Associate Professor Fiona Morrison

Associate Professor Fiona Morrison

Associate Professor

BA (H1, University of Sydney) PhD (University of Sydney), Grad. Cert. Adult Education (AIW)

Arts, Design & Architecture
School of the Arts and Media

Fiona Morrison is an Associate Professor in the School of the Arts and Media at UNSW, where she teaches and supervises in the areas of postcolonial and world literatures, Australian literature and women’s writing. Her most recent book is Christina Stead and the Matter of America (2019), and she is currently working on two projects: a book-length study of Henry Handel Richardson an edited volume of scholarly essays on Eleanor Dark: Time, Tide and History: Selected Essays on Eleanor Dark (forthcoming SUP 2023).

Publications

Books

Morrison, F and B. Rooney. Eds. Time, Tide and History: Selected Essays on Eleanor Dark. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2023 (in press)

Morrison, F. Christina Stead: The Matter of America. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2019 (Won the Walter McRae Russell Award for Literary Scholarship 2021; nominated and shortlisted for the AUHE Prize for Literary Scholarship 2020 and nominated and shortlisted for the Dean’s Research Awards  for Best Monograph 2020.

Morrison, F. Ed.  Dorothy Hewett: Selected Prose. Nedlands: University of Western Australian Press, 2011.

Morrison, F and M. Parker. Masters in Pieces: The English Canon for the Twenty-First Century. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Journal articles

Morrison, F. “Leaving the Party: Dorothy Hewett, literary politics and the long 1960s.” Southerly 73.4 (2012) In press.

Morrison, F. “’I must have a mask to hide behind’: Signature, Imposture and Henry Handel Richardson.” JASAL Special Issue: Archive Madness (2011).

“The Quality of 'Life': Dorothy Hewett’s Literary Criticism” JASAL 10 (2010).

“The Elided Middle: Christina Stead’s For Love Alone and the Colonial ‘Voyage In. ’ Southerly 69:2 (2009): 155-174.

“On Foreign Ground: Expatriate Masculinity and the Unhomely Woman in Henry Handel Richardson’s Maurice Guest.” Southerly 61:2 (2001): 64-79.

“Figures of the Many and the One: Gender, Genre and Narrative Structure in Tim Winton's Cloudstreet.” Sydney Studies in English 25 (1999): 133-151.

Morrison, F. (2021). “’Deep Digging’: Henry Handel Richardson, Transnational Allegory and the Unsettled Epic.” Affirmations: of the Modern 7.1 (2021): 72-83.

Morrison, F. (2018). “The Antiphonal Time of Violence in Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife. Southerly 78 (3): 173-191. Print.

Morrison, F. (2017). “A Transfiguration of my Local Patriotism”: Christina Stead, the figure of oceanic totality and ‘A Night on the Indian Ocean’. Westerly, 2 (62): 87-100. Print

Morrison, F., & Rooney, B. (2016). Introduction "Rediscovering Christina Stead". Australian Literary Studies. Web

Morrison, F. (2016). ‘A Vermeer in the Hayloft’: Christina Stead, Unjust Neglect and Transnational Improprieties of Place and Kind. Australian Literary Studies. Web

Book chapters

Morrison F. and B. Rooney. "Introduction". Time, Tide and History: Selected Essays on Eleanor Dark. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2023 (in press)

Morrison, F. “Harbour Views: Dramatising Collective Life in Eleanor Dark’s Waterway. In Time, Tide and History: Selected Essays on Eleanor Dark. Eds. F. Morrison and B. Rooney. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2023 (in press) 

Morrison, F. “Dimensions of Movement: Henry Handel Richardson, Christina Stead and Provincial Novel of Development.” In The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel. Ed. David Carter. New York: Cambridge UP, 2023. (in press) 

Morrison, F. “’Rich and Strange’: Christina Stead and the Australian Transnational Novel”. In The Cambridge Companion to the Australian Novel. Eds. Nicholas Birns and Louis Klee. New York: Cambridge UP, 2022. (in press) 

Morrison, F. ‘The American Introduction: Perfect Readers, Unread Books and Christina Stead’s The Man Who Loved Children.Republics of Letters: Literary Communities in Australia. Ed. Peter Kirkpatrick. Sydney: Sydney UP (forthcoming, January, 2012)

Morrison, F.  “The ‘American Dilemma’: Christina Stead’s Cold War Anatomy”. Reading Across the Pacific: United States-Australian Intellectual Histories. Edited by Nicholas Birns and Robert Dixon. Sydney: University of Sydney Press. In press.

