The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) invites you to participate in a short survey about your
interaction with the ARDC and use of our national research infrastructure and services. The survey will take
approximately 5 minutes and is anonymous. It’s open to anyone who uses our digital research infrastructure
services including Reasearch Link Australia.
We will use the information you provide to improve the national research infrastructure and services we
deliver and to report on user satisfaction to the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research
Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) program.
Please take a few minutes to provide your input. The survey closes COB Friday 29 May 2026.
Complete the 5 min survey now by clicking on the link below.
The Cultural Impact of Irregular Marriage in the Age of British Colonialism, 1660-c.1860. Marriage has always been central to our understanding of relations between literature, society and culture. This project significantly revises that understanding by focussing on the irregular marriage practices which thrived in Britain and its colonies from 1660 to c.1860. It demonstrates, for instance, how the novel genre became respectable partly by marginalising irregular marriages; how Gretna Green we ....The Cultural Impact of Irregular Marriage in the Age of British Colonialism, 1660-c.1860. Marriage has always been central to our understanding of relations between literature, society and culture. This project significantly revises that understanding by focussing on the irregular marriage practices which thrived in Britain and its colonies from 1660 to c.1860. It demonstrates, for instance, how the novel genre became respectable partly by marginalising irregular marriages; how Gretna Green weddings came to typify modern romance in drama and fiction; and how marriage regulations underpinned literary portrayals of civil society in the Australian penal colony. It will deliver a groundbreaking monograph which accounts for marriage's role in modern literary culture in new terms.Read moreRead less
A study of travel writing in Australian colonial history. Travel writing is a key mechanism by which readers learn about other peoples and cultures, a genre that is crucial to the formation of identities, ideologies, and ideas. Australian travel writing provided foundational texts for those emigrating to the colony. This project positions Australian texts within an international comparative sphere. It will advance the understanding of colonial culture in Australia, and of the perceptions and val ....A study of travel writing in Australian colonial history. Travel writing is a key mechanism by which readers learn about other peoples and cultures, a genre that is crucial to the formation of identities, ideologies, and ideas. Australian travel writing provided foundational texts for those emigrating to the colony. This project positions Australian texts within an international comparative sphere. It will advance the understanding of colonial culture in Australia, and of the perceptions and values of those who settled colonial Australia. It will make available to Australian and international students and researchers a rich archive of texts that have not been previously mapped. Australians are keenly interested in travel and its literature, and this project brings colonial travel texts to public attention.Read moreRead less
Travelling Home: A Study of Walkabout, Australia's Geographic Magazine (1934-74). Walkabout was one of mid-twentieth century's most popular magazines with a focus on inland Australia, as well as the Pacific region. It graced suburban lounge rooms, doctors' and dentists' surgeries, railway waiting rooms, ministerial offices, and school libraries. Walkabout's mixture of entertainment and education ensured its influence across a spectrum of readers: across age, class, and educational boundaries. Th ....Travelling Home: A Study of Walkabout, Australia's Geographic Magazine (1934-74). Walkabout was one of mid-twentieth century's most popular magazines with a focus on inland Australia, as well as the Pacific region. It graced suburban lounge rooms, doctors' and dentists' surgeries, railway waiting rooms, ministerial offices, and school libraries. Walkabout's mixture of entertainment and education ensured its influence across a spectrum of readers: across age, class, and educational boundaries. This project explores the role of Walkabout in the development of a modern national identity. Walkabout deliberately cultivated one of Australia's key modern economic foundations-the travel industry-and did so whilst also influencing knowledge formation and circulation. Read moreRead less
Sex in a Strange Country: Literary Obscenity in Twentieth-Century Australia. As recently as February 2004, Australian newspapers were again raising the question of how obscenity is defined. This project is the first comprehensive literary treatment of Australian obscenity censorship. It places the Australian case in context for similar studies in the UK and US, and particularizes it as an instance of colonial regimes. The publications that result will enhance the knowledge base of key stakeholde ....Sex in a Strange Country: Literary Obscenity in Twentieth-Century Australia. As recently as February 2004, Australian newspapers were again raising the question of how obscenity is defined. This project is the first comprehensive literary treatment of Australian obscenity censorship. It places the Australian case in context for similar studies in the UK and US, and particularizes it as an instance of colonial regimes. The publications that result will enhance the knowledge base of key stakeholders in that debate, from the Australian Film and Literature Classification Board to writers and other cultural producers, to public policy debates, and scholarship in the fields of literary, legal and cultural history in Australia.
