Research Projects

The Roderick Centre for Australian Literature and Creative Writing at James Cook University (JCU) seeks to foster the reading and writing of Australian literature in all its forms. We seek to open up the book beyond narrow confines of imagination to embrace a broad understanding of what literature, storytelling, narrative, and poetics are or could be, and what new purposes they could serve. We seek to do so by showing that literature and storytelling have an important role in connecting urgent areas of inquiry at JCU and elsewhere, in relation to the environment and place, wellbeing, health and tropical medicine, and the advancement of First Nations’ peoples.

Northern Australia is stereotyped as devoid of arts and culture in the national imaginary: a place of mine sites, military bases, cattle stations, bogans. Yet the small cities of Darwin, Cairns and Townsville are vibrant cultural landscapes with important forms of storytelling that struggle for visibility in the policy sphere.

This project will use an innovative book club methodology to create positive change in the support provided to victim-survivors of sexual assault. We are hosting a narrative-based program with sexual assault first responders, like counsellors, sexual assault support workers, police, hospital staff and clinical forensic medical staff.

a measurement and projection of kindness in women’s prisons and its effects on wellbeing.

Life writing about trauma and grief is a significant area of study. However, researching such areas takes a mental toll on researchers who must monitor and support their own wellbeing and mental health while investigating...

These Higher Degree by Research projects support emerging scholars whose work explores the intersections of literature, storytelling, and lived experience.