Biography
I hold a Personal Chair as Alfred Deakin Professor in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University, where I work in the field of literary studies. I have published 13 books and over 80 essays and journal articles on children's and other literature. My most recent book is The Middle Ages in Children's Literature (Palgrave), which explores how the Middle Ages are used and abused in medievalist texts for the young--that is, post-medieval texts which respond to and deploy medieval culture.
From 2007-2011 I served as President of the International Research Society for Children's Literature, the main international scholarly organisation in the field. In this role I met scholars from all over the world undertaking research in children's literature. In 2009 the Trudeau Foundation (Canada) named me as its first Visiting International Fellow, and during 2010 I spent most of the year working with Canadian scholars at the University of Winnipeg's Centre for Young People's Texts and Cultures. In 2011 I was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities.
Read more on Clare's profileResearch interests
Children's literature: social, cultural and political aspects; postcolonial studies and literatures; utopian studies; medievalisms in texts and culture
Affiliations
Children's Literature Association
International Research Society for Children's Literature
Australasian Children's Literature Association for Research
Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand
Teaching interests
Children's literature, postcolonialism, medievalism
Professional activities
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities, elected 2011
Visiting International Fellow, Trudeau Foundation (Canada), from 2009
Director of the Centre for Memory, Imagination and Invention, 2010-2014
Joint Editor of Book Series, Critical Approaches to Children's Literature (Palgrave UK)
President, International Research Society for Children's Literature (2007-2011)
Vice-President, International Research Society for Children's Literature (2005-2007)
Editor, Papers: Explorations into Children's Literature, from 1996
Member of Editorial Board, Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures (University of Winnipeg, Canada)
Publication Committee, Children's Literature Association (USA) 2007-2010
Referee, Children's Literature (Johns Hopkins University Press)
President, Australasian Children's Literature Association for Research, 1998-2002
Awards
Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, 2011
Inaugural Visiting International Trudeau Fellowship, 2009-2011, Trudeau Foundation, Canada
Children's Literature Association Honor Book for Unsettling Narratives: Postcolonial Readings of Children's Literature, 2009
Children's Literature Association Book Award for outstanding book on children's literature published in 2001 for Reading Race: Aboriginality in Australian Children's Literature
International Research Society for Children's Literature (IRSCL) Award, for Reading Race: Aboriginality in Australian Children's Literature, 2003
Publications
The Stolen Generations of Australia: Narratives of loss and survival
Clare Bradford
(2020), Vol. 13, pp. 242-258, International research in children's literature, Edinburgh, Scotland, C1
Michelle Smith, Kristine Moruzi, Clare Bradford
(2018), Toronto, Ont., A1
Bullies, the bullied and bullying narratives in contemporary fiction
C Bradford, L Hedberg
(2018), pp. 105-125, Cruel children in popular texts and cultures, Cham, Switzerland, B1
Children's and young adult novels: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Pacific
C Bradford
(2018), Vol. 12, pp. 236-250, The Novel in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the South Pacific Since 1950, Oxford, Eng., B1
The critical reading of children's texts: theories, methodologies, and critiques
C Bradford
(2017), pp. 16-27, Critical content analysis of children's and young adult literature: reframing perspective, New York, N.Y., B1
