Rosalind McFarlane

Help Ros to present her research on the world stage!

At the end of 2013 Ros’s life was looking up: she had passed the latest milestone in her PhD which looks at depictions of water in contemporary Asian Australian poetry, she had finally got a scholarship and she had been accepted in to Harvard’s month-long world literature symposium in Hong Kong for 2014. Things were going well!



So why am I doing this?
Basically, I don’t have enough money to cover my living costs while I am away. As many of you will already know (I don’t really stop talking about it – sorry!), the opportunity to be a part of the Harvard world literature event is literally once in a lifetime. It is a chance for me to meet the key players in my field and to work intensively with them for a whole month. The best academics in my field for a whole month, how fantastic is that?! I will be doing courses on environmental crisis and modern Chinese literature – both were my first choice and I am so excited I get to do my two favourite topics in my favourite city. Oh yeah, because Hong Kong? Just my favourite city of all. (Which coming from an analyst who studies place is a pretty big compliment).



The symposium will also give me the chance to meet some of the academics currently residing in Hong Kong who I use in my thesis. These are the people I have spent two and a half years reading, whose work I am fascinated by and who I hold in the highest esteem. All those “who would you invite to dinner” quizzes? The majority of the people I would invite are either already in Hong Kong, or will be for the symposium.



I also really really want to work in Southeast and East Asia when I finish my PhD. This symposium means I could not only meet the people I might be working with in the future, it would give me the chance to ask them about the job market and how things work. Who wouldn’t want to meet the very people who could hire you in the future and ask them about what they look for when hiring?



I also just really love being in Hong Kong! As a city it has so much energy, so many fantastic nooks and some of the most fascinating history. I love just wandering about – there are so many different districts and things to see. Plus so many people! Hong Kong is the inspiration for so much of my poetry (so much so the other muses won’t return my calls) and I find so much to write about around every corner (which is often up a hill and around a tree) that it feels like a constant high when I’m there. I will be  staying with my friend Siobhan while I am there, who is one of my favourite people in all the world. This will be longest we have got to spend with each other since I moved across Australia three years ago and I am over the moon about it! Siobhan and I write poetry together, we love exploring cities together and most of all we just love hanging out with each other. The thought of being able to wake up in Hong Kong every morning for a month makes me smile just writing about it.


Note about prizes: if you want to give more money than a specific prize asks for (and if so go you!) but you would like a prize from a lower category more than the one in the higher category (e.g. you want to give $75 but would rather a book or zines than a poem) just let me know when you do give the money and I will arrange the prize in the lower category for you instead. 

How am I planning to use these funds?
For everyday living costs while I am in Hong Kong. This includes things such as food, transport on the ferry and train system and for unforeseen emergency costs (e.g. medication).



If I can make it to my goal I can cover my basic costs in Hong Kong. 
If I make it to 1,500 I can cover my basic costs in Hong Kong PLUS go to some of the networking events during the symposium.
If I make it to 2,000 I can cover my basic costs in Hong Kong PLUS go to all the networking events AND fund the next stage of my research!