Dr Mirani Litster

Mirani is a Lecturer in Archaeology at Flinders University, with research interests in early globalisation, cross-cultural encounters and island and coastal archaeology. Her regional focus is Australia and the Indian Ocean, and she has been involved in research projects from South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Mirani is current Editor-in-Chief of Australian Archaeology and her technical specialty is in archaeomalacology. Prior to joining Flinders University, she held lecturing appointments at the University of Canberra (2020-2021) in heritage studies and at the Nguma-bada Campus (Cairns) of James Cook University (2021-2024), where she co-ordinated subjects on European and coastal and island archaeology. Mirani has published on a number of topics, and co-edited two volumes The Archaeology of Portable Art (2018) and Archaeological Perspectives on Conflict and Warfare in Australia and the Pacific (2022). She is currently a CI on an ARC Discovery Project Before Cook: Contact Negotiation and the Archaeology of the Tiwi Islands, which aims to reconcile divergent narratives of early cultural encounters between Tiwi Island Traditional Owners, Makassans, the Dutch and other Europeans.