Research Grants within the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry

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SOPHI is a leading centre for research in the Humanities in Australia and our staff regularly receive highly competitive Australian Research Council (ARC) grants and fellowships. We attract a considerable number of ARC funded postdoctoral fellows who are keen to work with our continuing staff, and we are home to over 250 PhD students. Here are just a few of the current ARC funded research projects underway in SOPHI (check our staff research pages to learn more).

ARC Discovery Projects

2009

Name

Dept

Title

Duration
(years)

Dr T E Doelman; Dr P Jia Archaeology Crossing Borders: The Use and Distribution of Volcanic Glass Artefacts in Northeast Asia 2
Dr MJ Hendrickson; Dr C Pottier; Prof Dr HJ Leisen; Dr DE Cook; Dr Q Hua (APD Dr MJ Hendrickson) Archaeology Industries of Angkor: Material Production and the Decline of the Khmer Empire (11th to 15th centuries CE)
3
Dr D O'Reilly; Dr RA Armstrong; Dr KM Domett; Dr LG Shewan; Prof CF Higham; Prof R Chhem; Dr N Beavan Athfield; Dr C Pottier
Archaeology History in their bones: A diachronic, bioarchaeological study of diet, mobility and social organisation from Cambodian skeletal assemblages
3
Prof DT Potts (APF)
Archaeology From village to empire in the Zagros highlands:
Archaeological investigations at Tole Nurabad (Fars Province, Iran)
5
Dr R Torrence; Mrs NA Kononenko; Dr EA Carter (APD Mrs NA Kononenko)
Archaeology Valuing Stones: obsidian stemmed tools in the creation of social complexity in Papua New Guinea
4
Dr CA Driscoll; Dr K Bowles; Prof K Darian Smith; A/Prof CR Gibson; Dr D Nichols; A/Prof G Waitt
Gender and Cultural Studies Cultural sustainability in Australian country towns: amenity, mobility, and everyday life
3
Prof EC Probyn
Gender and Cultural Studies Taste and Place: the transglobal production and consumption
of food and drink
3
Prof WH Anderson; Dr RL Jones (APD Dr RL Jones)
History Anatomies of Empire: Race, Evolution and Scientific Networks in the Twentieth Century British World
3
A/Prof AC Bashford; Dr J McAdam; Dr SS Amrith
History
Immigration Restriction and the Racial State, c. 1880 to the present
4
Dr MA McDonnell
History
Charles Langlade, the Anishinaabeg, and the making and unmaking of the Atlantic World
3
Dr AD Moses
History Genocide: Critical History of an Idea
3
Prof CJ Pybus; Prof RL Isaac; Prof I Berlin; Prof OV Burton; Prof J Sidbury
History Interrogating the Book of Negroes: explorations of slavery and freedom in the Atlantic world in the era of the American Revolution.
1
 Prof PJ Read (APF)  History  A history of Aboriginal Sydney since 1788  5
 Prof GA Sluga  History  The International History of Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism, 1814-1822  4
Prof SW Gaukroger (APF)
 Philosophy  Science and the Shaping of Modernity, 1690-1755  5
 Dr KL Miller  Philosophy  Fundamental Ways the World Could Be: Challenging Metaphysical Orthodoxy  3
 Prof PM Redding; Dr PD Bubbio (APD  Dr PD Bubbio)  Philosophy The God of Hegel's PostKantian Idealism  4
 Dr JS Wilkins; Prof PE Griffiths (APD Dr JS Wilkins)   Philosophy  Contemporary scientific explanations of religion: A methodological and philosophical analysis  3
 Dr D Rickles (ARF)  Philosophy  The Development of Quantum Gravity  5

2008

Name

Dept

Title

Duration
(years)

Prof Warwick Anderson

History

Reproductive frontiers: the 20th century sciences of human hybridity

3

A/Prof Alison Betts; Prof V NYagodin; Dr Fiona Kidd

Archaeology

A study of a newly discovered corpus of early Central Asian wall paintings

4

Dr Melissa Carter

Archaeology

With or without pots: investigating the archaeology of human settlement on Santa Isobel, western Solomon Islands

4

Dr Emma Christopher; Dr M S Delofski; Prof P E Lovejoy

History

Sierra Leone and Australia: a case of the vanishing twin

3

Prof Mark Colyvan

Philosophy

Ethics and formal theories of decision

3

Dr Nicholas Eckstein

History

The anatomy and physiology of Renaissance Florence: the dynamics of social change in the 15th century

3

Dr Damien Evans

Archaeology

Hydraulic systems and state development in early Cambodia: mapping the engineered landscapes of the Khmer using remote sensing

3

Prof Paul Griffiths; Dr Karola Stotz

Philosophy

Postgenomic perspectives on human nature

5

Prof Duncan Ivison

Philosophy

The uneasy alliance between democracy and justice

4

Prof Huw Price; Dr Guido Bacciagaluppi; Dr M A Schlosshauer

Philosophy

Time-asymmetry and the Bohmian view of the quantum world

3

Dr Stephen Robertson

History

Private eyes and ears: covert surveillance in American life, 1865-1941

3

Dr Nicholas J J Smith

Philosophy

A computational solution to the problem of reference

3

2007

Name

Dept

Title

Duration
(years)

