CASS academics receive ARC Linkage Projects grants

The second round of the Australian Research Council Linkage Projects 2011 have been successful for College of Arts and Social Sciences researchers. 

This result (from three applications) is an outstanding reflection of the quality of research that is conducted in the College. 

Linkage Projectssupports research and development projects which are collaborative between higher education researchers and other parts of the national innovation system, which are undertaken to acquire new knowledge, and which involve risk or innovation.

The projects will see three teams across the Research School of Humanities and the Arts (RSHA) working collaboratively with a wide array of partners. 

Professor Nicolas Peterson from RSHA will be teaming up with Mr Michael Cawthorn from the Strehlow Reasearch Centre, Mrs Helen Wilmont from Central Land Council, Dr John K Henderson from the University of Western Australia, and Dr Anna-Maria B Kenny (ADPI) from RSHA.  This team of researches will result in the translation of Carl Strehlow's 10,000 word German dictionary and other major, unavailable cultural heritage materials and at the same time incorporate the work of the neglected tradition of German humanistic anthropology into scholarship on Central Australia.

Professor Howard Morphy from RSHA will be working with Dr Michael A Smith from NMA, Dr Libby Robin from the Fenner School, Dr June Ross from the University of New England, and Ms Margo Neale from NMA. This project will examine Songlines that map the Australian continent that are of iconic significance in the national cultural heritage of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.  Furthermore the research will look at the vision of Western Desert elders and artists and they way in which they share this vision with the wider community in order to understand the scale, spiritual and environmental significance of the Tjukurpa Songlines of Australia.

Professor Peter M Veth from RSHA will work alongside Professor Mark Staniforth from Flinders University, Dr Ian D MacLeod from the Western Australian Museum, Ms Vicki L Richards from the Western Australian Museum, and Mr Anthony J Barham from RSHA.  The project will use cutting-edge technology to study and preserve an early colonial shipwreck at risk and develop a world-class strategy for the reburial and preservation of endangered historic shipwrecks. The project will help develop new national policy and technical guidelines for site managers of historic shipwrecks and offer new insights into colonial shipbuilding.