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Giving Ground: Media and Environmental Conflict in Tasmania
Dr Libby Lester
Tasmania is the location of one of the most deeply contested, environmental debates in the world, a small island state racked by years of political and social conflict over wilderness and development. It has been ongoing, unrelenting - and mediated. Libby's book, recently released, is an examination of the debate as it has developed over the last four decades in the media and an attempt to theoretically understand the Tasmanian and other ongoing mediated environmental conflicts. Specifically, it aims to better understand the role the media plays in environmental/political conflict and does so by studying the relationship between the media, the environment movement and other powerful contending interests in Tasmania.
Antarctic Imaginations
Dr Elle Leane
Elle is currently conducting research for an ARC-funded project entitled 'Antarctic Imaginations: A Study of Creative Responses to the Continent for Science.' This project examines creative written responses to Antarctica, drawing on both published works and archival material. She plans to publish the results of this research as a monograph - provisionally entitled Fictions of the Far South: Imagining Antarctica - as well as articles and conference papers. In 2003, the Australian Antarctic Division awarded Elle an Antarctic Arts Fellowship which allowed her to complement her reading about the continent with direct experience of it.
The Culture of Antarctic Communities
Dr Elle Leane
In addition to literature about Antarctica, Elle is interested in the literary and cultural products of Antarctic communities. She has published articles looking at theatricals and newspaper production in the 'heroic era' expeditions of Robert F. Scott and Douglas Mawson. She is also interested in the activities of present-day expeditions. As part of her Antarctic Arts Fellowship, she interviewed forty expeditioners in and en route to Casey and Macquarie Island Station about their reading, writing and performing habits.
Antarctic Bibliography
Dr Elle Leane
Since 2001 Elle has been developing an online bibliography entitled 'Representations of Antarctica'. This resource lists Antarctic-related poetry, drama, fiction, film, and literary and cultural criticism. This project is ongoing; comments, queries and suggested additions are always welcome. The bibliography is available at: http://www.utas.edu.au/english/Representations_of_Antarctica/
Nature, Cities and Environmentalism in Australia
Dr Aidan Davison
This ARC-funded project provides a qualitative study of the significance of urban experience to the formation and on-going development of post-war environmental movements. The project rests upon interviews conducted with environmentalists living in Hobart, Perth and Melbourne. Reaching back, this project evaluates the historical influence of mutually exclusive ideas about cities and nature in the shaping of Australian discourses and representations of nature. Projecting forward, the study sheds light on current controversies and contradictions surrounding debate about urban sustainability, with implications for both social science interest in culture-natures and physical science interest in urban nature conservation. The project aims to catch sight of new strategies for democratic engagement of environmentalists with the everyday lives and concerns of Australia's suburban majority.