Welcome to the
Literary Education Lab

Melitta Hogarth is a Kamilaroi woman and is the Assistant Dean (Indigenous) and Professor in the Faculty of Education. Prior to entering academia, Melitta taught for almost 20 years in all three sectors of the Queensland education system specifically in Secondary education.

Sandra Phillips is a member of the Wakka Wakka and Gooreng Gooreng nations of Queensland and Professor of Publishing and Communications and Associate Dean of Arts (Indigenous) at University of Melbourne. Prior to becoming an academic, Sandra had a successful career in Australian publishing and continues to be a widely recognised and valued leader in the Indigenous literary sector.

Kathryn Yusoff is Professor of Inhuman Geography in the School of Geography at Queen Mary, University of London. Her research examines how inhuman and nonorganic materialities have consequences for how we understand issues of environmental change, race and subjectivity. She is author of A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None (Minnesota, 2018); and Geologic Life: Inhuman Intimacies and the Geophysics of Race (Duke, 2024). She is recipient of the 2022 Association of American Geography Stanley Brunn Award for Creativity and will be representing the British Pavillion at the Venice Architectural Biennale 2025. Professor Yusoff is a collaborator on the Literary Education Lab's 'Reading Climate' project funded by the Australian Research Council.

Sandra Muse Isaacs is the professor of Indigenous Literature and a President’s Indigenous Peoples Scholar at the University of Windsor, Canada. Sandra is of Eastern Cherokee (Ani-tsisqua, Bird Clan) and Gaelic heritage. Her first book, Eastern Cherokee Stories: A Living Oral Tradition and Its Cultural Continuance, was released in the July 2019. Professor Muse Isaacs is a collaborator on the Literary Education Lab's 'Reading Climate' grant funded by the Australian Research Council.

Clare Archer-Lean is Senior Lecturer in English and Deputy Higher Degree Research Coordinator in USC’s School of Business and Creative Industries. Clare's research is focused on analysis of animals and environment in various cultural artefacts, but also in applied, trans-disciplinary work. Clare's work also explores how Indigenous storytelling provides vital insights into sustainability. Clare is a committee member of Australasian Animal Studies Association (AASA) and on the editorial board for Social Alternatives and Animal Studies Journal.

Velda Elliott is Associate Professor of English and Literacy Education at the University of Oxford, UK. Her research focuses on pedagogy, curriculum and assessment as it relates to literature in English in schools, particularly in secondary. She is particularly interested in the ways that literature in education interacts with society and politics. Her book Knowledge in English: Canon, Curriculum & Cultural Literacy (Routledge, 2021) won the UKLA Academic Book Award 2022.

Katherine Bode is professor of literary and textual studies at the Australian National University. Her research explores the critical potential and limitations of computational approaches to literature, including in A World of Fiction: Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History (2018), Advancing Digital Humanities: Research, Methods, Theories (2014), Reading by Numbers: Recalibrating the Literary Field (2012) and Resourceful Reading: The New Empiricism, eResearch and Australian Literary Culture (2009).

Troy is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at University of Melbourne. His research interests include the use of genre in adolescent literature to construct, engage with, and respond to contemporary concerns, particularly those relating to gender, sexuality and disability. He is the author of Books for Boys: Manipulating Genre in Contemporary Australian Young Adult Fiction (WVT Trier, 2018).

Emeritus Professor Helen Cahill leads a body of research addressing child and youth wellbeing. She has developed a number of disaster recovery, violence-reduction, social and emotional learning, gender rights, sexuality, and drug education programs for use in schools and community settings in Australia, as well as a range of countries across the Asia-Pacific and East and Southern Africa regions. She has authored over 100 publications, including over 40 wellbeing education programs for use in school and community settings. She is lead author of Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships, an open access, evidence-informed social and emotional learning and respectful relationships education program for Australian students from ages 5-18, and the UNESCO Connect with Respect program for prevention of school related gender-based violence.

Marcia McKenzie is Professor in Global Studies and International Education in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. Her research includes both theoretical and applied components at the intersections of comparative and international education, global education policy research, and climate and sustainability education, including in relation to policy mobility, place and land, affect, and other areas of social and geographic study.

Emeritus Professor Wayne Sawyer was a secondary school Head of English before joining WSU. He is a past President of the New South Wales (NSW) English Teachers Association (ETA) and past Chair of the NSW Board of Studies English Curriculum Committee. He is an Honorary Life Member of both the NSW ETA and the Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE).

Professor Sue Martin in the Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) in the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce. In this role, Sue is responsible for the strategic leadership of the College’s research efforts, and has oversight of the strategies and initiatives in place to lift research culture, capacity and performance. Prior to this role, Sue was the Associate Dean, Research, in the Faculty of Humanities & Social Science under the old Faculty Structure.

Michèle Hinton Herrington has a PhD in linguistics and contributes to several large research projects in education. Michèle is passionate about education research and is particularly interested in how language and language systems function in and across the school disciplines and how theory translates into teaching practices. Michèle is co-author of Multimodal Literacy in School Science: Transdisciplinary perspectives on Theory, Research and Pedagogy (Routledge, 2022).

Natalie Calleja is a Research Fellow at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne with a background in teaching. They are currently involved in a research project that aims to examine the provision of the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships intervention program in secondary schools.

Dr Helen Cozmescu is a lecturer and subject coordinator in language and literacy subjects offered at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. Helen uses qualitative research to investigate contemporary literacy practice. Helen’s current research interests involve literacy professional learning for in-service teachers and the nexus created by theoretical perspectives, research and practice.