NEER Research Clusters

NEER’s original statement of intention promised to ‘mobilise existing strengths to build up national and international research partnerships in key emerging areas of scholarly enquiry’, and to ‘coordinate large-scale cross-disciplinary investigations’. NEER remains fundamentally committed to encouraging a culture of collaborative achievement in early European research, 400-1850. This has been identified as a major challenge for the coming years, and as an index of the Network’s success and long-term influence. Accordingly, in 2006 NEER decided to recognise and seed-fund, across two rounds of funding, a number of NEER Research Clusters to begin working towards collaborative research outcomes consistent with the Network’s aims. Such outcomes will eventually include significant publications and the pursuit of major external grant funding.

NEER Research Clusters comprise groups of 3-10 people who will collaborate in a specified research area relevant to NEER. In the spirit of the Network, Research Clusters have been encouraged to have members from more than one institution and more than one discipline, early career researchers, and international members, where possible. Each Research Cluster has appointed a coordinator, or coordinators, who will be responsible of overseeing the cluster activity and provide a report annually on the progress, outcomes and the use of NEER funds.

NEER has also called for applications for Non-Funded NEER Research Clusters. Applications closed on 2 November 2007.

Clusters and NEER Digital Initiatives

Confluence: Each Research Cluster is assigned its own space within NEER’s Confluence service, which enables collaborative discussion and writing over the Web. NEER Confluence went live in February 2007. Research Clusters are expected to use it as the primary means of tracking and recording their communications and collaborative activities.

Research repository: Substantive documents and other outputs from the activities of each cluster will eventually be archived in the Network’s research repository PioNEER, which is expected to go live in the second half of 2007.

NEER Research Clusters 2006

Australasian medievalism
Coordinator: Louise D'Arcens, University of Woollongong

BERN: British Enlightenment Research Network
Coordinator: Mike Davis, University of Tasmania (Burnie)

Children in Europe and the Australian colonies c.1300-1850
Coordinator: Stephanie Tarbin, UWA

Knowledge Networks and Reading Communities
Coordinators: Michael Bennett and Jenna Mead, University of Tasmania

'The voice passes but the letter remains': The Letter in Europe, 1150-1850
Coordinators: Carolyn James and Bill Kent, Monash University

Literary, Monastic, and Intellectual Culture in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Europe
Coordinator: Juanita Feros Ruys, University of Sydney

Manuscript Studies and Early European Research
Coordinator: Margaret Manion, University of Melbourne

Old Norse-Icelandic Studies
Coordinator: Margaret Clunies Ross, University of Sydney

Supernatural powers and social relations in early modern Europe
Coordinators: Sarah Ferber, University of Queensland and Jaqueline van Gent, UWA

NEER Research Clusters 2007

Cathedral, Court, City and Cloister: Western Music and its Sources 1100-1750
Coordinator: Jane Hardie, University of Sydney

Early Modern Drama in the Electronic Age
Coordinators: Brett Hirsch, UWA and Hugh Craig, University of Newcastle

Latin’s long histories and interdisciplinary applications
Coordinator: Yasmin Haskell, UWA

Notebooks and Note-taking in Early Modern Europe
Coordinator: Richard Yeo, Griffith University

Re-thinking Theatre History: The Impact of Rehearsal
Coordinator: Tim Fitzpatrick, University of Sydney

NEER Research Clusters 2008

Viking Research Network
Coordinator: Katrina Burge, University of Melbourne

Early Modern Women Writers
Coordinators: Rosalind Smith and Patricia Pender, University of Newcastle