Duc Dau

I specialise in literature, screen media, digital media, and activism research. I am also interested in social research and how it might create positive social impact. In literature, I specialise in biblical reception, literature and theology, and gender and sexuality from the nineteenth century onwards. In screen media, my research focuses on queer film and TV. In digital media, I look at social justice, COVID-19, and disability. In activism research, I have a special interest in the history of bisexual activism.

Author of Touching God: Hopkins and Love (2012) and Sex, Celibacy, and Deviance: The Victorians and the Song of Songs (2024), and co-editor of Queer Victorian Families: Curious Relations in Literature (2015), my articles have appeared in such journals as Critical Social Policy, Media International Australia, Disability Studies Quarterly, QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, Australian Literary Studies, Victorian Literature and Culture, Victorian Poetry, Religion and Literature, and Literature and Theology.

My latest book, Sex, Celibacy, and Deviance: The Victorians and the Song of Songs (2024) is published with The Ohio State University Press. 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 romance, sexuality, gender roles, and marriage in Victorian and early twentieth-century literature and culture. CHOICE classifies the book as highly recommended. The project was funded by an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award.

Forthcoming pieces include a chapter on Taylor Swift and queer Gothic for Taylor Swift: Culture, Capital and Society and a chapter on eroticism for Gerard Manley Hopkins in Context.

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.