The Morrison Government is providing $11.8 million for new research into Australia's society, history, culture, literature, art, music, politics and geography.
Minister for Education Dan Tehan today announced the Government was funding 49 new research projects through the Australian Research Council.
"These research projects will help enhance our understanding of Australia's past, present and future," Mr Tehan said. "In January, I announced a new Special Research Initiative to support research that looks at how Australians live today and how the past has contributed to our society, including how our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture is understood and has impacted modern Australia."
Funded projects include:
- $290,606 to research Australia's literary history by using innovative digital methods to discover, curate and investigate tens of thousands of unrecorded novels, novellas and short stories in 20th-century Australian newspapers (ANU).
- $262,359 to examine changing patterns of political participation and representation in rural Australia leading to strengthened research capacity in rural politics, new frameworks for assessing how democracy is transforming, and improved engagement of diverse constituencies in politics (University of Sydney).
- $116,265 to investigate the histories of Aboriginal Queensland women who trained as nurses or midwives from the 1890s-1950s, countering existing assumptions that Indigenous women could not access education and employment and were 'just domestics' (University of Southern Queensland).
- $256,800 to research Indigenous walking trails that could become tourist attractions. The project will develop a national trail map, a walking trail template and a proposal for a new trail with local councils (Flinders University).
- $282,726 to investigate unique Australian vernacular English from the late 1800s to today. The project will assist the development of educational materials and publications that increase awareness of Australian English and its reflection of Australian culture and values (Monash University).
Details about all successful grants are available on the ARC website.
