School of Communication and Arts

UQ Summer/Winter Research Scholarships

Summer Research Scholarship Program 2026

Applications open 22 September and close 12 October 2025

https://employability.uq.edu.au/summer-winter-research

Finding Eliza: Archival Research & Nineteenth-century Poetry

Project Duration: Students will undertake 6 weeks’ work. They will be able to complete some work remotely and independently while being on-site , at UQ’s St Lucia campus for other components. Some negotiation of mutually convenient dates will be possible within scheme rules. .

Project Description: Professor Anna Johnston holds a 2025 State Library of NSW Visiting Fellowship to research the writing of the colonial Irish-Australian poet Eliza Hamilton Dunlop (1796-1880). Having published public humanities articles and edited books on Dunlop, Anna is now writing the first book-length literary biography. In March 2025, a new archival donation was made to SLNSW, which provides fascinating, never-before-public sources that reveal Dunlop’s literary inspirations and uncover new poems.

This internship will provide the opportunity to work with Anna on cataloguing, transcribing, and researching selected sources from the new acquisition. One key project investigates Eliza’s 1850s notebook of cuttings, only some of which have recorded authors.

Expected outcomes and deliverables: Students will gain skills in literary history, data collection, and the highly creative detective work involved in exploring archival sources. They are likely to learn a lot about nineteenth-century reading practices, popular poetry, and the kinds of outlets that published poetry in Australia, Britain, and Ireland. Student work will be acknowledged in Anna’s publication, and there may be opportunities for co-authoring blogposts or other public facing material for the SLNSW.

Suitable for:  This project would suit advanced level English Literature and/or writing students with an interest in nineteenth-century literature and sensitivity towards colonial cultures, including Indigenous history and settler colonialism. You will develop advanced level research and digital humanities search skills, and these require the capacity for detailed, precise transcription of handwriting and a ferret’s nose for obscure literary clues.

Supervisor: Prof. Anna Johnston

Rural Communication Services in Indonesia – online, offline or no-line

Project Duration: The project will be for 6 weeks with an average of 32 working hours per week (4 days). The candidate(s) will be required on campus for at least two days per week but some of the work can be done remotely. 

Project Description: 

This project is part of ongoing collaborative research on assessing the impacts of Rural Communication Services (RCS) in the context of family farming, with a focus on Indonesia. The research team consists of the UQ Centre for Communication and Social Change (CfCSC), the Indonesian Research Centre for Social Welfare, Villages and Connectivity of the National Research and Innovation Agency (KSDK-BRIN), and the Centre for Culture and Frontier Studies and the Department of Communication of Universitas Brawijaya.

The 2026 Summer Research project follows up on the work done by a team of 2025 Summer Research scholars who mapped the RCS landscape in Indonesia. The specific task in 2026 is to conduct a detailed review and analysis of the forms and roles of online versus offline communication services, in particular the government agricultural advisory services, and identify gaps in advisory service provision.

Summer research results are expected to feed into new research proposals that are being developed by the UQ-BRIN-UB team.

The summer research assignment consists of:

  • Desk-top research: Map out and review the agricultural advisory services offered in five selected Regencies in Indonesia (North Lombok, East Lombok, Probolinggo, Trenggalek, Enrekang); conduct an analysis using the RCS framework.
  • Report writing: Write a report capturing the findings from the research.
  • Presentation: Prepare and present the research to the UQ-BRIN-UB research team and interested HDR students. 

Expected outcomes and deliverables: The expected outcomes for the student are (1) enhanced academic research, writing and presentation skills, (2) an understanding of how Rural Communication Services are defined, organised and implemented in Indonesia, and (3) experience working in a UQ school-based research centre.

Deliverables include a written report and oral presentation.

Suitable for: The assignment is suitable for postgraduate students or undergraduate students who are in the second half of their studies in one of the following degrees: Communication, Development Practice, Rural Development and Agribusiness, although others may be considered, as well.

The successful applicant will have good analytical, writing and visual presentation skills, and the ability to think across disciplinary boundaries. Ability to read Bahasa Indonesia is a prerequisite.

Primary Supervisor: A/Prof. Elske van de Fliert

Please reach out to Elske if you have any questions. An interview may be required prior to final selection of the successful candidate.

Health and Medical Humanities in Australia and Beyond

Project Duration: This project will run for 6 weeks, from 12 January to 23 February 2026. It is anticipated summer scholars will spend an average of 20 hrs per week engaged on this project. This project can be completed remotely. Applicants are not required to work on-site. 

Project Description: Are you curious about how medicine, health, and the humanities intersect — and want a chance to help shape a major new initiative in this field? Then a Summer Scholarship contributing to Handbook of Health and Medical Humanities is for you!

