Summer Research Scholarships provide promising students with experience of research work. This is particularly useful to students considering undertaking postgraduate research towards a higher degree.

The scholarships provide contact with distinguished researchers and enable students to use facilities and materials for research that may not be readily available elsewhere. They offer a challenging environment in which students have an opportunity to evaluate for themselves, and to demonstrate to others, their potential for research work.

What the Summer Scholarship offers

Full-board accommodation, a weekly allowance, return travel to Canberra, and a short research project on an approved topic. Read more

Successful scholars will have access to a desk space, with a computer and access to all applicable research facilities on campus at the ANU.

What topics can you research?

The College will be offering six scholarships in the summer of 2011/12 as follows:

• Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) and School of Language Studies (2)
• Research School of Social Sciences (2)
• Research School of Humanities & the Arts (1)
• Centre for European Studies (1)

AIATSIS/ANU Linguistics Language Collection

Sarah Cutfield, Language Research Fellow, AIATSIS
Professor Jane Simpson, Head of School, Convenor (Linguistics), School of Language Studies

Under the co-supervision of the Language Research Fellow (AIATSIS) and the Head of School for the School of Language Studies, the scholar will work on research projects to add value to the collection of a specific language collection in the AIATSIS Archive, as well as participate in the general activities of the AIATSIS Language Unit.

'Adding value’ to a language collection will involve transcribing and annotating language recordings, adding to the metadata, identifying analytical issues in the language and/or the data set and reporting on these as well as communicating with the relevant language community about the work being undertaken. Applicants may prefer to choose to identify a specific collection to work on, or they may prefer to be assigned a collection by the supervisors.  Applicants should indicate in their application whether they have already identified a preferred collection to work on.

The scholar will reside on the ANU campus with other Summer Research scholars and have access to ANU libraries and facilities. Successful completion of the following linguistic subject areas at second/third year level is desired: phonetics/phonology, Australian Aboriginal languages.  Indigenous applicants are especially encouraged to apply.

Contact: sarah.cutfield@aiatsis.gov.au

Research School of Humanities and the Arts

One scholarship will be awarded, on a competitive basis, by RSH&A.  Applicants should discuss their proposed project with any of the academics listed below before applying.  You should include in your application details of what you hope to research, should you be awarded a scholarship.

Investigation into contemporary Laos textiles
Valerie Kirk, Head, Textiles, ANU School of Art

This project would involve investigating contemporary Lao textiles ; including materials, dyes, techniques, contexts, traditions and history. This would involve study of textile samples, research into works in Canberra museum collections, practical work with textiles and participation in the Lao Textile Study tour (additional cost) visiting individual practitioners, small businesses, development projects, museums and collections.
Contact Valerie.kirn@anu.edu.au

Investigation into contemporary textiles
Valerie Kirk, Head, Textiles, ANU School of Art

This project would involve study into contemporary textile development investigating a range of materials and techniques, producing experimental samples and exploring the field of textiles in Canberra through focused museum, gallery and studio visits.
A specific project of interest to the applicant will be developed in discussion with the supervisor.
Contact Valerie.kirk@anu.edu.au

Indigenous anthropology
Professor Nicolas Peterson, ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology

A project of interest to the applicant will be developed in discussion with the supervisor.
Contact: Nicolas.peterson@anu.edu.au

Mafia in Italian cinema
Dr Gino Moliterno, Lecturer, Film Studies, ANU School of Cultural Inquiry

A project considering changes in the representation of the Italian mafia/criminal underworld from the early postwar period in films like Germi’s In nome della legge (1949) to more recent films like Michele Placido’s Romanzo criminale (2005) and Matteo Garrone’s Gomorra (2008) and the extent to which these changes have been influenced by the representation of the Mafia in American cinema.
Contact: gino.moliterno@anu.edu.au

Law governing immigration detention in Australia
Professor Pene Mathew, Chair, Freilich Foundation, Research School of Humanities and the Arts

This summer research scholarship would be offered to a student of human rights.  The position would be best suited to a student with a law background as well as another relevant discipline.  The summer scholar will research and write a paper about monitoring immigration detention in Australia.  Prof Mathew is currently working with the Australian Human Rights Commission on drafting new immigration detention standards for Australia.  The summer scholarship will offer an exciting opportunity for a student to work on a real world project.
Contact: pene.mathew@anu.edu.au

Analysis of Holocaust themed literature
Dr Ned Curthoys, Research Fellow, ANU School of Cultural Inquiry

This project would involve research on recent literature that deals directly or more obliquely with the events and ethical legacy of the Holocaust. Writers to be analysed might include W.G. Sebald, Philip Roth, Howard Jacobson, and Susan Varga.
Contact: ned.surthoys@anu.edu.au

Centre for European Studies

One scholarship will be awarded, on a competitive basis.  Applicants should discuss their proposed project with Professor Lo before applying.  You should include in your application details of what you hope to research, should you be awarded a scholarship.

