Qualifications & alliances

Dr Bronwyn Hanna has a PhD in Australian architectural history and 12 years working experience with the NSW Heritage Office. Here she developed nominations for places listed on the State Heritage Register and project managed the World Heritage nomination for the Sydney Opera House in 2005. Bronwyn previously tutored in art history at the University of Sydney for 4 years and worked as a research assistant on several large ARC projects. She is a member of Australia ICOMOS, the National Trust and the Professional Historians of Australia (NSW).

 

MEMBERSHIPS & PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

  • Australia ICOMOS (full member)
  • National Trust of Australia (sitting on the NSW Historic Buildings / Built Heritage Committee 2009-2018)
  • Professional Historians Association (NSW Chapter)
  • Oral History Association of Australia
  • Occasional refereeing of journal articles for Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ)
  • Occasional book reviews for professional and historical journals
  • Occasional marking of PhD dissertations for the University of Sydney

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS & GRANTS

• Royal Australian Historical Society 2014 grant of $4000 to Australia ICOMOS to support Bronwyn Hanna’s writing of a history of the organisation—largely spent on the transcription of oral history interviews by Paul Ashton and Jenifer Cornwall with pioneering Australian heritage practitioners from the Australian Heritage Commission history of 2004
• Royal Australian Historical Society 2013 grant of $700 to arrange for James Semple Kerr’s The Conservation Plan, an internationally acclaimed heritage guide, to be made freely available online in its 7th edition (completion of the project was supplemented by further funding from Australia ICOMOS)
• New Zealand Ministry of Culture & Heritage 2010 Grant of NZ$5000 to undertake an oral history project on the writing of the Burra Charter and New Zealand Charter
• Planning Institute Australia Commendation for Excellence in Planning  2008 award Florence Taylor’s Hats, Designing Building and Editing Sydney, co-written with Professor Robert Freestone, Halstead Press, Sydney
• NSW Premier’s Public Service—Silver Award 2007 award for the inter-agency collaboration for the World Heritage nomination of the Sydney Opera House
• Bates Smart Award for Architecture in the Media 2000 award for Women Architects in Australia 1900-1950, co-written with Professor Julie Willis, RAIA, Canberra

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

Bronwyn Hanna attended Loftus Public School and Engadine High School and was an AFS exchange student for a year in Walnut Creek, northern California. At university she majored in art history and law and completed three research theses on the Australian built environment:

  • PhD—Doctor of Philosophy—Faculty of the Built Environment, University of NSW. Thesis topic: "Absence and presence: a historiography of early women architects in NSW"
  • M.Phil—Master of Philosophy—Department of Fine Arts, University of Sydney. Thesis topic: "Utopia and dystopia: public housing and modernity in Australia"
  • BA (Hons)—Bachelor of Arts Honours—Department of Fine Arts University of Sydney. Thesis topic: "Tall storeys, a history of life insurance buildings in Sydney"