This handbook will be a landmark project: a collection that brings together the best new ideas about how literature, history, philosophy, the arts, and culture can transform how we think about health and medicine. It’s designed to be the go-to resource for teachers, researchers, and students in this rapidly growing field.

As a Summer Scholar, you won’t just be watching from the sidelines — you’ll be right in the middle of the action. You’ll dive into cutting-edge fascinating research, help track emerging conversations across disciplines, and get a behind-the-scenes look at how a major academic book comes together.

What you’ll do:

  • Explore the latest scholarship in Health and Medical Humanities.
  • Summarize and synthesize exciting new work in accessible ways.
  • Lend your voice to the editorial process: clarity, organization, and big-picture thinking.
  • Collaborate on a project that will leave a real mark on the field.

Why it’s exciting:
This is a chance to see how academic research turns into published work, to strengthen your research and writing muscles, and to contribute to something that will be read and used by scholars around the world. Whether you’re thinking about graduate studies or any career where clear communication and big-picture thinking matter, this experience will give you skills and experience you can take with you. 

Expected outcomes and deliverables: 

What You’ll Gain:

  • Get insider access to publishing: See how a major academic book takes shape from its earliest stages.
  • Sharpen your research game: Learn to identify, investigate, and synthesize across disciplines.
  • Level up your writing: Practice turning complex ideas into clear, compelling summaries.
  • Boost your future applications: Take away concrete experience you can highlight for graduate studies, or careers in communications, publishing, health research, and beyond.

What You’ll Do

  • Explore and summarize key works that will contribute to the Handbook of Health and Medical Humanities.
  • Contribute editorial support and collaborate in team conversations that shape the handbook’s direction.

Grow your network my learning about key figures and directions in this emerging field.

Suitable for: The project is open to applications from students who are completing their 2nd or 3rd year of undergraduate study or beyond. Students studying digital cultures and interested in digital cultural research are particularly encouraged to apply. It would suit students considering honours study in 2025.

Primary Supervisor: A/Prof. Elizabeth Stephens

Digital Engagement Strategy for the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR): TikTok Outreach and Interview Series Planning

Project Duration: Summer program, 6 weeks only: 20–36 hours per week from 12 Jan to 20 February 2026. Hybrid arrangement: (on-site at UQ St Lucia, off-site options available). 

Project Description: This project supports the development of a digital engagement strategy for the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR), with a focus on TikTok and planning a refreshed interview series. The student will research best practices in academic and cultural outreach via social media, particularly TikTok, and propose a content strategy tailored to IASPR’s goals. This includes identifying how diverse romance books are currently being discussed and promoted on TikTok, and how academic organisations can engage with these communities. The student will also audit IASPR’s current social media presence (if applicable) to assess reach, engagement, and audience fit, and make recommendations for future investment. In addition, the student will help design a new interview series featuring scholars, authors, and creators working in romance studies, with potential integration into the TikTok strategy. This project contributes to broader questions about how academic communities can engage with digital platforms and forms the basis of a co-authored research paper. 

Expected outcomes and deliverables: 

  • A research-informed TikTok strategy for IASPR, including audience analysis, content themes, and sample posts.
  • A plan for a new interview series, including proposed interviewees, themes, and ethical considerations.
  • A short report or presentation summarising findings and recommendations.
  • Potential co-authorship on a research paper exploring digital engagement for academic romance studies.

Suitable for: This project is suitable for students in humanities, communication, media studies, publishing, or digital cultures. Ideal candidates will have strong research and writing skills, an interest in romance fiction and online communities, and familiarity with social media platforms. Experience with video editing or content creation is a bonus but not required.

Primary Supervisor: Dr. Melanie Saward

Digital Chaperones: Investigating Online Privacy, Digital Safety the Unseen Labor of Family Tech Support

Project Duration: Six weeks, starting on January 12th. It can be conducted in a hybrid mode or remotely. 

Project Description: Adults in the "sandwich generation" are increasingly acting as "digital chaperones," guiding both their children and elderly parents through the complexities of online safety. However, knowledge about this vital role is fragmented, and the personal experiences of these chaperones are poorly understood.

This project will tackle this gap with a two-part study. First, a scoping review will map existing research to identify key practices and knowledge gaps. Then, these findings will inform in-depth interviews with digital chaperones to capture their firsthand strategies and challenges.

By combining a broad literature analysis with rich personal stories, this study will create a comprehensive picture of the digital chaperone role. The results will provide a crucial foundation for future research, the development of practical family safety resources, and policy discussions on digital wellbeing.   

