Jennifer Rutherford

Professor Jennifer Rutherford

Director

School of Humanities

Faculty of Arts

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.

I am an interdisciplinary scholar trained in sociology and literature. My research experiments with writing, representation and performance to provide new ways of communicating academic knowledge in the humanities and the social sciences. I am interested in narrative, memory and place-making; in the slowness and inertia of cultures and subjects in times of great change; in the way individuals and communities dwell in, and through, the traumas that shape them, and in the role that artists and writers play as conduits for change. Psychoanalysis informs much of what I do, as does the troubled history of colonial race–relations.

My most recent work explores melancholia in Australian culture. A novella 'Méren: Me, My Brothers and I' (under review) re-imagines the myth of Saturn unfolding in a dystopic Australian colony; 'Melancholy Migrations: Travelling with the Negative' (forthcoming Giramondo) is a provocative study of the cultural politics of melancholia in Australia, and 'The Encyclopedia of Lost Things' (in progress) uses the affordances of life-writing to explore the trauma of past losses against a horizon of future crisis.

In another recent project I led a creative team to produce a mobile app 'Traverses: J.M. Coetzee in the World', (Itunes) creating a new mode of literary criticism integrating, video, textual and photographic archival material, and critical commentary, in a highly accessible and interactive digital platform.

I welcome inquiries from Masters and Ph.D. candidates interested in: creative research, interdisciplinary scholarship, creative criticism, and trans-disciplinary poetics. I am happy to supervise theses in the fields of psychoanalysis, spatial poetics, trauma studies, colonial and post-colonial studies, race-relations and Australian literature and cultural studies.

My projects include: 

  • The Encyclopedia of Lost Things

"The Encyclopedia of Lost Things", a writing project, explores the affordances of life-writing to illuminate the inter-relationship between an intimate self (and its crises) and a larger collective condition/crisis. Interlacing theoretical, philosophical and psycho-social reflection with literary and personal narration it explores the interdependence of nature/culture in narrativising the self. Conceived as an "an experiment in attention" (Dillon 2018), it contributes to the “new essaysim” through the crafting of a work of 26 essays, each constructed around a letter of the alphabet and using digression, segue, and glissade to move fluidly between different registers (past present and future; intimate recollection; critical thought, self and nature/society).

Essays from “The Encyclopedia of Lost Things” have been published in Best Australian Essays (2017); long-listed for the Calibre Prize (2016) and recognized by the award of a Vermont Studio Writing Residence (2018); A Dartmouth College Visiting Fellowship, Leslie College of the Humanities( 2018); and an ANU Humanities Research Centre Fellowship, 2019)
 

  • Tjungu Pakani- Together We Rise

This project Tjungu Pakani- Together We Rise was a cross-cultural creative collaboration between the JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice, Sound Stream, The National Trust of Australia (Ayers House), the City of Adelaide, Renewal SA, Arts South Australia, The Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (University of Adelaide) and the Titjikala Women’s Choir. The project brought the Norther Territory Indigenous choir (Titjikala) to Adelaide for a series of workshops and exchanges with local musicians and artists culminating in an exhibition and concert featuring the choir singing songs from the Lutheran tradition in Pitjantjajara. The project was funded with a City of Adelaide Arts and Cultural – Community Programs & Events Grant 2018/19
 

  • Méren: Me, My Brothers and I

Méren: Me, My Brothers and I, is a fictional exploration of colonial melancholy extending and deepening understanding of the traumatic foundations of colonization. Melancholia has been understood as an affect underpinning dominant cultural fantasy particularly in relation to colonial and post-colonial racial imaginaries. Méren, Me My Brothers and I explores this traumatic/ affective legacy in the context of colonial South Australia imagined through the narrative conceit of Saturn as a colonial "founding father.” This poetic evocation deepens available ways of understanding key colonial tropes of the fantastic, the uncanny and the gothic reinterpreted though the long history of melancholy scholarship and textualisation. Méren: Me, My Brothers and I, is currently under-review with Giramondo Press.

