Humanities Researcher

This blog is designed as a space for reflection on research in the humanities in Australia.

Its first and most practical point of orientation is the process of applying for research funding, especially through the Australian Research Council. The prime audience for the blog will be researchers in my own department of English, and perhaps also the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne. The application process is time-consuming and not a little arduous, so I thought it might be useful to chart the process of my own application in the next round, and my experience as one of the department's grant shepherds. I welcome comments and questions; indeed, I hope that posting questions and answers on the blog will help others who are putting applications together.

The second area the blog will focus on is more theoretical: the question of how researchers in the humanities can make their work available and accessible to communities of readers outside the academy. This topic has attracted a certain amount of interest over the last year or so, in various projects supported by individual universities or indeed the ARC itself, in the Humanities Writing Project, for example. I am experiencing a brief taste of this myself at the moment, as an essay collection on Australian medievalism is attracting a little publicity. But again, I welcome comments and reflections from others.

It is the nature of a blog is to be personal. I'm not sure yet how official or personal my voice will be... Or whether anyone commenting on this blog will write under their own name or a pseudonym... Watch this space!