Biography
Sarah Hayes is a material culture researcher working primarily within the People, Place, Heritage stream of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation. Her work spans Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, Archaeology and History with particular interest in the Gold Rush, consumerism and identity, the production of waste and waste infrastructure, women’s history, childhood and orphanages/care homes. She also collaborates with organisations like Museums Victoria and the Old Treasury Building to deliver exhibitions.
Her current research for her Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award examines the role possessions play in quality of life and social mobility, and in turn opportunity, inequality and wastefulness in Victoria utilising collections from Museums Victoria and Heritage Victoria. This project will also look at similarities and differences in cultural values between the Gold Rush cities of Melbourne, Bendigo, San Francisco, Sacramento and Dunedin.
Sarah is also currently involved in two projects focusing on orphanages and children’s homes:
- The Material Culture of the Geelong Orphan Asylum
- Places of trauma and healing? Managing the heritage of orphanages and care homes.
For an introduction to her work read her Conversation articles Sex and the sisterhood: how prostitution worked for women in 19th-century Melbourne and Gold Rush Victoria was as wasteful as we are today.
Read more on Sarah's profileResearch interests
Material culture studies; urban life; consumerism; Gold Rushes; social mobility; quality of life; women’s history; childhood; archaeological collections management
Affiliations
- Honorary Associate, Museum Victoria
- Member, Australian Museums and Galleries Association
- Member, Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology
Professional activities
Sarah is HDR Co-ordinator for the Alfred Deakin Institute, co-editor of the Australasian Historical Archaeology journal, honorary associate with Museum Victoria and member of the Archaeology Advisory Committee for Heritage Victoria.
Media appearances
Sarah has contributed to articles in the Age, Herald Sun and ABC News including Tidying is Timeless: Victorians decluttered 150 years ago in the Herald Sun and First Photo of Madame Brussels, the red-light queen of 1880s Melbourne in the Age.
A selection of interviews can be found here.
Publications
Brothels and sex workers: variety, complexity and change in nineteenth-century Little Lon, Melbourne
B Minchinton, S Hayes
(2020), Vol. 51, pp. 165-183, Australian historical studies, Abingdon, Eng., C1
Steven Cooke, Sarah Hayes, Edwina Kay, Antony Catrice
(2020), Vol. 32, pp. 28-43, Historic Environment, Melbourne, VIc., C1
Diversity and change in Little Lon: ongoing historical and archaeological research
S Hayes, Barbara Minchinton
(2019), Vol. 7, pp. 103-115, The commonwealth block, Melbourne: a historical archaeology, Sydney, N.S.W., B1
S Hayes
(2019), Vol. 23, pp. 678-709, International Journal of Historical Archaeology, C1
The Commonwealth Block: A Historical Archaeology
Tim Murray, Kristal Buckley, S Hayes, Geoff Hewitt, Justin McCarthy, Richard Mackay, Barbara Minchinton, Charlotte Smith, Jeremy Smith, Bronwyn Woff
(2019), Sydney, N.S.W., A7
A golden opportunity: Mayor Smith and Melbourne's emergence as a global city
S Hayes
(2018), Vol. 22, pp. 100-116, International journal of historical archaeology, New York, N.Y., C1
Cesspit formation processes and waste management history in Melbourne: evidence from Little Lon
S Hayes, B Minchinton
(2016), Vol. 82, pp. 12-24, Australian archaeology, Abingdon, Eng., C1
A doomed business: the material culture of Ann Jones and the Glenrowan Inn
S Hayes
(2014), Vol. 32, pp. 37-46, Australasian historical archaeology : journal of the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology, North Parramatta, N.S.W., C1-1
S Hayes
(2011), Vol. 73, pp. 13-24, Australian archaeology, Abingdon, Eng., C1
S Hayes
(2011), Vol. 29, pp. 33-44, Australasian historical archaeology, Sydney, N.S.W., C1-1
Managing the Commonwealth Block Archaeological Assemblage: an Australian case study
Charlotte Smith, S Hayes
(2010), Vol. 6, pp. 171-187, Collections: a journal for museums and archives professionals, Lanham, Md., C1-1
Consumer practice at Viewbank homestead
S Hayes
(2007), Vol. 25, pp. 87-103, Australasian historical archaeology, Sydney, N.S.W., C1-1
Yorktown: the cultural landscape of the first European settlement in the North of Tasmania
S Hayes
(2005), Vol. 28, pp. 4-14, Artefact: the journal of the Archaeological and Anthropological Society of Victoria, Carlton, Vic., C1-1
Funded Projects at Deakin
Australian Competitive Grants
An Archaeology of Quality of Life During Victoria¿s Gold Rush
Dr Sarah Hayes
ARC DECRA - Discovery Early Career Researcher Award
- 2018: $183,990
Industry and Other Funding
The Material Culture of Geelong Orphan Asylum.
Dr Edwina Kay, Dr Sarah Hayes
Ochre Imprints Pty Ltd
- 2021: $19,909
- 2020: $114,437
- 2019: $4,158
Supervisions
No completed student supervisions to report