AustLit

'Deirdre Coleman completed an Honours degree in English at the University of Melbourne before going to Oxford where she graduated with a BPhil (1979) in Victorian literature and a DPhil (1986) on Coleridge's journalism. Since returning to Australia she has taught at the Universities of Wollongong, Adelaide and Sydney. In 2007 she took up the Robert Wallace Chair of English at the University of Melbourne and is now Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Arts. Her research interests cover 18th and 19th century literature, science, and cultural history; abolitionism, women's writing, travel, colonialism, natural history, racial ideology, and the gothic.

'Deirdre has held Visiting Fellowships at Trinity College, Cambridge, Birkbeck College, University of London, and the Humanities Research Centre, ANU. She served for three years on the ARC College of Experts (HCA Panel, 2008-2010) and is has been on the Humanities panel of the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Marsden Fund (2011-13). She holds a University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research Higher Degree Supervision.'(Source: The Australian Academy of the Humanities website)