Publications:
articles, reviews, and opinion pieces.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
2025. "Historians and Generative AI: Challenges and Opportunities in Digital Historical Practice." History Australia 22, no. 4: 580–585. Direct Link Part of a special forum, this article explores how AI shifting from a "tool" to a "creator" impacts archival integrity and the role of historians as essential intermediaries in maintaining ethical historical narratives.
2025. “The Importance of Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Phyllis Mander-Jones, Australian-Pacific Historians, and the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1954–1966”, Archives & Manuscripts, 52(2), pp. 55-71. doi: 10.37683/asa.v52.10965. Direct Link.
2024. "Recognising a Kaleidoscopic Archive: Working with London Missionary Society Records in the Geekosphere." Archival Science 24, no. 3: 531–554. Direct Link This paper examines the "kaleidoscopic" nature of the London Missionary Society records, discussing how digital access (the "geekosphere") and fragmented metadata affect our understanding of Pacific history.
Lee-Talbot, Deborah. 2021. "'Why Do Not the Britaniata Come to Us?' Locating Papuan Settlement Discourses Within 19th-Century Annexation Sketch Maps." The Journal of Pacific History 56, no. 1: 1–25. Direct Link An analysis of early sketch maps that reveals how Indigenous Papuan settlement patterns and agency actively shaped colonial annexation strategies, rather than being passive subjects of them
Project reports
2024. Review of Tiwi Story: Turning History Downside Up, by Mavis Kerinaiua and Laura Rademaker. Journal of Australian Studies 48, no. 1: 154–155. Direct Link Lee-Talbot highlights this work as a model for collaborative history that prioritises Indigenous oral memory and kinship over traditional Western archival structures.
2024. Review of Decolonial Archival Futures, by Krista McCracken and Skylee-Storm Hogan-Stacey. Australian Policy and History. Direct Link A review emphasizing the book’s value for GLAMR (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Records) professionals in moving toward Indigenous-led archival practices.
February 26, 2023. Review of The Australian History Industry, edited by Paul Ashton and Paula Hamilton. Australian Policy and History Network. This ambitious edited collection covers the intersecting and often competing sectors that produce Australia's history, situating readers to understand the possibilities and opportunities created through the often-underappreciated history industry in Australia. The twenty-two chapters provide insights into core moments, institutions, and events that shaped academic, professional, and teaching organisations. Direct Link.
2019. "The Exhibition 'Tudors to Windsors' is an Uncritical Glorification of Empire." The Conversation. Direct Link A public history critique arguing that the exhibition focused too heavily on royal aesthetics while failing to address the colonial violence associated with the British Empire…
2017. "Fashioning a Woman’s Place: The Creation of an Inclusive Australian History." VIDA: Blog of the Australian Women’s History Network. Direct Link A reflective review on the landmark text Creating A Nation, discussing its role in making women’s experiences a central part of the Australian national story.
September 28, 2017. Review of Australians in Shanghai: Race, Rights and Nation in Treaty Port China, by Sophie Loy-Wilson. Australian Women's History Network (VIDA blog), Direct Link. This book explores Australian migration to China during the early twentieth century, examining both Chinese Australian and white Australian lives in the Shanghai treaty port. The author reveals how to move beyond goldfields narratives into a space where individual voices motivated complex transcolonial connections between Australia and China…
Archival and Digital Policy
Setting a Dangerous Policy Precedent: When Digitisation Leads to Destruction (January 22, 2024)
An analysis of the British Ministry of Justice’s proposal to destroy original paper wills after digitising them. She argues that "mundane" records are vital for social history and that digitising should not be an excuse for destroying physical heritage.
Circular Economy Series
In mid-2025, Dr. Lee-Talbot co-authored a series of articles with Dr. Lorinda Cramer exploring how "Circular Economy" (CE) principles are being integrated into Australian life and policy.
No Worries, No Waste: Australia’s Contribution to the Global Circular Economy (June 2, 2025)
Discusses Australia's transition from a "use-and-dispose" culture to a closed-loop system and how international models influence local waste management policy.
'Bean Thinking Green’ – How Australians are Slow-Sipping Their Way Into a Circular Economy (June 3, 2025)
Uses Melbourne’s coffee culture as a case study for how small changes in daily routines can drive generational shifts in environmental behaviour.
Policy Brief: Embedding Circular Economy Practices in the Tertiary Sector (June 5, 2025)
A formal recommendation to university vice-chancellors and the Minister for Education to integrate CE knowledge into higher education.
Magazine content
Commissioned Histories
2025. Deakin Business School: A 50-year history. Deakin University. Deborah Lee-Talbot and Nicolette Snowden. eds Fiona Poulton and Katherine Sheedy.
Reviews: books and exhibition
James, Kari, Annie Kwai, and Deborah Lee-Talbot. 2023. "Women in the Pacific, Women in Pambu: Creating a Finding Aid." ANU Gender Institute. PDF Download Link A comprehensive report on the project to uncover hidden women’s voices in the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau (PAMBU) collection, identifying nearly 300 collections led by or focused on women.
2017. "The Spears of Peace." History Today 67, no. 10: 50–55. Direct Link A study of cultural hybridity on Dobu Island, detailing how Methodist missions and local communities used traditional weaponry as symbols of diplomatic peace