Where girls rule by magic: metaphors of agency
C Bradford
(2017), pp. 107-119, Child autonomy and child governance in children's literature: where children rule, New York, N.Y., B1
Prizing national and transnational: Australian texts in the Printz award
C Bradford
(2017), Vol. 118, pp. 19-31, Prizing children's literature : the cultural politics of children's book awards, Abingdon, Eng., B1
M Reimer, C Bradford, H Snell
(2016), Vol. 9, pp. 280-299, World Novel in English to 1950, Oxford, Eng., B1
Ubby's underdogs: a transformative vision of Australian community
C Bradford, C Sly, D Xu
(2016), Vol. 24, pp. 101-131, Papers: explorations into children's literature, Melbourne, VIC, C1
Introduction. Girls, texts, cultures: cross-disciplinary dialogues
C Bradford
(2015), pp. 1-1, Girls, texts, cultures, Waterloo, Ont., B1
Female protagonists in Arthurian television for the young
C Bradford, R Hutton
(2015), pp. 11-34, The Middle Ages in Popular Culture: Medievalism and Genre, Amerst, N. Y., B1
Parent, child and state in Chinese children's books
L Bi, X Fang, C Bradford
(2015), Vol. 23, pp. 34-52, Papers: explorations into children's literature, Melbourne, Vic., C1
'Turning around' to the affordances of digital games: English curriculum and students' lifeworlds
C Beavis, C Walsh, C Bradford, J O'Mara, T Apperley, A Gutierrez
(2015), Vol. 50, pp. 30-40, English in Australia, Melbourne, Vic., C1
C Bradford
(2014), pp. 207-226, International medievalism and popular culture, Amherst, N. Y., B1
'My blarsted greenstone throne!' Māori princesses and nationhood in New Zealand fiction for girls
C Bradford, C Bradford, C Bradford, C Bradford
(2014), pp. 95-109, Colonial girlhood in literature, culture and history, 1840-1950, Basingstoke, England, B1
Fantasy and its functions in Medievalist picture books
C Bradford
(2014), pp. 61-74, Picture books and beyond, Newtown, NSW, B1
Made in New Zealand: place and enchantment in Margaret Mahy's picture books
C Bradford
(2014), Vol. 39, pp. 111-120, Children's literature association quarterly, Baltimore, Maryland, C1
Medievalism and nationhood in children's literature
C Bradford
(2013), pp. 209-221, The nation in children's literature : nations of childhood, Abingdon, Eng., B1
Monsters: monstrous identities in young adult romance
C Bradford
(2013), pp. 115-125, (Re)Imagining the world: children's literature's response to changing times, Heidelberg , Germany, B1
Saved by the word: Textuality and colonization in nineteenth-century Australian texts for children
C Bradford
(2013), pp. 89-109, Voices of the Other: Children's Literature and the Postcolonial Context, B1-1
C Bradford
(2012), pp. 115-120, Digital games : literacy in action, Kensington Gardens S. A., B1
Where happily ever after happens every day : the medievalisms of Disney's princesses
C Bradford
(2012), pp. 171-188, The Disney middle ages : a fairy-tale and fantasy past, Basingstoke, England, B1
Instilling postcolonial nostalgias : Ned Kelly narratives for children
C Bradford
(2012), Vol. 36, pp. 191-206, Journal of Australian studies, Brisbane, Qld., C1
Reading indigeneity : the ethics of interpretation and representation
C Bradford
(2011), pp. 331-342, Handbook of research on children's and young adult literature, New York, B1
Multiculturalism and post-colonialism
C Bradford
(2011), pp. 162-169, Children's literature studies : a research handbook, Basingstoke, England, B1
Children as ecocitizens : ecocriticism and environmental texts
G Massey, C Bradford
(2011), pp. 109-126, Contemporary children`s literature and film : engaging with theory, Hampshire, England, B1
Journeying subjects : spatiality and identity in children's texts
C Bradford, R Baccolini
(2011), pp. 36-56, Contemporary children's literature and film : engaging with theory, London, England, B1
Children's literature in a global age : transnational and local identities
C Bradford
(2011), Vol. 2, pp. 20-34, Nordic journal of childlit aesthetics, Sweden, C1
The case of children's literature : colonial or anti-colonial?
