Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100854
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$380,204.00
Summary
The Female Voice in Ancient Philosophical Dialogues. This project aims to conceptualise and communicate how a major innovation was accepted in the ancient world, when women for the first time began to serve as intellectual role-models for both men and women. This project will create a ground-breaking narrative of female intellectuals over 800 years of history. The expected outcome is a new history of the role women played in the intellectual life in the ancient world, and a new understanding of ....The Female Voice in Ancient Philosophical Dialogues. This project aims to conceptualise and communicate how a major innovation was accepted in the ancient world, when women for the first time began to serve as intellectual role-models for both men and women. This project will create a ground-breaking narrative of female intellectuals over 800 years of history. The expected outcome is a new history of the role women played in the intellectual life in the ancient world, and a new understanding of how their voices were used as authorities on certain issues in philosophy and the good life. In addition, reflection on how this innovation was accepted historically will help modern attempts to advance the social cohesion of men and women, especially in the intellectual life. 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
Past Tense: 'acts of memory' in contemporary Australian memoir. This project examines the turn to autobiographic expression - particularly fragmentary forms of memoir - by the intelligentsia in Australia in the fin de siecle of the twentieth century. Why and how did these styles of writing proliferate? How did they shape ideas and express uncertainties about national identity and citizenship during a phase of national commemoration, self-consciousness, jubilation and unease? In a monograph, 'Pa ....Past Tense: 'acts of memory' in contemporary Australian memoir. This project examines the turn to autobiographic expression - particularly fragmentary forms of memoir - by the intelligentsia in Australia in the fin de siecle of the twentieth century. Why and how did these styles of writing proliferate? How did they shape ideas and express uncertainties about national identity and citizenship during a phase of national commemoration, self-consciousness, jubilation and unease? In a monograph, 'Past Tense', and a series of articles and conference presentations these questions will be considered using a comparative, cross cultural approach which will make a contribution to understanding identity debates in contemporary Australian society.
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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
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100238
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$313,000.00
Summary
Georgiana Molloy, Life Writing and Environment in 1830s Western Australia. This project aims to use ecobiography, a mode of life-writing that details the relationship of a person with their environment, to prompt a reconsideration of the anthropocentric relationship between humans and non-humans in a settler colony. Through analysis of archival and contemporary writing on the environment of 1830s south-west Western Australia, it aims to illuminate interactions between botanist Georgiana Molloy, ....Georgiana Molloy, Life Writing and Environment in 1830s Western Australia. This project aims to use ecobiography, a mode of life-writing that details the relationship of a person with their environment, to prompt a reconsideration of the anthropocentric relationship between humans and non-humans in a settler colony. Through analysis of archival and contemporary writing on the environment of 1830s south-west Western Australia, it aims to illuminate interactions between botanist Georgiana Molloy, the Noongar people and plants. The resulting monograph will be designed to demonstrate how syntheses of the sciences and humanities can respond creatively to environmental deterioration. The project also intends to contribute to recent scholarship on Aboriginal agency and land management practices.Read moreRead less
A study of the impact of human agency in Shakespeare on Western culture and society. The project is important to the international reputation of English Literature scholarship and to the continuing development of Shakespearean studies in Australia. It will augment a growing area of research, the study of Early Modern Europe, that has achieved critical mass in this country, as reflected by the establishment in 2005 of the ARC Network for Early European Research. The project will contribute to o ....A study of the impact of human agency in Shakespeare on Western culture and society. The project is important to the international reputation of English Literature scholarship and to the continuing development of Shakespearean studies in Australia. It will augment a growing area of research, the study of Early Modern Europe, that has achieved critical mass in this country, as reflected by the establishment in 2005 of the ARC Network for Early European Research. The project will contribute to our knowledge of the history of the ideal of personal and collective autonomy or self-determination, an ideal absolutely central to Australian culture. Grasping the rich genealogy and historical context of this formative and essential ideal is vital to understanding our national identity.Read moreRead less
Scripts without a stage: Roman comedy in the Early Italian Renaissance. In the early Italian Renaissance at a time when theatrical infrastructure was still lacking, rapid advances in learning and technology helped scholars to show how the Latin plays, which had only survived as teaching texts, were in fact works to be performed, eventually leading to stage revivals. This project proposes to build on the successes of an Australian team working on the Roman playwright Terence, and demonstrate the ....Scripts without a stage: Roman comedy in the Early Italian Renaissance. In the early Italian Renaissance at a time when theatrical infrastructure was still lacking, rapid advances in learning and technology helped scholars to show how the Latin plays, which had only survived as teaching texts, were in fact works to be performed, eventually leading to stage revivals. This project proposes to build on the successes of an Australian team working on the Roman playwright Terence, and demonstrate the importance of humanist scholars to intellectual history. It intends to utilise a range of historical resources, many only available in recent years through digitisation.Read moreRead less
Renegotiating the Origins of History: A Study of Early Modern Historical Writing as Practiced by Leonardo Bruni and His Contemporaries. This project will pioneer a new account of the origins of modern historical writing, one which will focus on the political affiliations of foundational figures. Such a study is of vital importance to the community in a time when an intense public debate is being waged over conflicting interpretations of our national past. Participants in this debate have some ....Renegotiating the Origins of History: A Study of Early Modern Historical Writing as Practiced by Leonardo Bruni and His Contemporaries. This project will pioneer a new account of the origins of modern historical writing, one which will focus on the political affiliations of foundational figures. Such a study is of vital importance to the community in a time when an intense public debate is being waged over conflicting interpretations of our national past. Participants in this debate have sometimes appealed to pure disciplinary origins, accusing their opponents of politicizing history. This study will show that political engagement was a central feature of Western historiography from its inception, and will explore the way politics underpinned the early development of the discipline.Read moreRead less
From musume (daughters) to shojo (girls): representations of young women in modern Japanese literature. This will be the first comprehensive study of the transition of young women from musume (daughters) to shôjo (girls) in modern Japanese literature. Intended as a pioneering study of "girl power literature", it will identify neglected texts and authors, clarify the significant changes in literary representations of young women, and recognise the positive and creative aspects in these representa ....From musume (daughters) to shojo (girls): representations of young women in modern Japanese literature. This will be the first comprehensive study of the transition of young women from musume (daughters) to shôjo (girls) in modern Japanese literature. Intended as a pioneering study of "girl power literature", it will identify neglected texts and authors, clarify the significant changes in literary representations of young women, and recognise the positive and creative aspects in these representations. With its scope covering historical and contemporary, and popular and serious, the project will enhance Australia's understanding of Japanese literature, culture, and society. It will also be beneficial to studies of women, children, and adolescence in other communities including Australia.Read moreRead less
New Electronic Archives for Australian Literature. Information capacity in Australian literary studies has been dramatically expanded by national investment in electronic archives, while trends in the discipline increasingly demand empirical support for claims about literary history and literary value. At the same time, research about Australian literature remains primarily theoretical, insufficiently informed by newly available data. This project aims to further enrich the new data sets, and to ....New Electronic Archives for Australian Literature. Information capacity in Australian literary studies has been dramatically expanded by national investment in electronic archives, while trends in the discipline increasingly demand empirical support for claims about literary history and literary value. At the same time, research about Australian literature remains primarily theoretical, insufficiently informed by newly available data. This project aims to further enrich the new data sets, and to use them in an innovative return to the classical issues in Australian literary criticism and history. It will provide demonstration applications of data in new electronic archives.Read moreRead less