Duc Dau

I specialise in literature and culture from the nineteenth century onwards, with an emphasis on biblical reception, poetry, emotions, sexualities, and animalities. Author of Touching God: Hopkins and Love (2012) and co-editor of Queer Victorian Families: Curious Relations in Literature (2015), my articles have appeared in such journals as Australian Literary Studies, Victorian Literature and Culture, Victorian Poetry, Religion and Literature, Literature and Theology, and The Hopkins Quarterly.

I have a contract with The Ohio State University Press to publish my next book, Gender, Sexuality, and the Song of Songs in Victorian Literature and Culture. Appearing in their series 'Literature, Religion, and Postsecular Studies', the book explores how the Song of Songs was used to fashion, and to contest, the norms of romantic love, sexual relations, gender roles, and marriage in Victorian and early twentieth-century literature and culture.

I also specialise in improving systems in higher education. I have written policy reports on research-informed teaching and am the lead author of a 70-page research report about the LGBT student experience at UWA. I developed the communications strategy to successfully recruit close to the majority of the target population for the study. The resultant report is the first of its kind in Australia and includes recommendations to UWA and the Student Guild to improve LGBT student inclusion.

As lead or sole investigator, I have attracted $420,000 in research funding. The main sources are listed below:

University of Western Australia
Alumni Fund Grants (2016)
Total funding: $20,000

Australian Research Council
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (ARC DECRA) (2013-2016)
Total funding: $295,363

University of Western Australia
UWA ECR Fellowship Support Program (2013-2016)
Total funding: $29,142

University of Western Australia
Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) (2000-2003)
Total Funding: $60,295

University of Western Australia
Winthrop Scholarship (2000)
Total funding: $7,500

Travel awards from the North American Victorian Studies Association, Australasian Victorian Studies Association, UWA Faculty of Arts, UWA Alumni Funds.

After being awarded my PhD, and before returning to the university sector, I worked in health communication for several years at the WA Mental Health Commission. Specialising in publications, public relations, and marketing, I established and became the first Editor of a statewide mental health magazine aimed at a general readership (the first of its kind in Australia), developed strategic proactive and reactive media approaches, and was the head speechwriter for the Mental Health Minister and the Mental Health Commissioner. I have also worked as a freelance writer and communications adviser to government and non-government organisations.

I have taught widely, from film to TV, to canonical literature, gender studies, professional writing, media, advocacy, and health promotion. Highlights include teaching James Joyce's Ulysses over several weeks, and co-teaching -- with Fred Roden at the University of Connecticut -- Alfred Tennyson's In Memoriam.

Current and Future:
Victorian and contemporary literature and culture
Feminist and queer reception of the Bible
Poetry
Emotions (especially eros)
Animals and animalities
Human rights and social justice
Policy and the student experience in higher education

Other research interests:
Cultural history of the senses
Pornography and its publication history
Queer families
Gerard Manley Hopkins