Simone Murray

My expertise spans literary studies, media and communication studies, and gender theory and cross-blends these areas.  I actively research in the fields of:

* Print culture, publishing studies and book history

* Digital literary studies, literary media studies and the digital humanities

* Cross-media adaptation

* Women's writing and feminist literary theory

I am very interested in being contacted by potential postgraduate research students in any of these areas or related fields.

I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from The University of Queensland (1992) before gaining first-class Honours in English also at The University of Queensland (1994). Under the Commonwealth Scholarship scheme, I undertook a PhD in English Language and Literature at University College London (1999). My doctoral thesis examined the contemporary UK book publishing industry and its role in gradually mainstreaming feminist ideas. Upon my return to Australia I worked in academic publishing before taking up an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship in the School of School of English, Media Studies and Art History at The University of Queensland (2001-03), and subsequently a Lectureship in School of English, Art History, Film & Media at The University of Sydney (2004). I took up a continuing Lectureship in the Communications and Media Studies program at Monash in 2005 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2008. From mid-2009 until 2011 I was Director of Monash University’s Centre for the Book. Reflecting my research at the interface of literature and digital media, I became a Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies in 2014, and Associate Professor in Literary Studies at the beginning of 2017.

In 2019 I was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Higher-degree supervisions (completed):

2024 – The Slackademics: A Satirical Journey through the Neo-liberal Campus Novel,
Angela Jones (PhD in Creative Writing; submitted Jan. 2024)

2018 – Choices Matter: The Mechanics of Choice in Interactive Narrative,
Antranig Sarian (Master of Arts by Research)

2017 – Feeling Bookish: A New Materialist Analysis of the Book Object in the Digital Era,
Nicola Rodger (Doctor of Philosophy)
 
Monash University Literary and Cultural Studies Best Thesis Prize 2017 – Highly Commended

Postgraduate Publications Award, 2017 (to support writing up PhD thesis for publication)

2013 – Audience in the Spotlight: Investigating Literary Festival Engagement,
Millicent Weber (Doctor of Philosophy)

First full-time position: Lecturer in Literary Studies, Australian National University (2018-21)

Revised thesis published as Literary Festivals and Contemporary Book Culture.
New Directions in Book History series. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Winner: Monash University Literary and Cultural Studies Best Thesis Prize 2016
 

Commendation, Faculty of Arts Postgraduate Publication Prize, 2016 (only one awarded annually)

 
Postgraduate Publications Award, 2016 (to support writing up PhD thesis for book publication)

Highly Commended, Literary and Cultural Studies Program Best Publication of 2015 Prize 
 

2010 – The Ghost Who Walks: A Cultural History of the Phantom Comic Book in Australia, India and Sweden, Kevin Patrick (Doctor of Philosophy)

Revised thesis published as The Phantom Unmasked: America’s First Superhero. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2017

Winner: Faculty of Arts Award for Excellence in Higher Degree by Research 2014