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
Creative Suburbia: A Critical Evaluation of the Scope for Creative Cultural Development in Australia's Suburban and Peri Urban Communities. Creative industries enterprises are increasingly important to Australia in a global knowledge-based economy. They account for 5.5% of national income, and recent work has shown they are 50% bigger than first estimated. But much research and policy assumes that these enterprises only take place in inner urban environments. This project will examine the work ....Creative Suburbia: A Critical Evaluation of the Scope for Creative Cultural Development in Australia's Suburban and Peri Urban Communities. Creative industries enterprises are increasingly important to Australia in a global knowledge-based economy. They account for 5.5% of national income, and recent work has shown they are 50% bigger than first estimated. But much research and policy assumes that these enterprises only take place in inner urban environments. This project will examine the work patterns of creative enterprise workers in the outer suburbs of Brisbane and Melbourne, investigating how these enterprises work outside of inner city zones. Such work will enable a more empirically grounded understanding of creative enterprise dynamics, so that the creative and economic potential of these activities are better realised.Read moreRead less
Risk, Media and Identity in Kosovo: Local/Global Trends in Democratization. In the new, post-Cold War global order, overt conflict and everyday risk for national populations has been endemic. What some call military humanism, followed by democratic reform and human renewal have marked the recent and current histories of Kosovo, Bosnia, East Timor, Afghanistan and various African states. Focussing on media and popular culture, this project will take Kosovo as a case study of democratic reform and ....Risk, Media and Identity in Kosovo: Local/Global Trends in Democratization. In the new, post-Cold War global order, overt conflict and everyday risk for national populations has been endemic. What some call military humanism, followed by democratic reform and human renewal have marked the recent and current histories of Kosovo, Bosnia, East Timor, Afghanistan and various African states. Focussing on media and popular culture, this project will take Kosovo as a case study of democratic reform and renewal. Drawing centrally on cultural and risk theory, it will examine new journalism training, the expansion of local radio, religious pilgrimage/tourism, and media coverage of memories of violence and risk in today's Kosovo.Read moreRead less