Indiana exchange fosters arts and social sciences networks

Dr Douglas Craig from the ANU School of History is the first researcher to take up a new exchange position at Indiana University, thanks to a signed agreement between ANU and Indiana.

The Memorandum of Understanding, signed in April 2014 is a reciprocal exchange between academic staff from the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences and the Indiana College of Arts of Social Sciences in Bloomington in the United States (US).

A specialist in US political history, Dr Craig will spend his time in the US working on a book investigating the politics of the Great War in America.

In addition to taking advantage of primary resource material in the libraries at Indiana, which dates back to the 1820s, Dr Craig says he’s looking forward to working closely with US colleagues.

“One of the great things about this exchange is that Indiana has a big history department of over 50 tenured and tenurable staff, with around 15 historians who work on American history,” he says.

“We don’t have many American historians in our schools here, but at Indiana there are lots of people working in my field who I can collaborate with.

“I’ll be spending eight weeks there just as a member of faculty, working on my book, and I’ll be giving a paper as part of their seminar series.”

Being a US historian, Dr Craig has spent a lot of time in the US (including completing his PhD at the University of Virginia), but this will be his first trip to Bloomington.

Also going to Indiana this year are two PhD students: Thomas Nulley-Valdes from the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics and Robyn Curtis from the School of History.

The exchange, which runs for 4-8 weeks, aims to foster networks and collaboration between academics at the ANU and Indiana Colleges of Arts and Social Sciences.

Another round of applications to participate in the exchange is now open until 2 March 2015.

For more information, visit the CASS intranet