Education

PhD in History

2007-2012, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Thesis title: “A Dual Exile: New Zealand and the Colonial Writing World, 1890-1945”.

BA (Hons, First Class) in History

2002-2005, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Dissertation title: “The Effects of State Patronage on New Zealand Literature”.

Employment

Senior Analyst Research and Evaluation

2022-present. Ministry of Social Development.
I am responsible for providing high quality, accurate research and evaluation to support the delivery of frontline services and shape the Ministry's strategic decision-making .

Senior Advisor and Advisor

2021-2022. Ministry of Education of New Zealand.
This role required developing appropriate and strategically sound responses to correspondence and information requests, in particular Ministerial correspondence.

Research Associate

2020-2021. Australia Council for the Arts.
I worked with the Council’s research team on data analysis, interpreting academic literature, report writing, project design and communicating key findings to stakeholders. In particular, I authored a report on digital engagement with the arts and proposed a new framework to better capture arts participation in today’s hybrid online/offline world. The report was published on 6 July 2021, and is available here.

Adjunct Research Fellow

2019-present. Western Sydney University.
In this role I was involved with several projects on a contract/consultant basis, such as:

  • Creative Industries Showcase: Developing a web platform to showcase students’ work.
  • Young and Resilient Strategic Research Initiative - Recording Fairfield City's Rhythms: Advising on suitable participatory digital platforms, literature review.
  • Digital Humanities Research Group - The Long Revolution of Women in Technology: Creating a prototype digital archive of materials.

Research Associate in Digital Humanities

2016-2019. Western Sydney University.
Curating a linked digital archive of publishing and literary correspondence as part of the ARCHIVER (Angus & Robertson Collection for Humanities and Education Research) project (funded by the Australian National Data Service).

Research Assistant

2014 to 2016: University of Wollongong
Research assistant for an Australian Research Council-funded project on trans-Pacific passenger shipping and research assistant for the Centre for Colonial and Settler Studies. Literature reviews, data collection (digital newspapers) editing and reference checking, transcription and conference admin.

Teaching

Course coordinator

Western Sydney University.

  • Australian History Around Us (Local History, 102516) 2019
  • Global Digital Futures (Masters in Digital Humanities, 102412) 2018.

Lecturer, tutor

  • University of Wollongong (Liverpool campus): Modern History (HIST111), 2017
  • Western Sydney University: Australia and the World (100958), 2013-2016

Tutor

  • University of Wollongong: Locating Australia (AUST102), 2014
  • University of Technology Sydney: Ideas in History (58103), 2014-5
  • Western Sydney University: Global History (101910), 2013
  • Monash University: Contemporary Worlds (ATS1325), 2013
  • Australian Catholic University (Melbourne): Indigenous History (HIST106), 2013
  • University of Canterbury: Kiwi Culture (New Zealand History, HIST243), 2010
  • University of Canterbury: Medieval History (HIST130), 2007-2008

Grants and Awards

SPARC (Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration) Grant

2019-2021: With collaborators at Western Sydney University and Pondicherry University, India: “Digital Humanities in the Indian Rim”.

Digital Humanities Research Group Seed Grant

2019: With Teresa Swist: “The Long Revolution of Women in Technology”.

New Zealand History Research Grant

2018-19: “The evolution of the Tasman writing world in the twentieth century”.

Australian Academy for the Humanities Travelling Fellowship

2017: “Trans-Tasman educational publishing networks and Australian literary nation-building”.

DHSI Tuition Scholarship & SHARP New Scholars' Bursary

2017: Digital Humanities Summer Institute, Victoria, Canada.

AHA/Copyright Agency Bursary

2016: to attend Australian Historical Association Conference, Ballarat.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield Doctoral Scholarship

2008-2009: Visiting Graduate Student, Christ Church, Oxford.

Canterbury Historical Foundation Travel Grant

2009: to attend New Zealand Studies Association Conference in Frankfurt, Germany.

University of Canterbury Doctoral Scholarship

2007-2010

Summer Scholarships

2004-5 and 2005-6: Social Science Research Centre, University of Canterbury.

Governance and Professional Service

Conference organisation

  • 2018. Co-convenor, annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP), Western Sydney University, 9-12 July.
  • 2016. Organising committee, Colonial Formations: Connections and Collisions conference, Centre for Colonial and Settler Studies, University of Wollongong, November.

Editorial/Advisory Boards

  • 2018-2021. Australasian reviews editor for Journeys: The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing. Editor of Journeys special issue 17.2.
  • 2013-2018 Advisory board member, Transported Imagination project (James Cook University), https://transportedimagination.com/.
  • 2013-2015. Member of the Lilith Collective, the editorial committee of Lilith: A Feminist History Journal.

Professional Service

  • 2020-2021. Professional Historians Association (NSW & ACT) committee member and website manager.
  • 2018-2021. Website manager for BSANZ (Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand), member of Online/Social Media committee.
  • 2013-2019. Founder and convenor, in association with the Australian Historical Association, of “Post-PhD Writing Cluster”, Sydney. I initiated and organised meetings to give non-affiliated post-PhD historians a forum to discuss their writing and receive advice on publication. The group met bimonthly.

Selected Presentations

Invited talks

  • 2019. “Digital ‘Linked Archives’ and the trans-Tasman literary world”, Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies, Victoria University Wellington, 17 July.
  • 2018. “Beyond borders: historical approaches to the ‘literary expatriate’ in New Zealand and Australia”, ANU History Department Seminar, Australian National University, Canberra, 29 August.
  • 2018. “‘Throwing up the Sponge’: New Zealand writers and the Expatriate Myth”, Otago Centre for the Book, Dunedin, 13 March.
  • 2017. “Using ARCHIVER (Angus & Robertson Collection for Humanities and Education Research)”, Waratah and Thistle, Angus & Robertson Symposium, State Library of New South Wales, 10 April.

2018-19 conference presentations and seminars

  • 2019. “Literary gatekeepers and digital ‘Linked Archives’”, Reception, Production, Exchange: Australasian Universities Languages & Literature Association (AULLA) and Australian Reception Network (ARN) conference, University of Wollongong, 10 December
  • 2019. “Digital ‘Linked Archives’, Pat Lawlor and trans-Tasman literary networks”, Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand conference, University of Melbourne, 28 November.
  • 2018. “Unsettling national repositories: digital ‘Linked Archives’ and trans-Tasman literary networks”, International Australian Studies Association (InASA) conference, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4 December.
  • 2018. “From first inkling to lasting reputation: a transnational study of Australasian educational print culture”, From First to Last Texts, Creators, Readers, Agents: Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing conference, Western Sydney University, Parramatta, 11 July.
  • 2018. “Excel to MySQL: Digital refinements to The Expatriate Myth”, The Scale of History, Australian Historical Association conference, 4 July.