Rate My Professor Emma Shaw

Dr Emma Shaw is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Newcastle, Australia, within the College of Human and Social Futures. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy completed in 2018 and a Bachelor of Teaching/Bachelor of Arts (Social Science) graduating with Class I Honours from the University of Newcastle. Among her academic accolades are the University Medal, Faculty Medal, G H Duncan Prize in Education, Sir Edward Parry Memorial Prize, and placements on the 2020 and 2018 DVC(A) Merit Lists for Learning and Teaching Excellence. Shaw's career at the University of Newcastle spans from 2012, encompassing roles as tutor, lecturer, course coordinator, and currently Senior Lecturer. She delivers teaching across undergraduate and postgraduate programs, covering history education; specialist studies in history, society and culture, Aboriginal studies, and studies of religion; curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy; sociocultural context for ESL; multiliteracies; managing the learning environment; schooling, identity, and society; research design and critique; and integrated fieldwork studies.

Shaw's research specializations centre on how history is produced, personalised, and performed in contemporary life, with particular emphasis on the intersections between identity, memory, and technology; the cultural and pedagogical impacts of DNA testing; representation of intergenerational trauma in contexts of migration and displacement; and the role of emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and simulation in reshaping engagement with the past, alongside historical thinking, research practices, democratisation of archival access, personalised pasts, and global circulation of memory. She is a member of the HERMES History Education Research Network and serves as Assistant Editor for Historical Encounters: A Journal of Historical Consciousness, Historical Cultures, and History Education. Her key publications include the journal article 'DNA Testing and Identities in Family History Research' (Genealogy, 2024, co-authored with Donnelly, Burke, and Parkes); '(Re)discovering the Familial Past and Its Impact on Historical Consciousness' (Genealogy, 2021, with Donnelly); 'Micro-narratives of the ancestors: worship, censure, and empathy in family hi(stories)' (Rethinking History, 2021, with Donnelly); 'Historical thinking and family historians: Renovating the house of history?' (Historical Encounters, 2021); 'Docudrama as ‘Histotainment’: Repackaging Family History in the Digital Age' (Public History Review, 2020, with Donnelly); and '“Who We Are, and Why We Do It”: A Demographic Overview and the Cited Motivations of Australia’s Family Historians' (Journal of Family History, 2019). An upcoming chapter is 'Australian initial teacher educators’ perspectives on artificial intelligence' (2026, co-authored with Waters, Tafazoli, Spray, Burgess, Southgate, Rendoth, and Ledger).