Abby Cooper grew up in Horsham, Western Victoria. She moved to Melbourne where she completed a Bachelor of Arts with first class honors, majoring in history and philosophy at Monash University in 2003. In 2004, she completed a Masters of Public History also at Monash.

Abby moved to Canberra in 2005 to undertake a position in one of the Australian Government's graduate programs. She has also been employed as an Assistant Curator at the National Museum of Australia where she worked on a contemporary Australian Indigenous art exhibition to tour Japan.

She commenced her PhD studies at ANU in March 2006. Abby's PhD will comprise of two components - a national touring exhibition looking at Indigenous sportspeople from western Victoria from the 1860s to today as well as a written thesis. This is the third project Abby has worked on in partnership with five Indigenous communities from southwest Victoria and Wimmera.

Areas of research:

• Oral history
• Museology
• Pre-colonial Aboriginal games and pastimes
• Local and regional history
• Identity
• Indigenous participation in sport
• Sociology of Sport

Publications:

'Desperately seeking "Ivan": Interpreting and explaining the interview experience, its challenges and the memories and narratives of interviewees', Oral History Association of Australia, Journal No.28, 2006.

Professional Associations

Australian Professional Historians Association (NSW)