Externally Funded Research Projects

Policy Notes: Local Popular Music in Global Creative Economies

Dr Shane Homan, Dr M Cloonan (University of Glasgow), Associate Professor Roy Shuker (Victoria University of Wellington)

2009 – 2011: $225,000

In providing the first comprehensive analysis of how music policy is created, the project assesses the viability of local music industries in a time of rapid, global technological change. It forges new ways of planning the different needs of producers, audiences and government in cultural production; and contribute to the economic and cultural health of Australian popular music industries. The project fills a major gap in Australian and international cultural policy studies in relation to the effectiveness of popular music policy and practice, particularly for industries situated outside the predominant centres of music production in Europe, the U.S. and Asia.

Persuasive Force: The Role of Aesthetic Experience in Moral Persuasion

Dr Alison Ross, Professor Krzysztof Ziarek (State University of New York at Buffalo), Professor Andrew Benjamin

2009 – 2011: $174,000

This project will make a significant contribution to the pressing contemporary topic of moral motivation. Because of its innovative approach to the problem of moral motivation this proposal will have an international impact on debates over moral conduct and raise the international profile of Australia in this field. In addition to its academic benefits for research training and our national research reputation, this proposal has implications for the way social policy is devised. In particular, the reconsideration of the sources of moral action proposed here has important implications for understanding the dynamics involved in religious fundamentalism and political violence.

Struggling for Possession: The Control and Use of Online Media Sport

Dr Brett Hutchins, Professor David Rowe (University of Western Sydney)

2008 – 2010: $181,800

Policy debates about the private ownership of sport content by media companies and sports organisations, and citizens' rights of access to content in new media environments, are characterised by considerable regulatory and legal uncertainty. This Project will identify and analyse the sources of this uncertainty, and provide informed, evidence‑based policy direction. There is a pressing need for such evidence, with regulatory authorities already expressing concern over the locking up of exclusive content rights by major media companies. This Project also contributes to the conceptual development of Communication and Media Studies in a key area of national popular culture ‑ sport.

Books as Media: The Cultural Economy of Literary Adaptation

Dr Simone Murray

2007 – 2009: $175000

The project will benefit three key Australian communities: (1) researchers; (2) cultural creators; and (3) cultural policy‑makers. (1) The project builds upon Australia's existing research excellence in Media and Cultural Studies and cross‑blends this with emerging research strengths in publishing studies and book history. (2) Australian authors, publishers and screen producers who seek access and exposure to international audiences will gain a detailed understanding of how adaptation's global economy functions. (3) The project informs Australia's cultural policy framework by focusing on enhanced marketing and promotion of Australian cultural content rather than input assistance schemes.

The Dissemination and Control of Clandestine Writing in England 1695—1774

Dr Patrick Spedding (APD)

2007 - 2009: $236,000

The literary underworld of the eighteenth century is the subject of serious academic pursuit internationally by literary historians, historians of sex and sexuality, philosophers and feminists. Australia's reputation will be enhanced by participating in this rapidly evolving field. Australia already has an internationally significant profile in bibliography and eighteenth‑century literary studies due to a combination of outstanding scholars and resources. This project will enhance Australian strength in, and contribution to, the world‑wide study of these two subjects. This study will also be informed by, and contribute to, the contemporary philosophical, religious and ethical debate concerning the distribution of contentious material.

Australian Film Theory and Criticism

Dr Constantine Verevis, Dr Deane Williams, Dr Noel King (Macquarie University)

2007 - 2009: $138,000

Australian film theory and criticism has burgeoned over the past thirty years, but there is no dedicated book‑length study of the field. This research project will fill the gap, not only tracing the specificity of Australian film theory and criticism but also reasserting its place on the international scholarly agenda. In tracing the critical positions, personalities and institutions that have shaped film theory and criticism in this country, this project will at once disseminate and preserve (for scholars and the general public alike) the legacy of those critical intellectuals who have striven to understand the nation's most popular art and entertainment form, the cinema.

How Australians have imagined the future; possibilities for an ecologically sustainable society

Professor Andrew Milner, Professor Andrew Benjamin, Professor Verity Burgmann (University of Melbourne), Associate Professor Kate Rigby, Dr Tina Weller, Professor Ian Buchanan (Cardiff University)

2007 - 2009: $560,000

In a society like ours, which is subject to more or less continuous and often rapid social change, the question of how to imagine the future is of paramount importance. The study of how better and worse futures have been imagined for Australia, and how they still continue to be imagined, is therefore a central research question for the humanities in this country. More specifically, one of the key themes in our research will be the relationship between culture, ecology and utopia or dystopia. Much of our work will be quite deliberately oriented towards the future possibilities for an ecologically sustainable society.

Working Together: Indigenous and Non‑indigenous Collaboration in Australian Film and Literature

Dr Nancy Wright (University of Western Sydney), Dr Therese Davis, Dr Brooke Collins-Gearing (The University of Newcastle)

2006 – 2008: $199,000

As the first, comprehensive study of Indigenous and non‑indigenous collaboration in film and literature this project will make an important contribution to Australian cultural history. It will provide filmmakers, educators and publishers with expanded theoretical findings about the nature of collaboration. In the most general sense, this critical analysis of one of the ways in which Indigenous and non‑indigenous Australians have and continue to 'work together' will contribute to the national project of Reconciliation.

Portrait of a Lady: Victorian Women's Novels and the Construction of Female Subjectivity

Professor Pauline Nestor

2006 – 2008: $121,127

This country enjoys an excellent reputation in the areas of feminism and Victorian Studies. This project will help keep Australia at the forefront of international scholarship in these fields by making a significant original contribution and by achieving the high level of visibility provided by a monograph with a major international publisher. More generally, 19th century England was a crucible for modern conceptions of the self, and by examining the contribution of women writers to theories of identity and self‑construction, the project will help us to learn more about ourselves.