Read moreRead less
Six Inch Rule: A Cultural Study of the Australian Occupation of Japan, 1946-1952. This research into a neglected episode in the Australian experience of Japan represents a major advance in understandings of Austral/Asian relationships. In establishing the Occupation of Japan as a crucial development in post-war Australian international relations, the project will be immensely beneficial to the broad discipline of Australian geopolitics, particularly with respect to the ideologies and practices o ....Six Inch Rule: A Cultural Study of the Australian Occupation of Japan, 1946-1952. This research into a neglected episode in the Australian experience of Japan represents a major advance in understandings of Austral/Asian relationships. In establishing the Occupation of Japan as a crucial development in post-war Australian international relations, the project will be immensely beneficial to the broad discipline of Australian geopolitics, particularly with respect to the ideologies and practices of foreign occupation as reflections of national culture. The projected monograph will demonstrably add to the body of public knowledge of our cultural engagement with Japan, and illuminate an acknowledged area of Australian self-definition - the experience of overseas military service.Read moreRead less
Australian Literature and the Sacred: Contesting the Myth of Australian Secularism. The dominant myth of Australian culture has stressed its modern, post-religious secularism. This project, focussing on Australian literature since 1940, challenges this most tenacious myth, current in the wider culture and in Australian literary scholarship. It will investigate how the contemporary sacred is transforming in the context of urgent recent claims to the sacred by indigenous peoples, migrants and wome ....Australian Literature and the Sacred: Contesting the Myth of Australian Secularism. The dominant myth of Australian culture has stressed its modern, post-religious secularism. This project, focussing on Australian literature since 1940, challenges this most tenacious myth, current in the wider culture and in Australian literary scholarship. It will investigate how the contemporary sacred is transforming in the context of urgent recent claims to the sacred by indigenous peoples, migrants and women. This project will redefine and systematize what sacredness might mean in a supposedly secular Australian culture. It will produce a new model of the sacred in Australian literary history and make significant interventions in post-colonial debates.Read moreRead less
The 'paper war': Missionary Textuality and Early Nineteenth-Century Australian Colonial Culture. Early nineteenth-century Australian texts reverberate with the anxieties and controversies surrounding colonisation. The morality of colonisation and indigenous-settler relationships were hotly debated in a proliferation of books, pamphlets, letters, and editorials, and in this religious personnel, including missionaries, played a pivotal role. Yet no critical analysis of colonial missionary writing ....The 'paper war': Missionary Textuality and Early Nineteenth-Century Australian Colonial Culture. Early nineteenth-century Australian texts reverberate with the anxieties and controversies surrounding colonisation. The morality of colonisation and indigenous-settler relationships were hotly debated in a proliferation of books, pamphlets, letters, and editorials, and in this religious personnel, including missionaries, played a pivotal role. Yet no critical analysis of colonial missionary writing exists. This project conducts archival research into texts produced by a linked network of religious/missionary figures, focusing on the Lake Macquarie mission run by Lancelot Threlkeld, and analyses these through theories of colonial discourse and textuality. Research outcomes include original, innovative contributions to Australian literary/cultural studies and international colonial/postcolonial studies.Read moreRead less
Inhumanities: Asylum seeker letters and the precarious 'human' rights of contemporary life narrative. Letters exchanged between asylum seekers and activists between 2001-05 are a powerful repository of cross cultural exchange and political activism in Australia this century, and they offer unique insights into debates about citizenship and national identity in the very recent past. When read as a distinctive genre of life narrative, these letters and the epistolary communities which they engende ....Inhumanities: Asylum seeker letters and the precarious 'human' rights of contemporary life narrative. Letters exchanged between asylum seekers and activists between 2001-05 are a powerful repository of cross cultural exchange and political activism in Australia this century, and they offer unique insights into debates about citizenship and national identity in the very recent past. When read as a distinctive genre of life narrative, these letters and the epistolary communities which they engender are important new resources in current scholarship on human rights and testimony. This project will make a vital and distinctive Australian contribution to debates about representations of the human and the inhuman in contemporary literature.Read moreRead less
New critical editions of Henry Handel Richardson's Australian novels:The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1917-29), The Young Cosima (1939), and Niels Lyhne (1896). The aim is to produce, for the first time, complete and accurate texts of the writings of Henry Handel Richardson, the best known early twentieth-century Australian novelist. The outcome will be critical editions of the highest international quality, and the current proposal concentrates on what has been called the "great Australian Nove ....New critical editions of Henry Handel Richardson's Australian novels:The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1917-29), The Young Cosima (1939), and Niels Lyhne (1896). The aim is to produce, for the first time, complete and accurate texts of the writings of Henry Handel Richardson, the best known early twentieth-century Australian novelist. The outcome will be critical editions of the highest international quality, and the current proposal concentrates on what has been called the "great Australian Novel", The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (3 volumes, 1917 to 1929), and two additional books, in order to complete the new edition of her entire works (six novels, 1400 letters, two volumes of music), of which eight volumes have already been published, in what has been called "the mother of all works of Australian literary scholarship" (The Age, 7 July 2000).Read moreRead less
Diaspora, Hybridity and the Nation: Asian-Australian Perspectives in Literature and Theatre. Australia's engagement with Asia remains central to our national security and economic development. Better understanding about Asians in Australia will enhance Australia's capacity to interpret itself to the Asian region. This research also addresses major concerns that are of significance to the wellbeing and cohesiveness of the nation: race relations, reconciliation, nationhood, and globalisation. By f ....Diaspora, Hybridity and the Nation: Asian-Australian Perspectives in Literature and Theatre. Australia's engagement with Asia remains central to our national security and economic development. Better understanding about Asians in Australia will enhance Australia's capacity to interpret itself to the Asian region. This research also addresses major concerns that are of significance to the wellbeing and cohesiveness of the nation: race relations, reconciliation, nationhood, and globalisation. By foregrounding the contribution of Asian-Australians in the cultural life of the nation, the research serves to enrich public life and foster stronger community relations.Read moreRead less