C Bradford
(2011), Vol. 1, pp. 271-279, Global Studies of Childhood, Oxford, U.K., C1
The return of the fairy : Australian medievalist fantasy for the young
C Bradford
(2011), Vol. 26, pp. 115-132, Australian literary studies, Ipswich, Qld., C1
Race, ethnicity and colonialism
C Bradford
(2010), pp. 39-50, The routledge companion to children's literature, London, England, B1
'Everything must go!' : consumerism and reader positioning in M. T. Anderson's Feed
C Bradford
(2010), Vol. 2, pp. 128-137, Jeunesse : young people, texts, cultures, Winnipeg, Canada, C1
Looking for my corpse : video games and player positioning
C Bradford
(2010), Vol. 33, pp. 54-64, Australian journal of language and literacy, Norwood, S. A.., C1
Looking for my corpse: Video games and player positioning
C Bradford
(2010), Vol. 33, pp. 54-64, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, C1-1
Australian children's literature
C Bradford
(2009), pp. 282-302, The Cambridge history of Australian literature, Melbourne, Vic., B1
Indigeneity and children's literature
C Bradford
(2009), pp. 117-132, English for a new millennium : leading change, Kent Town, S. Aust., B1
Race and reconciliation in settler culture children's literature
C Bradford
(2009), pp. 48-60, Readings on ELT materials III, Malaysia, B1
Literacy in the digital age : learning from computer games
C Bradford, C Beavis, T Apperley, J O'Mara, C Walsh
(2009), Vol. 43, pp. 162-175, English in education, United Kingdom, C1
Playing at bullying : the postmodern ethic of Bully (Canis Canem edit)
C Bradford
(2009), Vol. 1, pp. 67-82, Digital culture and education, [Australia], C1
Muslim - Christian relations and the third crusade : medievalist imaginings
C Bradford
(2009), Vol. 2, pp. 177-191, International research in children's literature, Edinburgh, Scotland, C1
Decolonising space : Indigenous picture books and agency
C Bradford
(2009), pp. 109-116, Metamorphoses in children's literature and culture, Jyvaskyla, Finland, E1
New world orders in contemporary children's literature : utopian transformations
C Bradford, K Mallan, J Stephens, R McCallum
(2008), New York, United States, A1
The homely imaginary : fantasies of nationhood in Australian and Canadian texts
C Bradford
(2008), pp. 177-193, Home words : discourses of children's literature in Canada, Waterloo, Ont., B1
C Bradford, K Mallan, J Stephens
(2008), Vol. 32, pp. 349-359, Journal of Australian studies, St. Lucia, Qld., C1
C Beavis, C Bradford, J O'Mara, C Walsh
(2008), pp. 1-9, AARE 2008 : Changing climates : education for sustainable futures : Proceedings of the 2008 Australian Association for Research in Education conference, Brisbane, Qld., E1-1
Unsettling narratives: postcolonial readings of childrens literature
C Bradford
(2007), Waterloo, Ont., A1
Reading childrens literature : theories and strategies
C Bradford
(2007), pp. 1-21, Understanding childrens literature, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, B1
Re-membering colonialism: tropes of discovery in settler-society texts
C Bradford
(2007), Vol. 33, pp. 66-81, Canadian children's literature, Guelph, Ont, C1
Exclusions and inclusions: multiculturalism in contemporary Taiwanese and Australian picturebooks
C Bradford, H Huang
(2007), Vol. 45, pp. 5-12, Bookbird: a journal of international children's literature, Baltimore, Md., C1
Representing Islam: female subjects in Suzanne Fisher Staples's novels
C Bradford
(2007), Vol. 32, pp. 47-61, Children's literature association quarterly, Baltimore, Md., C1
Postcolonial bildungsroman: indigenous subjects and identity-formation
C Bradford
(2007), Vol. 29, pp. 10-18, Waiguo wenxue yanjiu, China, C1
Cross generational negotiations: Asian Australian picture books
C Bradford
(2007), Vol. 17, pp. 36-42, Papers: explorations into children's literature, Victoria Park, W.A., C1
They went home: racialised spaces in contemporary picture books
C Bradford
(2005), Vol. 1, pp. 86-95, Australian critical race and whiteness studies association journal, [Australia], C1
Education, state and agency in dystopian children's texts
M Aitken, C Bradford, G Massey
(2005), Vol. 15, pp. 22-30, Papers : explorations into children's literature, Victoria Park, W.A., C1
