Tracey Mee

Dr Tracey Mee is an English-born Australian and Post Doctoral Research Fellow at Charles Sturt University's School of Indigenous Australian Studies. She is a cultural historian and vexillologist. Tracey graduated from Wollongong University with a Bachelor of Arts (first-class Honours) in Indigenous Studies and Australian History. Tracey was the recipient of an Australian Postgraduate Award and wrote an award winning thesis: Australian National Identity: Somewhere Between the Flags? Her thesis was passed without correction and highly commended by the examiners. In 2018 Tracey received Wollongong University's Professor Jim Hagan Memorial Prize for the most outstanding thesis completed the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry. In 2019 Tracey presented the findings of her thesis at the 28th International Congress of Vexillology in San Antonio, where she became the first woman and, at that time, one of only 8 in the world, to be awarded a Laureate of the Federation of Vexillology for her “outstanding, original contributions to the science of vexillology”. 

Tracey’s research centres on the Australian national flag, and by extension, the Australian nation. She critically examines how this primary symbol of identity, which carries the British flag as its official point of honour, has shaped, and continues to shape, relationships that Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians have, not only with the nation, but also with each other. Tracey deconstructs the history, symbolism, applications and the discursive framing of the Australian national flag which in turn facilitates deeper understandings about how Australian national identity has been constructed, and is maintained. Vexillology is an emerging discipline with an interdisciplinary focus and Tracey’s research intersects with a range of fields that include: Indigenous Australian studies, critical whiteness studies, political science, history, semiotics, journalism, art and literature.