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
Experimental mapping of electron densities in nano-structured materials. This project aims to map electrons in nano-structured materials using a new technique combining the latest solid-state theory with electron scattering experiments in one of the world’s most advanced electron microscopes. It is expected that by revealing the electronic structure of nano-scale features in bulk materials for the first time, their functions will become fully explainable. Aside from this new capability, other ....Experimental mapping of electron densities in nano-structured materials. This project aims to map electrons in nano-structured materials using a new technique combining the latest solid-state theory with electron scattering experiments in one of the world’s most advanced electron microscopes. It is expected that by revealing the electronic structure of nano-scale features in bulk materials for the first time, their functions will become fully explainable. Aside from this new capability, other expected outcomes include discovering how heat is converted into electricity in thermoelectric materials and how precipitates affect alloy strength. The benefits may include more informed materials design, more efficient thermoelectrics for sustainable energy technologies, and higher strength-to-weight ratio alloys.Read moreRead less
Novel advances in sub-nanometer imaging. After two decades of research the first wave of applications in nanotechnology and nanobiology is breaking. Immediately key to further progress in both areas is the ability to characterise the structure of such systems and also their evolution on very short time scales. This research project places Australia at the forefront in this endeavour.
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
Big time crystals: a new paradigm in condensed matter. This project aims to extend condensed matter physics to the time dimension using big time crystals created by a periodically driven Bose-Einstein condensate. Such a system is expected to offer exceptional versatility, allowing effective potentials and long-range interactions in a time lattice to be engineered almost at will by proper periodic driving and modulation of the particle interaction. Expected outcomes include realisation of novel c ....Big time crystals: a new paradigm in condensed matter. This project aims to extend condensed matter physics to the time dimension using big time crystals created by a periodically driven Bose-Einstein condensate. Such a system is expected to offer exceptional versatility, allowing effective potentials and long-range interactions in a time lattice to be engineered almost at will by proper periodic driving and modulation of the particle interaction. Expected outcomes include realisation of novel condensed matter phenomena such as topologically protected states in the time dimension, time crystalline structures exhibiting disorder or quasi-crystalline order and time-tronics devices analogous to electronics. Potential future benefits include novel advanced materials and semiconductor-like devices. 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