ORDINARY MEMBER

DR STEVEN COOKE

Steven Cooke is Executive Director of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV), a community-based organisation committed to collecting, researching and sharing Victoria’s diverse histories. Founded in 1909, the Society holds extensive research collections, including its library and image collection, documenting Victorian history from the 1850s onwards, and is the umbrella body for over 350 local and specialist historical societies across Victoria.

Steven has more than 30 years’ experience in the museum and heritage sector and has held leadership positions at some of Victoria’s most significant cultural institutions, including the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), the Shrine of Remembrance, and the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.

He spent 13 years at Deakin University, including time as Course Director of the Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies programs. He was awarded a PhD from the University of Bristol, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (UK) and holds honorary positions at Deakin University, the University of Melbourne, and the University of London. From 2015-2026 he served as an expert on the Australian delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, where he sat on the Museums and Memorials Working Group. He was deputy chair of the project which led to the IHRA’s ‘Charter for Safeguarding Sites’, the first international charter to take a heritage-led approach to the conservation of Holocaust sites. He sits on the board of the Duldig Studio Museum and Sculpture Garden, and as an Alternate Member of the Victorian Heritage Council. He has written extensively on difficult histories, including three highly commended monographs and over 40 further articles, book chapters, and catalogue entries, with a focus on landscapes of memory.