News about Queensland Review

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We are delighted to announce that Queensland Review is now published by Equinox Publishing Ltd in partnership with Griffith University. More information about the journal and subscriptions can be found here:
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/QRE/index

We have just published a special issue (Volume 28. No. 2 (2021)), Between Pride and Despair: Stories of Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef and Wet Tropics Rainforests edited by Kerrie Foxwell-Norton (Griffith University) and Iain McCalman (Australian Catholic University). You can view the table of contents and read the Editorial Introduction for free herehttps://journal.equinoxpub.com/QRE/issue/view/2187


The special issue is available to order as a one off publication here:https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/qr-pride-despair/

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Cultural Studies and the Grant-Funding Regime

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I want to reflect in this blog on the changes I have seen in Cultural Studies as a result of its increasing organisation around grant-funded research. The latter has now become so naturalised that it is sometimes hard to remember that there was ever another time. But much of the works we now regard as ‘classics’ in the field were written before research funding applications became a thing.

Examples would include the work in Britain of Stuart Hall and the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies; Dick Hebdige’s Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979); Paul Willis’ Learning to Labour (1977) and Angela McRobbie’s Zoot Suits and Second-Hand Dresses (1988) – not to mention Raymond Williams’ extensive writings and Richard Hoggart’s The Uses of Literacy (1957).

In Australia, examples of work written before the grant funding regime would include Meaghan Morris’s The Pirate’s Fiancée (1988); John Fiske, Bob Hodge and Graeme Turner’s Myths of Oz (1987); John Hartley’s The Politics of Pictures (1987); McKenzie Wark’s Virtual Geography (1994); Catharine Lumby’s Bad Girls (1997); the essays published in John Frow and Meaghan Morris’s edited collection Australian Cultural Studies: A Reader (1993), the latter a snapshot of some of the best Cultural Studies work of the 1980s and early 1990s.

In short, a lot of people did a lot of very good work without grant funding.

At the CSAA conference at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch in 2003 – ancient history! – I organised a roundtable session on how the grant funding regime was then remoulding Cultural Studies. At least that’s what I intended it to be about. In fact, the session quickly gravitated towards a form that has since become very familiar: an advice session with senior academics who have been successful in the grant-funding game addressed implicitly to postgraduate students and those we were then still learning to call ‘Early Career Researchers’.

The intentions of the advice-givers were, of course, only good: a generous desire to pass on useful information. But I was surprised at how difficult it seemed to be to stage a more critical reflection on the grant funding regime – on the kinds of research it led people to do; indeed, the very framing of Cultural Studies as research, rather than as say ‘theorising’; the sort of relations it set up between scholars; the more explicit involvement of government; the role of that all-important body, the Australian Research Council.

A critical view of the grant funding regime would be that it brought an end to forms of knowledge production that Cultural Studies had borrowed from the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s – particularly what might be called ‘collective-dialogic’ forms. These forms had anchored Cultural Studies very much in teaching practice, the classroom being one of the key institutional contexts in which collective dialogue could be staged.

By contrast, grant-funded research is organised around what economic geographer Gernot Grabher calls ‘project ecologies’. Participants in projects are conceived not as dialogic partners so much as members of a ‘team’, all supposed to be pulling in the same direction. In business contexts, from where the form derives, projects are governed by what Grabher calls a ‘service logic’ – that of solving a problem for a client – and a ‘management logic’ – aimed at keeping the project within time and on budget.

This might all seem a bit depressing. Has the grant funding regime led to the capture of Cultural Studies by utilitarianism? Should we see it as yet another chapter in the sorry tale of our discipline’s submission to neoliberalism? I confess to having had thoughts at times along these lines. But in finishing up a co-authored book that has emerged from a grant-funded project, I have also come recently to a different view.

It is certainly true that research grant applications require a certain alignment with Grabher’s logics, sometimes involving imaginative conceits such as the idea – increasingly explicit in recent years – of the nation whose funding body underwrites the research as ‘client’ (hello Simon Birmingham, hello Stuart Robert!). The art of writing a funding application is, in part, to convey a sense that the project has been fully conceptualised at the outset, needing only to be ‘executed’ to deliver outcomes in the service of the client’s needs.