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  • Appointments
    Date Position Institution name
    2015 Professor (Sociology and Literature), Director, JMCCCP Adelaide University
    2014 - 2015 Director, Hawke EU Centre for Mobilities, Migrations, and Cultural Transformations University of South Australia
    2013 - 2015 Deputy Director, Hawke Research Institute University of South Australia
    2010 - 2013 Head of Department (Sociology) and Associate Professor (Social Theory) Flinders University
    2006 - 2010 Senior Lecturer (English Literary Studies) Melbourne University
    2003 - 2005 Senior Lecturer (Cultural Studies) Macquarie University
    1998 - 2000 Macquarie University Research Fellow (Cultural Studies) Macquarie University

  • Awards and Achievements
    Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
    2019 Fellowship Visiting Fellow Humanities Research Centre Australian National University Australia 12,000
    2018 Fellowship Visiting Fellow, Leslie Centre for the Humanities Dartmouth College United States accommodation expenses and honorarium
    2018 Fellowship Writer in residence Vermont Studio centre, Johnson United States 1000
    2014 Award Lead Researcher/Director University of South Australia — 1,5million
    2014 Distinction Public Lecture Trinity College Dublin Ireland —
    2014 Invitation Visiting Fellowship Trinity College Dublin Ireland —
    2013 Achievement Director, National Asylum Summit University of South Australia Australia —

  • Language Competencies
    Language Competency
    French Can read, speak, understand spoken and peer review

  • Education
    Date Institution name Country Title
    1988 - 1997 University of New South Wales Australia PhD
    1977 Newcastle University Australia BA
    — ÉHÉSS France D.E.A
    — Macquarie Universitity Australia Hons First Class

  • Postgraduate Training
    Date Title Institution Country
    1989 - 1992 Psychoanalytic Training: École de la Cause Freudienne/Institut du Champ freudien, Paris France
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  • Journals
    Year Citation
    2021 Rutherford, J. (2021). 100 years of Freud's The Uncanny. Westerly.
    2021 Rutherford, J. (2021). 100 years of Freud's The Uncanny. Westerly.
    2020 Rutherford, J. (2020). 'Dreaming the Critical University: The Mirror or the Algorithm?". Sydney Review of Books, (February 2020).
    2015 Rutherford, J. (2015). Modernism and Melancholia: Writing as Countermourning.. MLN, 130(5), 1250-+.
    DOI
    2015 Rutherford, J. (2015). Sanja Bahun: Modernism and Melancholia: Writing as Counter Mourning. MLN, 130(5).
    2015 Rutherford, J. (2015). (Post)apartheid conditions: psychoanalysis and social formation: slip-side of the good: Derek Hook's post-apartheid conditions. African Identities, 13(1), 92-94.
    DOI
    2014 Rutherford, J. (2014). "Uncertain States".
    2014 Rutherford, J. (2014). The Inside Outsiders. Sydney Review of Books.
    2010 Rutherford, J. (2010). The After Silence of the Son/G. Australian Feminist Law Journal, 33(1), 3-18.
    DOI
    2008 Rutherford, J. (2008). Hansonella: The Morphology of a Modern Folk Tale. Transtext(e)s Transcultures 跨文本跨文化, (4), 114-129.
    DOI
    2008 Rutherford, J. (2008). Flaubert in the Garden: Brian Castro's Melancholy Encryptions. HEAT, 18, 79-96.
    2008 Rutherford, J. (2008). Melancholy and the Magpie: Coetzee's Amoro-Dolorous Duo. Kunapipi: journal of postcolonial writing, 2.
    2007 Rutherford, J. (2007). Melancholy Secrets: Rosa Praed's Encrypted Father. Double Dialogues, (8).
    2006 Rutherford, J. (2006). Clay, Cloth, Corps. Double Dialogues, (6).
    2006 Rutherford, J. (2006). It is Forbidden. Australian Universities' Review, 48(2).
    2005 Rutherford, J. (2005). The Unusable F Word: Fascism and the Australian Media. Social Alternatives, 24(1), 33-36.
    2005 Rutherford, J. (2005). 'The I, the Eye and the Orifice'. HEAT, 9, 105-115.
    2003 Rutherford, J. (2003). Cutting Ordinary: An ABC True Story: The 2002 Caroline Chisolm Lecture. Australian Humanities Review, (28).
    2001 Rutherford, J. (2001). One love too many: The undoing of Pauline Hanson. Australian Journal of Politics and History, 47(2), 192-208.
    DOI Scopus7 WoS3
    1998 Rutherford, J. (1998). 'Being for the Nation: Masculine Sacrifice in My Brother Jack'. Meridian The La Trobe University English Review, 17(1), 109-127.
    1997 Rutherford, J. (1997). 'Thursa, Turtle, Myrtle, Tortoise: The Good Self Tells a Story'. Meridian, 16(2), 271-279.
    1997 Rutherford, J. (1997). Identifying the Australian Gaze/Identifying an Australian perversion: Rereading The Fortunes of Richard Mahony. Meridian The La TRobe University English Review, 16(2), 281-303.
    — Rutherford, J. (n.d.). Writing the Square: Paul Carter's Nearamnew and the Art of Federation. PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, 2(2).
    DOI

