Winter Research Scholarship Program 2025
Applications open 24 March and close 13 April 2025
https://employability.uq.edu.au/summer-winter-research
The Australia and New Zealand Shakespeare Association Conference
Project Duration: For the Winter program, students will be engaged for 4 weeks only. Hours of engagement must be between 20 – 36 hrs per week and must fall within the official program dates (30 June – 25 July 2025). The project will be offered on-site at UQ St Lucia and at UQ Queen Street.
Project Description: This project will involve a successful student in the organisation and delivery of the biennial Australia and New Zealand Shakespeare Association (ANZSA) Conference, to be held at UQ’s Queen Street campus from 2-4 July 2025. This is the preeminent Shakespeare conference in Australasia, and it attracts participants from all over the globe, including delegates who travel from the US, the UK, and Canada, as well as throughout the Asian world, to share and learn about the most current research on Shakespeare and on early modern English literature in general.
The conference offers an excellent opportunity for learning both academic and practical skills. The majority of the work will occur during the three days of the conference itself; however, starting in the week of the 9th of June, students will meet regularly with Dr Clement to learn what the conference is about, what is needed to organize it, and how researchers use conferences for professional development.
Expected outcomes and deliverables: For the successful student/s, this project will offer the opportunity to learn about conference organisation and management. It will also broaden their knowledge of Shakespeare’s work, and offer the chance to network with prominent Shakespeare scholars, both local and international.
They will learn how to put together a conference program, liaise with conference organisers and conference participants, support the two keynote speakers, and help staff the information desk. The student will also have the opportunity to attend panels, when not on duty, so they can participate in networking and in learning more about Shakespeare studies.
Suitable for: This project is open to applications from students with a background in Literature, History, Drama, or Western Civilisation.
Supervisor: Dr Jennifer Clement
Australasian Victorian Studies Conference
Project Duration: For the Winter program, students will be engaged for 4 weeks only. 20 hours per week from 30th June to 25th July. While much of the work leading up to the conference can be conducted remotely, students are required on campus for the duration of the AVSA Conference (24th – 25th July).
Project Description: This project offers students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in academic event organisation by assisting with the planning and execution of the upcoming international Australasian Victorian Studies Association (AVSA) conference, to be held on campus on 24th and 25 July 2025. AVSA is a leading academic organisation dedicated to the study of nineteenth-century literature, history, and culture, and its annual conference brings together scholars from Australia, New Zealand, and beyond to share cutting-edge research in the field. Successful applicants will be expected to contribute to key aspects of conference planning and execution, including:
- Assisting with programme development, including organising the conference schedule and coordinating with speakers, chairs, and panel organisers.
- Managing correspondence and communications with delegates, including registration support and general inquiries.
- Helping to prepare conference materials such as abstracts, name tags, signage, and session schedules.
- Providing on-the-ground assistance during the conference, including welcoming delegates, coordinating sessions, and troubleshooting issues.
- Writing up a conference report, summarising key discussions and themes from the event..
Expected outcomes and deliverables: Students involved in this project will develop valuable professional and academic skills, including:
- Event Management & Logistics: Hands-on experience coordinating a large-scale academic event, including liaising with venues, catering, and technical support.
- Conference Programming: Practical insight into how academic conferences are structured by assisting with scheduling, panel coordination, and session logistics.
- Professional Communication & Networking: Opportunities to engage with international scholars, refine professional communication skills, and expand academic networks.
- Research & Writing Experience: The opportunity to contribute to the production of a formal conference report, summarising key discussions, panels, and outcomes for publication on the AVSA website or in relevant academic outlets.
- Data Collection & Administration: Exposure to managing conference registration, maintaining accurate records, and gathering feedback from participants for post-conference evaluation.
- Public Engagement & Digital Outreach: Experience in promoting academic events via social media, university platforms, and direct communication with delegates.
Suitable for: This project is open to undergraduate students as well as honours and postgraduate students with an interest in literature, history, or event management.
Primary Supervisor: Dr. Melissa Dickson
Interested students are welcome to email melissa.dickson@uq.edu.au with any queries
Women, visibility and museum collections
Project Duration: This research project will take place over 4- weeks from 30 June - 25 July 2025. It will involve a commitment of 30 hours per week. The work can be competed remotely and there is no requirement to be on site.
Project Description: Despite the reality that just over half the world’s population are women, museums can fail to adequately depict their experiences in collections – particularly when those experiences have been trivialised or overlooked. From childbirth, to cooking to fashion, sexuality, and politics there is a need for social history museums to incorporate these discourses to address previous collecting biases, interrogate the relationship between gender and cultural value, and represent the diversity of women, and those who identify as women.
Within this overarching framework and theoretical context, in this research project we explore three key research questions which are framed around: (1) how have women have been represented in museum collections historically, (2) what specific customs, devices, objects are used to depict women’s experience of everyday life, and (3) what policies and practices museums should employ to better support more equitable representation.
