Voice, indexicality and the mediation of diversity on Australian television. Multicultural Australia is a country of many voices, although concern has been expressed about the under-representation of those voices in the media. This project investigates how the voices of minority groups are represented on mainstream Australian television, when they do appear. It examines a substantial body of TV data, from four types of programming: news, sports, advertising and drama. It focuses on minority ethn ....Voice, indexicality and the mediation of diversity on Australian television. Multicultural Australia is a country of many voices, although concern has been expressed about the under-representation of those voices in the media. This project investigates how the voices of minority groups are represented on mainstream Australian television, when they do appear. It examines a substantial body of TV data, from four types of programming: news, sports, advertising and drama. It focuses on minority ethnic voices and on voices linked to different social classes. Close analysis of media processes will be supplemented by consulting professionals and TV viewers. The findings will provide a new perspective on the media’s role in promoting or curtailing cultural literacy and linguistic diversity.Read moreRead less
A Cross-National and Cross-Cultural Study of Global Translation Industry. This project aims to tackle the pressing issue of the social invisibility of the translation profession, a persistent social problem that threatens to hinder the development of a critical knowledge-based industry in Australia within a rapidly changing international social, economic and cultural context. The project is expected to offer insights into the emerging international translation system and inform policy makers an ....A Cross-National and Cross-Cultural Study of Global Translation Industry. This project aims to tackle the pressing issue of the social invisibility of the translation profession, a persistent social problem that threatens to hinder the development of a critical knowledge-based industry in Australia within a rapidly changing international social, economic and cultural context. The project is expected to offer insights into the emerging international translation system and inform policy makers and the general public about the challenges and opportunities of developing this profitable and resilient service industry.Read moreRead less
A Computational Solution to the Problem of Reference. This project will attack the core problem of philosophy of language by developing and applying tools from the theory of algorithmic complexity. Groundbreaking pure research at the intersection of logic, language, information and computation is the lifeblood of commercial research and development in information technology and telecommunications. The project will foster a cross-fertilisation of ideas between philosophy, computer science, math ....A Computational Solution to the Problem of Reference. This project will attack the core problem of philosophy of language by developing and applying tools from the theory of algorithmic complexity. Groundbreaking pure research at the intersection of logic, language, information and computation is the lifeblood of commercial research and development in information technology and telecommunications. The project will foster a cross-fertilisation of ideas between philosophy, computer science, mathematics, linguistics and psychology, and will provide students with skills and analytic techniques that will be valuable in future pure and applied research.Read moreRead less
A unified theory of the individual - a central problem in analytical philosophy. This project will further increase Australia's already high profile in analytic philosophy. This will foster an intellectual environment within Australia that will attract highly skilled overseas academics who bring knowledge and funding to Australia, benefiting both Australian researchers and students. This will in turn attract overseas fee-paying students who bring economic and cultural benefits to Australia.
