Michael Ackland was educated at Melbourne Grammar School, Monash University, Cologne University and the Australian National University, and taught for many years at Monash University.

He has also taught and lectured widely in Europe and North America. He is fluent in French and German.

His  recent temporary positions included Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, and Visiting Professor of Australian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New  Delhi, and at Tokyo University.

The author of numerous monographs, biographies and editions, his most recent book was The Experimental Fiction of Murray Bail (Amherst: Cambria Press, 2012). He is currently researching Christina Stead and the Socialist Heritage with an ARC Discovery Grant.

Teaching

• EL2016: Modern Literature (Level 2; CNS & TSV)
• EL3021: Australian Urban Fictions (Level 3; CNS & TSV)

Interests

Research

• Comparative Literature , Art History and the History of Ideas Twentieth Century Literature to the end of the Cold War, with special reference to its political affiliations
• Christina Stead and the Socialist Heritage Haruki Murakami and Japanese social history The Australian Colonial Heritage

Research Disciplines

• Literary Studies (2005)

Socio-Economic Objectives

• Communication (9502)
• Cultural Understanding (9599)
• Understanding Past Societies (9505)

Awards

• Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

• Ackland M (2014) Morality at bay: the lesson of the Americas in Murray Bail's Homesickness. Antipodes, 28 (2). pp. 275-288
• Ackland M (2013) "Reality is monstrous": Christina Stead's critique of the triumphant West in The Puzzleheaded Girl. Antipodes, 27 (1). pp. 11-17
• Ackland M (2012) 'We are all philosophers; we cannot help being': Credos, Lifechoices and Philosophy in Murray Bail's The Pages. Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, 12 (3). pp. 1-13
• Ackland M (2012) "I am thinking I am free": intransigent reality versus utopian thought in the later fiction of Christina Stead. Southerly, 72 (1). pp. 159-180
• Ackland M (2011) Dreaming of the Middle Ages: the place of the 'mittelalterlich' and socialist awareness in Christina Stead's early fiction. Australian Literary Studies, 26 (3-4). pp. 54-68
• Ackland M (2011) Behold Burton's tomb: mortality and escapism in Murray Bail's homesickness. Southerly, 71 (3). pp. 23-39
• Ackland M (2011) Beneath the camouflage: mimicry and settler false consciousness in the fiction of Murray Bail. Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies, 17 (2). pp. 72-90
• Ackland M (2011) Politics, clichés and the "lurky country": Murray Bail's critique of national mythologies in Holden's Performance. Zeitschrift für Australienstudien, 25. pp. 27-41
• Ackland M (2011) "Hedging on Destiny": history and its marxist dimension in the early fiction of Christina Stead. ariel: a review of international english literature, 41 (1). pp. 91-109
• Ackland M (2011) 'Matisse is jammed with confidence': painting and creative inspiration in the early writings of Murray Bail. Westerly, 56 (1). pp. 198-215

Books

• Ackland M (2012) The Experimental Fiction of Murray Bail. Cambria Australian Literature. Cambria Press, Amherst, NY, USA

Book Chapters

• Ackland M (2013) "On all fours passing, tintinnabulation": Murray Bail's creative case against the imperial word. In: The Tapestry of the Creative Word in Anglophone Literatures. Forum Editrice, Udine, Italy, pp. 231-240

Current and recent Research Funding to JCU is shown by funding source and project.

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

• Ecological Understanding in Contemporary Australian Novels (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Transgressive Fiction and its Readership. (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• "The Faerie Queene": Moral Purposes, Creative Accidents (PhD , Secondary Advisor)

Completed

• Empty Spaces & Smiling Faces: The New Settlers League & Australian Immigration. (2017, PhD , Secondary Advisor)