Dear Susan,

Are you particularly looking for studies of lunatic asylums?  Or would
just any work "alive to cultural dimensions, active voices and
anthropological approaches" do?  A lot of the work coming out of
Annapolis would fit - Martin Hall's work in South Africa - papers in The
Archaeology of Difference: Negotiating cross-cultural engagements in
Oceania. But I can't recollect anything on lunatic asylums (the material
culture of disability is something that I try and keep up with).  Do you
want me to ask across on H-Dis (the history of disability list)?

Working with survivors of the mental health system might be a
possibility for you (depending on how long ago the hospital closed).  In
Britain the mental health charity mencap has been doing some oral
history recording with people with learning disabilities - I'd be
surprised if museums in Australia were not doing something similar.
Working in partnership with ex-patients to produce an interpretation of
the archaeology would be challenging, but might

With best wishes,

Pat
(who wears hats as a research student at the University of York, as
museums development officer for Surrey, and as a consumer of the
material culture of disability)

--
Pat Reynolds
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   "It might look a bit messy now, but just you come back in 500 years time"
   (T. Pratchett)