I am an Associate Professor of English in the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics at ANU. I undertook a major in Australian Literature at the University of Sydney and worked in the media and politics before returning to undertake a PhD on citizenship and late 19th-century Australian popular fiction. I have been at the ANU since 2008, where I teach and research in literary studies. I have been co-editor of the journal Australian Literary Studies since 2016, and am currently Head of the ANU School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics. 

 

My research focuses on literary reception - questions of how literary works circulate and are read over time - especially in the Australian context.

 

Key aspects of this research include:

 

• gender and literary reception: what role does gender play in the reception and circulation of literature in Australia? This includes a collaboration with Melinda Harvey (Monash University) and nonprofit organisation Stella as well as studies of the work and reception of Australian women writers.
• literary reception and political debate: how do literary works circulate in, influence and are influenced by parliamentary politics? This includes studies of politicians’ reading and collaborative project on poetry in Australian political debate.
• Regions, environments and literary reception: how are literary works implicated in the ways that regions are understood, lived in, governed and managed? This includes ARC LIEF project with the Time-Layered Cultural Map of Australia and project on literary reception and Australia’s alpine region.