Expected outcomes and deliverables: In this project we will be seeking to identify different literature on museums and women’s collections. Scholars working on this project will develop greater understanding about the practices of different museums as well as skills in seeking out suitable case studies. At the end of the project scholars will be asked to present a written and oral report.
Suitable for: This project is open to applications from students with a background in writing, communications, journalism, museum studies or history. Ideally the candidate will be postgraduate or a 3rd – 4th year student.
Primary Supervisor: Dr. Caroline Wilson-Barnao
Indigenising journalism education curriculum in Australia’s G-08 universities that offer journalism program
Project Duration: For the Winter program, students will be engaged for 4 weeks only at 36 hours per week. The project will be offered remotely through telephone interviews with Journalism Program Conveners in the G-08 universities.
Project Description: This proposed research project responds to an urgent need to systematically examine the extent to which journalism schools in the G-08 universities in Australia have incorporated Indigenous perspectives and issues into their curricula, and to identify and understand challenges or impediments to achieving that goal. What are the challenges involved in integrating Indigenous perspectives into journalism curricula and teaching approaches?
The research is particularly significant as it will provide insights into the extent to which journalism education curricula are all-inclusive or inadequate, and how the curricula recognise and respect Indigenous perspectives and worldviews, as well as Indigenous cultural practices. The research will serve as the starting point of efforts to correct existing assumptions and inaccuracies about Indigenous people, their cultural practices, and their perspectives.
The outcomes of the study will be integrated into issues that will generate and enhance all-inclusive journalism education curricula.
The research is also significant as it will enhance understanding of indigeneity and cross-cultural factors that underpin journalistic practices across cultures.
The research will contribute to the University of Queensland’s Strategic Areas of Research, such as research and innovation, social justice, as well as the cross-cutting theme of journalism education, research, and practice.
To summarise, this project will:
- Enhance research and publications relating to Indigeneity in journalism curricula in an Australian context.
- Help to create co-authorship and supervisory opportunities with an undergraduate student from the School.
- Generate research evidence necessary to further funding opportunities and to develop comparative studies in a related research area with a research colleague at the University of Ottawa, Canada.
Rationale/Justification (i.e., how the research will fill any gaps, contribute to the field of research or contribute to existing or improved practice)
Journalism schools that train future journalists contribute in a significant way to how journalists represent Indigenous people and their communities in news reports. Reduction in prejudices and stereotypes relating to media representations of Indigenous people can only start from the basic training that journalists are offered during their undergraduate studies. The research is significant for several reasons. Historically, skilled and educated journalists around the globe have played, and continue to play a significant role in negatively portraying Indigenous people and their culture. Todorova (2016, p. 674) argues that “trained media and communication specialists have contributed to the stereotyping and depicting of Indigenous peoples and their cultures in oppressive and hegemonic ways.” See also Hugill (2010). Such portrayals result from various issues, including oversights in editorial processes for material coming from external agencies; a journalist’s lack of knowledge of Indigenous people and their cultures; a lack of journalistic experience; vague in-house ethical guidelines; and – more rarely – these issues can be the result of personal biases and beliefs. However, the issue of misrepresenting Indigenous people and their cultures, and the publication of insensitive material about Indigenous people have more profound causes, and even experienced and educated journalists often find themselves among those publishing offensive material in stories related to Indigenous people. In this context, a serious reconsideration of the approach to journalism dominant in academia and Western tertiary institutions may be necessary. This study is urgent because journalism and communication scholars, especially in the West, often remain largely absent from this debate.
Research questions/aims/objectives/hypothesis
This research aims to explore issues around indigenising journalism education curriculum in eight journalism schools in Australia’s G-08 universities. The research is qualitative in nature and no hypotheses are proposed. The research will draw on in-depth interviews with Journalism Program Coordinators/Convenors in the eight G-08 universities. The research will also access the views of two Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander educational leaders regarding the inclusion and representation of Indigenous perspectives in the journalism curriculum. The research will take a thematic approach to understanding contemporary journalism programs and the extent to which they reflect indigeneity in their curriculum. Some of the key questions to be explored during interviews with Journalism Program Coordinators/Convenors include but are not limited to:
a). What are the key considerations or key elements that inform the design of an indigenised journalism curriculum?
b). What are the challenges and benefits of integrating Indigenous perspectives into the journalism curriculum?
c). What factors influence decisions by journalism schools to indigenise their curriculum?
d). What are the major elements that will inform the design of journalism programs in the future, keeping in mind the multicultural environment in Australia?
