Philip Mead Senior Lecturer School of English University of Tasmania

I have received IRGS (Internal Research Grant Scheme) grants from the University of Tasmania, but have not had ARC funding, nor have I applied, since two Large ARC Grants I was a CI on between 1993 and 1997. I am currently in the process of applying to the ARC for a 3-year Discovery Grant about Tasmanian literary culture for 2005/6/7.

I draw attention to three significant research contributions that are directly relevant to this network. First, an edited and introduced collection of critical essays on the work of Kenneth Slessor which I was invited to produce for the University of Queensland Press and which was published in 1997. The invitation to edit this volume was obviously made with an awareness of my previous contributions to the field of Australian poetry and historical literary studies. This volume includes my own chapter on 'Kenneth Slessor: A Lyric Poet in the Era of Modernity.' The second is an article, 'A Prose Kinema: Slessor's Film Writing,' published in Fran de Groen and Ken Stewart, eds Australian Writing and the City (2000) which was the first announcement and overview of Slessor's forgotten writings on film. The influence of both these publications in the field of Australian literary studies has been strong and is attested to by multiple citations on the AustLit database. Third, a chapter, 'The American Model II,' in Romana Huk, ed. Assembling Alternatives: Reading Postmodern Poetries Transnationally (Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan UP, 2003, 169-91), which is the first critical volume to examine the national borders of postmodern poetry. This chapter, the sole Australian contribution, is discussed at length by the editor of the volume in her Introduction (11-12), and was researched and published at a time of high administrative load.

Since the end of 2000, I have been heavily involved in the administration of the English program, the largest in the School, as Head of Discipline, and since September 2002, as Acting Head of the amalgamated School of English, Journalism & European Languages at the Univeristy of Tasmania. These administrative roles have necessarily curtailed my research activity and rate of publication over the past 2-3 years, including work on major projects.

Articles Mead, P, 'An Early David Campbell Poem', Southerly, 62 (1) 134-136 (2002) [A1]

Mead, P, 'In the space of the cursor: an introduction to john kinsella's 'a new lyricism'', Angelaki: journal of the theoretical humanities, 6 (3) 79-83 (2001) [A1]

Mead, P, 'The Harbour', Journal of Australian Studies, 67 (September) 227-229 (2000) [A1]

Mead, P, 'Veronica Brady's Biography of Judith Wright', Australian Literary Studies, 19 (2) 163-175 (1999) [A1]

Mead, P, 'John Forbes 1950-1998', Australian Humanities Review (February/March 1998) (1998) [A4]

Chapters in Books

Mead, P, 'David Campbell', Australian Writers, 1915-1950, Gale, Selina Samuels (ed), Detroit, 22-29 (2002) [C1]

Mead, P, 'The American Model II.' Romana Huk, ed. Assembling Alternatives: Reading Postmodern Poetries Transnationally. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan UP, 169-91, 2003 [C1]

Reviews Mead, P, 'Smoking Jacket', Jacket, 16 (March) EJ8 (2002) [D3]

Mead, P, 'Tasmanian Poetry at 'Another Country'', Famous Reporter, 25 (June) 178 (2002) [D4]

Mead, P, 'The Writer at Work: Essays by C.K. Stead; The Right Thing C.K. Stead', The Times Literary Supplement, 5153 (January 4) 23 (2002) [D2]

Mead, P, 'The Sign of the Wicked Plotter', UTS Review, 6 (2) 218-25 (2001) [D3]

Mead, P, 'The Strange Narrative Density of Tasmania', Island (87) 15-17 (2001) [D3]

Mead, P, 'Seductive Writing', Australian Book Review, 217 36-37 (1999) [D3]

Mead, P, 'A Worthy Collection', Australian Book Review (204) 36-38 (1998) [D4]

Mead, P, 'An online database of pre 1920 cultural textual archival materials' (1998) [D1]

Mead, P, 'Five Bells: A CD-Rom journey through the poetry of Kenneth Slessor', Siglo (10) 60-61 (1998) [D4]

Conference Volume Publication Mead, P, ed. Australian Literary Studies in the 21st Century, University of Tasmania, Hobart, 1-217 (2001) [F4]

Entries Mead, P, 'Fogarty, Lionel George', The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture, Sylvia Kleinert and Margot Neale (ed), South Melbourne, 1, 589 (2000) [N]

Mead, P, 'Poetry', The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Cultured, Sylvia Kleinert and Margo Neale (ed), South Melbourne, 1, 674-675 (2000) [N]

Other Research Publications Mead, P, 'Foreword.' Margaret Scott Collected Poems. Hobart: Montpelier, xiii-xiv 2000 [rep. 2001] [N]

Mead, P, 'Foreword,' P. Mead, ed. Australian Literary Studies in the 21st Century, University of Tasmania, Hobart, v-ix (2001) [F1]

The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry. Ed. and intro. with John Tranter. Ringwood: Penguin, 1991 [1994, 1999, 2003].

Reprinted in the United Kingdom as The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Australian Poetry (1995). [B3, B4]

While this publication may appear to be merely an 'anthology,' its role in Australian literary culture, both nationally and globally, has been significant. In the year of its first publication it was the subject of literally scores of reviews as recorded on the AustLit database. As its third reprinting and revision in 2003 signifies, its value as a 'reading' and historical account of Australian poetry, which includes the scholarly and critical 'Introduction,' continues to define the field of modern Australian poetry, nationally and internationally.

