Emeritus Professor David Carter
Emeritus Professor
School of Communication and Arts
Researcher biography
Professor David Carter's research interests include Australian literature and publishing history, cultural history, the history of the book, magazines and periodical studies, middlebrow cultures, and studies in modernity.
Professor Carter was Director of the Australian Studies Centre at the University of Queensland from 2001 to 2006, then Professor of Australian Literature and Cultural History in the School of Communication and Arts.
He is the author of Australian Books and Authors in the American Marketplace, 1840s-1940s (2018) with Roger Osborne, Almost Always Modern: Australian Print Cultures and Modernity (2013), Dispossession, Dreams and Diversity: Issues in Australian Studies (2006) and A Career in Writing: Judah Waten and the Cultural Politics of a Literary Career (1997), winner of the Walter McRae Russell Award for literary scholarship. His edited books include the co-edited Fields, Capitals, Habitus: Australian Culture, Inequalities and Social Divisions (2020); Making Books: Contemporary Australian Publishing (2007) with Anne Galligan; The Ideas Market: An Alternative Take on Australia's Intellectual Life (2004); Culture in Australia: Policies, Publics and Programs, with Tony Bennett (2001); and Outside the Book: Contemporary Essays on Literary Periodicals (1991).
He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and Series Editor, Anthem Studies in Book History, Publishing and Print Culture, Anthem UK.
Professor Carter has extensive experience in teaching and developing programs in Australian Studies internationally. He was President of the International Australian Studies Association from 1997 to 2001; Manager of the Australian Studies in China program of the Australia-China Council (2002-16); a board member of the Australia-Japan Foundation (1998-2004); and Visiting Professor in Australian Studies at Tokyo University (2007-08 & 2016-17). He is a Board Member of the Foundation for Australian Studies in China.
Publications
Books
Carter, David and Osborne, Roger (2018). Australian books and authors in the American marketplace 1840s–1940s. Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press. doi: 10.2307/j.ctv175p8
Carter, David (2013). Always almost modern: Australian print cultures and modernity. North Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Carter, David (2006). Dispossession, dreams and diversity: Issues in Australian studies. Frenchs Forest, Australia: Pearson Education.
Carter, David (1997). A career in writing : Judah Waten and the cultural politics of a literary career. Toowoomba, Australia: Association for the Study of Australian Literature.
Book Chapters
Carter, David and Darian-Smith, Kate (2019). The writing professions during and after World War I. The First World War, The Universities and the Professions in Australia 1914-1939. (pp. 342-362) edited by Kate Darian-Smith and James Waghorne. Carlton, VIC, Australia: Melbourne University Press.
Carter, David (2019). Fiction publishing in Australia, 2013-2017. Publishing and culture. (pp. 341-358) edited by Dallas John Baker, Donna Lee Brien and Jen Webb. Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Carter, David and Kelly, Michelle (2018). The book trade and the arts ecology: transnationalism and digitization in the Australian literary field. Making culture: commercialisation, transnationalism, and the state of 'nationing' in contemporary Australia. (pp. 15-27) edited by David Rowe, Emma Waterton and Graeme Turner. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge/Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9781315106205-2
Carter, David and Kelly, Michelle (2018). The book trade and the arts ecology: transnationalism and digitization in the Australian literary field. Making culture: commercialisation, transnationalism, and the state of 'nationing' in contemporary Australia. (pp. 15-27) edited by David Rowe, Graeme Turner and Emma Waterton. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Carter, David (2017). The other empire: Australian books and American publishers in the late nineteenth century. The global histories of books: methods and practices. (pp. 47-72) edited by Elleke Boehmer, Rouven Kunstmann, Priyasha Mukhopadhyay and Asha Rogers. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-51334-8
Carter, David John (2017). Bush legends and pastoral landscapes. Teaching Australian and New Zealand literature. (pp. 42-54) edited by Nicholas Birns, Nicole Moore and Sarah Shieff. New York, NY United States: Modern Language Association of America.
Carter, David and Kelly, Michelle (2017). Australian stories: books and reading in the nation. Publishing means business: Australian perspectives. (pp. 147-181) edited by Aaron Mannion and Millicent Weber. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University Publishing.
Carter, David (2016). Beyond the Antipodes: Australian popular fiction in transnational networks. New directions in popular fiction: genre, distribution, reproduction. (pp. 349-370) edited by Ken Gelder. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-52346-4
Carter, David John (2016). General fiction, genre fiction and literary fiction publishing 2000-13. The return of print? Contemporary Australian publishing. (pp. 1-25) edited by Aaron Mannion and Emmett Stimson. Clayton VIC, Australia: Monash University Publishing.
Carter, David (2016). Middlebrow book culture. Routledge international handbook of the sociology of art and culture. (pp. 349-369) edited by Laurie Hanquinet and Mike Savage. London, United Kingdon: Routledge.