A/Pro Alison Betts; Dr Peter Jia; Dr X Wu; Prof J P Mallory

Archaeology

East meets West: an archaeological study of early contact between China and Eurasia

4

Dr Andrew Fitzmaurice

History

Understanding the concept and meaning of freedom in Western history

4

Dr Chris Hilliard

History

Complex words; literary judgments in the British Commonwealth, 1920-1970

3

Dr Margaret Poulos

History

A new history of 1968: feminism and student revolt in the Colonel’s Greece (1967-1974)

4

Prof Cassandra Pybus

History

Recovered lives as windows on the Anglo Colonial War, 1750-1850

5

2006

Name

Dept

Title

Duration
(years)

Prof Robert Aldrich

History

Province, nation, empire: France, 1871-1940

3

Dr Saliha Belmessous

History

Assimilation and empire

3

Dr David Braddon-Mitchel; Dr Adina Roskies; Dr Uriah Kriegel; Dr Caroline West

Philosophy

Personal identity, consciousness and agency

3

Dr Kate da Costa

Archaeology

Drawing the line: the archaeology of Roman provincial borders in Late Antique Palaestina and Arabia (AD 250-650)

4

Prof Moira Gatens

Philosophy        

George Eliot: literature as experimental philosophy

5

Prof Catharine Lumby; Prof Elspeth Probyn; Dr J A O'Dea; Dr K M Albury

Gender and Cultural Studies

The well-rounded person: the role of sport in shaping physical, emotional an social development

5

Mr Richard White

History

A cultural history of Australian motor travel overseas

3

Prof Shane White

History

The making of black Manhattan

5

2005

Name

Dept

Title

Duration
(years)

Dr Peter Anstey; Dr S A Harris

Philosophy

John Locke, botany and natural kinds

3

Dr Alison Bashford

History

World Health: the intellectual history of a twentieth century idea

3

Dr Alison Betts; Prof V N Yagodin

Archaeology

Chorasmian temples: an archaeological study of early Zoroastrianism and its precursors in Central Asia

3

Dr Nicholas Eckstein

History

Renaissance Florence, 1400-1500

2

Dr Judith Field

Archaeology

First Australians, last megafauna? Modern approaches to a prehistoric puzzle

5

Dr Andrew Fitzmaurice

History

State formation and European expansion

2

Prof Roland Fletcher; Dr Dan Penny; A/Prof M F Barbetti; Dr C Pottier

Archaeology

Urban infrastructure, inertia and ecology: the growth and decline of Angkor, Cambodia (9th to 16th century AD)

5

Dr Julia Horne; Prof G E Sherington

History

The public university in Australasia (1850-1918)

3

Dr Bob Hudson

Archaeology

Early settlements in upper Burma (Myanmar): an experiment in urban living

3

Prof Huw Price; Prof Jenann Ismael and Dr Guido Bacciagaluppi

Philosophy

Time and perspective in the quantum world

5

Prof Elspeth Probyn; Dr J A O'Dea

Gender and Cultural Studies

Youth cultures of eating: a cultural analysis of youth obesity, gender, class, ethnicity and generation

3

Dr Fiona Probyn

Gender and Cultural Studies

Whiteness: a genealogical study

3

Prof Paul Redding

Philosophy

Idealism and the objectivity of norms and values: a neglected path from the 18th century

3

Dr Penny Russell

History

A history of manners: savagery and civility in colonial Australia

3

Prof Glenda Sluga

History

Nation, race, rights and the New World Order, 1945-1966

3

Prof Peter Wilson and Prof Eric Csapo

Classics and Ancient History

Accounting for the Ancient Theatre: a new social and economic history of Classical Greek

5

ARC Linkage Projects

2007

Name

Dept

Title

Duration
(years)

Dr Ian Johnson; Dr Stephen Robertson.

Archaeology; History

Rethinking timelines: a new methodology for describing and communicating history

5

A/Prof Catherine Lumby; Prof Elspeth Probyn; Dr Kath Albury; Dr Clifton Evers

UNSW; Gender and Cultural Studies; UNSW; UNSW

Peer based  mentoring in sport: strategies for best practice

4

2005

Name

Dept

Title

Duration
(years)

Dr Fiona Cameron; Prof E A Edmonds; Prof Stephen Garton; Mr K S Sumption

History

Reconceptualising heritage collections: multidisciplinary approaches to museum collections and documentation

3

Prof Stephen Garton; Dr P Ashton; Dr S H Fitzgerald; Dr Ian Johnson; Mr RH Coleman

History; Archaeology

The Dictionary of Sydney: delivering the city's digital multimedia resources to the wider community

6

ARC Federation Fellows*

2007

Name

Dept

Title

Duration
(years)

Prof Huw Price

Philosophy

A practical theory of factual information: fundamentals and applications in philosophy and physics

5

* Prof Iain McCalman, Deptartment of History, was a Federation Fellow; the fellowship expired end 2007.