Decolonising the human: towards a postcolonial ecology. Do you think you're human? This project interrogates how the notion of mind has come to shape western attitudes about what it means to be human. Focusing on the notorious head-measuring practices of colonial times, it provokes a rethinking of our cherished claim of being privileged among other life-forms.
The world novel, distant suffering and humanitarian sensibility after 1989. As war and terror flicker across our televisions, writers like Rushdie, McEwan and Hosseini have turned the novel into a global form, expressing a new humanitarian ethic. This project explores the makings of these World Novels across sites of ongoing global conflict, and traces their plea for sympathy back to the novel's beginnings, in the eighteenth-century.
Transnational Coetzee: Revisioning World Literature through the Margins. The reputation of J. M. Coetzee has undergone a dramatic global upsurge in the past 15 years, coinciding with his relocation to Australia and subsequent adoption of citizenship in 2002. This project aims to explore the proposition that the writings of the South African-born Coetzee possess profound and abiding transnational qualities, and then map the global shifts that this work has undergone in the new century. By examin ....Transnational Coetzee: Revisioning World Literature through the Margins. The reputation of J. M. Coetzee has undergone a dramatic global upsurge in the past 15 years, coinciding with his relocation to Australia and subsequent adoption of citizenship in 2002. This project aims to explore the proposition that the writings of the South African-born Coetzee possess profound and abiding transnational qualities, and then map the global shifts that this work has undergone in the new century. By examining these aspects through Coetzee's position in his adopted country, the project seeks to re-examine notions of Australian nationality and the parameters of its literary, cultural and political identity, moving them beyond an insular, border-defined understanding towards a wider international frame.Read moreRead less
The Coal Rush and Beyond: Climate Change, Coal Reliance and Contested Futures. Globally, coal extraction and burning is booming. The burning of coal has released unprecedented quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and exacerbated anthropogenic climate change. This inter-disciplinary project investigates the 'coal rush' in sociopolitical terms, asking how it can be superseded. This project seeks explanations of why new coal mines and coal-fired power stations are constructed, investiga ....The Coal Rush and Beyond: Climate Change, Coal Reliance and Contested Futures. Globally, coal extraction and burning is booming. The burning of coal has released unprecedented quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and exacerbated anthropogenic climate change. This inter-disciplinary project investigates the 'coal rush' in sociopolitical terms, asking how it can be superseded. This project seeks explanations of why new coal mines and coal-fired power stations are constructed, investigate social conflicts centred on new coal facilities, and analyse what social factors may enable transition from coal. Specific sites, national contexts and transnational connections will be compared to develop a nuanced understanding of dependence on coal, and how it may be overcome. Read moreRead less
A socio-ecological comparison of nations making a transition to renewable energy. This project aims to use ethnography to investigate how legitimacy for renewable energy can be won or lost. The project will focus on Germany, India and Australia, regions that are undergoing ‘energy transition.’ It, conducts in-depth studies of changing socio-ecological relations, theorising through comparative analysis, and creating new data on the socio-cultural forces for emission reduction. The project will an ....A socio-ecological comparison of nations making a transition to renewable energy. This project aims to use ethnography to investigate how legitimacy for renewable energy can be won or lost. The project will focus on Germany, India and Australia, regions that are undergoing ‘energy transition.’ It, conducts in-depth studies of changing socio-ecological relations, theorising through comparative analysis, and creating new data on the socio-cultural forces for emission reduction. The project will analyse what can be done to enhance the transition to renewable energy. The expected outcomes are grounded in the comparative study of regions that are making a transition to renewable power.Read moreRead less
Romantic India and Indian Romantics: British Romanticism and colonial modernity in India, 1780-1840. This project turns to British Romanticism and to Anglophone texts of early-19th century Bengal to arrive at a deeper understanding of the complex intertwining of literature with the histories of colonialism, of Indian modernity, and an emergent Indian nationalism. In giving Romantic literature an Indian dimension, the project also rethinks the Englishness of Romanticism in a new context. Texts to ....Romantic India and Indian Romantics: British Romanticism and colonial modernity in India, 1780-1840. This project turns to British Romanticism and to Anglophone texts of early-19th century Bengal to arrive at a deeper understanding of the complex intertwining of literature with the histories of colonialism, of Indian modernity, and an emergent Indian nationalism. In giving Romantic literature an Indian dimension, the project also rethinks the Englishness of Romanticism in a new context. Texts to be highlighted are those which traverse national borders in imaginative acts of sympathy and dialogue, including exchanges between the Christian West and the Muslim/Hindu East. Outcomes will include a higher profile for Indian studies through innovative scholarship and public engagement.Read moreRead less
Future thinking: utopianism in post-colonial literatures. This project examines the critical function of creative writers around the world in their society's imagination of the future. It investigates post-colonial literatures from a wide range of countries and regions to show the prevalence and power of hope, of ideas of liberation, self-determination and future possibility.
Deathscapes: Mapping Race and Violence in Settler States. This project seeks new ways to document, understand and respond to the critical issue of racialised deaths in sites of state custody such as police cells, prisons and immigration detention centres. It plans to examine the conditions under which Indigenous and border-related deaths occur, and to explore how legal and social accountability for them is assigned. Moving away from individual national contexts, it seeks to identify and map, at ....Deathscapes: Mapping Race and Violence in Settler States. This project seeks new ways to document, understand and respond to the critical issue of racialised deaths in sites of state custody such as police cells, prisons and immigration detention centres. It plans to examine the conditions under which Indigenous and border-related deaths occur, and to explore how legal and social accountability for them is assigned. Moving away from individual national contexts, it seeks to identify and map, at global as well as local levels, the shared institutional practices, technologies and explanatory frameworks that characterise custodial deaths in the key settler states of Australia, Canada and the United States. This may inform policy-making with the aim of preventing deaths in custody.Read moreRead less
Outside-Domestication: towards an anthropology of the spaces of negotiated being. All institutions today encourage innovation. Yet the word is not mentioned anywhere in the world when it comes to ethnic relations policy. This project looks at spaces of social relations that fall outside state rule. Rather than seeing them as a threat we examine if they offer material for a much-needed innovative inter-cultural politics.
Precarious Borders: The Nation-State and the Arab Diaspora Novel. This project aims to shed new light on diaspora voices in debates about the formation and narration of nations to argue for a more inclusive view of the nation and to challenge the dominance of canonical literature in these debates. Arab writing is closely tied to its diaspora, making it particularly significant for probing how fiction registers the transformative effects of migration on our grasp of the nation. Spanning four dias ....Precarious Borders: The Nation-State and the Arab Diaspora Novel. This project aims to shed new light on diaspora voices in debates about the formation and narration of nations to argue for a more inclusive view of the nation and to challenge the dominance of canonical literature in these debates. Arab writing is closely tied to its diaspora, making it particularly significant for probing how fiction registers the transformative effects of migration on our grasp of the nation. Spanning four diaspora sites and a century of writing, potential outcomes include a diaspora-focused approach to reassess the nation from a transnational perspective, a new awareness of the value of diaspora writers’ engagement with the nation, and the vital repositioning of Arab-Australian writing in this field of world literature.Read moreRead less