In practice, however, there are countless unforeseen questions that need to be addressed during the course of the research, not only at an operational level, but also in refining the value horizon of the project – the shared understanding of what is ultimately ‘for’. Projects are therefore much more internally dialogic than their externally facing appearance might suggest. Indeed, they could be thought of as one of the forms preserving a space for collective dialogic practices in the corporatised university.

This at least has been my experience. Am I just trying to put a cheerful spin on things? We should talk more than we do about what the grant-funding regime has done to Cultural Studies.

Bio: Professor Mark Gibson is Associate Dean – Media, Writing and Publishing in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University.

Macquarie University Research Fellowships

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Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia) will offer up to 10 full-time Research Fellowship positions commencing in 2023. Fellowships will be awarded on a competitive basis and will be fixed-term for three years.

Applicants must have been awarded their PhD on or after 1 March 2019 or submit their thesis on or before 16 August 2022 (or make a convincing case for early career researcher status).MQRF23 applicants must either reside in Australia and have appropriate work rights (either be an Australian Permanent Resident or Citizen) OR if they are applying from overseas, they must have appropriate work rights for Australia already (returning Australian Permanent Resident/Citizen) and be able to get themselves back to Australia to commence no later than 30 June 2023 or they forfeit their MQRF.

The Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language, and Literature (MCCALL) is interested in sponsoring postdoctoral research projects in the following areas:

· Media and Communications: screen practice; social media and digital culture; media history; journalism and non-fiction writing; communications; cultural studies.

· Creative Arts: music and related technologies; music production; the singing voice; popular music; ethnomusicology; creative processes; sound; improvisation; performance; dance; circus, industry practices.

· Languages and Cultures: global literatures and cultures; language studies and applied linguistics; the role of languages in cultural identities, and their impact on linguistic and literary products in social life.

· Literature: medievalism; medieval and early modern literature; modernism; historical fiction; popular fiction; literary approaches to film and television; postcolonialism; Australian fiction.

If you have an interest in applying for a Fellowship in the 2023 round through MCCALL, please send:

1. Provisional project title and a brief (400-word) project description

2. Name of potential Sponsor

3. Your PhD conferral date

4. A copy of your CV as an attachment including a list of publications. Publications should be listed under the headings: books, book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles and other.

5. A copy of your Australian residency document – passport or visa.

6. to Bridget Griffen-Foley by Wednesday 30 March 2022: b.foley@mq.edu.auIf the Department is able to sponsor your application, you will be notified by Friday 8 April 2022. Sponsored applicants will then be invited to work with their sponsors to develop their formal Expressions of Interest which must be submitted to the Faculty of Arts by Wednesday 27 April 2022.

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CSAA Response to the Ministerial Veto of ARC DP Grants and Proposed Changes to Linkages

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Hi all, 

Just as many of us were attempting to take a much-needed break over the festive season, Acting Education Minister Stuart Robert announced dramatic changes to the ARC funding rules for the Linkage program, followed by the news, on Christmas Eve, that he had vetoed six of the Discovery projects recommended for funding by the ARC, all of which were in the humanities. 

The CSAA joins the Australian Academies of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences in expressing its alarm and deep concern about these moves. 

The proposed changes to the Linkage scheme – which includes the ARC Centres of Excellence, the Industrial Transformation Research Program, the Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities scheme, Linkage Projects and Special Research Initiatives – all but restrict future funding to collaborations with the manufacturing sector.  The “Letter of Expectations” the Minister sent to the ARC directs that in future 70% of Linkage Projects are to be oriented to National Manufacturing Priorities with, “the remaining Linkage Program allocations in specific cases, such as the Low Emissions Technology Statement, the National Agricultural Innovation Priorities and the Defence Science and Technology Strategy 2030”. 

