Postgraduate Conference 2022
14th Annual Interventions and Intersections HDR Conference 2022
School of Humanities and Communication Arts
Tuesday the 15th and Wednesday the 16th of November, 2022
Female Orphan School, Parramatta South Campus, Western Sydney University
Conference Description
The 14th Annual Interventions and Intersections HDR conference, ‘Re:search’ seeks to reimagine and rediscover what Higher Degree Research can offer us as new researchers. This conference will provide a long-overdue platform for informed discussion, stimulating debate and the perfect opportunity to present the research you have been working on, be it the early musings of a potential project or the polished, pointy end of a thesis.
Re:search Conference Theme
Embracing curiosity and the search for knowledge, Re:search seeks to celebrate the multifaceted and diverse range of research that takes place within the School of Humanities and Communication Arts – from Literature and Creative Writing, through to Philosophy, Music and Cultural Studies.
By bringing this research together over a vibrant two-day conference, we are seeking to create a space for the generation of new and novel ways of thinking about what our research can achieve.
As the school’s first face-to-face HDR conference in 3 years, Re:search will incorporate a range of informative workshops, keynote speakers, paper presentations, live music and food across two exciting days.
Perhaps most importantly, Re:search offers the perfect space for new researchers to gain experience communicating their research in a collegial, professional, and exciting environment. Engaged research is not generated in isolation, so submit a paper and come to be inspired by the potential of your research!
Call for Papers
Call for Papers is now closed!
Thank you to everyone who submitted! We have received an overwhelming variety of papers, both conventional and creative, that will be showcased through a series of panel presentations over the conference’s two days.
Submissions closed on 14th October 2022.
Keynote Speakers
Narelle Ontivero
Confronting the Real World: One Student’s Journey Post PhD.
"I completed my undergraduate, honours and doctoral studies at Western Sydney University and graduated with a thesis in colonial Australian women’s writing in 2020. Not only that, by the time I graduated I was working as a full-time lecturer at a small tertiary institution in the Hunter region. However, nothing could prepare me for the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, work-related burnout, a redundancy and the subsequent lull in full time work that would precede moving to Canberra to begin a whole new career as a public servant for Australia’s Border Force. While narrating what was at times both a comedic and pathetic journey post-doctoral thesis, I will offer some important lessons learned along the way. I have ultimately discovered that graduating with a PhD does not eliminate the need to work proactively to establish a career but it does equip you with the transferrable skills and knowledge that makes you employable in a range of industries."
Narelle Ontivero completed her doctoral thesis in 2020 at Western Sydney University under the supervision of Dr Anne Jamison and Dr Lorraine Sim. Her thesis, ‘Reading the In-Between: Gender, Space and Identity in the Serialised Novels of Ada Cambridge and Tasma’ explored the serial, cultural and historical references of four Settler Romance novels from the nineteenth century. Narelle worked briefly as a lecturer before transitioning to public service. Narelle is currently working for the Australian Border Force
Simon Burrows
Digital + Humanities: A Career Odyssey
Digital Humanities (DH) - the application of computational techniques to traditional humanities problems - is having a transformational, sometimes disruptive, impact on scholarship. Long a subject of debate in the literary disciplines in particular, where some tried to dismiss DH prematurely as an expensive white elephant, or even a stalking horse for neo-liberalism in the academy, many digital humanities projects are now bearing impressive and sometimes paradigm-shifting results. In this presentation I will discuss the DH revolution and some of its implications, focusing on Western Sydney's award-winning 'French Book in Enlightenment Europe' project and allied initiatives globally, and my own accidental reinvention as a Digital Humanist.
If you are interested in engaging with DH might also consider registering for some of the sessions in the free global online symposium 'Building Digital Humanities', which runs from 7-25 November, organised by WSU and involving both leading scholars and new entrants to the discipline (opens in a new window) .
Simon Burrows is a historian of the European enlightenment and the history of the book. He is known for his pathbreaking database work on the 'French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe' and his participation on other leading digital book history projects globally. He is author or co-editor of eight books, most recently 'Digitizing Enlightenment: Digital Humanities and the Transformation of Eighteenth-Century Studies', which he co- edited with Glenn Roe. Simon has been Professor of History at Western Sydney University since 2012 and is now also Professor of Digital Humanities.
