Digital Infrastructure and Australian Literature

Did you know that the oldest digital humanities project in Australia is the AustLit database? This database of Australian literature and storytelling operates on a networked data model and has over one million work records. 

In this episode you’ll hear from AustLit Director Maggie Nolan, Gamilaraay scholar and BlackWords coordinator Dominique Chen, and creative writer, researcher, and AustLit user Matt Bapty. You’ll learn about how this piece of digital infrastructure can reshape our understanding about creative writing in Australia, and about the different datasets and projects it houses, from Blackwords, to the Australian Drama Project, to the in-development Women in Brisbane project. This definitive biographical and bibliographical database not only documents Australia’s literary culture but also makes connections between agents and works. It generates possibilities for future creative arts research and practice, including via the AustLit Creative Writing fellowships, which since recording have been funded by the Copyright Agency and will lead to two new creative works arising out of the AustLit database.

This episode is hosted by Emma Cole, and edited and mastered by Anthony Frangi. Matt Bapty is the Creative Flourishing research assistant. 

AustLit is available through subscribing libraries, schools, educational institutions, and other organisations and can be accessed online here.