New social orders: reconceptualising family and community in utopian fiction
K Mallan, C Bradford, J Stephens
(2005), Vol. 15, pp. 6-21, Papers: exploration into children's literature, Victoria Park, W.A., C1
Whiteness is all: Stuart Little and the American dream
C Bradford
(2005), pp. 92-103, Adaption as a strategy of childrens literature, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, E1
When everything old is new again: Aboriginal texts and the politics of renewal
C Bradford
(2004), pp. 17-24, Change and renewal in children`s literature, Westport, Conn., B1
To hold up prisms: Australian and Canadian indigenous publishing for children
C Bradford
(2004), Vol. 42, pp. 30-37, Bookbird: a journal of international children's literature, Baltimore, Md., C1
Transformative fictions: postcolonial encounters in Australian texts
C Bradford
(2004), Vol. 28, pp. 195-202, Children's literature association quarterly, Baltimore, Md., C1
Stronger than yesterday: romance and antiromance in popular music
C Bradford
(2003), pp. 35-46, Youth cultures; texts, images, and identities, Westport, London, B1
The sky is falling: children as environmental subjects in contemporary picture books
C Bradford
(2003), pp. 111-120, Children's literature and the Fin de siecle, Westport, Conn., B1
Aboriginal visual narratives for children: a politics of place
C Bradford
(2003), pp. 65-77, Art, narrative and childhood, Stoke on Trent, England, B1
Picturing Australian history: visual texts in nonfiction for children
C Bradford
(2003), pp. 99-105, Presence of the past in children's literature, Westport, Conn., B1
'Oh how different!' : regimes of knowledge in aboriginal texts for children
C Bradford
(2003), Vol. 27, pp. 199-217, Lion and the unicorn, Baltimore, Md, C1
Art, pain, children: utopian and dystopian discourses in picture books
C Bradford
(2003), Vol. 4, pp. 1-7, Double dialogues, Canterbury, Vic., C1
There's no place like home : unhomely moments in three postcolonial picture books
C Bradford
(2003), pp. 104-109, ACLAR 2001 : Cinderella transformed: multiple voices and diverse dialogues in children's literature : Proceedings of the 2001 Australasian Children’s Literature Association for Research Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand, E1
M Reimer, C Bradford
(2003), pp. 200-217, Children's literature global and local : social and aesthetic perspectives ; Selected papers from the 16th biennal congress of the International Research Society for Children's Literature (IRSCL), held in Kristiansand, Norway in 2003, Kristiansand, Norway, E1
Performances of colour : narratives of passing in contemporary settler-colony texts
C Bradford
(2002), pp. 77-84, Seriously playful : genre, performance, and text, Flaxton, Qld., B1
Reading race, aboriginality in Australian children`s literature
C Bradford
(2001), Carlton, Victoria, A1
Mother, maiden, child: gender as performance in the book of Margery Kempe
C Bradford
(2001), pp. 165-181, Feminist poetics of the sacred, creative suspicions, New York, USA, B1
Possessed by the beast: subjectivity and agency in pictures in the dark and foxspell
C Bradford
(2001), pp. 149-164, Mystery in children`s literature, from the rational to the supernatural, Houndmills, Hampshire, UK., B1
The end of empire? colonial and postcolonial journeys in children`s books
C Bradford
(2001), Vol. 29, pp. 196-218, Children's literature, New Haven, USA, C1
Worth in the telling: tales of trauma in Australian Aboriginal narratives
C Bradford
(2001), Vol. 27, Canadian children's literature, Ontario, Canada, C1-1
The making of an elder : Patricia Wrightson and Aboriginality
C Bradford
(1999), Children's Literature Matters : Proceedings of the 3rd Australian Children's Literature Association for Research conference, Melbourne, Victoria, E1
Funded Projects at Deakin
Australian Competitive Grants
Building cultural citizenship: Multiculturalism and children's literature
Prof Clare Bradford, Dr Wenche Ommundsen
ARC - Discovery Projects
- 2008: $67,127
- 2007: $65,811
- 2006: $65,545
Literacy in the digital world of the twenty-first century: learning from computer games.