Expected outcomes and deliverables: Joining the Digital Chaperones project offers student scholars an invaluable opportunity to develop a robust research portfolio. You will gain direct, hands-on experience in a complete mixed-methods study, from conducting a scoping review to analysing qualitative interviews. We will provide training in essential software like Covidence and Zotero. This role sharpens key analytical and communication skills through practical application and dedicated research workshops. Furthermore, high-achieving students will have the significant opportunity to co-author academic publications, providing a crucial advantage for their future careers..

Primary Supervisor: Dr. Lemi Baruh

Australian and New Zealand journalists’ perceptions of media freedom

Project Duration: For the Summer program, students will be engaged for 6 weeks only. 36 hours/week. The project will be offered remotely through telephone interviews with Australian and New Zealand journalists. 

Project Description: 

Freedom of the press is one of the foundational pillars of Western democracy. Strömbäck (2005, p. 332) describes it as a symbiotic relationship: “journalism needs democracy for its freedom and independence and, in turn, democracy needs journalism for the flow of information, for public discussions about political issues, and as a watchdog against the abuse of power”. Yet over the last seven years, Australia’s press freedom ranking has consistently dropped or remained steady on the Reporters Without Borders (2020) press freedom index. What has caused this decline and unsteady performance, and how can we protect journalism that is in Australia’s and New Zealand’s public interest? Unfortunately, Western nations tend to assume they are at the forefront of such democratic ideals, with little to learn about journalistic freedom from elsewhere. Rarely have scholars looked at the different conditions in which journalism is produced within specific countries, which could provide great insights into the factors that support or impede a free press. This project aims to correct this oversight by examining critically Australian and New Zealand journalists’ perceptions of public interest journalism and the factors that inform those perceptions Examples of possible impediments include National Security Laws (which restrict certain reporting) and inadequate or absent Shield Laws (that are supposed to protect sources and whistle-blowers).

We will conduct this study using two complementary approaches: (1) analysing Australia’s and New Zealand’s regulations, reports, rankings, parliamentary debates, and policy documents on media freedom; and (2) interviewing 15-20 journalists in Australia and New Zealand to understand the local impediments to media freedom.

This project responds to calls for greater attention to the conditions of journalism across the world, including the safety of journalists and the state of free speech across cultures. It is not only in Australia and New Zealand that these issues have raised concerns. Onslow (2018, p. 131) points out that “The absence of the official Commonwealth from the public debates on issues around media freedom – not least the disquieting rising number of attacks on journalists in countries across the association – needs to be addressed.” This project offers a unique opportunity to address this lack of involvement by Australia and New Zealand, two member countries of the British Commonwealth. Our approach and focus will generate a baseline study that will specifically explore urgent issues of free speech, media freedom, democracy, and good governance in Australia and New Zealand. The research is urgently needed, to address the decline in media freedoms and the increased risks to journalists. It will provide empirically informed knowledge, interventions, and recommendations to assist with policymaking in media, civil society, and government. 

We will use the extensive qualitative data – collected through document analysis and in-depth interviews with journalists – to answer the following research questions:

RQ1: How do Australian and New Zealand journalists identify public interest journalism and its relationship to media freedom?

RQ2: What do Australian and New Zealand journalists see as the current impediments to public interest journalism in their countries?

RQ3: What strategies do Australian and New Zealand journalists use to navigate constraints on public interest journalism in the digital era?

RQ4: How can public interest journalism contribute to the growth of democracy, free media, political accountability, and social responsibility in Australia and New Zealand?

Background: Around the world, governments have been struggling to balance the tension between protecting national interests and the need for journalists to be allowed to do their work in the public interest. Two paradigm cases of this conflict are those of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange (MacAskill, 2019; Stack, Cumming-Bruce, & Kruhly, 2019). The former is a US whistle-blower who revealed top-secret documents that exposed the global surveillance programs of the United States and Britain. The latter, creator of WikiLeaks, was incarcerated for many years for his role in releasing secret government documents and diplomatic cables across the world. He was released in June 2024 having been arrested in December 2010. Hirst (2013) examined the tension between preserving national interest and promoting public interest journalism in Australia. He argued that national interest and public interest should be understood differently because national interest implies upholding state secrets and concealing things from the public, while the public interest is about disclosure and the public’s right to know (Hirst, 2013). This project extends Hirst’s (2013) work by seeking to gain a deeper contemporary understanding of the impediments to public interest journalism, how media freedom can foster democracy, and how deeper analysis can inform our understandings.

