Faculty of Arts and Education

School of Communication and Creative Arts


   Prof. Clare Bradford

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Position Personal Chair
Email clare.bradford@deakin.edu.au
Area School of Communication & Creative Arts
Phone +61 3 924 46487
Campus Burwood
Location Burwood (Room F/2.20)
Role and profile Overview

Clare has worked at Deakin and Victoria College since 1988. A medievalist by background, she now concentrates on children's literature, with a particular focus on representations of Indigenous people and cultures, colonisation, reconciliation and race relations in Australia and other settler cultures. She has published eight books, five of which are fiction for children. Her book 'Reading Race: Aboriginality in Australian Children's Literature' (2001), won the two main awards in children's literature scholarship: the Children's Literature Association Book Award; and the International Research Society for Children's Literature (IRSCL) Award.

In 2003 with three colleagues, John Stephens (Macquarie), Kerry Mallan (QUT) and Robyn McCallum (Macquarie), Clare gained an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant entitled 'Transformative Utopianism: Children's Literature Responding to Changing World Orders from Glasnost to 11 September, 2001', which analyses utopian and dystopian tropes in children's literature and investigates what fiction for children advocates about power and identity, community, the body, spatio-temporal change, and ecology.

Supported by Deakin research grants and a Canada-Asia-Pacific Award, Clare researched in New Zealand, Canada and the United States in preparation for her current book project, 'Unsettling Narratives', a comparative study of settler culture texts for children (forthcoming, 2007). She edits and publishes Australia's principal scholarly journal in children's literature, 'Papers: Explorations into Children's Literature'.

Clare is currently Vice-President of the International Research Society for Children's Literature.



Professional Associations



  • Australasian Children’s Literature Association for Research(President)
  • Children’s Literature Association
  • Fellowship of Australian Authors (Victorian Branch)
  • Children’s Book Council (Victorian Branch)
  • Association for the Study of Australian Literature
  • International Research Society for Children’s Literature
    Association for Canadian Studies in Australian and New Zealand

    Committee Membership


    • Academic Board
    • Teaching and Learning Committee
    • Faculty Board
    • Faculty of Arts Research Committee
    • School Executive
    • Deputy Director, MA (Writing and Literature)
Teaching responsibilities ALL153, ALL702, ALL708, ALL743
Bachelor of Arts
Research interests
  • Children's literature, social, cultural and political aspects
  • Picture books and illustrated books
  • Australian children's literature and nineteenth-century Australian texts for children.

  • Postcolonial studies and literatures

  • Utopian studies and children's literature
  • Comparative studies of settler society texts
  • Popular texts for children
  • Medievalism in children's literature
  • Eco-criticism and children's literature
    • Qualifications BA (Auckland, NZ), MA (Victoria University of Wellington, NZ), MEd (University of Sydney), PhD (University of Sydney)
    Research link View Deakin associated research data

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    22nd April 2013