Carter, David (2013). 1982. Publishing in the Big Apple: Thomas Keneally's amazing American adventure. Telling Stories: Australian Life and Literature 1935-2012. (pp. 385-391) edited by Tanya Dalziell and Paul Genoni. Clayton, VIC, Australia: Monash University Publishing.
Carter, David and Griffen-Foley, Bridget (2013). Culture and media. The Commonwealth of Australia. (pp. 237-262) edited by Alison Bashford and Stuart Macintyre. New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CHO9781107445758.041
Carter, David (2013). The wide brown land on the silver screen. Always almost Modern: Australian Print Cultures and Modernity. (pp. 232-252) edited by David Carter. North Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Carter, David (2013). 'Screamers In Bedlam': Vision 1923-1924. Always almost Modern: Australian Print Cultures and Modernity. (pp. 81-111) edited by David Carter. North Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Carter, David (2013). Drawing the line: Art in Australia and the contemporary modern. Always almost Modern: Australian Print Cultures and Modernity. (pp. 45-66) edited by David Carter. North Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Carter, David (2013). Antipodean romance, crime and sensation: Australian popular fiction in British and American markets 1890-1925. Scenes of Reading: Is Australian Literature a World Literature?. (pp. 86-100) edited by Robert Dixon and Brigid Rooney. North Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Carter, David (2012). Waten, Judah Leon (1911-1985). Australian dictionary of biography. Volume 18 : 1981-1990, L-Z. (pp. x-x) edited by Melanie Nolan and Paul Arthur. Carlton Australia: Melburne University Press.
Carter, David (2012). Modernising anglocentrism: Desiderata and literary time. Republics of letters: literary communities in Australia. (pp. 85-98) edited by Peter Kirkpatrick and Robert Dixon. Sydney, Australia: Sydney University Press.
Carter, David (2011). Modernity and the gendering of middlebrow book culture in Australia. The masculine middlebrow, 1880-1950: What Mr. Miniver read. (pp. 135-149) edited by Kate Macdonald. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
Carter, David (2010). Transpacific or transatlantic traffic? Australian books and American publishers. Reading Across the Pacific : Australia-United States Intellectual Histories. (pp. 339-359) edited by Robert Dixon and Nicholas Birns. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Sydney University Press.
Carter, David (2009). Critics, writers, intellectuals: Australian literature and its criticism. Reading down under: Australian literary studies reader. (pp. 67-93) edited by Amit Sarwall and Reema Sarwal. New Delhi, India: Sports and Spiritual Science Publications.
Carter, David (2009). Structures, networks, institutions: The new empiricism, book history and literary history. Resourceful Reading: The New Empiricism, eResearch and Australian Literary Culture. (pp. 31-52) edited by Katherine Bode and Robert Dixon. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Sydney University Press.
Carter, David (2009). Publishing, patronage and cultural politics: Institutional changes in the field of Australian literature from 1950. The Cambridge history of Australian literature. (pp. 360-390) edited by Peter Pierce. Victoria, Australia: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CHOL9780521881654.018
Carter, David (2008). An Australian accent? From textual politics to cultural history in Australian literary studies. Literatures in English: Priorities of Research. (pp. 383-393) edited by Wolfgang Zach and Michael Kenneally. Tubingen, Germany: Stauffenburg Verlag.
Carter, David (2007). Boom, bust or business as usual? Literary fiction publishing. Making books: contemporary Australian publishing. (pp. 231-246) edited by D. J. Carter and A. Galligan. Brisbane, Australia: University of Queensland Press.
Carter, David and Galligan, Anne (2007). Introduction. Making books: contemporary Australian publishing. (pp. 1-14) edited by D. Carter and A. Galligan. Brisbane, Australia: University of Queensland Press.
Carter, David (2006). They're a Weird Mob and Ure Smith. Paper empires: A history of the book in Australia 1946-2005. (pp. 24-30) edited by Craig Munro and Robyn Sheahan-Bright. Brisbane, Australia: University of Queensland Press.
Carter, David and Osborne, Roger (2006). Periodicals. Paper empires: A history of the book in Australia 1946-2005. (pp. 239-257) edited by Craig Munro and Robyn Sheehan-Bright. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press.
Carter, David (2005). Six theses on contemporary Australia. Australian Studies Centre 25th anniversary collection. (pp. 47-59) edited by David Carter and Martin Crotty. St Lucia, Australia: Australian Studies Centre, University of Queensland.
Carter, David (2004). The mystery of the missing middlebrow or the c(o)urse of good taste. Imagining Australia: literature and culture in the new new world. (pp. 173-201) edited by Ryan, Judith and Wallace-Crabbe, Chris. Boston, Mass., USA: Harvard University Press.