Rationale for selection of Australia and New Zealand – Australia and New Zealand are Western liberal democracies with a history of media freedom (although media freedom is not protected in the Australian constitution). In terms of media freedom ranking, Australia ranked 29 in the Reporters Without Borders (2025) press freedom index while New Zealand ranked 16, a much better performance than Australia. Going back over the past five years, Australia’s press freedom ranking had declined or remained unsteady. For example, in 2024, Australia witnessed a sharp decline in its press freedom ranking. It was ranked 39, while New Zealand ranked 19, still a much better performance than Australia. In 2023, Australia was ranked 27 while New Zealand ranked 13. In 2022, Australia was ranked 39 while New Zealand was ranked 11, a steady improvement. In 2021, Australia’s press freedom ranking was 25 while New Zealand ranked 8, a commendable performance. In 2020, Australia was ranked 26 in the Reporters Without Borders (2020) press freedom index while New Zealand was ranked 9th. Consistently, New Zealand’s press freedom rankings outperformed Australia’s press freedom rankings.

Significance: In various democratic and non-democratic countries, investigative journalism, the core aspect of public interest journalism, is under threat. The recommendations from the Commonwealth of Australia Senate Committee report into the Future of Public Interest Journalism (2018) identified several key legal risk areas for public interest journalism. These areas were national security and border protection, defamation laws, and whistle-blower and shield law protections (2018, pp. ix–x). This report identified how the Australian Commonwealth government had “passed a swathe of laws in recent years that restricts the ability of journalists and others to report on matters that are in the public interest” (2018, p. 127). Broadly, these laws either restrict the ability of journalists to report on certain facts (e.g., National Security Laws); or they undermine the ability of journalists to communicate confidentially with their sources (e.g., Shield Laws). Shield laws in Australia differ in states and territories and have not been included in all states either. For example, Queensland, the Northern Territory, and South Australia were not included when shield laws were introduced in Australia in 2014. Shield laws also exclude some media practitioners, since the definition of a journalist varies across jurisdictions, and courts have the power to rule against shield laws if they decide that the public interest overrules them. This is problematic from a whistle-blower’s perspective, as they may not have access to legal remedies (e.g., breach of confidence, breach of contract, or even negligence) if the journalist has been ordered by a court to reveal their source (see Fernandez & Pearson, 2015). This, undeniably, creates significant challenges for journalists and their sources in the context of public interest journalism. The need to scrutinise such impediments in Australia is crucial because they can obstruct journalists’ freedom to report news and hold governments accountable. This is especially urgent now as national interest considerations are frequently coming into conflict with media freedom and free speech. If we do not identify and address these conflicts and constraints, they could endanger or curtail media freedom, free speech, and the future of democracy.

Methodology and Project Design

We will use two main qualitative research methods to collect data: (a) document analysis and (b) in-depth interviews with journalists. This later method ensures that, beyond examining documents related to media regulations, this project will also uncover the insights of journalists in mainstream media and independent investigative journalists who are at the forefront of news gathering and news reporting. They constitute the main space for investigative journalism that is associated with public interest journalism. Additionally, journalists in mainstream media and independent investigative journalists are the main source of lobbying for media reform in Australia.

Document analysis -- We will start by taking an inventory of media regulations in Australia and New Zealand. We will systematically search, identify, collect, and analyse important documents relating to media regulations and media freedom in the two countries. Extensive document analysis will provide insights and background material that will inform the questions we will pose during our in-depth interviews with journalists. Accessing and analysing the documents constitutes a crucial component of this project for which specific resources would be required. Given the aim of this project is to understand journalists’ perceptions of media freedom and the factors that impede public interest journalism practices in Australia and New Zealand, we aim to collect the following documents:

  • media regulations (e.g., Freedom of Information legislation, constitutional clauses on media freedom)
  • media freedom reports and rankings by civil society and international human rights groups (e.g., reports by Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, Committee to Protect Journalists, and the International Federation of Journalists)
  • parliamentary debates

These documents are important in establishing the framework in relation to RQ2 (based on the data collection of regulations, etc.) and in influencing the journalism practice we will be examining in RQ1, RQ3, and RQ4. We will use the results of the document analysis and interviews to give us complementary ways of addressing the research questions. This study adopts a triangular method and involves a data triangulation, as data is gained from different groups of journalists, and at different times, and different locations (see Holloway, 1997, p. 157). Thus, in this study, two of Denzin’s (1989, p. 237) four categories of triangulation are employed: data triangulation and methodological triangulation. It is our contention that this strategy enhances the significance of the data collected across different sources. Once access has been granted, CIs Obijiofor and Murray and the two Research Assistants will draw up a matrix for collecting and analysing the documents. By running a workshop at the beginning of the project, we will induct and train the Research Assistants in historical data collection techniques.

Measures and procedures: The focus will be documents that relate to media regulations and media freedom. As an example, in Australia and New Zealand, we will review a range of anti-terrorism legislation in the context that there is no constitutional recognition of media freedom. 