Masterclasses
Writing Beyond the Academy
Are you thinking of sharing your research beyond the university by writing for public audiences, whether for newspapers, literary journals, The Conversation, or the Sydney Review of Books, which is housed in the School of Humanities and Creative Arts? This workshop will provide research students with practice advice and prompts for thinking about how their research might feed into public conversations. We’ll talk about voice, audience, ‘dumbing down’ and process. Please come equipped with questions and a willingness to talk about your experiences writing for non-academic publics (or your intentions and curiosity about the process).
Bio:
Catriona Menzies-Pike is the editor of the Sydney Review of Books. Her essays and criticism are widely published, and her book about running, The Long Run, was published in 2016. Her career in online media includes stints as managing editor of pioneering news and current affairs website New Matilda and arts editor of The Conversation.
“Literary journals are fine, but you’ve got to think about rankings”: Thinking, writing and publishing between creative and academic careers
This was a remark made to me by a leading professor just after I’d submitted my Ph.D. in 2008. It was in response to my proud announcement that I’d had an essay accepted by Southerly journal, a piece of work that transferred my new literary studies scholarship into creative nonfiction. I was proud because the publication signaled that I could find an in-between voice — a bridge between my emerging career as a writer and my emerging expertise as a scholar. Naturally, the professor’s seniority meant that I mulled over his remark for years afterward; and yet I knew in my gut that I wasn’t really convinced by it.
What to make of this life and work between two disciplines, two voices, even two bodies of research or practice, two jobs or more? Is it bogus? Can they really speak to one another, or does it require feats of institutional rhetoric to create an illusion of “iterative” and “braided” practice? Does everything need to be continuous in creative practice scholarship, or is it sometimes a good idea to separate parts of yourself? And what about academic benchmarks, anyway: could the “impact” of your work be measured in other ways than rankings?
This webinar will offer some of my insights and observations from working between two careers as a writer and academic and invites you to share your own questions and goals towards an authentic and free sense of yourself as a researcher.
Bio:
Dr. Bonny Cassidy is a non-Indigenous scholar of Australian literary studies and creative writing. She is the author of three poetry collections, including Chatelaine (Giramondo Publishing, 2017), which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, and her first book of nonfiction is forthcoming in 2023. Bonny lives in the forest on Dja Dja Wurrung land in Central Victoria and commutes to Melbourne where she works as Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at RMIT University.
HDR Internship – An opportunity to expand your research career horizon
There is a growing interest at the government, universities and the individual HDR students level to connect HDR students with the end-users of their research to explore future career options, apply their skills in solving real-life problems and create a pathway for a higher impact of their research. In this presentation, I will be talking about the importance of HDR internships and the resources available to Western Sydney University students to help engage with research end-users. I will also share strategies for developing your research through external engagement with examples of external engagement from the Humanities and Social Sciences area. This is based on my personal experience working with a large number of academics in identifying the right industry partner and advising them on how to engage with the industry.
Bio:
Dr Adnan Syed Muhammad works at Western Sydney University as Graduate Research Industry Leader. Adnan is the Founder and Executive Director of Academic Leadership Institute Australia, a for-purpose organisation established to support researchers around the world with a primary focus to bridge the research excellence gap between the developing and the developed world. Adnan has extensive experience working in the industry and in the university sector. He is skilled in strategic planning, operations management, strategic partnerships, and business and research development. He has worked at multinational companies such as Siemens and ABB. He has worked as Chief Operating Officer for two multi-university collaborative research centers including the ARC Centre of Excellence in Vision Science at the Australian National University and the Centre for International Finance and Regulation at the University of New South Wales. He has worked at the University of Sydney Business School to design a researcher development program and grant development strategies. He has worked as a Research and Business Development Manager at La Trobe University helping academics across the university, particularly in the College of Arts, Social Science and Commerce with their research development, external research grants, and industry engagement activities. Adnan has an MBA and a Ph.D. He did his Ph.D. at Western Sydney University in the area of management of R&D alliances focusing the university-industry partnerships. He also holds two postgraduate degrees in biomedical engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and the University of New South Wales, Sydney where he worked on computer modeling and simulation projects for the human renal system and selective stimulation of nerve fibers for patients with spinal cord injuries.
Program
Please find the program for the conference below.
HDR Conference 2022, School of HCA - Program
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