  • Books
    Year Citation
    2017 Rutherford, J., & Uhlman, A. (Eds.) (2017). J.M.Coetzee The Childhood of Jesus: the Ethics of Words and Things. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
    2013 Rutherford, J. (2013). Zombies. United Kingdom: Routledge.
    DOI Scopus8
    2010 Holloway, B., & Rutherford, J. (Eds.) (2010). Halfway House: The Poetics of Australian Spaces. Perth: University of Western Australia Press.
    2006 Rutherford, J. (Ed.) (2006). Shared Space; Brokered Time: The Work of Paul Carter (Vol. 2).
    2000 Rutherford, J. (2000). The Gauche Intruder Freud, Lacan and the White Australian Fantasy. Melbourne University.

  • Book Chapters
    Year Citation
    2021 Rutherford, J. (2021). Curating Coetzee from Austin to Adelaide. In M. Farrant, K. Easton, & H. Wittenberg (Eds.), J.M Coetzee and the Archive: Fiction, Theory and Auto/biography. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Academic.
    2017 Rutherford, J. (2017). 'The House of Flowers'. In A. Goldsworthy (Ed.), The Best Australian Essays 2017 (pp. 204-214). Carlton: Black Inc..
    2017 Rutherford, J., & Uhlmann, A. (2017). Introduction. In J. Rutherford, & A. Uhlmann (Eds.), J.M. Coetzee's The Childhood of Jesus: The Ethics of Ideas and Things (Vol. 244, pp. 1-5). London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
    DOI Scopus1
    2017 Rutherford, J. (2017). Thinking Through Shit in The Childhood of Jesus. In J. Rutherford, & A. Uhlman (Eds.), J.M. Coetzee's The Childhood of Jesus: The Ethics of Ideas and Things (pp. 59-81). New York: Bloomsbury.
    2016 Rutherford, J. (2016). "Washed clean": The forgotten journeys of future maritime arrivals in J.M. Coetzee's Estralia. In L. Mannik (Ed.), Migration By Boat: Discourses of Trauma, Exclusion, and Survival (1 ed., pp. 101-115). New York, USA: Berghahn Books.
    2014 Crouch, D., & Rutherford, J. (2014). Social and cultural theory and literature. In A. Elliott (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Social and Cultural Theory (pp. 278-298). London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
    DOI
    2014 Crouch, D., & Rutherford, J. (2014). Reading and reception. In A. Elliott (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Social and Cultural Theory (pp. 358-374). London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
    DOI
    2011 Rutherford, J. (2011). The secret of the father in the colonial secret: Rosa Praed's 'weird melancholy'. In M. Middeke, & C. Wald (Eds.), The Literature of Melancholia: Early Modern to Postmodern (pp. 160-172). Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
    DOI
    2011 Rutherford, J. (2011). The secret of the father in the colonial secret: Rosa Praed’s ‘weird melancholy’. In The Literature of Melancholia: Early Modern to Postmodern (pp. 160-172). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
    DOI Scopus1
    2010 Rutherford, J. (2010). "Kairos for a Wounded Country". In J. Rutherford, & B. Holloway (Eds.), Halfway House: The Poetics of Australian Spaces (pp. 1-11). Perth: University of Western Australia Press.
    2010 Rutherford, J. (2010). "Undwelling; Or reading Bachelard in Australia". In J. Rutherford, & B. Holloway (Eds.), Halfway House: The Poetics of Australian Spaces (pp. 113-125). Perth: University of Western Australia Press.
    2010 Rutherford, J. (2010). "Homo Nullius: The Politics of Pessimism in Patrick White's Tree of Man". In E. McMahon, & B. Olubus (Eds.), Remembering Patrick White: Contemporary Critical Essays in the Post/Colonial Literatures in English (Vol. 128). Rudopi.
    2001 Rutherford, J. (2001). The Colonising Victim: Tim Winton's Irish Conceit. In A. Luyat (Ed.), Flight from Certainty The Dilemma of Identity and Exile (pp. 153-163). Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi.
    2000 Rutherford, J. (2000). 'Staging Ireland: Ireland as Conceit in Contemporary Australian Narratives of Belonging'. In B. Philip, F. Devlin-Glass, & H. Doyle (Eds.), Ireland and Australia, 1798-1998 Studies in Culture, Identity, and Migration (pp. 196-207). Sydney: Crossing Press.
    1997 Rutherford, J. (1997). Diana; The Hour of our Death. In I. Ang (Ed.), Planet Diana Cultural Studies and Global Mourning (pp. 57-60). Nepean: Research Centre in Intercommunal Studies.