Coding and analysis of documents: The Research Assistants (RAs) will code and input document data into NVivo and Leximancer software and analyse the data. After the documents have been collected and coded, we will read them systematically and thoroughly to establish their contents and authenticity. We will identify, categorise, and analyse the themes similar to interview transcripts (Denscombe, 2007; Hancock et al., 2009). The themes will be examined according to conceptual similarities and/or differences. We will identify and note patterns and converging ideas that show up in the documents. Given common drawbacks in document analysis (Mogalakwe, 2006), throughout our data collection and analysis we will make sure to examine the accuracy, completeness, credibility, reliability, and legitimacy of authorship of the documents.

In-depth interviews: CIs Obijiofor and Murray, as well as the two Research Assistants, will conduct telephone interviews with journalists in Australia and New Zealand (both mainstream media and independent investigative journalists) to access their views about the factors that affect their perceptions of public interest journalism and media freedom. The interviews will elicit journalists’ testimonies exploring how the media interact with these factors, and the implications of these factors for effective journalism practice. Additionally, the interviews will reveal not only the views of journalists regarding public interest journalism, but also their understandings of media freedom and their perceptions of the role of journalists in society. In-depth interviews will provide an open space for journalists to express their views about how they navigate media regulations, including how these regulations impact their work. We will use semi-structured in-depth interviews because previous pilot research (see Obijiofor, Murray, and Singh, 2017) has shown clearly that this method is more effective in producing clear narratives from journalists. In-depth interviews will allow us to observe useful verbal cues such as the interviewee’s tone of response to questions (Merrigan and Huston, 2004). We will interview a total of 15-20 journalists in Australia and New Zealand. While we recognise the contributions of other journalists who work in alternative and emerging media, our focus is on journalists whose work drives investigative journalism that is associated with public interest journalism. These journalists are at the forefront of lobbying for media reform in Australia and other countries. Journalists will be selected from across commercial, public, and online media with national, regional, and local reach.

Sampling interview respondents: To get a more nuanced understanding of the factors that affect public interest journalism and media freedom, we will adopt sample selection procedures that allow for strategic inclusion of the views of a broad range of journalists. The project demands a purposive sampling approach given its focus on public interest journalism, media freedom, and democracy. This strategy allows us to take into consideration people whose work in mainstream media and independent investigative journalism equips them with the knowledge, experience, and expertise to shed light on the issues explored in the project. This is to establish a well-informed practitioner view of how constraints on public interest journalism affect not only media freedom but also the growth of democracy. In selecting the sample, we will start with, and be guided by, contacts already held by CI Murray. This strategy – seeking to locate a purposive sample of respondents – has previously been widely adopted in selecting respondents in qualitative research (Patton, 2002; Obijiofor, 2015; Tongco, 2007). We have developed interview protocols through our pilot work (see above). At the start of each interview, we will communicate a summary of the results of document analysis to each journalist and ask for comments as a way of starting the interview.

Interview sample size: As is the case in qualitative research of this nature, there is no universally acceptable number of respondents regarded as an ideal sample size. Qualitative interview methodologies encourage a sample size that offers deep insights into the key issues under investigation. Patton (2002), Obijiofor (2015), and Tongco (2007) argue that, to ensure the reliability and validity of qualitative research, it is important to choose ‘information-rich’ cases relevant to the study – rather than aim for a large sample that may not yield relevant knowledge of, and insights into, the issues under investigation. We aim to interview 15-20 journalists across Australia and New Zealand. The journalists will be purposively selected in each country, giving us a total of about 20 journalists in the two countries. This chosen sample size considers the disparity in the number of journalists in Australia and New Zealand.

Thematic analysis of interview data: Our analysis of the interview data will be guided by Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six steps of thematic analysis. Once we complete data collection, we will transcribe the interviews. CIs Obijiofor and Murray, as well as the two RAs will read all transcripts multiple times to be fully immersed in the discourse. Thereafter, the responses will be individually coded and clustered into themes that are markedly similar and those that are markedly dissimilar. The categorisation will enable us to identify, highlight, analyse, and contextualise interview responses to arrive at a theoretically informed analysis of the data, based on the experiences and viewpoints of the journalists. To organise the interview data for development or refinement of thematic analysis, we will use NVivo (a researcher-grounded software package). To conduct textual mining for concepts and themes, we will use Leximancer (a data-grounded software package). These two analytic and data visualisation tools will ensure a comprehensive data interpretation and analysis of this project’s findings.   

BENEFIT

New or advanced knowledge

This project contributes to theoretical and practical understandings of comparative journalism and varying interpretations of media freedom in the digital age. Such a baseline study will provide a new evidence-base for the discipline to understand the current common threats to media freedom – and by extension to democracy. It should also shed light on diverse solutions to these threats – what does and does not work, and in what contexts – which is valuable for informing policy debates and developing effective policies to protect media freedom. This treasure trove of new knowledge will come directly from the journalists, those with practical, on-the-ground experience in the field. McNair (1998) and M’Balla-Ndi (2015) note the varying contexts in which journalism is practised in diverse countries.

