In 2000 Potter established the refereed electronic journal, Altitude, which presents new and emerging academic work in Australian critical and cultural studies. Potter completed a doctorate in English literature at the University of Adelaide in 2003, and was a Research Associate in the Gender Studies program at that institution. She was then a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies (University of South Australia), and in 2006 took up an ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship in the faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning (University of Melbourne). In 2004 she was a judge of the Adelaide Festival of Arts Award for Australian Fiction. She is the co-editor of Fresh Water: New Perspectives on Water in Australia (MUP, 2007).