Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120100593
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Protecting the peace: protectors and the legal transformation of the British Empire, 1820-1850. This project will examine the impact of two new imperial offices, the Protector of Slaves and Protector of Aborigines on the legal constitution of the British Empire at a moment of rapid transformation. It will show these offices operated both as new weapons both of legal imperialism and of intimate colonial governance.
Personal liberty, British identity and surveillance in the antipodes, 1780s - 1830s. By studying surveillance in colonial Australia and South Africa, this project will come to a new understanding of what defined British liberty. It will demonstrate that our country's history lies at the centre of one of the most pressing questions of our time-how far do concepts of freedom remain tied to national and cultural particularity?
The modern Athenians: Francis Jeffrey's Edinburgh Review (1802-1829) in the 'knowledge economy' of the early nineteenth century. This study of the multi-disciplinary nature and influence of the Edinburgh Review under Francis Jeffrey and its contribution to the organisation and dissemination of knowledge in the early nineteenth-century utilises developments in web design and technology to create a comprehensive website dedicated to Edinburgh Review.
Enterprising women: race, gender and power in the revolutionary Atlantic, 1770-1820. This historical project will research emancipated slave women who became successful entrepreneurs in the British slave colonies in the late eighteenth-century, to show how these remarkable free black women influenced the culture of the British empire, both in the colonies and at home.
Words and Their Consequences: Freedom of Expression in Britain, 1960-1979. This project plans to use contests over obscenity and racism as lenses to understand changes in freedom of expression in Britain during the 1960s and 1970s. What was the purpose of free speech? How did the liberty to write and read relate to ideas about personal autonomy? What effects do words have on those who read or hear them? Working with previously untapped archival material on regulating obscene publications and the ....Words and Their Consequences: Freedom of Expression in Britain, 1960-1979. This project plans to use contests over obscenity and racism as lenses to understand changes in freedom of expression in Britain during the 1960s and 1970s. What was the purpose of free speech? How did the liberty to write and read relate to ideas about personal autonomy? What effects do words have on those who read or hear them? Working with previously untapped archival material on regulating obscene publications and the passage of legislation against racial vilification, the project aims to provide a new history of the theory and practice of freedom of expression in modern Britain.Read moreRead less
Empires of honour: violence and virtue in colonial societies, 1750-1850. The moral sentiments and moral practices of any society depend on how that society understands honour. This project will show how different concepts of honour clashed or were recreated through global movements of people in the age of empire, and investigate the enduring effects of such contests in the colonial societies of the India-Pacific region.
Malthus and the New World. T.R. Malthus is one of the most studied and influential English political economists of the modern period. Yet even distinguished Malthus scholars are either unaware or uninterested in the fact that he wrote about the new Australian colonies – Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales, in his famous Essay on the Principle of Population. It was Aboriginal societies he was interested in. This project aims to assess this dimension of the Essay, alongside his thoughts on Pacif ....Malthus and the New World. T.R. Malthus is one of the most studied and influential English political economists of the modern period. Yet even distinguished Malthus scholars are either unaware or uninterested in the fact that he wrote about the new Australian colonies – Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales, in his famous Essay on the Principle of Population. It was Aboriginal societies he was interested in. This project aims to assess this dimension of the Essay, alongside his thoughts on Pacific Island societies and on Native Americans. Malthus and the New World will completely redefine Malthus scholarship in a study that will coincide with the 250th anniversary of his birth in 2016.Read moreRead less
Anglo-Saxon literary patronage: origins and development. Literature in English began more than a thousand years ago with the Anglo-Saxons, whose greatest work, the epic poem 'Beowulf', marked the transition from an oral poetic tradition to written literature. This project is the first to examine the relationship between patrons and writers in the creation of the earliest English literature and its books.
Jane Austen and maternal disinheritance: The Leigh family archive. This project aims to research Jane Austen’s (1775-1817) mother’s family, the Leighs. Family relationships are central to Austen’s novels, but little is known about the women of her own family. The Leighs left extensive archival materials pertaining to their history, which Austen scholars have largely ignored. This project will use detailed archival research to recover and reposition the Leigh family in Austen biography, and read ....Jane Austen and maternal disinheritance: The Leigh family archive. This project aims to research Jane Austen’s (1775-1817) mother’s family, the Leighs. Family relationships are central to Austen’s novels, but little is known about the women of her own family. The Leighs left extensive archival materials pertaining to their history, which Austen scholars have largely ignored. This project will use detailed archival research to recover and reposition the Leigh family in Austen biography, and read Austen’s juvenilia and novels as informed by and contributing to this history. The project aims to better understand the influence of family history on Jane Austen’s novels, contributing to our knowledge of British women’s literature and history.Read moreRead less
Medieval Irish law texts: scholarly, legal and social development. This interdisciplinary project focuses on a vast collection of Irish law texts. Those texts reflect developments in the Gaelic culture of Ireland over the entire medieval period. This project will bring a clearer understanding of the development of Celtic culture, which has been a strong factor in the creation of an Australian cultural identity.