Social and cultural benefits for Australia and New Zealand

Media freedom refers to the media’s right to scrutinise governments, as well as the right of citizens to be informed by the media on matters of public interest so they can effectively exercise their other rights. Freedom House (2019) states that “The ability of journalists to report freely on matters of public interest is a crucial indicator of democracy.” The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Digital Platforms Inquiry defines public interest journalism as “journalism that performs a critical role in the effective functioning of democracy at all levels of government and society” (ACCC, 2019, p. 19). The recent decline in Australia’s media freedom ranking is an indicator that democracy is under strain (echoed in other Western nations, such as the US, which experienced a violent attempt to overturn a democratic election on 6 January 2021). By gaining a rich, hands-on, empirically informed understanding of the impediments to public interest journalism, we aim: to monitor this incredibly important social issue; and to influence policy (in media, civil society, and government) that protects journalists from increasing risks, protects media freedom, and protects democracy in Australia and New Zealand.

Expected outcomes and deliverables: Participating in this project will enable successful students to gain skills in data collection, analysis, and interpretation, including literature review skills, and techniques for telephone interviewing. Additionally, selected students 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 Third or Fourth Year undergraduate or Honours students with a background in journalism, communication, or media studies.

Primary Supervisor: A/Prof Levi Obijiofor and Dr Richard Murray

Applicants who wish to discuss the project further can contact either of the two supervisors (Levi Obijiofor and Richard Murray) via email: l.obijiofor@uq.edu.au & r.murray1@uq.edu.au

What Are We Really Testing? Transforming the Design of Written Assessments

Project Duration: Hours of engagement will be 36 hrs per week and must fall within the official program dates (12 January to 20 February 2026). The project is offered remotely.

Project Description: Generative AI is profoundly challenging traditional academic assessment. This project addresses a fundamental problem in maintaining the integrity of the learning process: we cannot secure what we cannot clearly articulate. This project systematically deconstructs four core written assessment types—research essays, literature reviews, reports, and reflective writing—to enable educators to identify, articulate, and secure the specific graduate capabilities these assessments develop. Grounded in HASS contexts, writing-intensive assessments are fundamental across most university disciplines, ensuring broad applicability of our methodology.

Current scholarship reveals significant misalignment between educator and student perceptions of assessment aims, creating critical vulnerability where neither instructors nor students can identify the capabilities being developed. We address this through semi-structured interviews with instructors and students across disciplines, focus groups by assessment type, participatory action research, and collaboration with learning designers to create actionable tools for developing and evidencing these capabilities.

The summer researcher will be working on a targeted literature scan on capability mapping, assessment deconstruction methodologies, and recent literature about the effect of generative AI on assessments (particularly written assessments).

Expected outcomes and deliverables:  A scholar conducting this project will gain a rich and interdisciplinary set of skills, both practical and theoretical.

Research and Analytical Skills

  • Literature Review: will sharpen skills in data collection, identifying, synthesising, and evaluating scholarly sources.
  • Critical Analysis: Engaging with complex and evolving debates around academic integrity and AI will enhance the scholar’s ability to critically assess educational practices and technologies

Educational Design and Pedagogy

  • Assessment Deconstruction: Learning to break down assessment types to identify embedded graduate capabilities will deepen understanding of curriculum design and learning outcomes.
  • Capability Mapping: Gaining familiarity with frameworks that link assessments to graduate attributes will be valuable for both teaching and educational policy work.

The student will be asked to produce a comprehensive literature review at the end of the project.

Suitable for: This project is open to applications from 3rd year students and Coursework Masters students.

Primary Supervisor: Dr. Taryn Bashford

We Are All Preppers Now: Misadventures in Trump’s America

Project Duration: 6 week duration, from 12 January to 20 February 2026. Hours of engagement: 10am – 4pm Monday to Friday, with 1-hour lunch break (25 hours per week). The project can be completed under a remote working arrangement.

Project Description: Background: We Are All Preppers Now is a book-length creative writing project (creative nonfiction; literary journalism), investigating survivalists, doomsday preppers, climate activists and other subcultures of imminent collapse in Australia and around the world. This book project is under contract with Scribe Publications, for release in early 2027.

Briefly defined, a ‘prepper’ is someone who expects to experience societal and/or ecological collapse within their lifetime, and who actively takes steps (‘preps’) for such an eventuality.