Expected outcomes
i). The outcomes of this research will serve as the starting point of efforts to correct existing assumptions and inaccuracies about Indigenous people, Indigenous perspectives and worldviews, and to curtail/mitigate Western media’s hegemonic representations of Indigenous people and their cultures.
ii). The outcomes will enhance wider understanding of the strengths of an indigenised journalism curriculum that promotes diversity, inclusivity, and multiculturalism.
iii). The research will contribute to the University of Queensland’s Strategic Areas of Research, such as research and innovation, social justice, as well as the cross-cutting theme of journalism education, research, and practice.
iv). Another outcome will be peer-reviewed articles to be published in prestigious international and national journals such as Journalism Studies, Journalism Practice, Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, International Communication Gazette, Media, Culture & Society, Australian Journalism Review, Pacific Journalism Review, etc.
Methodological approach
In-depth interviews via the telephone
Interviews are regarded as one of the primary methods of data collection in qualitative research. Interviews offer a lot of advantages. They help the researcher to uncover what the research participants are thinking about. Interviews also provide opportunities for the researcher to seek clarifications from the interviewees and to confirm what interviewees said earlier. Interviews help to shed light on, and serve as a reflection of, the lives of people in various parts of the world. As Forsey (2010, p. 568) states, “Interviews, regardless of setting, can enable us to locate the biography of the individual, and groups of persons, in the broader cultural domains in which they live. Consequently, we should be able to link their personal story to the broader context and issues we are seeking to describe and analyse in the formal reports of our research data” (Forsey, 2010, pp. 568-569).
In-depth telephone interviews will be conducted with Journalism Program Coordinators/Convenors in the G-08 universities that offer journalism programs. A research assistant will assist the Chief Investigator (Levi Obijiofor) to conduct the interviews. The interviews will be audio recorded. The participants will have an opportunity to review their responses to ensure accuracy and data quality. The interviews are intended to uncover the insights of journalism program coordinators/convenors who are at the forefront of journalism program development and curricula reviews in their schools. The interviews are also aimed to access the views of senior journalism educators about the extent to which their journalism curriculum reflect Indigenous perspectives and issues around cultural sensitivity and Indigenous worldviews. The interviews will also explore the challenges that journalism coordinators/convenors face in indigenising their curriculum, as well as how they navigate challenges, as well as their opinions about journalism education program in Australia. The interviews will elicit journalism educators’ testimonies regarding the extent to which their curriculum is inclusive, and the implications for fair representations of Indigenous people in news reports. The research will use semi-structured in-depth interviews because pilot research conducted by this researcher in 2017 (see Obijiofor, Murray, & Singh, 2017) shows clearly that this method is more effective in producing clear narratives during interviews. In-depth telephone interviews will allow observation of useful verbal cues such as each participant’s tone of response to questions (Merrigan & Huston, 2004). The journalism program coordinators/convenors are at the forefront of the training of journalism students.
At the start of each interview, the program coordinator/convenor will be asked for general comments about their experiences in their role as a way of starting the interview. Thereafter, the research questions will seek to expand on the responses and the views of the program coordinator/convenor about the extent to which they have indigenised their curriculum.
Expected outcomes and deliverables: Participating in this project will enable successful applicants to gain skills in literature review, as well as telephone interviewing techniques. Additionally, the student will have an opportunity to co-author a research paper that will be published in an academic journal.
Suitable for: This project is open to undergraduate or Honours students with a background in journalism, communication, or media studies – 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year students only.
Primary Supervisor: A/Prof Levi Obijiofor
Applicants who wish to discuss the project further can contact the supervisor (Levi Obijiofor) via email: l.obijiofor@uq.edu.au
Building Australia’s Literary Culture
Project Duration: For the Winter program, students will be engaged for 4 weeks only. It is expected that the scholar will work 28 hours per week. While there is some flexibility, the applicant will work in the office for the majority of the project.
Project Description: This project is part of a larger endeavour led by AustLit to create an awareness of Australian literary culture in the wider public sphere to be launched in 2026, to align with AustLit’s 25th anniversary. Our aim is to develop and publish an annual calendar of significant events in Australia’s literary history and culture, and establish a framework within which this program can be actualised across the course of that year. The scholar will work with the supervisors to develop a calendar of literary events (based on, for example, anniversaries of births, deaths of publications), find works about these in the AustLit database, and update and enhance AustLit records as necessary. The scholar will also work with the supervisors to determine what organisations and institutions may have a stake in these events, developing a contact list of academics/public intellectuals – nationally and internationally – who work in the field of Australian literature. This project will suit a scholar with a passion for Australian literary culture who is also interested in public engagement.
Expected outcomes and deliverables: Scholars will gain skills in data collection and curation, skills in advanced search techniques, and valuable contacts in the literary and cultural sectors. Scholars will produce a short report at the end of the project with a series of recommendations so they will also gain skills in report writing.
Suitable for: This project is open to applicants with a background in English literature, preferably in their 3rd or 4th year of study. A keen interest in Australian literary culture would be a benefit.
Primary Supervisor: A/Prof Maggie Nolan
How to Apply?
Summer and Winter Research Scholarship Programs - https://employability.uq.edu.au/summer-winter-research
If you require further assistance, please contact the School of Communication and Arts Research research.commarts@uq.edu.au