STAFF PROFILE
Associate Professor Julienne Van Loon
Julienne van Loon's expertise is in contemporary fiction and non-fiction in English with an emphasis on feminism and political philosophy. Her most recent book is The Thinking Woman (NewSouth 2019).
Julienne van Loon is the author of four critically acclaimed books, most recently 'The Thinking Woman' (2019). Her first novel, 'Road Story' (2005), won The Australian/Vogel's award and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Best First Book) Asia and Pacific region award and the WA Premier's Award for Fiction. She has been the recipient of grants and awards from the Australia Council for the Arts, the WA Department of Culture and the Arts and Creative Victoria. Julienne's essays and short stories have appeared in journals such as The Monthly, Griffith Review and the Sydney Review of Books, and in anthologies published by Pan MacMillan, Fremantle Press, ABC Books and Black Inc.
Julienne joined RMIT as a Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellow (2015-2019), and has held numerous research leadership positions at RMIT as well as her former institution, Curtin University (1997-2015). She is currently co-director of the internationally renowned non/fictionLab research group, an ERA 2023 leader at RMIT and the Creative Practice Research Advisor for the School of Media and Communication. She is a founding member of the Executive of the Design and Creative Practice Enabling Impact Platform, and co-managing editor of Australia's leading Creative Writing scholarly journal TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Programs.
She has also supervised many award-winning postgraduate research students in creative writing. Publications by current and former research students include 'Comme' by Paul Dalla Rosa (shortlisted for the Sunday Times Short Story Award), 'Wild, Fearless Chests' by Mandy Beaumont (shortlisted for the Richell Prize and the Dorothy Hewett Award), 'Of Memory & Furniture' by Bron Bateman (shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Poetry), 'The Windy Season' by Sam Carmody (winner of the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction), 'Red Dirt Talking' by Jacqueline Wright (winner of the TAG Hungerford Award), 'Reaching One Thousand' by Rachel Robertson (joint-winner of the Calibre Essay Prize and shortlisted for the National Biography Award), 'Things Left Over, After' by Natasha Lester (winner of the TAG Hungerford Award) and 'Letters to the End of Love' by Yvette Walker (shortlisted for the Glenda Adams Award for New Writing and winner, WA Premier's Book Awards, Emerging Author category).
Julienne is an Honorary Fellow in Writing at the University of Iowa. Her latest work of fiction "Instructions for a Steep Decline" was named joint winner of the $25 000 Griffith Review Novella Project in 2019.
Julienne's current research interests include feminist approaches to political philosophy and the genre of feminist popular philosophy.
A new major work of fiction, currently in development, explores the relationship between housing, cost of living pressures and urban Australian culture, as well the crisis of democracy and citizen-led movements for change.
Active for a number of years as a Director of the Australian Society of Authors, an additional research interest is Australian author livelihoods and the cultural/public value of the local book.
Julienne publishes regularly on best-practice approaches to research and creative practice and on philosophies of knowledge relevant to leading research practice in the academy.
- PhD University of Queensland
- MA (Hons) by Research University of Wollongong
- Grad Dip Education (Higher and Further) Curtin University
- B. Creative Arts (Hons) University of Wollongong
Director and Chair of the Australian Society of Authors 2015-2017
Peer assessor, Literature, Australia Council for the Arts, 207-2019
Editor, TEXT: Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs, since 2016.
- Van Loon, J. (2023). Six capitals and a local book: An experiment in articulating the value of Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu In: Journal of Australian Studies, 47, 181 - 199
- Hjorth, L.,Coombs, G.,Hussey-Smith, K.,Van Loon, J. (2022). Work, care and creativity in a time of COVID-19: creatively mapping presence bleed in the home In: Digital Creativity, 33, 219 - 233
- Van Loon, J. (2021). Regardless of decorum: a response to Seneca's 'Of anger' In: Women of a certain rage Fremantle, Western Australia
- Van Loon, J. (2021). Rhythm and Play in That Deadman Dance In: Reading Like an Australian Writer, NewSouth, Sydney, Australia
- Van Loon, J. (2021). Creative writing as nourishment: The political philosophy of Corine Pelluchon applied to our field In: Text: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, 25, 1 - 18
- Van Loon, J. (2021). On value and Australian books and writing In: Sydney Review of Books, , 1 - 13
- Van Loon, J. (2020). Asking the relevant questions In: Griffith Review 69: European exchange Brisbane, Australia
- Van Loon, J. (2019). The Thinking Woman In: The Thinking Woman Sydney, Australia
- Van Loon, J. (2019). Instructions for a Steep Decline In: Griffith Review 66: The Light Ascending Melbourne, Australia
- Van Loon, J. (2018). In defense of play: A manifesto arrived at through dialogues In: Associations: Creative Practice and Research, Melbourne University Publishing, Carlton, Australia
2 PhD Completions and 1 Masters by Research Completions2 PhD Current Supervisions
- Instructions for a Steep Decline. Funded by: Creative Victoria, VicArts Grant from (2018 to 2019)
- Ideas for Living: Popular philosophy for the thinking woman. Funded by: Australia Council for the Arts - Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups 2016, Round 1 from (2016 to 2017)