The ANU Australian Studies Institute (AuSI) would like to extend a warm welcome to our Visiting Fellow, Dr Leonie John. Leonie joins us from Germany’s University of Cologne, as part of AuSI’s 2023-24 Visiting Fellowship Program.

Leonie’s Fellowship Project “Nuclear Narratives – Exploring Discourses of Health and Wellbeing in the Context of Nuclear Testing in Australia” will focus on the portrayal of nuclear testing in Australia across various forms of non-fiction, and its influence on public perception as well as literary production.

During her time at The Australian National University (ANU), Leonie will examine archival legal and government documents, scientific publications and newspaper articles alongside published poetry and fiction, with the aim of tracing the evolution of nuclear narratives in Australia.

As the only university in Australia that offers postgraduate education in nuclear science, the Fellowship provides a great opportunity for Leonie to engage with ANU experts in nuclear physics, along with ANU experts in medical humanities and further fields of research that will assist in advancing her project.

"The AuSI Visiting Fellowship provides a unique opportunity for me to survey a wide range of material from multiple archives and libraries to advance my postdoctoral research project in the nuclear humanities. I am very grateful for this chance to spend five weeks with focussed research and stimulating conversations across disciplines. I hope to generate a sustained network that allows for a vivid exchange of ideas well beyond the fellowship period."

- Dr Leonie John, Visiting Fellow, ANU Australian Studies Institute

Dr Leonie John is a literary studies scholar based at the University of Cologne. She is the project manager of “Australian Studies”, an online master’s programme that is currently being developed in collaboration with three other German universities. After completing a Master of Education, Leonie John pursued an English Studies PhD as a full-time scholarship holder at the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne, focussing on im/mobilities in contemporary Māori short fiction. She successfully defended her thesis in September 2021. Leonie John’s academic interests include Pacific literatures and networks, memory and museum studies, Indigenous and postcolonial theories, mobility studies and, most recently, nuclear and environmental humanities. Along with two of her colleagues, she co-edited the Special Issue “Emerging Research in Australian Studies”, which appeared in the Australian Studies Journal (ZfA) in May 2023. She is currently the vice chair of the German Association of Australian Studies (GASt).