Flanagan named Melbourne University’s inaugural Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature

The University of Melbourne has appointed author Richard Flanagan as the Boisbouvier Founding Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne, a new professorship to ‘advance the teaching, understanding and public appreciation of Australian literature’.

In the role, based at the university’s School of Culture and Communication, Flanagan will deliver public lectures on Australian literature at the State Library of Victoria (SLV) as part of the program’s partnership with the library. The role, which is still being designed by Flanagan and the university, will also include ‘other teaching and learning opportunities across the university and wider community’.

In a statement, Flanagan said the position is a ‘unique honour’. ‘While allowing its holder to continue writing, it is also an invitation to create a greater appreciation of Australian writing and writers—their struggles, their achievements, their necessity—within the University and more generally in Australian society,’ said Flanagan. ‘I hope I can do it some small justice.’

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, the Boisbouvier Founding Chair in Australian Literature has $5m in funding from John Wylie, merchant banker and SLV board president, and Myriam Boisbouvier-Wylie, honorary consul general of France in Victoria.