Visualising Global Encounters

Practice-based PhD scholarship

About the project

This PhD project focuses on mapping and imagining first encounters between Australian First Nations sea and coastal peoples through digital reconstructions of past landscapes and environments.

The evidence for these reconstructions will be drawn from diverse sources as well as the technologies used to explore them, such as 3D modelling and animation, digital cartography and virtual and augmented reality.

This scholarship is funded by the Faculty of IT in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts.

While the successful applicant will join the research team and contribute to the wider project, they will also undertake their own PhD project. The benefits are:

• integration into a successful research agenda that has been funded by the Australian Research Council through Professor Lynette Russell’s Laureate Fellowship
• access to funding to support fieldwork, transcription, travel and conference attendance
• expert supervision from research leaders, and from entering a PhD with a pre-existing structure
• the research outcomes, which may include co-authored publications (where the candidate’s contributions will be recognised through co-authorship), funded symposia, school-engagement exercises and future grant applications.

Support for Indigenous PhD students

When you undertake an IT PhD with Monash, you’ll automatically be put forward for any applicable scholarships and have access to other additional support resources:

• a tax-free stipend of $29,500 per annum for 3.5 years
• the opportunity to apply for the Monash Indigenous Research Award funded by MGRO. This is a $5,000 tax-free annual top-up
• $4,000 of research support over the duration of your candidature
• a laptop or desktop provided by the Faculty.

Undertake a new type of PhD

A first for IT doctoral research in Australia, our PhD by Practice Based Research and Exegesis encourages creative projects that drive discoveries through making, building and creating.

Your research will typically be interdisciplinary, linking IT and creative technologies with fields such as indigenous studies, history and cultural heritage.

You will also present substantial research through an immersive, interactive demonstration that engages one or more of the senses, with an examination of a 30,000-word exegesis.

Why study at Monash?

Monash University is the largest university in Australia.

We rank in the world’s top 100 for Computing and Information Sciences (QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2021) and are the country’s most innovative university (Reuters Top 75: Asia’s Most Innovative Universities, 2017-2019).

For this PhD, you will be based at our Clayton campus in the Department of Human-Centred Computing – one of the largest multidisciplinary collectives of researchers, practitioners and scholars who are exploring how digital technologies can create a more equitable future.

What’s more, Indigenous Studies at Monash blends expertise across the humanities including archaeology, anthropology and history. We have a strong, supportive research culture led by internationally-recognised scholars who attract competitive funding from across the globe.

Candidate requirements

Applicants will ideally have an excellent academic track record and satisfy the criteria required for PhD admission at Monash University.

Historical archive, linguistic and anthropology skills and competence in both quantitative and qualitative research methods are desirable, but not essential.

Scholarship holders must be enrolled full-time and on campus. Applicants who already hold a PhD will not be considered.

The successful applicant will be expected to enrol by February 2022, however there may be flexibility around the commencement date.

Supervisory team