The Laboratory of Modernity: Knowledge Formation and the Australian Settler Colonies (1788-1900). Colonial Australia was a laboratory in which European ideas could be tested, raw data collected, and social experiments trialled, especially in managing settler, convict, and Aboriginal populations. This literary historical project will analyse the production and circulation of colonial knowledge, by focusing on texts and print culture, and will map their influence on European thought and modern soc ....The Laboratory of Modernity: Knowledge Formation and the Australian Settler Colonies (1788-1900). Colonial Australia was a laboratory in which European ideas could be tested, raw data collected, and social experiments trialled, especially in managing settler, convict, and Aboriginal populations. This literary historical project will analyse the production and circulation of colonial knowledge, by focusing on texts and print culture, and will map their influence on European thought and modern social theory. Grounded in meticulous archival and textual analysis, this project will trace the ways in which knowledge created in the settler colonies was produced by individuals and circulated by correspondence, institutions, and publication through imperial networks. This project will produce new insights into Australia’s literary and cultural history.Read moreRead less
Beyond Extinction: Reconstructing the Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) Archive. This project aims to tell a global story about extinction as a human problem, by reconstructing the individual biographies of a selection of thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) specimens. Through transforming these specimens into grieveable lives the project expects to facilitate scholarly and public engagement with the cultural history of extinction, advancing the foundation for a sustainable and informed response that may help ....Beyond Extinction: Reconstructing the Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) Archive. This project aims to tell a global story about extinction as a human problem, by reconstructing the individual biographies of a selection of thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) specimens. Through transforming these specimens into grieveable lives the project expects to facilitate scholarly and public engagement with the cultural history of extinction, advancing the foundation for a sustainable and informed response that may help prevent further extinctions. In bringing together the zoo and the museum as key sites for the development of public environmental sentiment, this project has the potential to generate new and globally-relevant resources for engaging with conservation and extinction, through these institutions and beyond.Read moreRead less