supervisor of the Month

Associate Professor Yujie Zhu
Centre for Heritage & Museum Studies
Research School of Humanities & the Arts
ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences

Yujie's supervisory approach:
"For me, HDR supervision is not only about guiding a candidate to complete a thesis. It is about helping them become independent, ethical and imaginative thinkers who can ask better questions in a changing world.

In heritage and museum studies, students often work with difficult histories, cultural difference, memory, identity, Indigenous knowledge, and questions of justice. These are not only academic topics; they are public questions about how societies remember, repair, and imagine their futures. I see my role as helping candidates develop the confidence to sit with complexity, think critically about evidence and values, and understand why their research matters beyond the university.

My supervision combines close individual guidance with platform-building: colloquia, workshops, Indigenous knowledge programs, international exchanges, and conversations with museums, communities and policy institutions. These spaces help students move from isolation to belonging, and from being supervised to becoming part of a wider intellectual and professional community.

I hope my students leave the PhD not only with expertise, but with purpose, courage and generosity: the ability to produce knowledge carefully, and to use it meaningfully for public good."

Find out more about Yujie's work by visiting Yujie's profile on the Research Portal webpage.