Morrison, F.  “’The Cruel Book’: Political Satire and the Female Satirist in I'm Dying Laughing.” 2000. In The Magic Phrase: Critical Essays on Christina Stead. Ed. M.A. Harris. Studies in Australian Literature Series. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2000. Reprinted in Gale/Cengage. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism vol. 226. Belmont: Gale/Cengage Learning 2010.

Morrison, F.  “The Rhetoric of Sensation: Austen, Bronte and the ‘Gothic Romance.’” Proceedings of the English Association Conference, 2010. Ed. Richard Madeleine. Sydney: The English Association, 2010.

Morrison, F.  “To Have Loved and Lost: Life Writing and the Rhetoric of Consolation.” New Directions: Proceedings of the English Association Conference, 2008. Ed. Richard Madeleine. Sydney: The English Association, 2008. 110-121.

F. Morrison and M. Harris. Introduction. The Little Hotel. By Christina Stead. Sydney: Richmond, 2003.

Conference proceedings

“Anglo-Celtic Elegy: Reading the Cultural Hyphen.” Origins and Revivals: Proceedings of the First Australian Conference of Celtic Studies 2001. Ed. G. G. Evans. Sydney Series in Celtic Studies. Sydney: The Centre for Celtic Studies, 2001. 457-470.

Academic reviews

Morrison, F. Review of Nine Lives by Susan Sheridan

Morrison, F. The Young Dancer.” Review of Dorothy Hewett. The Gypsy Dancer. Ed. Christine Alexander and others. Sydney: Juvenilia Press, 2009. Accepted for Southerly 71:2 (2010).

Morrison, F. “Ghostbusting”. Review of Teresa Peterson. The Enigmatic Christina Stead: A Provocative Re-reading. Melbourne: MUP, 2000. In Overland 168 (2002): 102-106.