Investigation into memory and migration
Professor Jacqueline Lo, Director, ANU Centre for European Studies

This project involves investigating the relationship between memory, migration and multiculturalism within the context of Europe, and/or between Europe and Australia. This is an opportunity to explore the memory of migration, examining how migrants remember the experience of -/re-location and exploring the possibility of a transgenerational transmission of the experience. It also introduces questions about memory and migrants, investigating if and how migrants engage with established national narratives which have been shaped by a traumatic past. Paying particular attention to the tensions between official and unofficial narratives and exploring cultural products (performance/ literature/ exhibitions/ music/ film) as repositories for unacknowledged and/or unassimilated experience, the project may ask questions such as:

• How do migrants remember the experience of dislocation? In which way are these memories transmitted and what modes do they take?
• To what extent are national narratives informed by stories of migration?
• Since the nation’s past plays an important role in constructing contemporary notions of citizenship, identity and belonging: what is the relationship between citizenship and memory?
• What kind of cultural work do commemorative practices perform? What does it tell us about the society under review?

A project of interest to the applicant will be developed in discussion with the supervisor.
Contact: jacqueline.lo@anu.edu.au

Research School of Social Sciences

Places for two Summer Scholars are available within the Research School of Social Sciences associated with two cross-disciplinary projects:

Social Policy Evaluation
Professor Matthew Gray, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Research (CAEPR)

This project is led by Professor Matthew Gray of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Research (CAEPR) and includes researchers from the School of Philosophy, the School of Sociology, and CAEPR.  The project will use a cross-disciplinary approach to understanding and doing social policy evaluation. It will undertake research into the use of ‘conditionality’ in the provision of government benefits and services in Australia and how this relates to attempts by government to change social norms.
A number of conditionality policies are being trialed in particular geographic areas or with particular population groups in Australia. Examples of conditional ‘cash transfer programs’ currently in operation in Australian social policy include:

• the various forms of income management being trialed across Australia;
• the School Enrolment and Attendance Measure which makes children’s school attendance a condition of parents’ continued receipt of income support payments;
• Policies which make participation in secondary school a condition of receipt of full social security payments for teenage parents; and
• the linking of receipt of benefits to the immunization of children.

There is likely to be ongoing interest in the use of conditionality in social policy. A key question will relate to the types of conditionality are most effective and in which contexts.

Internationally, there is a great deal of interest in the use of ‘conditional cash transfers’ in the provision of government benefits as services in order to try and modify the behavior of citizens and change social norms. Large scale programs have, for example, been undertaken in Mexico (Progressa), Brazil (Bolsa Familia), and pilot projects have been launched in Kenya and Jamaica, among other countries.

The project expects to connect strongly with pilot studies and other research into conditionality taking place elsewhere in the world, and build on the considerable expertise in social policy evaluation that already exists within the Research School of Social Sciences.
The Summer Research Scholar working on this project could be involved in a number of different aspects of the project including analysis of policy documents, comparing the approach taken into Australia to that taken in other countries, analysis of existing administrative and survey data and synthesising the findings of existing evaluations of conditionality programs.

Contact: matthew.gray@anu.edu.au

Gender and Feminism in the Social Sciences
Dr Fiona Jenkins, School of Philosophy
Adjunct Professor Marian Sawer, School of Politics and International Relations
Dr Helen Keane of the School of Sociology.

This project, which also includes researchers from the School of History, aims to investigate the relationship between the gender profile of the social science disciplines and their incorporation of feminist critique and knowledge in both research and education; and to investigate the influence of the university as an institution on the shape, content and practice of these disciplines, in particular the tension between the goals of excellence and equity.
Contact: Fiona.jenkins@anu.edu.au

Eligibility

Summer Research Scholarships are offered on a competitive basis to third or final year undergraduate students (including current Honours students) who are currently enrolled at universities in Australia and New Zealand and are interested in pursuing an Honours program or a higher degree by research.

Duration

This is an eight week scholarship placement on campus at the ANU within the College of Arts and Social Sciences from late November 2011 to late January 2012. Accommodation cannot be provided outside this period. Dates of the scholarship can be negotiated with the supervisors within this period.

Applications

Open 1 August 2011
Close 31 August 2011

Conditions of Award

Application Process

Please contact deaned.cass@anu.edu.au for further information.