Fundamental Ways the World Could Be: Challenging Metaphysical Orthodoxy. This project strengthens Australia's fine reputation in metaphysics through disseminating cutting-edge research. It will build relationships with leading researchers and bring their knowledge to Australia, fostering an intellectual environment that strengthens Australia as a destination for tertiary study and international researchers. It will offer explicit training in research skills and provide wide-ranging knowledge for ....Fundamental Ways the World Could Be: Challenging Metaphysical Orthodoxy. This project strengthens Australia's fine reputation in metaphysics through disseminating cutting-edge research. It will build relationships with leading researchers and bring their knowledge to Australia, fostering an intellectual environment that strengthens Australia as a destination for tertiary study and international researchers. It will offer explicit training in research skills and provide wide-ranging knowledge for a postgraduate student. In clarifying and answering key fundamental metaphysical questions that have wide ramifications, it will provide a sound basis and the conceptual resources for both ethicists, philosophers of science and scientists to theorise about us as agents in the world, and about the nature of our world.Read moreRead less
Reconstructing Eastern Himalayan Histories: languages, plants, and people. This project combines linguistic and ethnographic fieldwork to produce documentations of Bhutan's East-Bodish (Tibeto-Burman) speaking peoples, with an ultimate aim to reconstruct the social history of this group. The linguistic fieldwork will focus on different semantic domains, including religion, agriculture, and ethnobotany and grammatical features as different lenses into the past. The anthropological research will b ....Reconstructing Eastern Himalayan Histories: languages, plants, and people. This project combines linguistic and ethnographic fieldwork to produce documentations of Bhutan's East-Bodish (Tibeto-Burman) speaking peoples, with an ultimate aim to reconstruct the social history of this group. The linguistic fieldwork will focus on different semantic domains, including religion, agriculture, and ethnobotany and grammatical features as different lenses into the past. The anthropological research will bring new ethnographic light in to supplement the linguistic picture of the past, including religious practices and social organisation. Situated squarely within the eastern Himalayas, this project will provide new and crucial insights into the prehistory of Asia.Read moreRead less
Thinking and talking about atolls: the role of environment in shaping language and our understanding of physical space. This project investigates the role of environment in shaping how we think about physical space. By comparing how people in the highly specialised environment of the atoll talk about space in different parts of the world we will gather new data to test ideas on the roles of language and environment in shaping how we understand the physical world.
Waves of words: mapping and modeling Australia’s Pacific ties. This project aims to determine the extent and nature of ancient contact relationships between first peoples of Australia and the Pacific by exploring linguistic interactions. The project will use complementary sets of methods and expects to discover what kinds of social configurations underlie different linguistic outcomes in language contact situations. This will improve our understanding of the relationship between language change ....Waves of words: mapping and modeling Australia’s Pacific ties. This project aims to determine the extent and nature of ancient contact relationships between first peoples of Australia and the Pacific by exploring linguistic interactions. The project will use complementary sets of methods and expects to discover what kinds of social configurations underlie different linguistic outcomes in language contact situations. This will improve our understanding of the relationship between language change and socio-cultural change, which will have significant impact on linguistic and anthropological theory.Read moreRead less
'As-if thinking': an experimental analysis of human reasoning and decision-making. The failure to respond adequately to the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 highlighted the difficulty of sequential decision-making. Responses to such emergencies require detailed contingency plans, necessitating a consideration of all possible outcomes of a situation regardless of their objective probability. This project takes an innovative approach to the experimental analysis of human reasoning and de ....'As-if thinking': an experimental analysis of human reasoning and decision-making. The failure to respond adequately to the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 highlighted the difficulty of sequential decision-making. Responses to such emergencies require detailed contingency plans, necessitating a consideration of all possible outcomes of a situation regardless of their objective probability. This project takes an innovative approach to the experimental analysis of human reasoning and decision-making, with the aim of identifying the mechanisms, factors, and boundary conditions affecting inferences and decisions about uncertain alternatives. The research will inform planning for Australia's readiness to respond to unpredictable events with uncertain outcomes and enhance the reputation of Australian science.Read moreRead less
Associability processes in propositional learning. A novel attentional model of learning is evaluated in this project. In this model, learning is seen not as a consequence of a low-level, evolutionarily old system shared with our ancestors, but as a product of our capacity to apply rules and engage in reasoning. Understanding the role of attention in learning will allow a better understanding of the attentional biases seen in clinical disorders such as addiction and a new way to think about the ....Associability processes in propositional learning. A novel attentional model of learning is evaluated in this project. In this model, learning is seen not as a consequence of a low-level, evolutionarily old system shared with our ancestors, but as a product of our capacity to apply rules and engage in reasoning. Understanding the role of attention in learning will allow a better understanding of the attentional biases seen in clinical disorders such as addiction and a new way to think about the neuroscience of attention. These benefits may further suggest new lines of research in the development of drugs to combat attentional disorders.Read moreRead less