Julian Polain is undertaking a PhD in History at The University of Melbourne, under the supervision of Prof. Joy Damousi. His thesis investigates the cultural meanings of nightmare in twentieth-century Australian contexts. He undertook undergraduate study at The University of Western Australia and the University of Glasgow before completing his Bachelor of Arts at The University of Melbourne in 2015, receiving First Class Honours and the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Exhibition for his thesis, Bodily Frontiers: Sex, Violence, Crossing and Loss in Australian Gothic Landscapes. His creative works have been published in emPOWa: Poetry from Western Australia and Five Bells, and he has worked extensively in the music industry. He was assistant director of the 2013 WAMi Fest, and he performed on Mongrel Country, an LP released by Firestarter Music in 2009.
Contact
jpolain@student.unimelb.edu.au
Research
Dreaming of the Devil: A History of Nightmare in Australian Culture
Published Creative Works
Mongrel Country, Mongrel Country, Firestarter Music, 2009.
Polain, J. ‘Abraham’s Children’. Five Bells 9.4 (Spring 2002): 13.
Polain, J. ‘Executive Decision (after Timothy McVeigh). emPOWa: Poetry from Western Australia 2 (2001): 15.
Awards, Scholarships and Bursaries
ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions PhD Top-Up Scholarship (2017)
Melbourne Research Scholarship, The University of Melbourne (2017)
Zelman Cowen Scholarship, Melbourne Law School (2016)
Graduate Access Melbourne Bursary, The University of Melbourne (2016)
Kathleen Fitzpatrick Exhibition, Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne (2015)
James Oliver Prize in Western Australian History, School of Humanities, The University of Western Australia (2014)
Study Abroad Scholarship, The University of Western Australia (2012)
Harri Jones Memorial Prize for Poetry, The University of Newcastle (2003)
Australian Youth Fellowship, Poets Union (2002)