Research Supervisor Connect
Vanessa Smith is Professor of English at the University of Sydney. She is author or editor of five books focusing on intercultural contact in the Oceania of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and has published widely on the British and American novel. Her new book, Toy Stories: analyzing the child in nineteenth-century literature, which brings the insights of object-reations psychoanalysis to bear on aspects of the novel, will be published by Fordham in early 2023. Professor Smith is one of the co-editors of the Oxford University Press series Approaches to the Novel. She is the convenor of The Novel Network in FASS. The Network has to date organised two major international conferences, The Prosaic Imaginary (2014) and Bildungsoman: form and transformations (2018).
I am interested in supervising projects on the Novel (18th to early 20th century), psychoanalysis and literature, object (thing) theories, affect theory, and literature and embodiment.
English and Writing, School of Art, Communication and English (SACE)
Research interests
1. If you are interested in this research opportunity, you are encouraged to email the academic directly. To find the academic’s email address, follow the link provided to their profile page. Introduce yourself and provide some academic background. You may be asked for an academic transcript. Explain why you are interested in your area of research and, if appropriate, why you are interested in working with the recipient.
2. Write an initial research proposal. (Refer to How to write a research proposal for guidance.) In no more than 2000 words demonstrate how your research experience aligns with the supervisor’s and why you’re interested in this opportunity.
3. If you would like general advice in your subject area before submitting an application, contact an academic advisor listed here: https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/study/postgraduate-research/postgraduate-research-contact.html
The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is 3039