Carter, David (2004). Judah Waten. Australian Writers, 1950 - 1975. (pp. 308-316) edited by Selina Samuels. Farmington Hills, USA: Thomson Gale.
Carter, David (2004). Introduction: Intellectuals and their publics. The Ideas Market: An alternative take on Austraia's intellectual life. (pp. 1-11) edited by David Carter. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press.
Carter, David (2004). Asian Australian Studies: China and Japan. Double Vision: Asian accounts of Australia. (pp. 139-154) edited by Broinowski, Alison. Canberra, ACT: Pandanus Books.
Carter, David (2004). The conscience industry: The rise and rise of the public intellectual. The ideas market: an alternative take on Australia's intellectual life. (pp. 15-39) edited by David Carter. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press.
Carter, David (2004). A minor miracle, a kind of failure, and some small successes: Australian studies and cultural diplomacy. Thinking Australian Studies: teaching across cultures. (pp. 90-109) edited by Kate Darian-Smith, David Carter, Gus Worby and Gus Worby. Brisbane, Queensland: UQ Press.
Carter, David and Whitlock, Gillian (2003). Overviews: Institutions of Australian Literature. 19th Century Literature Criticism. (pp. 21-32) edited by Zott, L. M.. Farmington Hills, USA: Thomson Gale.
Carter, David (2003). The Story of our Epoch, a Hero of our Time: The Communist Novelist in PostWar Australia. Frank Hardy & the Literature of Commitment. (pp. 89-111) edited by Paul Adams and Christopher Lee. Carlton North, Victoria: The Vulgar Press.
Carter, David and Bennett, Tony (2001). Australian culture and its publics. Culture in Australia: policies, publics and programs. (pp. 135-139) edited by Tony Bennett and David Carter. Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.
Carter, David and Bennett, Tony (2001). Policy and industry contexts. Culture in Australia: policies, publics and programs. (pp. 11-17) edited by Tony Bennett and David Carter. Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.
Carter, David and Bennett, Tony (2001). Programs of cultural diversity. Culture in Australia: policies, publics and programs. (pp. 253-258) edited by Tony Bennett and David Carter. Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.
Carter, David, Bennett, Tony and Ferres, K. (2001). The Public Life of Literature. Culture in Australia: Policies, Publics and Programs. (pp. 140-160) edited by Tony Bennett and David Carter. Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.
Carter, David and Bennett, Tony (2001). Introduction. Culture in Australia: Policies, Publics and Programs. (pp. 1-8) edited by Tony Bennett and David Carter. Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.
Journal Articles
Cunningham, Stuart, Turner, Graeme and Carter, David (2021). Thomas ‘Tom’ Andrew O’Regan FAHA 1956–2020. Media International Australia, 180 (1), 7-11. doi: 10.1177/1329878x211010781
Driscoll, Beth, Fletcher, Lisa, Wilkins, Kim and Carter, David (2018). The publishing ecosystems of contemporary australian genre fiction. Creative Industries Journal, 11 (2), 203-221. doi: 10.1080/17510694.2018.1480851
Carter, David (2018). Literary, but not too literary; joyous, but not jazzy: Triad magazine, antipodean modernity and the middlebrow. Modernism-Modernity, 25 (2), 245-267. doi: 10.1353/mod.2018.0018
Kelly, Michelle, Gayo, Modesto and Carter, David (2018). Rare books? The divided field of reading and book culture in contemporary Australia. Continuum, 32 (3), 1-14. doi: 10.1080/10304312.2018.1453463
Carter, David (2018). 'How it Strikes a Contemporary': Modernism and Modernity in Australia, 1920s-1930s. Pacific and American Studies, 18, 65-79.
Carter, David (2016). The literary field and contemporary trade-book publishing in Australia: literary and genre fiction. Media International Australia, 158 (1), 48-57. doi: 10.1177/1329878X15622078
Carter, David (2015). What America also read: Australian historical fiction in the American marketplace, 1927-1948. Antipodes 29.2, 29 (2), 349-369.
Carter, David (2015). The conditions of fame: literary celebrity in Australia between the wars. Journal of Modern Literature, 39 (1), 170-187. doi: 10.2979/jmodelite.39.1.170
Carter, David (2015). Living with instrumentalism: the academic commitment to cultural diplomacy. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 21 (4), 478-493. doi: 10.1080/10286632.2015.1042470
Carter, David (2014). 'A peacock’s plume among a pile of geese feathers': Rosa Praed in the USA. Queensland Review, 21 (1), 23-38. doi: 10.1017/qre.2014.5
Carter, David (2013). Traduit de l'americain: Thomas Keneally and the mechanics of an international career. Book History, 16 (1), 364-386. doi: 10.1353/bh.2013.0013
Carter, David and Garvey, Nathan (2012). The long Twentieth Century: an introduction. Script & Print: Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia & New Zealand, 36 (4), 197-199.