Phone
+61 2 9385 5275
Location
311B, Level 3 Robert Webster
  • Books | 2019
    Morrison F, 2019, Christina Stead and the Matter of America, Sydney Studies in Australian Literature, University of Sydney Press, Sydney, http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvscxs57
    Books | 2011
    2011, Selected Prose of Dorothy Hewett, Morrison , (ed.), University of Western Australia Press, Perth
    Books | 2006
    Morrison ; Parker M, 2006, Masters in Pieces: The English Canon for the Twenty-first century, Original, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne
    Books | 2003
    2003, The Little Hotel, Morrison ; Harris M, (ed.), Richmond (ETT), Sydney
  • Book Chapters | 2023
    Morrison F, 2023, 'Henry Handel Richardson, Christina Stead and the Transnational Novel of Provincial Development.', in Carter D (ed.), The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel, Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 218 - 235
    Book Chapters | 2023
    Morrison F, 2023, '’Rich and Strange’: Christina Stead and the Australian Transnational Novel', in Birns N (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Australian Novel, Cambridge Universtiy Press, New York
    Book Chapters | 2014
    Morrison F, 2014, '“Bursting with Voice and Doubleness: Vernacular presence and visions of inclusiveness in Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet.”', in McCredden L; O'Reilly N (ed.), Tim Winton: Critical Essays., edn. 1st, UWAP, Nedlands, pp. 49 - 74, http://uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/tim-winton-critical-essays
    Book Chapters | 2014
    Morrison F, 2014, '““This Intricate Lasting Nature”: Passage, Pastoral Elegy and the Pedagogy of Loss in Shirley Hazzard’s The Evening of the Holiday.”', in Olubas B (ed.), Shirley Hazzard: new critical essays, University of Sydney Press, Sydney, pp. 13 - 23, https://sup-estore.sydney.edu.au/jspcart/cart/Product.jsp?nID=958&nCategoryID=1
    Book Chapters | 2012
    Morrison , 2012, '‘The American Introduction: Perfect Readers, Unread Books and Christina Stead’s The Man Who Loved Children.', in Kirkpatrick P (ed.), Republics of Letters: Literary Communities in Australia, edn. Original, University of Sydney Press, Sydney, pp. 127 - 136, http://fmx01.ucc.usyd.edu.au/jspcart/cart/Product.jsp?nID=655&nCategoryID=30
    Book Chapters | 2011
    Morrison F, 2011, 'Introduction', in Selected Prose of Dorothy Hewett, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, pp. 2 - 28
    Book Chapters | 2010
    Morrison , 2010, 'The Rhetoric of Sensation: Austen, Bronte and the Gothic Romance.', in Scoping the syllabus : papers from the English Association English Teachers Conference 2010, edn. Original, English Association, Sydney, pp. 107 - 116
    Book Chapters | 2008
    Morrison , 2008, 'To Have Loved and Lost: Life Writing and the Rhetoric of Consolation', in New Directions, edn. Original, English Association Sydney, Sydney, pp. 110 - 121
    Book Chapters | 2003
    Morrison F, 2003, 'Introduction', in Morrison F (ed.), The Little Hotel. By Christina Stead., Richmond, Sydney, pp. ix - xiv
    Book Chapters | 2000
    Morrison , 2000, '“’The Cruel Book’: Political Satire and the Female Satirist in I'm Dying Laughing.”', in Harris M (ed.), The Magic Phrase: Critical Essays on Christina Stead. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 244. Detroit: Gale, 2011. 183-192. Print., edn. Original, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, pp. 224 - 240
  • Journal articles | 2021
    Morrison F, 2021, '"'Deep Digging': Henry Handel Richardson, Transnational Allegory and the Unsettled Epic', Affirmations: of the modern, 7, pp. 72 - 83, https://affirmationsmodern.com/
    Journal articles | 2018
    Morrison F, 2018, 'The Antiphonal Time of Violence in Leah Purcell's' The Drover's Wife', Southerly: a review of Australian literature, 78, pp. 173 - 191, https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=422638758895079;res=IELLCC
    Journal articles | 2017
    Morrison F, 2017, '“A transfiguration of my local patriotism”: Christina Stead, the figure of oceanic totality and ‘A Night on the Indian Ocean’.', Westerly, 2, pp. 87 - 100, https://westerlymag.com.au/issues/62-2/
    Journal articles | 2016
    Morrison F; Rooney, B, 2016, 'Introduction "Rediscovering Christina Stead"', Australian Literary Studies
    Journal articles | 2016
    Morrison F, 2016, '‘A Vermeer in the Hayloft’: Christina Stead, Unjust Neglect and Transnational Improprieties of Place and Kind', Australian Literary Studies, http://dx.doi.org/10.20314/als.a746944c30
    Journal articles | 2014
    Morrison F, 2014, '“‘Foxy Lady’: Radical Chic and Rhetorical Markets in Christina Stead’s Letty Fox: Her Luck.”', Antipodes: A Global Journal of Australian/New Zealand Literature, 27, pp. 111 - 122
    Journal articles | 2013
    Morrison F, 2013, '“Modernist/Provincial/Pacific: Christina Stead, Katherine Mansfield and the Expatriate Hometown.”', JASAL Special Issue: The Colonies, 13, http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/jasal/article/view/2897
    Journal articles | 2012
    Morrison , 2012, 'Leaving the Party: Dorothy Hewett, Literary Politics and the Long 1960s', Southerly, 72, pp. 36 - 50, http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=787139479570750;res=IELLCC
    Journal articles | 2012
    Morrison F, 2012, 'Nine Lives: Postwar Women Writers Making their Mark', AUSTRALIAN FEMINIST STUDIES, 27, pp. 225 - 227, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2012.683385
    Journal articles | 2011
    Morrison , 2011, 'I must have a mask to hide behind’: Signature, Imposture and Henry Handel Richardson.', Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (JASAL). Rpt in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 327. Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, 2016. Prod. Layman Poupard. 219-322. Print., Archive Madness, pp. 1 - 12
    Journal articles | 2010
    Morrison , 2010, 'The Quality of ‘Life’: Dorothy Hewett’s Literary Criticism.', Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (JASAL), Common Readers and Cultural Critics, pp. 1 - 10
    Journal articles | 2009
    Morrison , 2009, 'The Elided Middle: Christina Stead’s For Love Alone and the Colonial Voyage In.', Southerly, 69, pp. 155 - 174
    Journal articles | 2001
    Morrison , 2001, '“On Foreign Ground: Expatriate Masculinity and the Unhomely Woman in Henry Handel Richardson’s Maurice Guest.” Rpt in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 327. Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, 2016. Prod. Layman Poupard. 219-322. Print.', Southerly, 61, pp. 64 - 79
    Journal articles | 1999
    Morrison , 1999, '“Figures of the Many and the One: Gender, Genre and Narrative Structure in Tim Winton's Cloudstreet.”', Sydney Studies in English, 25, pp. 133 - 155
  • Conference Papers | 2001
    Morrison , 2001, '“Anglo-Celtic Elegy: Reading the Cultural Hyphen.”', in Origins and Revivals, Centre for Celtic Studies, Sydney, Sydney, pp. 457 - 470

