Representing Kanaks: Generic Variation, Identity, and the Politics of the Everyday Semiotic. The project hypothesizes that representational struggles over indigenous identity are crucially shaped by the range of genres in which identity is asserted. Through the case of Kanaks in New Caledonia, as represented by several everyday genres hitherto neglected by scholarship, the representational politics of indigeneity are interrogated with the aim of demonstrating that Kanak existence is constituted ....Representing Kanaks: Generic Variation, Identity, and the Politics of the Everyday Semiotic. The project hypothesizes that representational struggles over indigenous identity are crucially shaped by the range of genres in which identity is asserted. Through the case of Kanaks in New Caledonia, as represented by several everyday genres hitherto neglected by scholarship, the representational politics of indigeneity are interrogated with the aim of demonstrating that Kanak existence is constituted in the semiotic detail of everyday generic variation. The project's significance lies in its radical reconception of identity and representational politics: going beyond indigenous versus colonial binaries, it reveals the complexity of day-to-day competition over and consolidation of indigenous identity through representational systems.Read moreRead less
Mobile Indonesians: social differentiation and digital literacies in the twenty first century. This is the first dedicated study of the social implications of mobile telephony's recent and rapid popularisation throughout the country. This project will study metropolitan, urban and rural users to understand how mobile phones create the new and unexpected social networks which will shape tomorrow's Indonesians.
Through the Lens: A Cultural Study of Women's Fashion Photography in Australia, 1890 to 2000. This study supports growing academic interests in Australian fashion and provides the nascent fashion industry, and the media, with a cultural and historical context for their current practices. It sets up debate and expands available information about local fashion photography, challenging the assumption that it is solely dependent on overseas ideas and practices. It has the further potential to export ....Through the Lens: A Cultural Study of Women's Fashion Photography in Australia, 1890 to 2000. This study supports growing academic interests in Australian fashion and provides the nascent fashion industry, and the media, with a cultural and historical context for their current practices. It sets up debate and expands available information about local fashion photography, challenging the assumption that it is solely dependent on overseas ideas and practices. It has the further potential to export understandings of Australian fashion and its photographic representation, including its creative and aesthetic aspects, and by implication will assist the fashion industry, and the public, develop understanding of its workings.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
Australian Cultural Fields: National and Transnational Dynamics. This interdisciplinary project investigates the shaping of Australian art, literary, media, sport, and heritage fields, individually and collectively, by the changing national and transnational environment since the 1994 national cultural policy Creative Nation. Like Creative Nation, its primary focus is on the relation between these fields and the nation, but also pays particular attention to the distinctive forms of cultural capi ....Australian Cultural Fields: National and Transnational Dynamics. This interdisciplinary project investigates the shaping of Australian art, literary, media, sport, and heritage fields, individually and collectively, by the changing national and transnational environment since the 1994 national cultural policy Creative Nation. Like Creative Nation, its primary focus is on the relation between these fields and the nation, but also pays particular attention to the distinctive forms of cultural capital associated within and across these fields, especially ethnic cultural divisions and the distinctive presence of Indigenous culture. This project’s empirical application and assessment of the concept of the ‘cultural field’ will contribute to the international development of cultural theory.Read moreRead less
Picturing change: 21st Century perspectives on recent Australian rock art, especially that from the European contact period. Australia, long known for its prehistoric rock art of world heritage value, will now also be known for its unique and diverse body of contact rock art. This project will benefit tourism in remote regions, many of which are or are near World Heritage Areas (eg. Kakadu, Uluru, Blue Mountains). Contemporary indigenous knowledge about important cross-cultural landscapes will ....Picturing change: 21st Century perspectives on recent Australian rock art, especially that from the European contact period. Australia, long known for its prehistoric rock art of world heritage value, will now also be known for its unique and diverse body of contact rock art. This project will benefit tourism in remote regions, many of which are or are near World Heritage Areas (eg. Kakadu, Uluru, Blue Mountains). Contemporary indigenous knowledge about important cross-cultural landscapes will be synthesised along with other new knowledge to assist with the protection of sites, the development of new management plans and applications to place particular groups of sites on a new UNESCO World Heritage rock art list. Aboriginal participants will receive research skills training and both individuals and communities will reconnect to significant remote places.Read moreRead less
Adolescence in Contemporary China: Social Change, Future Directions and Implications for Australia. China has one-fifth of the world's adolescents. In the last two decades, this age-group has become the focus of unprecedented public and policy debate across all areas of Chinese life. Yet the literature contains no scholarly synthesis of these debates that explains China's 'adolescent phenomenon' and its overall significance. This project offers the first, sustained analysis of contemporary Chine ....Adolescence in Contemporary China: Social Change, Future Directions and Implications for Australia. China has one-fifth of the world's adolescents. In the last two decades, this age-group has become the focus of unprecedented public and policy debate across all areas of Chinese life. Yet the literature contains no scholarly synthesis of these debates that explains China's 'adolescent phenomenon' and its overall significance. This project offers the first, sustained analysis of contemporary Chinese adolescence as both product and catalyst of social change. It provides new perspectives on Chinese society, economy and politics within local and global frameworks and has applied potential, especially for international education.Read moreRead less
A desire for things: an investigation of the inter-relations of art making, consumption and exchange among Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara. This project will deliver an understanding of the motivations of artists when they make art and craft work to sell and the consumer goods that they choose to acquire from their resulting earnings. This project will establish insights into how Anangu earn and spend their money and the connections that they perceive between these.
Confronting Representations: Performing Indigenous Protests. By using performance studies approaches to analyse public political events this work will provide the practical benefit of increasing our understanding of how different cultures interpret and misinterpret each other in public encounters. Examining the dynamics that have and continue to operate between people and social discourses increases our understanding of ourselves as Australians and our ability to interpret ourselves. A further b ....Confronting Representations: Performing Indigenous Protests. By using performance studies approaches to analyse public political events this work will provide the practical benefit of increasing our understanding of how different cultures interpret and misinterpret each other in public encounters. Examining the dynamics that have and continue to operate between people and social discourses increases our understanding of ourselves as Australians and our ability to interpret ourselves. A further benefit is that the project develops an innovative methodology for interdisciplinary research drawing from the fields of performance studies, media studies and cultural studies.Read moreRead less
Connecting Indigenous Community Photographies: a transnational case study. The project aims to conduct the first transnational comparison of Indigenous community-controlled photography, exploring Indigenous peoples’ ways of seeing and documenting their worlds. The project seeks to significantly advance Australian and global understanding of Indigenous vernacular photography through investigating formerly unexplored private collections of images created by Indigenous photographers during the mid ....Connecting Indigenous Community Photographies: a transnational case study. The project aims to conduct the first transnational comparison of Indigenous community-controlled photography, exploring Indigenous peoples’ ways of seeing and documenting their worlds. The project seeks to significantly advance Australian and global understanding of Indigenous vernacular photography through investigating formerly unexplored private collections of images created by Indigenous photographers during the mid 20th Century in four communities across three countries. One of the outcomes of the project is a nuanced visual history that cannot be excavated from other sources. The benefits of this project include public exhibitions, a book, symposiums, and a scholarly anthology that encourages the public’s connection with the past.Read moreRead less