Fran Edmonds received her PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2008 and was the recipient of an early career summer fellowship in the Centre for Historical Studies, National Museum of Australia, 2008–09. She is a collaborative researcher, working with south-east Australian Aboriginal artists to recover information about the material culture of their ancestors. Her work is multidisciplinary, focusing on the history of south-east Australian Aboriginal art and art practices and the sociological and anthropological aspects of researching with and in Aboriginal communities.