Dr Doig has already written shorter articles on this subject:

Aim: chart, document and understand the proliferation of prepper and prepper-adjacent worldviews, activities and identities around the world, especially since 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hypothesis: while prepping originated in the 1950s and 1960s as a US-centric phenomenon, with a far-right political orientation, in recent years prepping has become a much more mainstream, and ideologically diverse, activity. There seem to be three main drivers for recent increases in prepper behaviour:

1) lack of faith in existing political institutions;

2) concern about the worsening climate crisis;

3) a generalised ‘fear of the future’ (including, but not limited to, Covid-19, rogue AI, etc.)

Approach: Dr Tom Doig has been interviewing preppers and climate activists in the USA, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Indonesia and India; he has also been collecting news articles related to prepping and preppers for two years. Sorting and coding this data will help Dr Doig write his book.

Expected outcomes and deliverables: Applicants will be expected to listen to interview recordings (conducted by Dr Doig) with preppers, identifying key themes and points of interest. They will use transcription software (www.otter.ai) and produce short written reports, summarising each interview. They will then produce an overall report, summarising the corpus of the interviews. Applicants will also be expected to review news articles about preppers, identifying key themes and points of interest, producing short written reports summarising relevant stories and identifying potential future interview subjects. Time permitting, applicants will be expected to carry out independent research, identifying online prepper groups, finding news articles about preppers in countries around the world, and identifying potential future interview subjects. Student scholars will gain skills in data collection, data processing (coding, summarising, synthesising) and report-writing. Students will be credited as ‘research assistants’ in the ‘acknowledgements’ section of We Are All Preppers Now. Students will gain key insights into the book writing process and the book publishing industry.

Suitable for: This project is open to students with a background in creative writing, or publishing, or journalism. It is also open to any student/s with a background in social sciences (e.g., sociology, anthropology) or humanities (e.g., cultural studies, history) and a keen interest in the themes of prepping / climate crisis / societal breakdown. It is particularly suitable for students with ambitions to publish non-fiction books in the future. Honours and/or Postgraduate Coursework students preferred, but motivated 2nd/3rd year students will be considered.

Primary Supervisor: Dr Tom Doig

Re-Mapping the Lost Literary Capital: Darwin/Larrakia Nation

Project Duration: The project will largely be offered remotely, with students undertaking independent reading and textual analysis across the 12 January-20 February program dates. The results will be collated in shared documents in consultation with the research team. Periodic face-to-face and/or Zoom meetings with project leader A/Prof Stephen Carleton (and Chief Investigators Adelle Sefton-Rowston and Chris Hay) and the AustLit and AusStage teams may well comprise a portion of the schedule.

Project Description: This project yokes together the scores of novels, plays, short stories, poems, screenplays and genre fiction titles that have portrayed Darwin from Federation to the present. In so doing, it aims to pull Darwin from the literary void it has sat in for much of the twentieth century and restore it to the national imaginary. We will work with AustLit and AusStage to offer a series of public lectures and exhibitions at the NT Library, guided literary tours of Darwin, and a monograph that organises the literary texts into a series of accessible themed chapters for future educators, students and researchers. Other benefits include increased cultural visibility for north Australian writers and increased capacity for cultural tourism to the regions. Results of the research will be shared at key literary and performance studies conferences in 2026 and 2027.

Expected outcomes and deliverables: Scholars attached to this project will undertake the deep reading and textual analysis of the many scores of short stories, novels, poetry, plays and film scripts that the research team have compiled to date, and convert this into a data spreadsheet that allows us to identify recurring themes and geographic locations that appear in the writing about Darwin over time. You will develop detailed data collection and textual analysis skills, and the research you produce will be used by the project investigators to form the foundation of key project deliverables, including: the guided audio literary walking tours, public lectures and digital library exhibitions in Darwin; the co-authored monograph; and the team conference presentations in Brisbane in 2026 and Darwin in 2027. Students will be asked to compile/update an excel spreadsheet that contains all of their findings by the end of their project.

Suitable for: This project is open to students with an outstanding academic record in any of the following disciplinary areas: Australian Studies, Literature, English, Drama, Film and Television, and Writing. This project is open to Third and Fourth year undergraduate students in the above disciplinary majors/minors, and Writing, Editing and Publishing by Coursework students.

Primary Supervisor: A/Prof. Stephen Carleton

AI and Spectacle

Project Duration: Summer program: 6 weeks from12 January to 20 February 2026. Full-time hours (36 hours per week). On-site delivery.

Project Description: Technological developments have led to a range of human tasks now falling within the realm of machine capability. Recent developments of artificial intelligence in particular have brought society closer to realising a ‘thinking machine’ that can replicate human consciousness. The ways such developments have been touted in the media and popular culture have been described by some academic literature as being akin to stage magic. Like the spectacular acts of the stage magician, the ‘magical’ appearance of AI’s outputs distracts from the reality of the mechanisms that produce them.