  • Conference Items
    Year Citation
    2011 Rutherford, J. (2011). Fauchery’s Ruins: A Story in Fragments (Keynote Lecture). Poster session presented at the meeting of Identités, Images, Représentations,. Université de la Rochelle, France.
    2010 Rutherford, J. (2010). Future, Stories, Intimate Histories (Keynote Lecture). Poster session presented at the meeting of Australian Critical Race and Whiteness National conference. Adelaide.
    2010 Rutherford, J. (2010). Keynote Lecture. Poster session presented at the meeting of Law, Psychoanalysis and the Question of Gender Symposium. Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.

  • Live Performance of Creative Works
    Year Citation
    2017 Rutherford, J. (2017). April in Kumrovec (No. Of Pieces: 30 minutes) [Performance]. New York Opera Centre: Double Dialogues.
    2013 Rutherford, J. (2013). The Zombie Century (No. Of Pieces: 30 minute performance) [Performance]. Performed University of South pacific, Suva.

  • Original Creative Works
    Year Citation
    2020 Authors: Rutherford J. Title: Hunters and Collectors. Description: N/A. Extent: 9 pages.
    2019 Authors: Rutherford J. Title: Homeward Flight. Description: Part of a collaborative suite of essays published as a feature in Westerly (July 19). Extent: 11 pages.
    2019 Authors: Rutherford J. Title: April in Kumrovec. Description: N/A. Extent: 7 pages.
    2019 Authors: Rutherford J. Title: "The Bb Book". Description: N/A. Extent: Forms part of a work of life-writing (in progress) comprised of 26 essays to be published under the title: The Encyclopedia of Lost Things.
    2018 Authors: Rutherford J. Title: House of Flowers. Description: N/A. Extent: 10 pages.
    2018 Authors: Rutherford J. Title: The Analyst's Laugh. Description: N/A. Extent: Forms part of "Why Do Things Break" project. (see events/projects).
    2018 Authors: Rutherford J. Title: Greyson (excerpt from Mérencolye). Description: N/A. Extent: 7 pages.
    2018 Authors: Rutherford J. Title: House of Flowers. Description: N/A. Extent: 4267 words.
    2017 Authors: Rutherford J, Harms L, Jenkins A, Horanyi R. Title: Traverses: J.M Coetzee in the World Mobile App. Description: N/A. Extent: 448 MB.

  • Recorded/Rendered Creative Works
    Year Citation
    2002 Authors: Rutherford J. Title: Ordinary People; Documentary Film (Film Australia). Description: N/A. Extent: 55 minute documenatry.

  • Curated or Produced Public Exhibition or Events
    Year Citation
    2018 Rutherford, J., & McCulloch, A. (2018). "Why Do Things Break?" (No. Of Pieces: TBA) [Exhibition]. Adelaide University, New York Opera Centre, Double Dialogues: JMCCCP Double Dialogues.
    2014 Rutherford, J. (2014). Traverses: J.M. Coetzee in the World (No. Of Pieces: Catalogue Essay - two pages. 26 day exhibition.) [Exhibition]. South Australia: University of South Australia.
    2014 Rutherford, J., & Chafee, D. (2014). The Future of the Book (No. Of Pieces: Catalogue Essay - two pages) [Exhibition]. Adelaide, South Australia: SASA Gallery - University of South Australia.
    2014 Rutherford, J. (2014). Traverses:J.M Coetzee in the World (No. Of Pieces: Exhibition of JM Coetzee Papers on loan from the Harry Ranson Center, The University of Austin at Texas with original art works, video and catalogue essay) [exhibition]. Kerry Packer Civic Gallery.
    2013 Rutherford, J. (2013). National Asylum Summit (No. Of Pieces: 15) [Exhibition]. Adelaide, Australia: University of South Australia.
    2013 Rutherford, J. (2013). National Asylum Summit (No. Of Pieces: 15) [Exhibition]. Adelaide, Australia: University of South Australia.
    2010 Rutherford, J. (2010). Halfway House: A Poetics of Australian Space (No. Of Pieces: Two exhibitions and catalogue essay) [Exhibition]. Sydney and Melbourne.
Date Project Name Investigators Funding Body Amount
2018 Tjungu Pakanai: Together we Rise Jennifer Rutherford & Rita Horanyi City of Adelaide $7,500
2017 H2O: Life & Death Jennifer Rutherford & Camille Rouliere EU Centre for Global Affairs $4,500
2017 Macau Days Brian Castro, John Young, Luke Harrald and the JMCCCP (Jennifer Rutherford co-ordinator) EU Centre for Global Affairs $23,000
2017 Myth and Its Migrations Jennifer Rutherford & Peter Arnds EU Centre for Global Affairs $2,500
2015 EU Centre for Mobilities, Migrations and Cultural Transformations Jean Monnet Erasmus Plus European Union grant 