Research Support Income and Grants

SRG 2022: Henry Handel Richardson, "Hearing Voices: Psychical Research and the disruption of Realism in The Fortunes of Richard Mahony": $4200

FRG 2021: Faculty Research Grant funding to support application for Cat 1 grant funding: $3500
SRG 2020: Eleanor Dark Symposium - $1849 (contracted book with SUP, 2021)
SRG 2019: Provincial Modernity and the novel of development - $4994 (publication in Affirmations)

SRG 2018: Australian/Provincial/Modern: Richardson, Stead, Mansfield - $1300 (ARC project on HHR)

SRG 2016: ALS guest edited issue on Christina Stead ‘Rediscovering Again: $3195 (ALS issue 2016)

SRG 2015: Rediscovering Again: Christina Stead & Elizabeth Harrower Symposium: $5729 (ALS issue)

ARC DP 2012: I was the recipient of a Category 1 Grant: $110,000 for the ARC DP Scheme (DP120103310) “Christina Stead in America” (sole CI, 2012-2015). This ARC grant supported the production of 6 outputs: a scholarly symposium (2015), an edited collection for the prestigious Australian Literary Studies (2016), three peer- reviewed essays (2016-2018) and one prize-winning monograph (2019)

2010-2011: At the University of Sydney I was awarded (4) Faculty and School funding grants to the total of $10,680. This funding supported the production of my edition of Dorothy Hewett’s non-fiction prose (UWAP 2011) and scoping work for my ARC Grant “Christina Stead in America” (2012-2015)

2021: I won the Walter McRae Russell Award (a biannual prize for the best work of literary criticism in Australian literary studies 2019-2020) for my monograph Christina Stead and the Matter of America. This prize is judged by three peers in the field of Australian literary studies and is open to national and international entrants. The Panel for the 2019-2020 award was chaired by Professor Tony Hughes-D’Aeth, the Chair of Australian Literature at UWA.

In 2020 Christina Stead and the Matter of America was also shortlisted for: •The Australian University Heads of English (AUHE) Prize for Literary Scholarship and •The Award for Best Monograph as part of the Dean’s Research Awards (Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture [FADA], UNSW)
2020: I won the Excellence in HDR Supervision Award at the Dean’s Research Awards (FADA, UNSW) 2014: I was nominated for and completed the prestigious UNSW Academic Women in Leadership program

I am currently interested in the intersection of gender, genre and transnational authorship in the work of  Australian women writers in the period 1890-1940. This work involved a particular focus on twentieth century forms of the novel by mobile colonial women writers, where various negotiations of modernist and realist modes are both complex and striking. Two current projects express my current research focus: a  book-length study of the fiction of Henry Handel Richardson (Ethel Florence Lindsay Richardson) and a co-edited collection of scholarly essays on Eleanor Dark (SUP, forthcoming 2023). 

 

  • Member, Advisory Board of JASAL

  • President - Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL), 2019-2021

  • Executive member – Australian University Heads of English (AUHE), 2019-2021

  • Non-fiction editor - Southerly, 2019-present

  • Member, Editorial Board - Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, 2017-2021

  • Vice-President - ASAL, 2017-2019

  • Lecturer and workshop convenor: UNSW Indigenous winter school, 2013 & 2017-9

  • NSW State Representative - ASAL, 2015-2017

  • Vice President - English Association Sydney, 2011-2015

  • Book manuscript reviewer for Palgrave Macmillan and Routledge

  • Reviewer for leading Australian academic journals - Australian Feminist Studies, Overland, and Southerly.

I am an executive committee member of the English Association, Sydney.

Since 1996, I have given over twenty invited lectures and/or keynote presentations to teachers and students involved with the NSW HSC curriculum.

My Teaching

I have taught widely in the English and Australian literary curriculum for a number of years.

Since I joined UNSW I have convened and taught the following courses:
ARTS 3041: Literary Mobilities
ARTS2037 Reading Women's Writing

I have contributed lectures/modules to the following courses:
ARTS4200 Advanced Literary Studies (English Honours course)
ARTS2031 Australian Literature

I will convene and teach Postcolonial Literature in 2013.

I am currently supervising PhD, Masters and Honours students working in Australian literature, literary modernism and mobility, transnational literary cultures, contemporary British fiction and feminist science fiction and fantasy.