Research Areas

French Studies

Italian Studies

Spanish Studies

French Studies - Principal areas of specialisation

Cultural Studies:

Language Studies:

Literature Studies

French Studies - Academic staff and their research interests

Dr Chris Andrews

Chris Andrews has written on science and poetry, experimental writing in twentieth-century France and recent Latin American prose fiction. At present he is working on a study of formal rules in the writing of Queneau, Perec and the Oulipo, and on narrative procedures in the work of Roberto Bolaño, César Aira and Rodrigo Rey Rosa. He has published poems in a range of Australian and international journals, as well as a collection: Cut Lunch (Indigo / Ginninderra, 2002). Chris is also a literary translator from Spanish and French. His most recent translation, Roberto Bolaño's Distant Star (Harvill, 2004) won the Vallé-Inclan prize.

Dr Tess Do

Tess Do’s research interests include francophone cultural studies, post-colonialism, immigration and French literary awards (Prix Femina, Prix Goncourt).  She has published articles on Francophone-Vietnamese writers (Linda Lê and Jean Vanmai) and is currently working on a major project exploring the concept of the homeland in the narratives of Linda Lê, Kim Lefèvre, and Anna Moï. Recently her research has extended to Vietnamese cinema focusing on the films by Le Hoang, Victor Vu, Tran Anh Hung, and Tony Bui.

Dr Jacqueline Dutton

Modern French literature, including J.M.G. Le Clézio, Utopian theory and literature, travel writing, European studies, intercultural communication, French-Australian cultural studies, French cinema since the New Wave, francophone and postcolonial studies, identity, racism and immigration in contemporary France.

Prof Anne Freadman

Theoretical problems and issues concerning key concepts in general semiotics; the use of the concept of genre as an analytic device in the study of particular semiotic practices; and the intersection of genre and gender

Dr Andrew McGregor

French cinema since the New Wave, genre and the auteur, the representation of cultural identity in film, contemporary France and its relationship with Australia, Britain and America. Other research interests include second language acquisition and language teaching methodologies.

Dr Sonia Wilson

Women’s autobiographical writing, in particular the journal intime (Marie Bashkirtseff, Catherine Pozzi, Marie Lenéru); cultural practices constitutive of the feminine in latter half of nineteenth century France.

Italian Studies - Principal areas of specialisation

Language Studies

Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Literature Studies

Cultural Studies

Italian Studies - Academic staff and their research interests

Mr Matthew Absalom

Linguistics (phonological theory and dialectology) and teaching and learning in higher education (including study abroad, educational technology and internationalisation of the curriculum).

Dr Vita Giordano

Modern Italian narrative, in particular the works of 20th century writer Massimo Bontempelli and the genre of the fantastic. Her research interests also include modern literary theory with specific reference to metafiction, intertextuality and 'magic realism',
and language teaching methodologies.

Prof John Hajek

Italian and Romance linguistics, linguistic typology, East Timorese, and Southeast Asian linguistics, phonetics and phonology, and language teaching and learning. Recent projects with students include the nature of raddoppiamento sintattico in Italian, the use of passive voice in Italian scientific discourse, the status of Italian in former Italian colonies in the Horn of Africa, and the use of address pronouns in French and Italian.

Dr Andrea Rizzi

Renaissance Studies, in particular arts and patronage in Northern Italian Renaissance courts (Ferrara, Mantua, Milan, Venice). Recent research interests include Italian cinema (1980s-2003), translation history and representation of stereotypes through cinema.

Spanish Studies - Academic staff and their research interests

Dr Lara Anderson

Issues of national identity and modernity in the Spanish fin-de-siècle novel. Lara Anderson is also working on Universal Expositions, in particular the constraction of Spain at the turn-of-the-century, expositions celebrated in Paris.
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