Roger is a Chief Investigator on the ARC-funded Special Research Initiative, “Read all about it: Digital participation in Australian Newspapers” (SR200200521, 2021–24). The Project aims to transform understandings of Australian literary history by using innovative digital methods to discover, curate and investigate tens of thousands of unrecorded novels, novellas and short stories in 20th-century Australian newspapers. It intends to advance national research capacity by facilitating collaboration, providing research training and making a substantial contribution to open-access, sustainable digital infrastructure for Australian literary studies.      

Roger’s broader research program concentrates on Australian literature and British Modernism seen through the lens of book history, print culture, and scholarly editing. He is a contributing editor to the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Joseph Conrad, an award-winning series producing the most up-to-date and authoritative scholarly texts of Conrad's publications. Roger completed his first edition, Under Western Eyes , as co-editor in 2013. His second edition, Nostromo, widely considered Conrad's modernist masterpiece was published in July 2023. Both volumes have been assessed by and received the seal of the MLA Committee on Scholarly Editions.

Roger’s work on the trans-national nature of Australian print culture has been published widely, and his co-authored book, Australian Books and Authors in the American Marketplace 1840s-1940s, the first of two projected volumes, was published by Sydney University Press in 2018.

Roger has worked at the forefront of digital scholarly editing and has an international reputation for this work. His Joseph Furphy Digital Archive was launched in 2015, and continues to grow with new modules added each year. Sydney University Press published The Life of Such is Life: A Cultural History of an Australian Classic, in 2022. This volume is joint-winner of the 2023 Walter McRae Russell Award for literary scholarship. 

Roger has employed digital humanities methods in the study of book history, and has completed several well-regarded digital mapping projects. Through productive intersections with existing and emerging research strengths, his experience as a scholarly editor and book historian in trans-national studies and digital humanities makes a significant contribution to the literary studies program at James Cook University.

Digital Projects

Joseph Furphy Digital Archive: https://www.austlit.edu.au/furphy

Tom Collins and Company: https://tomcollinsandcompany.github.io/annotate/

Australian Journal Story Book: https://ajstorybook.wordpress.com/

Teaching

• BA1001: Time, Truth and the Human Condition (Level 1; CNS)
• BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narrative and the Making of Place (Level 1; CNS)
• EL1008: Telling Tales: Approaches to Narrative (Level 1; CNS & TSV)
• EL1009: Great Books (Level 1; CNS)
• EL2048: The Romantic Vision (Level 2; CNS)
• EL2096: From Gutenberg to Google: Transformations in Text, Technology, and Culture (Level 2; CNS & TSV)

Interests

Professional

• Treasurer, Association for the Study of Australian Literature
• Board member, Foundation for Australian Literary Studies

Research

• Digital humanities
• Australian literature
• Book history
• Scholarly editing

Teaching

• Creative thinking
• Critical thinking
• Multi-modal writing
• Digital narratives

Experience

• 2023 to present - Associate Professor, English Literature, James Cook University (Cairns)
• 2021 to 2022 - Senior Lecturer, English and Writing, James Cook University (Cairns)
• 2018 to 2020 - Lecturer, English and Writing, James Cook University (Cairns)
• 2014 to 2017 - Lecturer, Australian Literature, University of Queensland (Brisbane)
• 2013 - Project Manager, AustESE Project, University of Queensland (Brisbane)
• 2008 to 2012 - Project Manager, Aus-e-lit Project, University of Queensland (Brisbane)
• 2004 to 2008 - Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Queensland (Brisbane)

Research Disciplines

• Literary studies (4705)

Socio-Economic Objectives

• Expanding knowledge (2801)

Fellowships

• 2016 - University of Queensland Fryer Library Fellowship
• 2011 - Nancy Keesing Fellowship, State Library of NSW
• 2004 to 2008 - University of Queensland Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 1996 to 2000 - University College Postgraduate Research Scholarship, UNSW Canberra

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

• Osborne R (2023) “The Covers Gave Me More Trouble than Anything Else”: Illustrating R. G. Campbell’s Australian Journal, 1926–1955. Journal of Australian Studies, 47 (1). pp. 10-26
• Osborne R and Carter D (2021) Australian Authors in the House of William Morrow: Writing Good Commercial Fiction for the US Market. Antipodes, 35 (1-2). pp. 145-162
• Osborne R (2020) 'This edition howls to heaven to be withdrawn': the Palmer Abridgement of Joseph Furphy's Such is Life. Australian Literary Studies, 35 (1).
• Osborne R (2020) (Re)presenting the "Socialist Core of Furphy's Vision": Rigby's Romance as typescript, serial and book. Journal of Australian Studies, 44 (1). pp. 65-81
• Lundberg A, Osborne R, Ancuta K and Stasiewicz-Bie?kowska A (2019) Tropical Gothic: literary and creative works. Etropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics, 18 (2).
• Osborne R (2019) A fleeting infatuation with all things Australian: American editions of Australian novels, 1979–1989. Antipodes, 33 (1). pp. 48-58
• Osborne R (2017) 'An editor regrets': R. G. Campbell's Australian Journal, 1926–1955. Script and Print, 41 (4). pp. 226-242

Books

• Osborne R (2022) The Life of Such is Life: a textual, material, and cultural history of an Australian classic. Sydney Studies in Australian Literature. Sydney University Press, Sydney, NSW, Australia
• Carter D and Osborne R (2018) Australian Books and Authors in the American Marketplace 1840s-1940s. Sydney Studies in Australian Literature. Sydney University Press, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Book Chapters

• Osborne R (in press) Selling Australian Stories to the World: The Dynamics of Twentieth-Century Publishing. In: The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, pp. 149-165
• Osborne R (2020) Expressing a new civilisation: authorship, publishing, and reading in the 1890s. In: Routledge Companion to Australian Literature. Routledge Literature Companions. Routledge, New York, NY, USA, pp. 9-17
• Dezuanni M, Foth M, Mallan K, Hughes H and Osborne R (2018) Social living labs for digital participation. In: Digital Participation through Social Living Labs: valuing local knowledge, enhancing engagement. Chandos Publishing, Cambridge, UK, pp. 1-17

More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 29+ research outputs authored by A/PROF Roger Osborne from 2006 onwards.

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

• Re-Imagining the Australian Farm Novel: Writing Magic Realism into the Georgic (PhD , Primary Advisor)

Completed

• Poised to change: dynamic processes and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon and The.PowerBook by Jeanette Winterson (2023, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Shadows in the cane: reconstructing history through fiction to responsibly reimagine and make accessible the 1930s history of Cassowary Coast migrant sugar workers (2021, PhD , Primary Advisor)
• The Beautiful and Damned: Searching for the Modern Girl in Australian Print Culture, 1930s (2023, PhD , Secondary Advisor)

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.