Letters between Vance and Nettie Palmer, 1909-1959: The Complete Correspondence. Nettie and Vance Palmer were two highly influential national figures, of considerable significance in literary and cultural circles especially in the inter-war period. This project, the preparation of Collected Letters, will considerably extend knowledge of their public contribution to cultural production in Australia and also of their private lives. It will provide a vital reference tool for historians, literary ....Letters between Vance and Nettie Palmer, 1909-1959: The Complete Correspondence. Nettie and Vance Palmer were two highly influential national figures, of considerable significance in literary and cultural circles especially in the inter-war period. This project, the preparation of Collected Letters, will considerably extend knowledge of their public contribution to cultural production in Australia and also of their private lives. It will provide a vital reference tool for historians, literary critics, biographers and scholars as well as be entertaining and compelling for the general reader. As a highly innovative example of the genre of the edited letter, in retrieving these writings of two gifted individuals, Australia's cultural heritage will be enriched.Read moreRead less
The Reading Culture of Interwar Australia. This project - an historical study of reading in Australia between the Wars (1920-1940) - will provide a basis for revaluing reading, and reasserting its role in English teaching and in the broader Australian community as a creative, educative and pleasurable activity in its own right. It also contributes to the ongoing process of recovering the international dimension present (but often overlooked) in much of Australia's early history. Finally, it will ....The Reading Culture of Interwar Australia. This project - an historical study of reading in Australia between the Wars (1920-1940) - will provide a basis for revaluing reading, and reasserting its role in English teaching and in the broader Australian community as a creative, educative and pleasurable activity in its own right. It also contributes to the ongoing process of recovering the international dimension present (but often overlooked) in much of Australia's early history. Finally, it will generate a wealth of reading-experience data for use in establishing an Australian Reading Experience Database, a major new resource - only the second of its kind in the world - for national and international research on the history of reading in Australia.Read moreRead less
The Making of the Australian Middlebrow: Nationalism, Modernity and Middlebrow Culture in Australia. This project aims to investigate the history of middlebrow cultural values and institutions in 20th-century Australia. It will be the first such study, and will build on recent major international work on the middlebrow. Reading Australian cultural history through the concept of the middlebrow will revise familar assumptions about literature, nationalism and modernity in Australia. The study will ....The Making of the Australian Middlebrow: Nationalism, Modernity and Middlebrow Culture in Australia. This project aims to investigate the history of middlebrow cultural values and institutions in 20th-century Australia. It will be the first such study, and will build on recent major international work on the middlebrow. Reading Australian cultural history through the concept of the middlebrow will revise familar assumptions about literature, nationalism and modernity in Australia. The study will examine the rich archive of Australian magazines, newspaper review pages, writer and reader associations and publishing records. It will engage theoretically with contemporary theories of popular culture and modernity. The outcome will be a monograph on middlebrow culture in Australia.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0668026
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$350,000.00
Summary
The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online and Emerging National Information Systems: Networking Research Capability. The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online and Emerging National Information Systems Project will link the dictionary's scholarly biographical articles with the resources of national cultural institutions, making visible and available to researchers everywhere an unprecedented number of sources for the lives of historical actors and a much larger volume of contextual inform ....The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online and Emerging National Information Systems: Networking Research Capability. The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online and Emerging National Information Systems Project will link the dictionary's scholarly biographical articles with the resources of national cultural institutions, making visible and available to researchers everywhere an unprecedented number of sources for the lives of historical actors and a much larger volume of contextual information about them. Its leading-edge cultural informatics will make more efficient use of existing information infrastructure and stimulate further development. Researchers using the service will be enabled to make conceptual advances and produce new knowledge about Australian history and society.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0452798
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$376,066.00
Summary
The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online: A Database of National Biography Facilitating Research into Australia's History. The project will publish the sixteen existing and all future volumes of the Australian Dictionary of Biography as a freely available relational database on the Internet. The A.D.B. is a fundamental research tool and teaching resource for Australian history, and a valuable source of knowledge about ten thousand past Australians. An innovative web-publication model will ....The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online: A Database of National Biography Facilitating Research into Australia's History. The project will publish the sixteen existing and all future volumes of the Australian Dictionary of Biography as a freely available relational database on the Internet. The A.D.B. is a fundamental research tool and teaching resource for Australian history, and a valuable source of knowledge about ten thousand past Australians. An innovative web-publication model will maximise the availability and searchability of the A.D.B., enabling researchers to pose new questions that will yield novel insights into Australian history. Interoperability with other on-line resources will result in a powerful addition to the country's information infrastructure, one capable of supporting high-quality research projects.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0560774