Carter, David (2010). Imagination: how people have imagined Queensland. Queensland Historical Atlas: Histories, Cultures, Landscapes, 2009-2010
Carter, David (2009). More than sorry: Indigenous policy under Howard and Rudd. オーストラリア研究, 22, 6-22.
Carter, David (2009). The empire dies back: Britishness in contemporary Australian culture. Pacific and American Studies, 9, 41-54.
Carter, David (2009). Colonial modernity and print culture studies: Books and readers in Australian society. Pacific and American Studies, 9, 63-82.
Carter, David, Darian-Smith, Kate and Gorman-Murray, Andrew (2008). Introduction - Special Section: Rural Cultural Studies. Australian Humanities Review, 45, 27-36.
Carter, David (2008). 'Esprit de nation' and popular modernity: Aussie magazine 1920-1931. History Australia: Journal of the Australian Historical Assocation, 5 (3), 74.1-74.22. doi: 10.2104/ha080074
Carter, David (2008). Is Australia a multicultural country?. The Southern Hemisphere Review, 24, 27-33.
Carter, David (2007). After Postcolonialism. Meanjin, 66 (2), 114-119.
Carter, David (2007). Is the crisis critical?. The Australian Author, 39 (1), 24-26.
Carter, David (2006). Public culture publishing: 2005-2006. Westerly, 51, 168-185.
Carter, David (2006). 'Some means of learning of the best new books': All About Books and the Modern Reader. Australian Literary Studies, 22 (3), 329-341.
Carter, David (2006). Babes in the bush: The making of an Australian image.. Australian Historical Studies, 37 (128), 136-137.
Carter, David (2005). From Nations to Networks : Australian studies as 'Anti-Area' Studies. Crossings, 10 (2)
Carter, David (2004). O’Grady, John see “Culotta, Nino”: Popular authorship, duplicity and celebrity. Australian Literary Studies, 21 (4), 56-73.
Carter, David (2004). Made in England: Australia's British inheritance. Overland, 174, 126-128.
Carter, David (2002). Bookworld. Australian Book Review, 1 (238), 12-13.
Carter, David (2002). Three Journals. Australian Book Review, 1 (237), 73-74.
Carter, David (2002). Australian beach cultures: The history of sun, sand and surf. Sociology of Sport Journal, 19 (3), 335-337. doi: 10.1123/ssj.19.3.335
Carter, David (2002). Going, going, gone? Britishness and Englishness in contemporary Australian culture. Overland, 169, 81-86.
Carter, David (2002). Communism and Carnival: Ralph de Boissieres Crown Jewel and its Australian Context. Australian Cultural History, 21, 97-106.
Carter, David (2002). Public Intellectuals, Book Culture and Civil Society. Australian Humanities Review (24), 1-14.
Carter, David (2001). 'Tracking the jack'. Meanjin, 60 (2), 203-208.
Carter, David (2001). Magazine History. Media International Australia, 99, 9-14.
Carter, David (2001). Jean Devanny: Romantic revolutionary. Australian Historical Studies, 32 (116), 160-161.
Carter, David (1999). Looking for the History in Literary History. Australian Literary Studies, 19 (2), 226-230.
Carter, David (1999). Good readers and good citizens: Literature, media and the nation. Australian Literary Studies, 19 (2), 136-151.
Carter, David (1998). Coleman's old cold war (The Soviet Union and Australian writers). Overland, 153, 4-7.
Carter, David (1997). Literary canons and literary institutions. Southerly, 57 (3), 16-37.
Carter, David (1996). Reviews. Australian Literary Studies, 17 (4), 407-411.
Carter, David (1996). Mother (excerpts from a biography of Judah Waten). Westerly, 41 (4), 114-122.
Conference Papers
Carter, David (2007). Australian studies internationally. The Seventh International Conference on Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 3-6 July 2007.
Carter, David (2004). Two Australias? The language of division in contemporary Australia. 8th International Conference of Australian Studies in China, Anhui University, China, 21 December 2002. Anhui, China: Anhui University Press.
Carter, David (1999). Magazine culture: Notes towards a history of Australian periodical publication 1920-1970. 21st Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, Toowoomba Australia, 03-07 July 1998. Toowoomba, Qld Australia: Association for the Study of Australian Literature.
Reference Entries
Carter, David (2005). Judah Waten.
Carter, David (2005). Gavin Casey.
Carter, David (2005). Frank Hardy.
Carter, David (2005). David Martin.
Carter, David (2005). Alan Marshall.
Carter, David, Karskens, G., Macintyre, C. and Mitchell, A. (2004). Australia.