Dr CA. Cranston is an ecocritic. Ecocriticism is the study of creative works – such as literature – and the environment, and the analysis of how ‘nature’, the environment and ecological processes, are represented in the creative works. CA’s co-edited collection The Littoral Zone: Australian Contexts and their Writers was the first Australian publication of ecocritical essays (2007). CA. is recognised as innovative in the academic community: her PhD “Deformity as Device in the Twentieth Century Novel” (1991) was cited by scholar Bruce Bennett as having “provided a basis for opening up this field for serious literary investigation in Australia.” As Bennett predicted, Disability Studies in Australia are thriving. CA. is now an Associate at the University of Tasmania, where she taught from 1991-2008. CA. currently finds research more suited to a stressless life than teaching.

Thematic Areas of Teaching, and Awards

Cranston was the recipient of an Outstanding Performance Award, a Pioneer Award (for leading the way in creating interactive online units way back when), and a Teaching Excellence Award (face to face seminars, 100+ in lecture halls, video-links, and online) from the University of Tasmania. She received the Governor’s Citation (Texas, USA) for her work in Radio. She is an alumna of the University of Texas at Austin (Phi Beta Kappa; Phi Kappa Phi), and of the University of Tasmania. Subjects taught in various institutions (see under ‘University Appointments’) include Island Political Ecology; Australian Literature; Australian Studies; Anglophone Literatures; ‘Grass Roots’ Environmental Literature; British Romantic Poetry; The Novel in the Nineteenth Century; The Body in the Text; American Nature Writing; Writing the Grand Tour, and Australian Novel into Film.