infrastructure & benefits

infrastructure & benefits While no sector-wide audit has been undertaken, it is observable that Australia-centred and Australia-related research accounts for a significant proportion of all intellectual work undertaken in the name of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Australia, but especially in those disciplines identified in this report: History, Politics, Law, Sociology, English and Cultural Studies. Australia has also become a major site of research in the new Humanities of cultural and media studies, and it is a primary concern of many sub-specialisations and interdisciplinary studies. It is accepted for the purposes of this report that intellectual work on Australia is a major undertaking of the Humanities and Social Sciences. It is also accepted that the very health of the nation is contingent upon strong traditions of intellectual engagement, ongoing critical inquiry and, importantly, the communication of deep research. The embeddedness of Australia within the key disciplines of the Humanities and Social Sciences begins our justification for the creation of an Australia Research Network. The broader social and cultural imperatives of research, its production and dissemination, establish our rationale for undertaking this initiative. The Australia Research Network will retain an emphasis on public intellectualism by building on and extending the existing infrastructure of the Australian Public Intellectual Network. While not all Australianists would classify themselves as public intellectuals, or necessarily feel comfortable with the term public intellectualism, specialist researchers across many disciplines are nonetheless routinely thrown into public intellectual roles, on the basis of their research expertise on Australia. At other times public intellectuals have been the focus of and have even had their names applied to broader public debates, for example, the Blainey debate of the mid 1980s (multiculturalism), the Clark debate of the mid 1990s (political correctness), and the Windschuttle debate of the early twenty first century (indigenous-settler histories). Such debates are not confined to the social sciences as the controversies surrounding the two Helens, Garner and Demidenko, for example, made plain in the 1990s. In fact, before the professionalisation of the University sector, following its expansion in the 1960s and 1970s, Australian public intellectuals tended to be drawn more from the ranks of cultural and creative industries such as journalism, broadcasting and writing. Public intellectualism presents itself in discussions on and claims for Australian democracy, citizenship, and governance and it is an essential component in the successful operation of public institutions from the parliaments and the courts to museums, galleries and even Universities. Such concerns as these informed the establishment of the Australian Public Intellectual Network in 1997. With generous but modest support provided out of the limited finances of its hosting Institutions over seven years, the API Network established its presence in the intellectual life of Australia, but also offshore. The existing infrastructure along with the unrealised fuller potential of the API Network provides a sound basis for the establishment of the proposed Australia Research Network. The experience of the convener, who is also a successful academic and research manager, provides expertise towards this end. While no Network-based infrastructure currently exists to support postgraduates and early career researchers, the New Talents 21C project provides a useful model for nation-wide mentoring and further research training. As indicated elsewhere in this report, the Network will include provisions for travelling master classes and similarly conceived research and training focused initiatives. Our existing databases of the research interests of hundreds of new research scholars are matched by equally rich biographical and professional profiles of established and senior research scholars who have acted as mentors for New Talents, or who are in other ways associated with our support of next generation and emerging scholars through the API Network. Additionally, we plan to work with professional associations such as the International Australian Studies Association, as one of our partners. In establishing the Australia Research Network we are seeking to link with, but also further facilitate many of the core undertakings and established intellectual practices of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Australia, along with the significant expansion of Australian Studies internationally. The proposed Australia Research Network also connects with the missions of the major research repositories including the national and state libraries, national archives, state records offices and the museums. In doing so, we are building upon existing research infrastructure while creating new communication pathways in the service of further intellectual engagement. [Introduction] [Scope] [Activities] [Capacities] [Participants] [API Network]

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hosted by the api-network

Dedicated to the 'democratisation of knowledge', the API Network is a free electronic gateway specialising on matters Australia. Managed and produced by the Australia Research Institute, the Division of Humanities, Curtin University of Technology, it links public intellectuals through its publications, mailing list, online Forum, chat room and regular posting of news relating to book, journal and ezine publications, conferences, events, tours and funding opportunities in the field of Australian Studies.

This report has been make possible due to the generous support
of the Australian Research Council, and Curtin University of Technology