You can read about these proposed changes here: 

https://www.arc.gov.au/letter-expectations-minister-arc

The subsequent veto of Discovery Projects has been the object of international condemnation. Four of these grants were in literary studies, and two focused on cultural issues in contemporary China. You can follow the public and media response to this announcement in the articles linked below. 

https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/robert-s-research-veto-attracts-international-condemnation-20220107-p59mjd?fbclid=IwAR2VGjEydGvuk0RC7ZibSxXk3-GDdok4hsWfjF_eTmcjWcldcdq9JZuyBsM

https://www.smh.com.au/national/under-cover-of-christmas-education-minister-stuart-robert-overruled-the-experts-20211226-p59k8b.html

https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/robert-s-research-grants-veto-a-pre-election-dog-whistle-20220105-p59lzm

https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/education/the-stories-behind-the-research-grants-stuart-robert-vetoed-20220105-p59m3u

On the proposed changes to the Linkage scheme, see also:  

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/australias-new-research-direction-road-nowhere?fbclid=IwAR3sOKuthcz_IV8JAO3d4sJgP4Iiaz6DcxPZ6QkMX0EeW2M1b_PXjErYKY4

https://theconversation.com/latest-government-bid-to-dictate-research-directions-builds-on-a-decade-of-failure-173834

https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/time-to-look-at-the-many-ways-to-stuff-up-productivity-20220101-p59l7h.html

The CSAA stands in solidarity with members directly affected by the most recent veto. I remind the membership that writing letters of protest to our local members remains a viable way to voice our strong disapproval of both the Ministerial vetoing of projects recommended for funding, and the proposed changes to the Linkage scheme. 

Let us hope that this election year gives us another opportunity to make our voices heard.

With best wishes, 

Associate Professor Elizabeth Stephens

President, Cultural Studies Association of Australasia

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PhD opportunity in Australian Boys Studies

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An exciting opportunity for a commencing PhD student to join a strong team of leading and emergent scholars undertaking feminist research on boys and boyhood, and youth and masculinity with an Australian-focused project.

The Boys Studies research team formed at the University of Sydney in 2019, drawing on interdisciplinary expertise in gender, sexuality, and cultural studies. The aim of this group is to engage with the need for feminist researchers to engage with the experience and representation of boys and boyhood, youth and masculinity in the changing contemporary sociocultural environment.

For further details on this opportunity, please see the following link.

VC Fellowships at RMIT University

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Applications for RMIT Vice Chancellors Fellowships are now open, from Postdoctoral to Senior positions – information can be found here. Applications close Sep 28.

Priority research areas include: Digital & Economy Transformation; AI and Future of Work;  Automation in Creative Industries; and Digital Inclusion and Ethics.   

Note for this round, due to the impacts of COVID-19 on Australian borders and travel, RMIT is only accepting applications for the Research Fellowships from applicants:

  1. who are Australian Citizens or Australian Permanent Residents at the time of applying (applies to those both living in Australia or living overseas)
  2. who hold a current Australian work visa and are living in Australia at the time of applying. 

Enquiries should be directed to researchfellowships@rmit.edu.au.

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Research Assistant position at Charles Sturt University

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Dr. Nick Ruddell from the School of Indigenous Australian Studies is currently seeking a Research Assistant for a project on Cross-Cultural STEM Education, see details below. 100hours is offered. If you’re interested, please contact Dr. Ruddell at: nruddell@csu.edu.au

See his message below:

I am looking for an RA for my 2021 school STEM research project on: Community knowledge, enduring engineering, automation, river hydrology and sustainable river management are the main themes.I am in need of an RA to put together literature in relation to traditional Indigenous Australian river fish trapping. Along with academic literature I am also interested in knowing about what resources and/ or information Government, CSIRO and education departments are producing. My focus is Wiradyuri but an Australia wide focus is fine. The Brewarrina and Budj Bim traps are excellent examples.

