EASA PhD Excellence Grant

The EASA PhD Excellence Grant grant is intended to encourage doctoral research in Australian studies. It is awarded annually to one Europe-based researcher who has defended their PhD thesis in the discipline of Australian Studies in the previous calendar year. For more information, please see the document below.

Postgrad community / Reading club

The EASA postgrad community is here to bring more support to students and their research projects, and to foster exchanges and mutual aid in the community.

The EASA postgrad community decided in 2023 to hold regular online meetings. We wanted a safe space to exchange ideas on our research topics and offer support to one another. We realized a reading club can give our meetings both structure, i.e. we read and analyze the titles we decide on, and also plenty of flexibility, of room for creativity, and last but not least, it will be devoid of the pressure the formal academic programs inevitably bring.

More experienced academics appreciated our endeavor and, in 2023 we had 3 guest editions out of a total number of 10. The ordinary meetings are student-only, the guest sessions are open to all EASA members and proved to be opportunities of learning and further exploration guided by the knowledge and generosity of our guests: Dr Geoff Rodoreda (University of Stuttgart), Dr. Iva Polak (University of Zagreb), and Prof. Lyn McCredden (Deakin University).

The students attending the reading club receive a certificate of attendance signed by the EASA chair (a minimum of 60% of the total no of meetings within a year). The respective certificates get credits in certain European universities.

The reading list for 2024 includes the titles below, the order is alphabetical, in the actual process we try to alternate fiction with non-fiction and drama. The dates are established depending on the students’ availability, we try to meet every 4-6 weeks. The announcements on the book to be read and the meeting date and hour are advertised via the EASA mailing list.

  • Carey, Peter – True History of the Kelly Gang
  • Flanagan, Richard – Gould’s Book of Fish
  • Macintyre, Stuart – A Concise History of Australia
  • Morgan, Sally – My Place
  • Stanner, W.H.E – The Boyer Lectures
  • Scott, Kim – That Deadman Dance
  • Sewell, Stephen – It Just Stopped

If you are a postgrad student, join us, see how you like it.

If you are a more experienced academic and would like to share with us some of your research, but also guide us to further reading starting from the above list, we’ll be honored to organize a guest session.

Contact person: Claudia Davidson-Novosivschei, EASA PhD representative, PhD student at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, claudia.novosivschei@gmail.com

Scholarships and research opportunities

Forthcoming