I’m a reader, writer, and recovering academic living and working on Awabakal Country. I’m also an Associate Professor in English and Writing at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and the 2026 Eric Dark Flagship Fellow in Social and Political Writing at Varuna, the National Writers’ House.

As an academic, I’ve published widely on women’s literary history and gender and popular culture, and recently completed editing the three-volume Palgrave Encyclopedia of Early Modern Women’s Writing.

In addition to my scholarship, I have published creative work and commentary in Times Higher Education, The Atlantic, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Conversation, Southerly, and Overland.

I was an Ann Moyal Non-Fiction Fellow at Varuna in 2024 and have also undertaken creative residencies at Relais de Camont (France), Centre Pompadour (France) and Casa del Pellegrino (Italy). 

For many years I led the University of Newcastle’s Gender Research Network and Program in Gender-Based Violence. I continue to run the Writing for Social Change program, bringing progressive writing and writers to Newcastle. 

I am currently on Temporary Incapacity leave from my academic job, dealing with Stage Four breast cancer, and recovering from academic burnout. I am a fierce opponent of the corporatization of higher education and the psychosocial harms this creates.

I shared parts of my story recently with Conor Duffy on the ABC’s 7.30 Report.

I am committed to education as a public good and am eager to pursue ways to explore and deliver this “outside the machine” that Australian universities have become. 

You can catch me on Substack at Trash Panda.