My current interests focus on electronic texts for the humanities. I have published a book on this subject (The Text in the Machine, from the Haworth Press in New York), and have also published articles and given papers in the area, including:
"Textus ex machina: electronic texts and medieval studies" Parergon 14 (2) (Jan. 1997), 67-83
"Toward a typology of the electronic text": paper presented at the Conference of the Bibliographical Society of Australia & New Zealand, Perth, October 1997.
I developed the Electronic Text Service at The University of Western Australia, which delivers large textual corpora over the campus network using the DynaText and DynaWeb software. I am collaborating with the Scholarly Electronic Text and Image Service at the University of Sydney on the production of electronic versions of early Australian literary texts.
I am associated with two current electronic text projects: the Electronic Divina Commedia Project, directed by Dr Diana Modesto of the University of Sydney, and the electronic edition of Marcus Clarke's For the Term of his Natural Life, directed by Professor Paul Eggert at the Australian Scholarly Editions Centre.
More generally, I am interested in the effects of humanities computing on the development of research, teaching and libraries. I wrote a short paper on Libraries, the Humanities, and Information Technology for the strategic review of humanities research undertaken by the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1996/97.
I have extensive experience in medieval studies, beginning with my B.A. (with first-class honours, from The University of Western Australia) and M.A. (with distinction, from London University). My Ph.D. (from The University of Western Australia) was a close examination of Latin documents relating to the estates of medieval English monasteries. Since then I have lectured and tutored in medieval studies, published various articles, and reviewed new books in this field. I am working on an edition, for Corpus Christianorum, of the Clavis Melitonis – an early medieval guide to the mystical interpretation of the natural world.
In 1998 I carried out a consultancy for Chadwyck-Healey Ltd on issues relating to the development of Web sites in medieval studies. I am a member of the Advisory Board for the new electronic edition of Acta Sanctorum.
I have taught information skills to students and staff at The University of Western Australia, Edith Cowan University, and Curtin University of Technology, in various different structures: courses, lectures, seminars, workshops, and external tutoring. I produced three course handbooks and readers for M.Sc. students at Edith Cowan University, one of which has also been published on CD-ROM.
I have a good reading knowledge of Latin, French, and Italian, as well as some knowledge of Spanish and German.
I have been involved in several recent successful grant applications. These include:
$100,000 - ARC Linkage Infrastructure and Equipment Program: A Western Australian Cultural heritage Portal (2003) [chief investigator and project director]
$350,000 - ARC Linkage Infrastructure and Equipment Program: Austlit: the Australian Literature Gateway, enhancement (stage 2) (2002) [chief investigator]
$350,000 - ARC Research Infrastructure and Equipment Program: Austlit: the Australian Literature Gateway, enhancement (stage 1) (2001) [chief investigator]
$125,000 - ARC Research Infrastructure and Equipment Program: A national database of electronic finding aids for Australian Literary Manuscripts (2000) [chief investigator and project director]
$136,000 - ARC Large Grant: The electronic Divina Commedia project: the first electronic transcription, collation and analysis of key early Divine Comedy manuscripts (2000-2002) [associate investigator]
$10,602 - ARC Small Grant (University of Western Australia): The electronic Divina Commedia project: the first electronic transcription, collation and analysis of key early Divine Comedy manuscripts (2000) [associate investigator]
$360,000 - ARC Research Infrastructure and Equipment Program: European Microforms Project (1998-1999) [associate investigator]
$109,400 - AVCC National Priority (Reserve) Fund, Tier II : development of an Internet service for Kimberley Region materials in the Berndt Museum of Anthropology (1997-1998) [project director]
Higher Education Grant Program, Electronic Book Technologies Inc. (now Enigma) : grant of DynaText and DynaWeb software, valued at approx. $30,000 (1996)
$80,000 - University of Western Australia Quality Funds for Research Infrastructure : extension of the CygNET Online service (1996)
$41,000 - University of Western Australia Quality Funds for Research Infrastructure : establishment of an Electronic Text Service (1995)
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Last updated: February 2004
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