Funding

Australian government – Australian Research Council – Special Research Initiatives 2020 round 2

Potter, E, Magner, B & Bolatagici, T Reading in the Mallee: The Literary Past and Future of an Australian Region. This project addresses key challenges in regional Australia relating to literary activity and the infrastructure that supports it, including access to inclusive reading practices and spaces. Partnering with literary industry stakeholders in the Victorian Mallee region, the research will generate a series of reader-centred events that enhance and diversify the literary infrastructure of the region and produce translatable knowledge for industry stakeholders in regional Australia more broadly. Through innovative methodologies, Mallee readers, both past and present, will contribute knowledge to the first significant account of Mallee literary history, and to industry recommendations for future activities that support community diversity. The awarded amount is $271,235.00

 

Australian Research Council grant

Rutherford, L, Johanson, K & Singleton, A  “Discovering a ‘Good Read’: Pathways to Reading for Australian Teens”. Building on the work already done via the “Teen Reading in the Digital Era” project, this Linkage project aims to support the school, library, and book industries to increase teenagers’ recreational reading. Matching the right book to the right reader is essential to increase young people’s motivation to read. The project will generate robust evidence on how teens discover books and the cultural factors that influence their choices. Expected outcomes include strategies that libraries, schools, and the book industry can use to promote Australian content for young adults, and to equip young people to participate more fully in the social and economic benefits of reading for pleasure. The project’s partner organisations are the School Library Association of Victoria, the Copyright Agency Ltd, the Australian Publishers Association Ltd, the Australian Library and Information Association Ltd, and the Australian Booksellers Association. Collaborating institutions are the Queensland University of Technology, and the University of Canterbury (NZ). The awarded amount is $346,097.