About
I am a PhD candidate at Western Sydney University (Australia), working with the School of Humanities and Communication Arts and the Digital Humanities Research Group, and am currently a Visiting Scholar at the State Library of NSW (2020). I hold a Master of Research (2018) and Bachelor of Arts (Dean's Scholar) (2016), graduating with distinction.
My research focus is the history of print culture, specifically the Australian book trade, publishing history, and children's literature. My current doctoral research examines book reviews in early twentieth-century Australia. The project asks how and why Angus & Robertson (the largest Australian publishing house in the period) used print reviews as a form of mass-marketing. My MRes thesis, which was awarded a high distinction, analysed the contributions of the same publishing house to the evolution of Australian children's literature in 1897-1933, discussing the commercial and cultural implications of their endeavours. For more information about my research refer to my publications or informal research updates.
MRes Graduation
I am also interested in the Digital Humanities, particularly the use of digital and quantitative methods to complement traditional archival analysis. As a research intern at the State Library of NSW (2016-2017) I created a several digital indexes of archival collections to supplement existing Library catalogues. More significantly, both of my postgraduate projects have involved the construction of bibliometric and bibliographic datasets, most recently a relational database using Heurist. It is important that outputs of Digital Humanities projects are made available, preferably under an open-access model, so others may interrogate your findings and make use of the data for their own work. My MRes datasets are therefore available here and my PhD database will be released on this website when completed.
WSU Awards Ceremony 2017
At the completion of my undergraduate degree in 2016 I was awarded a Dean's Medal for Academic Excellence and the Sydney Mechanic’s School of Arts Award in Humanities for the most outstanding student in the Bachelor of Arts at WSU. The following year, during my MRes studies, I was awarded the Sydney Mechanic’s School of Arts Award for Theoretical Studies for the most outstanding Honours student in the Humanities.
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I have worked as a research assistant in history and literary studies, a production coordinator for a documentary film company, and an events coordinator. Through these roles I have experience copy-editing, developing and implementing style guides, managing electronic file sharing systems, supervising staff, and transcribing oral histories and documentary audio/visual footage. My complete CV can be downloaded here.
For a personal account of how and why I came to be studying a PhD at Western Sydney University, see my first research update.
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I can be contacted via email at r.ward3@westernsydney.edu.au. See also my ORCID and Google Scholar pages.
State Library of Victoria
IRSCL Conference 2019
WSU Scholarships Ceremony 2014
Helsinki National Library