Hat-trick for literary researchers

Massey University’s School of English and Media Studies has made it a hat-trick after Dr Philip Steer won Marsden funding this year, making it three recipients in the past 10 years.

Dr Steer was awarded $345,000 over the next three years to research his project Realism, Romance, and the Settler Colonies: Literary Form, Territoriality and Political Economy, 1829-1915.

“My interests are in 19th century literature and in particular the literary connections between New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain,” he says. “I’m trying to rethink literary studies outside of a nation-focused approach.”

“My proposal seeks to map new possibilities for New Zealand literary criticism, at the same time as placing Australasian colonisation at the centre of our understanding of wider 19th century imperial culture, “ Dr Steer says.

This current project has grown out of his PhD thesis, which he completed at Duke University in the United States on a Fulbright scholarship in 2009. Since arriving at Massey, he has developed new courses on contemporary New Zealand literature and the Victorian novel.

His award is known as a “fast-start,” which is for early career researchers. It recognises promising individuals who have innovative research goals, and offers momentum to their career development.

“The Marsden project really sets the agenda for me for the next three years. It will allow me to attend conferences, begin archival research, and touch base with other scholars as well as giving me significant time to write.”

The Marsden fund is a hallmark of research excellence, and supports work in the sciences, technology, engineering and maths, social sciences and the humanities. The applications are extremely competitive, and only 88 proposals out of 1078 applications were funded this year. Seven Massey University projects were among the 88 that were awarded a total of $53.8 million.

“There are similar rates of success regardless of the area of focus,” Dr Steer says. “Each applicant faces the same challenge of trying to justify the importance of his or her project to a panel of expert scholars who aren’t necessarily specialists in that particular area.”

Past recipients of Marsden fast-start grants in the School of English and Media Studies include Dr Sarah Ross in 2006 for her book project Women, Poetry and Politics in 17thCentury Britain and Dr Ingrid Horrocks in 2008 for her monograph Reluctant Wanderers: Women Re-imagine the Margins, 1775-1800.

“Being fairly new here, I am very grateful to the support I received within the department from Sarah Ross, Ingrid Horrocks and from my Head of School John Muirhead during this process,” Dr Steer says.