Tracy Ireland is Professor of Cultural Heritage in the Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra, and Director of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research. Tracy has led research and teaching across UC's GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) heritage, conservation and cultural leadership related courses, including leading the development on the new Master of Arts in Creative and Cultural Futures. Tracy's career has also included working for the New South Wales Department of Planning and Heritage Council as the State Archaeologist and heading up the Canberra Office of GML Heritage. She undertook a PhD at the University of Sydney, awarded in 2001, and  has published extensively on historical archaeology, digital heritage, heritage managment and conservation, and their entanglement with nationalism and colonialism. Tracy has prepared heritage assessments and management plans for some of Australia's most significant places, including the Old Great North Road World Heritage site, the Australian War Memorial, Old Parliament House and the Blacktown Native Insitution.

Tracy is known internationally for her research on heritage practice, ethics and the social values of heritage and she has  published on the archaeology and heritage of colonialism in Australia, New Zealand, Quebec, North Eastern USA, and in Cyprus, as a member of the Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project. Her recent papers and books include 'Situating (in)significance' (with Steve Brown and John Schofield), Connecting the Nation: A thematic history of civil aviation (with Paul Aston, Mitchell Whitelaw and Alison Wain), The ethics of cultural heritage (with John Schofield), and Object Lessons: Archaeology and heritage in Australia (with Jane Lydon).

Tracy supervises a dynamic co-hort of PhD candidates and has had 7 PhD and 1 Masters by research complete successfully since 2015.

In 2017 Tracy was visiting Research Fellow at the University of Stirling in Scotland.

Tracy is currently the Lead Chief Investigator for the 3 year ARC Linkage project  Heritage of the Air, 2018-2021, a digital and community focussed project studying how communities value the heritage of Australian aviation, partnering with Airservices Australia, the National Museum of Australia, the SFO Museum and the Civil Aviation Historical Society.