Here’s the project abstract and excerpts from the grant application:

STEM education inquiry: towards a framework for cross-cultural, intra- and inter- disciplinary researchProject Description and Background Improving engagement and achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is a national priority (Murphy et al., 2018). The need to act is driven by research (Danaia, Fitzgerald, McKinnon, 2013) that shows many students find science irrelevant and unrelated to their personal lives. Furthermore, Australian First Nation students feel alienated by a Western science system that has dismissed First Nation Knowledge systems for over two centuries (McKinley & Stewart, 2012). This is reflected in the disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous engagement and learning outcomes across Australia, particularly rural and regional locations (Productivity Commission, 2016).

Given the importance the National Science Curriculum places on ensuring First Nations knowledge and perspectives are integrated into school STEM projects (ACARA, 2021), it is critical that schools translate requirements into culturally safe, best practice.A pilot project is proposed to investigate how to connect schools with Wiradyuri knowledge holders and in turn, how Wiradyuri knowledge holders can establish connections with schools to co-design a framework that integrates place-based, cross-cultural concepts of STEM into the NSW Primary school curriculum.

The research will investigate the: impact of a STEM pilot program which introduces Year five and six students to Wiradyuri knowledge holders who will demonstrate traditional methods of fish trap engineering; Interest and participation of students who, using scientific method, are challenged to design and test a model fish trap that can withstand variable water flows and levels.Significance and Innovation· Findings will show how pre- and post-invasion hydrological First Nation engineering can contribute to teaching and delivery of STEM in Australian schools.

I have at least 100 hours on offer. If you are interested please email me (nruddell@csu.edu.au) directly for more information.

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PhD Scholarship in Digital Media Studies at Monash University – Chinese Social Media Platforms, Industry, and Policy

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Job No.: 618970

Location: Monash University, Caulfield campus

Employment Type: Full-time

Duration: 3-year and 3-month fixed-term appointment

Remuneration: The successful applicant will receive a Research Living Allowance, at current value of $29,500 per annum 2021 full-time rate (tax-free stipend), indexed plus allowances as per RTP stipend scholarship conditions at: https://www.monash.edu/graduate-research/study/scholarships/scholarship-policy-and-procedures. A tuition fee scholarship and Single Overseas Health Cover (OSHC) will be provided for a successful international awardee.

The Opportunity

This PhD scholarship is funded as an important part of an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project “Outbound Chinese social media platforms and platform governance” conducted by Dr Luzhou Li. The successful applicant will contribute to the wider project by undertaking their own distinct PhD project. The details of the PhD project are open to negotiation, but it may involve an in-depth investigation of the political economy of Chinese social media platforms, the regulatory and policy issues they raise, social media entrepreneurs and content creators, digital labor, online communities, the operation of Chinese social media platforms outside of China, etc. The project should be grounded in a critical approach to the study of digital media and draws from theoretical frameworks such as political economy of communication, cultural studies, media industry studies, media policy and regulation, and/or critical platform studies.

Undertaking PhD as part of a larger project has several advantages. First, the successful candidate will be integrated into an already successful research agenda that has been funded by the Australian Research Council, and will have access to funding to support fieldwork, transcription, travel, and conference attendance. Second, the candidate will benefit from supervision by research leaders in Communications and Media Studies. Finally, the candidate will benefit from being part of outcomes from the research, which may include co-authored publications (where the candidate’s contributions will be recognised through co-authorship), funded symposia, school-engagement exercises, and future grant applications.

Monash University is the largest university in Australia and regularly ranks in the top 100 universities worldwide. Monash has six globally networked campuses and international alliances in Europe and Asia. The applicant will be based at the Caulfield campus in Melbourne. Communications and Media Studies at Monash is diverse and vibrant, and includes internationally recognised researchers who specialise in digital, mobile and automated media, environmental media and communications, feminist media studies, political communication, critical public relations, and cultural industries and policy. We have a strong and supportive research culture, led by widely-cited scholars who are successful in attracting national and international competitive funding.

Candidate Requirements

The successful applicant will have an excellent academic track record in Communications and Media Studies or a related discipline. Competence in qualitative research methods is essential.

In its assessment, the selection committee will prioritise applicants who hold an Australian (or equivalent international) Honour’s or Master’s degree (both in a relevant field), with a significant research component and with first-class honours/H1 awarded.

