Before, during and after Lapita: 5000 years of cultural continuity and transformation at Caution Bay, southern Papua New Guinea. Australia's closest Indigenous neighbours in southern Papua New Guinea have long been thought to have been in contact with long-distance seafarers only in the last 2000 years. This project will document recent archaeological findings that are causing a radical rethink of ancestral connections between Australia and southern Papua New Guinea.
Australian Fiction 1989 to 2005, and its National and Global Infrastructures. This project is a systematic analysis of Australian fiction published between 1989 and 2005: after the Australian Bicentenary and into the new millenium. It will look in particular at the relationship between national literary culture and globalisation. It examines the cultural, social, educational, political and economic aspects of this literary field, and accounts for its production and distribution, as well as the w ....Australian Fiction 1989 to 2005, and its National and Global Infrastructures. This project is a systematic analysis of Australian fiction published between 1989 and 2005: after the Australian Bicentenary and into the new millenium. It will look in particular at the relationship between national literary culture and globalisation. It examines the cultural, social, educational, political and economic aspects of this literary field, and accounts for its production and distribution, as well as the ways in which it is evaluated and put to use. It will be the first study of its kind, an analysis of contemporary Australian literary production in the fullest sense.Read moreRead less
Land and colonial cultures: tracing Indigenous and settler transformation in the Pacific, 1850-1900. This research asks how conversations about land between settlers and Indigenous peoples in Australia, New Zealand, Hawai'i and Fiji shaped radically new landscapes of ownership during the 19th century. Its outcomes will illuminate the shared history of this region, while enhancing our historical foundations for facing postcolonial tensions over land.
Faith into Words: the entanglement of religion, politics and poetry in the work of Vincent Buckley. This project will explore poetry of Vincent Buckley, which is grounded in a conception of a God incarnate in the world and its people that impacted directly on Australia's secular culture and politics, and continues to offer to both secular and religious readers a way towards an inclusive human community.
Evaluating the Australian Popular Fiction Archive: A Definitive Critical History and Bibliography of Early to Late Colonial Genre Writing. This project analyses and evaluates Australian popular or genre fiction from the early to the late colonial period: from around the 1840s to the beginning of World War Two. It will chart a comprehensive history of colonial Australian genre fiction for the first time, producing two critical monographs and an online bibliography and digital archive which will f ....Evaluating the Australian Popular Fiction Archive: A Definitive Critical History and Bibliography of Early to Late Colonial Genre Writing. This project analyses and evaluates Australian popular or genre fiction from the early to the late colonial period: from around the 1840s to the beginning of World War Two. It will chart a comprehensive history of colonial Australian genre fiction for the first time, producing two critical monographs and an online bibliography and digital archive which will function as major reading, research and teaching resources. Understanding colonial popular fiction as a field of writing that expressed colonial sensibilities and performed colonial predicaments, this project will also demonstrate the formative role it played in the task of settlement and nation building.Read moreRead less
Cities of Words: Women's cultures of reading and writing in colonial Melbourne and beyond. This project will promote community awareness of the honour bestowed upon Melbourne and Australia by the United Nations, by uncovering the foundations of Melbourne's literary cultures and situating them nationally and internationally. By showing that Melbourne has ever been a city of words it will provide impetus for present and future literary activity, and enhance the understanding of the cultural life o ....Cities of Words: Women's cultures of reading and writing in colonial Melbourne and beyond. This project will promote community awareness of the honour bestowed upon Melbourne and Australia by the United Nations, by uncovering the foundations of Melbourne's literary cultures and situating them nationally and internationally. By showing that Melbourne has ever been a city of words it will provide impetus for present and future literary activity, and enhance the understanding of the cultural life of the city and the country. It takes part in an international conversation about the transcultural importance of books, reading and writing, staking a claim for Melbourne, and Australia, in the global exchange of ideas.Read moreRead less
The role of public culture in the construction of contemporary Australian literature. Literature is not simply a body of texts; it is a cultural technology, affected by changing patterns of production and consumption. Witness the 'cult of celebrity', the phenomenal recent growth of literary festivals, literary internet sites, reading groups, changing patterns of literary marketing, education, employment and leisure. Academic scholarship, largely text-based, fails to engage with these public and ....The role of public culture in the construction of contemporary Australian literature. Literature is not simply a body of texts; it is a cultural technology, affected by changing patterns of production and consumption. Witness the 'cult of celebrity', the phenomenal recent growth of literary festivals, literary internet sites, reading groups, changing patterns of literary marketing, education, employment and leisure. Academic scholarship, largely text-based, fails to engage with these public and popular phenomena. Our project develops methods for describing and evaluating how these practices construct literary value and cultural identity, in ways that will bring academic literary analysis into a more informed, more creative engagement with public and popular culture in Australia.Read moreRead less
Sociability, print and public culture in romantic period Britain and Australia. This project illuminates the life in the early colony by exploring the history of the earliest Australian printed document that has so far been discovered, a playbill for a theatrical performance in Sydney dating from 1796. Placing the document in a rich and complex context of print, circulation, and sociability, the project affirms the importance of such ephemeral literature as testimony to the values of fellowship ....Sociability, print and public culture in romantic period Britain and Australia. This project illuminates the life in the early colony by exploring the history of the earliest Australian printed document that has so far been discovered, a playbill for a theatrical performance in Sydney dating from 1796. Placing the document in a rich and complex context of print, circulation, and sociability, the project affirms the importance of such ephemeral literature as testimony to the values of fellowship and community that were foundational to Australian culture and which continue to be relevant to the health of a modern democracy.Read moreRead less
Australian literary publishing and its economies, 1965-1995. Australian literature is an essential aspect of Australian culture but its viability is currently under threat, both in the marketplace, and in tertiary and secondary education, where its coherence and relevance as a discipline has diminished over the past decade. Because it explores the different inputs that make for a vital literary culture, some of them intangible or discrete in their operation, the project will contribute to a bett ....Australian literary publishing and its economies, 1965-1995. Australian literature is an essential aspect of Australian culture but its viability is currently under threat, both in the marketplace, and in tertiary and secondary education, where its coherence and relevance as a discipline has diminished over the past decade. Because it explores the different inputs that make for a vital literary culture, some of them intangible or discrete in their operation, the project will contribute to a better understanding of how this culture works, and to a renewed confidence in its ability to sustain itself by commercial and non-commercial means.Read moreRead less
From colonial to modern: transnational girlhood in Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian print cultures (1840-1940). This project will produce new histories of girlhood through the examination of Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian print culture. It will shed new light on how colonial girlhood reflected transitional ideals and how Australia related to fellow colonies through its print culture and developed unique national ideals for girls in the modern period.