Research Seminar - The disruptions of gold: some archaeology of the literary cultures of the global south

Date: Wednesday, 29 March
Time: 1pm-2pm
Location: IASH Seminar Room, Level 4, Forgan Smith Tower (Bldg #1)

Abstract:

This paper offers some preliminary archaeology, focused on English novels of the second half of the 19th century, about the literature of mining in Australia, in relation to a global and cultural dichotomy about the history and representation of the extractive industries and the environment. Late Victorian realist fiction addresses the social disruption caused by the raw reality of the sources of wealth – precious metals and their extraction – in different and complex ways, according to their antipodal orientation. 

Presenter Bio:

Philip Mead is inaugural Chair of Australian Literature and Director of the Westerly Centre at the University of Western Australia. Philip teaches units in Australian Literary Studies, at Honours level, and the English units in the Master of Curriculum Studies (English) course, a collaborative course between the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Education.

Philip’s research is at the intersections of national and transnational literary studies, cultural history and theory, poetics, literary education, and digital humanities. He has led nationally competitive research and teaching grants, most recently the ALTC funded project, ‘Australian Literature Teaching Survey’ (2009), the ARC Discovery Project grant for 2010-2012, ‘Monumental Shakespeares: an investigation of transcultural commemoration in 20th-century Australia and England' (with Gordon McMullan, King's College London), and the OLT funded Extension project ‘Update and Expansion of the AustLit Resource Teaching with AustLit site’ (2013-2014). He is also CI on the ARC Discovery Project grant for 2016-19, 'Investigating literary knowledge in the education of English teachers' (with Larissa McLean Davies and Lyn Yates, University of Melbourne, Brenton Doecke, Deakin University, and Wayne Sawyer, Western Sydney University). He is on the board of management of the ARC LIEF funded AustLIt consortium.

http://www.web.uwa.edu.au/people/philip.mead