Shakespeare's Books: Contemporary Cultural Politics and the Persistence of Empire. Ed and intro. with Marion Campbell. Melbourne: Department of English, U of Melbourne, 1993. [B3]

This collection, which includes a chapter by Philip Mead, 'Reversible Empires: Melville/Shakespeare/Furphy' (26-49) was a defining publication in the field of Shakespeare studies in Australia. It addressed modern and theoretical aspects of Shakespeare in an Australian context and was reviewed in several major journals (Meanjin, Meridian) at length and is frequently cited in work on Australian Shakespeare.

Kenneth Slessor � Critical Readings. Ed. and intro. St Lucia: U of Queensland P, 1997. [B3]

This collection is the definitive, contemporary collection of Slessor criticism, and as annual ELR statements indicate is heavily used by libraries and researchers.

'Kenneth Slessor: A Lyric Poet in the era of Modernity.' Philip Mead, ed. Kenneth Slessor � Critical Readings. St Lucia: U of Queensland P, 1997, 1-32. [C1]

This chapter critically surveys Slessor criticism from the beginnings to the present as well as offering influential readings of some early Slessor poems.

'A Prose Kinema: Kenneth Slessor's Film Writing.' Fran de Groen and Ken Stewart, eds Australian Writing and the City. Association for the Study of Australian Literature. Refereed Proceedings of the 1999 Conference. Sydney: ASAL, 1999. 77-87. [F1]

This article, originally a conference presentation, announces and describes, for the first time, Kenneth Slessor's film writing. It has been described in a review of the volume in which it appeared, as a 'fabulous article by Philip Mead [�] which certainly fills in a vital link in our understanding of the advent of Modern Australian poetry' (Overland 163 [Winter 2001]: 110).

"In the space of the cursor." Angelaki: journal of the theoretical humanities 6.3 (December 2001): 79-83. [A1]

This is an advanced theoretical meditation on poetics for an international scholarly and intellectual community, appearing in a leading new journal of the theoretical humanities.

"The Veteran's Cadre: C.K. Stead, The Writer at Work, The Right Thing." Times Literary Supplement 5153 (January 4, 2002): 23. [D2] This was a commissioned piece, about a major New Zealand writer, for the best known literary/scholarly publication in the world.

'The American Model II.' Romana Huk, ed. Assembling Alternatives: Reading Postmodern Poetries Transnationally. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan UP, 2003, 169-91. [C1]

This is the first, international scholarly publication, from a major North American university press, to examine the national borders of postmodern poetry. This chapter, the sole Australian contribution, is discussed at length by the editor of the volume in her Introduction (11-12).

"David Campbell." Selina Samuels, ed. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol 260. Australian Writers, 1915-1950. Detroit: Thomson Gale, A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book, 2002. 22-29. [C1]

This biographical and critical chapter appears in the authoritative international dictionary of literary biography, published from the US, and subscribed to by all university, reference and scholarly libraries. This publication is also awarded 2 stars on the AustLit database.

"Poetry." Sylvia Kleinert and Margo Neale, eds The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture. Melbourne: Oxford UP, 2000. 674-5. [N] This commissioned critical article, for a major Oxford University Press publication, provides an overview of Aboriginal poetry and its cultural contexts.

Other Evidence of Impact and Contributions to the Field

My contribution to research has involved national and international publications in the fields of Australian literature, and contemporary poetry and poetics. Apart from the list of publications over the past 5 years, other evidence of my impact on and contribution to these fields includes my positions on virtually all the relevant, leading journals, in Australia, in my field as well as important international connections: as foundation member, editorial committee, Journal of the Association for Australian Literary Studies, foundation member, editorial board, The Cultural Studies Review (formerly The UTS Review), editorial committee member, New Literatures Review, and as an editorial reviewer for Angelaki: journal of the theoretical humanities (Oxford, UK), the Journal of Australian Studies, and Australian Literary Studies and my role as a member, since 1999, of the national executive of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature.

My contribution to research training at UTas has involved ongoing supervision of a significant number of MA and Ph.D candidates in the School of English, Journalism & European Languages, and includes a notable number of completions. Since taking up my appointment in mid-1995, I have successfully graduated 5 postgraduate students. These are listed below along with current supervisions. I have also received a letter of appreciation for postgraduate supervision from Associate Professor Carey Denholm, Dean of Graduate Studies by Research.

MA:

Vivienne Hamilton, "Metamorphosis in the Fiction of David Malouf"; awarded August 2001

Ralph Spaulding, "Landscape in the Poetry of Vivian Smith"; awarded 1999

Ph.D:

Martin Ball, "The Story of the Story of Anzac" (APA); awarded August 2001

Diane Caney, "Inter/intratextuality in Patrick White and Sidney Nolan" (APA); awarded 1997

Steve Holden, "The Australian Short Story and Literary Production" (APA); awarded 1999

Ralph Spaulding, "Poetic Community in Tasmania, 1940 to the Present"; 2000-

Jesse Shipway, "Tasmania: the soft edges of modernity" (UTas Scholarship); 2001-

Tony Stagg, "Reading Tasmania through its Heritage" (APA); 2001-

Louise Thomason, "Environmental Ethics and Aesthetics: Language and Landscape in Canadian and Australian Poetry" (University of Tasmania, Faculty of Arts Scholarship); 2000-

(iv) Teaching Programs

Apart from teaching a range of courses in the field of Australian literary studies and fictocriticism, I have developed a 2nd/3rd year unit, The Literature of Tasmania, which has proven very popular with University of Tasmania students but especially with study abroad North American students. (In 2003 I was the recipient of a UTas Teaching Merit Certificate in recognition of the quality of my teaching across this range of undergraduate units.)