Prof Catherine Beavis, Prof Clare Bradford, A/Prof Joanne O'Mara, Dr Christopher Walsh
ARC Linkage - Projects Rnd 1
- 2010: $52,596
- 2008: $41,626
- 2007: $65,295
From Colonial to Modern: Transnational Girlhood in Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian Print Cultures (1840-1940)
Dr Michelle Smith, Prof Clare Bradford, Dr Kristine Moruzi
ARC - Discovery Projects
- 2013: $58,752
Other Public Sector Funding
Developing Children's Literature Scholarship: Collaboration between Australia and India
Prof Clare Bradford
Aust India Council Grant - Research
- 2008: $5,000
Literacy in the digital world of the twenty-first century: learning from computer games.
Prof Catherine Beavis, Prof Clare Bradford, A/Prof Joanne O'Mara, Dr Christopher Walsh
ACMI -The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, DETVic Department of Education and Training Victoria
- 2010: $25,000
- 2008: $30,000
- 2007: $25,000
Australian and Indian (Tamil) Children's Literature: A comparative study
Prof Clare Bradford, Dr Meenakshi Hariharan, Prof C Indra
Aust India Council Grant - Research
- 2009: $4,500
Landscaping to Manufacturing: The Wool Industry in Geelong
Prof Clare Bradford, Prof Hisham Elkadi, A/Prof Dirk De Bruyn, Prof Andrea Witcomb, Prof Emily Potter
City of Greater Geelong - Creative Communities Grants
- 2013: $5,000
Industry and Other Funding
Researching and Writing The Wintringham Story
Dr Karen Le Rossignol, Prof Clare Bradford
ANZCT Grant - William Buckland (no longer relevant)
- 2009: $40,000
Supervisions
Robin Freeman
Thesis entitled: Ethical approaches to editing Indigenous writing in settler societies
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Catherine Sly
Thesis entitled: A Narratological Investigation of Australian Graphic Novels for Children
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Juliet O'Conor
Thesis entitled: Traditional Indigenous Australian Stories for Children
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Mercedeh Makoui
Thesis entitled: Gender Relations in Iranian Picture Books: The Politics of Womanhood
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Dirk De Bruyn
Thesis entitled: The Performance of Trauma in Moving Image Art
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Joanna Walkden Harris
Thesis entitled: Feminist Perspectives on Gender Ideology in Recent Young Adult Literature
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Kathryn Mary McInally
Thesis entitled: (Queer) Deleuzean Reading of Desire in Australian Young Adult Fiction
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Kathryn Anne James
Thesis entitled: Matilda's Last Dance: Death, Gender, Sexuality and Australian Adolescent Literature
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Diana Hodge
Thesis entitled: Victorianisms in Twentieth Century Young Adult Fiction
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Catherine Watkins
Thesis entitled: Celebrating Difference
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Carol Lesley Naylor
Thesis entitled: `Commonsense, Manners, Guts': `Manliness' in the English School Story 1887-1917
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Catherine Padmore
Thesis entitled: Leavings: A Novel and Exegesis
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Gaylene Perry
Thesis entitled: Water's Edge Writing
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Literary & Communication Studies
Lara Bridget Hedberg
Thesis entitled: Queer Girls, Queer Landscapes in Texts for Young People
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
William Anthony Kent
Thesis entitled: Here Be Dragons: Ideology and Socialisation in Young Adult Literature
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Dylan Gregory Holdsworth
Thesis entitled: Dis-topias: The Government of Disability in Dystopian Children's Literature
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Thomas Dylan Sandercock
Thesis entitled: Telling Trans: Reading Transgender Representation in Texts for Young People
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Rebecca Elizabeth Hutton
Thesis entitled: Homebirds: re-conceptualising music in young adult LGBTQ fiction
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Kathryn Hegarty
Thesis entitled: Crossing Bowen Street: Mapping Interventions in the Classed Subject
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Darren Drake
Thesis entitled: Secularism Exhausted? Non-Indigenous Postcolonial Discourses and the Question of Aboriginal Religion
Master of Arts, School of Communication and Creative Arts