Details of eligibility requirements, including English-language proficiency skills, to undertake a PhD in the Faculty of Arts are available at https://arts.monash.edu/graduate-research/application-process/.  Applicants should ensure they familiarise themselves with these requirements before deciding whether they should apply.

Scholarship holders must be enrolled full-time and on campus. Please note: applicants who already hold a PhD will not be considered.

The successful applicant will be expected to enrol by September 2021. However, there may be some flexibility as to the date of commencement.

Enquiries

Dr Luzhou Li, School of Media, Film & Journalism (luzhou.li@monash.edu)

Submit an Expression of Interest

EOIs shall comprise:

  • A cover letter that includes a brief statement of the applicant’s suitability
  • A brief research proposal not exceeding 750-words in length that fits within the broad project aims and objectives, and demonstrates some understanding of the area of research
  • A curriculum vitae, including a list of any published works, conference presentations and relevant work experience
  • A full statement of academic record, supported by scanned copies of relevant certified documentation
  • Contact details of two academic referees
  • Copy of your current passport (if available)

It is important that you contact Dr Luzhou Li in the School of Media, Film & Journalism (luzhou.li@monash.edu) prior to submission of the EOI to discuss the project.

Once you have discussed your EOI with Dr Luzhou Li, EOIs should be sent (preferably in the form of a single attachment to an email) to Ms Kinda Say, Senior Graduate Research Administrator, Faculty of Arts, at the following email address arts-agr-apply@monash.edu. State “EOI [your name] – PhD Scholarship in Digital Media Studies – Chinese Social Media Platforms, Industry, and Policy” in the subject heading of the email.

Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed (over Zoom if necessary). The interviews will be conducted in English.

Closing Date

Tuesday, 3rd August 2021, 11:59pm

CSAA2021 Continuum Prize

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The CSAA 2021 committee is committed to supporting and disseminating postgraduate research from cultural studies and related fields. In conjunction with Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, we’re pleased to announce a CSAA2021 Continuum Prize for the Best Abstract (350-500 words). The prize is $1000 to support conference attendance and a conference registration fee waiver.

In keeping with the CSAA2021 theme Bodies In Flux, the  CSAA2021 Continuum Prize committee has a keen interest in abstracts that suggest original, creative, and critical approaches to the understanding of bodies. Such approaches may include, although are not limited to:

– phenomenological or experiential approaches to lived bodily experiences

– feminist philosophical approaches to relationality, interdependency, and/or vulnerability

– studies of intimacy, pleasure, sexuality, and subjectivity

– critical approaches the governance and institutional organisation of bodies

– Science and Technology Studies (STS) approaches to the transformation of bodies in and through technologies

In assessing abstract submissions, the committee will consider:

– originality, innovation and/or creativity

– demonstrated knowledge of the field of inquiry (allowing for the constraint of 350-500 words)

– clarity and coherence of writing

https://www.csaa2021conference.com/

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Seeking participants: Digital hostility and resilience study

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Digital hostility, hate speech, dogpiling, trolling and other adversarial behaviours online are an increasing social problem, but we don’t yet know much about how people deal with instances of hostility or their coping practices.

Researchers at RMIT University are seeking people over the age of 18 years to spend 15 minutes filling out a brief, anonymous survey about your views and experiences of online hostility and coping practices.  

Would the research project be a good fit for me?The study might be a good fit for you, if you:

Are eighteen years or older;

Have experienced instances of mild-to-moderate online hostility, hate speech, trolling, cyberbullying, etc.  

If you decide to take part, we invite you to fill out a c. 15 minute survey which is completely anonymous.  Information about the survey, anonymity and other details about the project are found at the start of the survey.

Your contribution will help us address a major social issue, and will help determine new approaches that will make online communication a safer space for all users.  

This project has been approved by the RMIT Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) #23875, and will be carried out according to the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007).

For details and to start the survey: http://bit.ly/dig-hostility For more info, contact digital.hostility@gmail.com