While much literature employs the ‘stage magician’ analogy, few analyses adequately identify what is hidden behind the magical façade constructed in AI discourses, and why. Furthermore, such critiques of magical rhetoric are not grounded in any prominent political theory or text.

This research project explores the application of themes presented in Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle (1967) as a critical lens through which to critique current discourses about AI. Authenticity, commodity fetishism, and alienation, for example, are useful concepts for analysing the disparity between discourses about AI and the reality of the mechanisms which generate responses to prompts. These concepts also provide opportunities for critiquing what information is omitted from AI discourses and why, as well as what is at stake for society. By analysing discourses through Debord, this project presents a novel – and arguably necessary – way of thinking about AI: one that recognises the constructedness of the hype surrounding this technology.

The Summer Research student will play an integral role in contextualising and completing this project. While the project is currently self-contained, it is anticipated to inspire further research in this area. This project is, exploratory, and the Summer Research student will support preliminary exploratory efforts in both theoretical conceptualisation and methodological application. In particular, the Summer Research student will be tasked with leading the production of a literature review and co-constructing a relevant argument for an academic paper.

Expected outcomes and deliverables: The Summer Research student will gain skills in producing literature reviews and conducting qualitative discourse analysis/critical discourse analysis/multimodal critical discourse analyses. The student will be co-listed as an author for an academic publication, to be submitted to a Q1 journal. The student will be encouraged to participate in relevant School-based events to develop their professional academic networks and portfolio. Should the student wish, they may also serve as co-presenter of a Work in Progress presentation related to project, developing their oral communication and presentation skills.

Suitable for: This project is open to applications with at least two years of experience in digital media studies. Applicants must demonstrate familiarity with current AI discourses and Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, and be seeking experience developing their professional academic networks and capacity. They should already possess strong academic writing skills.

Primary Supervisor: Dr Leah Henrickson

Placemaking in creative cities: Brisbane’s nighttime mayors and new forms of urban governance

Project Duration: This research project will take place over 6 weeks from 12 January - 20 February 2026. It will involve a commitment of 36 hours per week. The work can be competed remotely and there is no requirement to be on site.

Project Description: City centres are central to urban life and underscore the importance of creative infrastructure. This paper examines Brisbane’s approach to developing inclusive, place-based creative infrastructure in the lead-up to the 2032 Olympics. The research aims to explore the relationship between Brisbane’s creative infrastructure and the extent to which current policies support its diverse cultural activities—from formalised modes of creative expression to more grassroots initiatives.

Within this overarching framework, the project is guided by three key research questions:

  1. How is Brisbane’s cultural infrastructure understood by artists and policymakers?
  2. To what extent are cultural workers consulted in the policy-making process?
  3. How well do current cultural policies reflect Brisbane and Queensland’s unique socio-cultural context in the pre-Olympics period?

Expected outcomes and deliverables: In this project I will be seeking to identify different literature on culture, cities, cultural policy and placemaking. Scholars working on this project will develop greater understanding about the practices of cities and urban space 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, architecture. Ideally the candidate will be postgraduate coursework or a 3rd – 4th year student.

Primary Supervisor: Dr Caroline Wilson-Barnao

Celebrating AustLit’s 25 years

Project Duration: For the Summer program, students will be engaged for 6 weeks within the official program dates (12 January to 20 February 2026). It is expected that the scholar will work 25 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 centred around AustLit’s 25th anniversary. The scholar will work with the supervisor to produce and curate informative social media posts about AustLit and Australian literary culture. They will also and update and enhance AustLit records as necessary.

Expected outcomes and deliverables: Scholars will gain skills in developing targeted social media posts, in disseminating research outcomes to a wide and varied audience, and advanced search techniques.

Suitable for: This project will suit a scholar with a passion for Australian literary culture and history who is also interested in public engagement and communication strategies, especially visual strategies and social media.

Primary Supervisor: A/Prof Maggie Nolan and Dr Catriona Mills

Climate Change Narratives in Australian Fiction

Project Duration: For the Summer program, students will be engaged for 6 weeks within the official program dates (12 January to 20 February 2026). It is expected that the scholar will work 25 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 involves updating AustLit’s curated dataset on Climate Change Narratives: https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/8179486. This project ended in 2018 but much has happened in this space in subsequent years. The project would involved identifying and affiliating more recent climate change texts and updating the framing of the project.

Expected outcomes and deliverables: Students would learn about data curation and analysis, bibliography as well as Australian climate fiction. Students will have an opportunity to contribute to one of our most significant datasets/ research projects.

Suitable for: This project is suitable for advanced literature with an interest in Australian and/or ecological fiction.

Primary Supervisor: A/Prof Maggie Nolan and Dr Catriona Mills

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