Demanding the Impossible: Utopianism in Philosophy, Literature and Science Fiction

Professor Andrew Milner, Professor Andrew Benjamin, Associate Professor Kate Rigby, Associate Professor Roland Boer, Professor Ian Buchanan (Cardiff University), Dr Robert Savage

2005 – 2007: $360,000

This is a critical appraisal of utopianism in politics, literature and science fiction. It asks whether there is a place for utopianism in contemporary thought. It situates these utopianisms in relation to the wider comparative context of utopianism in theology, philosophy and art. Its special academic significance is in the combination of a wide range of disciplinary approaches with a dual focus on Australian and overseas materials. The outcome will be a deepened understanding of how better and worse futures have been imagined, both in Australia and overseas, and also of the extent to which real social changes have been the effect of previously imagined utopias or dystopias.

Print Manager: Jonathan Swift and Anglo-Irish Print Culture 1680-1750

Professor Clive Probyn

2005 – 2007: $100,000

In Swift studies Australia has both a leading position and a key group of internationally recognised scholars (David Woolley at Perth, Harold Love at Monash, Ian Higgins at ANU , Robert Phiddian at Flinders, myself at Monash). Monash also has the internationally significant Swift Collection of manuscripts, books and associated material, all of the digital databases and microfilms, and is the leading centre for Swift research and eighteenth-century literary research in Australia. This project will enhance Australian strength in and contribution to the world-wide study of Swift and his work, deepen Australian awareness of its Anglo-Irish colonial heritage, and reveal new dimensions to its Irish-Australian heritage.

Six Inch Rule: A Cultural Study of the Australian Occupation of Japan, 1946-1952

Associate Professor Robin Gerster

2005 – 2007: $91,000

This research into a neglected episode in the Australian experience of Japan represents a major advance in understandings of Austral/Asian relationships. In establishing the Occupation of Japan as a crucial development in post-war Australian international relations, the project will be immensely beneficial to the broad discipline of Australian geopolitics, particularly with respect to the ideologies and practices of foreign occupation as reflections of national culture. The projected monograph will demonstrably add to the body of public knowledge of our cultural engagement with Japan, and illuminate an acknowledged area of Australian self-definition - the experience of overseas military service.

Transnational and cross-cultural choreographies: the politics of cultural transmission in Australian dance, 1970 - 2000

2005 - 2007: $170,000

This project will highlight the rich cultural diversity of Australian dance and choreography. Its methodology will facilitate critical debate about cross-cultural dynamics in the performing arts with national and international dance artists and cultural scholars. The research outcomes will give a distinctively Australian focus to international dance studies and generate new knowledges about the recent cultural history of Australian dance. And they will give global prominence to the unique transnational influences that shape Australian culture. As a result, the project will shift dance studies in Australia from an embryonic field of scholarly interest to a significant field of cultural research.

Staging Sappho: investigating new methodologies in Classical Performance Reception

Professor Andrew Ellis Benjamin, Professor Simon Goldhill, Professor Lorna Hardwick, Mr Stephen Armstrong, Mr Michael Patrick Kantor, Ms Maryanne Henrietta Lynch, Ms Christina Marion Potts, Dr Jane Griffiths, Professor Edith Hall, Dr Margaret Louise Reynolds

Collaborating/Partner Organisation(s) Malthouse Theatre

This project will make a significant contribution to Australia's profile as a research innovator in Arts and Humanities. It is the first research project of its kind to integrate theories of Classical reception and textual transmission with performance theory and practice. As such, it will further the knowledge base of the discipline of Classical Reception Studies by introducing a new methodology to the field, and will also benefit the community in terms of cultural engagement.

Heatwaves, population health, and emergency management in Australia‑a qualitative study

Dr Peng Bi (The University of Adelaide), Associate Professor Dino Pisaniello (The University of Adelaide), Professor Kevin Parton (Charles Sturt University), Professor Philip Weinstein (The University of Western Australia), Associate Professor Gil-Soo Han, Dr Monika Nitschke (The University of Adelaide), Dr Arthur Saniotis (The University of Adelaide)

2009 - 2010: $132,000

Collaborating/Partner Organisation(s)

South Australian Department of Health

This is the first qualitative study on emergency management mechanism to heatwaves in Australia. It will also explore relevant emergency and health specific adaptation strategies for heatwaves in different population settings. The results will help relevant government agencies for policy‑making, such as public service and resource allocation, infrastructure establishment, disaster prevention and response including establishing the national heatwaves response system. They will also help relevant industry for their adaptation to heatwaves, ie aged care and energy industries. The results will also benefit local communities, especially those from disadvantaged groups such as indigenous Australians and aged population.

Changing disease patterns amongst migrants: a focus on the National Health Priority Areas

Dr Peng Bi (The University of Adelaide), Associate Professor Phil Ryan (The University of Adelaide), Professor Janet Hiller (The University of Adelaide), Professor David Roder (The Cancer Council South Australia), Associate Professor Gil-Soo Han

2008 – 2010: $77,000

Collaborating/Partner Organisation(s)

South Australian Department of Health

Migrant Resource Centre South Australia

The proposed project will make significant practical and scientific contributions to Australians, especially to the health of the migrant population. It is particularly important to the aged migrant population, the people from disadvantaged socioeconomic groups and those with language barriers. The study results will provide a more complete and updated picture of migrant health in Australia. Such important information is necessary to Federal and State departments in their policy making and resource allocation. The study results will be disseminated to local migrant community and migrant service organisation for their health promotion and health education campaigns.