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$260,338.00
Summary
The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Enhancement Project: Additional Search Capabilities and Greater Interoperability for the ADB Online. The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Enhancement Project will augment the capabilities of the ADB Online. It will provide additional search categories and means of visualising the data in the dictionary's ten thousand biographical articles, enabling researchers to discover relationships, trends and developments, and thus to explore new them ....The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Enhancement Project: Additional Search Capabilities and Greater Interoperability for the ADB Online. The Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Enhancement Project will augment the capabilities of the ADB Online. It will provide additional search categories and means of visualising the data in the dictionary's ten thousand biographical articles, enabling researchers to discover relationships, trends and developments, and thus to explore new themes and gain new insights into the nature of Australian history and society. The project will also develop the website's interoperability with resources provided by the National Library of Australia and other trusted institutions, making the ADB a key element in an evolving national information architecture supporting research in the humanities and social sciences.Read moreRead less
America Publishes Australia: Australian Books and American Publishers, 1890-2005. Research into the commercial and cultural links between American publishers and Australian writers will reveal a new dimension of the nation's relationship to its most important cultural trading partner. By focusing on a neglected area of Australian publishing history, the project will also contribute significantly to our understanding of the changing circumstances within which Australian writers and publishers hav ....America Publishes Australia: Australian Books and American Publishers, 1890-2005. Research into the commercial and cultural links between American publishers and Australian writers will reveal a new dimension of the nation's relationship to its most important cultural trading partner. By focusing on a neglected area of Australian publishing history, the project will also contribute significantly to our understanding of the changing circumstances within which Australian writers and publishers have worked. Publishing remains under-researched compared to other cultural industries in Australia, despite its significance both culturally and economically.Read moreRead less
Australia's Forgotten Culture: the Pulp Fiction Industry 1939-1959. Australia's Forgotten Culture systematically examines the Australian 'pulp' industry (1939-1959). In 1939 imported American cultural products were banned; this ban created a vacuum in the Australian market. Sydney publishers filled the gap with paperback books written by Australians for Australians. These books sold millions of copies and inspired a plethora of cultural products such as radio serials and comics; they were also ....Australia's Forgotten Culture: the Pulp Fiction Industry 1939-1959. Australia's Forgotten Culture systematically examines the Australian 'pulp' industry (1939-1959). In 1939 imported American cultural products were banned; this ban created a vacuum in the Australian market. Sydney publishers filled the gap with paperback books written by Australians for Australians. These books sold millions of copies and inspired a plethora of cultural products such as radio serials and comics; they were also successfully exported overseas. Carter Brown alone sold over 80 million books in dozens of languages. In 1959, the bans were lifted. Overnight the industries died. This project analyses a rich but lost period in Australian culture, one that has been ignored presumably because it was popular.Read moreRead less
INVENTING PERFECT AUSTRALIAN WOMANHOOD: THE MISS AUSTRALIA QUEST AND THE ROLE OF DISABILITY IN POSTWAR AUSTRALIA. The Miss Australia Quest articulated the concept of perfect white womanhood in the postwar era. Sponsored by a major charity, the Spastics League, the Quest sought to locate representatives of conventional womanhood yet who had exemplary appearance, poise and moral virtue. Bodily and moral perfection ran counter to the sponsoring organisation which dealt with the severely disabled. ....INVENTING PERFECT AUSTRALIAN WOMANHOOD: THE MISS AUSTRALIA QUEST AND THE ROLE OF DISABILITY IN POSTWAR AUSTRALIA. The Miss Australia Quest articulated the concept of perfect white womanhood in the postwar era. Sponsored by a major charity, the Spastics League, the Quest sought to locate representatives of conventional womanhood yet who had exemplary appearance, poise and moral virtue. Bodily and moral perfection ran counter to the sponsoring organisation which dealt with the severely disabled. With competitions held throughout the Commonwealth, the finalists were designated by their state of origin. Hence both regions and then states competed alongside individuals. The broadcast of the Quest was a major television event until 1986. An analysis of the Quest allows interrogation of the role of fundraising for charity, the construction of celebrity, the nature of idealised young womanhood and interstate rivalries. Scholarly articles and a book alongside a projected exhibition at the new National Museum of Australia are anticipated.Read moreRead less
From postbox to policy powerhouse: The history and politics of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet 1911-2010. Understanding our national government and its development is vital if we are to know the foundations on which we build. As more and more appears to be dragged towards the centre, because of the need to coordinate the big issues such as climate change, capacity constraints, terrorism and skills shortages, so the capacity of the centre becomes more important. This longitudinal ....From postbox to policy powerhouse: The history and politics of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet 1911-2010. Understanding our national government and its development is vital if we are to know the foundations on which we build. As more and more appears to be dragged towards the centre, because of the need to coordinate the big issues such as climate change, capacity constraints, terrorism and skills shortages, so the capacity of the centre becomes more important. This longitudinal study of continuity and change in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet will provide insights into the way that governments can build for the next 100 years.Read moreRead less