Jennifer Rutherford

 Jean Monnet Erasmus Plus European Union $1,500,000
2014 Traverses: J.M. Coetzee in the World Mobile App Jennifer Rutherford, Rita Horanyi, Lisa Harms &Adam Jenkins EASS Division grant, UniSA, $13,200
2012 The Paradox of Melancholia: Paralysis and Agency Symposium Jennifer Rutherford, Brian Castro & Anthony Elliott Ian Potter Foundation Grant $8,600
2012 The Paradox of Melancholia: Paralysis and Agency Jennifer Rutherford The Australian Academy of Social Sciences Workshop Program Grant $2,000
2009 Black Art and Black Bile: Melancholy Genealogies in Colonial Victoria Jennifer Rutherford Arts Faculty Research Grant, Melbourne University $18,500
2009 Provost innovative Teacher’s Award Jennifer Rutherford Melbourne University $15,000
2006

Love’s Labour’s Lost: The Writing of Melancholia in Australian Literature, Arts Faculty Research Grant, Melbourne University, 2006

 Jennifer Rutherford Melbourne University $3,500
2005 The Poetics of Australian Space Conference, in collaboration with the Art Gallery of New South Jennifer Rutherford Sydney University $10,000
2004 The New Nationalism: a psychosocial analysis of the Australian far right”, Sydney University, Sesqui Centenary Grant Jennifer Rutherford Sydney University $25,000
2001 Ordinary People (with M. Ansara), Film finance for a National Interest Documentary, Film Australia and the ABC, 2001, Jennifer Rutherford & Martha Ansara Film Australia and the ABC $250,000
2000 Ordinary People, Australian Film Commission Jennifer Rutherford & Martha Ansara Australian Film Commission $100,000
2000 Ordinary People, Search Foundation Grant Jennifer Rutherford & Martha Ansara Search Foundation $10,000
1999 Ordinary People, NSW National Film and Television Office Grant Jennifer Rutherford & Martha Ansara NSW National Film and Television Office $20,000
1999 The Rhetoric, Eros and Morality of Extreme Nationalism Jennifer Rutherford Macquarie University $14,500
1998 Seeding Grant to establish a Graduate Program in Australian Studies

Ian McCalman & Jennifer Rutherford

National Priority Reserve Fund

 $92,000
1994 Encore or Pas Encore, Lacan’s Purloined Seminar Jennifer Rutherford Australian National University $3,600

 

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  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2019 Co-Supervisor The effects of creativity on neuroplasticity and cognition in adults with post-traumatic stress disorder Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Tanya Jane Duckworth
    2018 Co-Supervisor 'Conversations' - The Impact of The Use of Cross-Disciplinary Art Forms on The Performance Outcome of A New Music Theatre Work Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Cheryl Kaye Pickering
    2017 Principal Supervisor Life and poetry of Foragh Farrokhzad Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Hossein Asgari

  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2019 - 2020 Principal Supervisor Lawson, Stow, Prescott and the Mythos of the Outback Town Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Peter Hugh Court
    2016 - 2017 Co-Supervisor Confronting the Dark: Representations of Death in Australian Fiction and 'The Art of Dying' Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Karen Maree Rees
    2015 - 2018 Principal Supervisor Visions of Water in Lower Murray Country Doctor of Philosophy under a Jointly-awarded Degree Agreement with Doctorate Full Time Dr Camille Marie Eugenie Rouliere
    2015 - 2018 Principal Supervisor The Necrophile Self: Contemporary Attitudes Towards Death and Its New Visibility Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mrs Tamara Tatjana Waraschinski
    2009 - 2011 External Supervisor Desire and Its Disastrous Results: Re-Examining Morality and Ambivalence in the Literature of Feminine Masochism Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Maya Linden
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  • Board Memberships
    Date Role Board name Institution name Country
    2015 - 2015 Advisory Board Member Samstag University of South Australia Australia

  • Committee Memberships
    Date Role Committee Institution Country
    2015 - 2016 Advisory Board Member Scientific Committee research team IDEA (interdisciplinary english studies) Nancy University France
    2015 - ongoing Member French Consortium: France in SA Alliance Francaise Australia
    2015 - ongoing Member SAMSTAG Mangement Committee Samstag/ University of South Australia Australia
    2015 - ongoing Member JMCCCP Management Committee University of Adelaide Australia
    2014 - ongoing Member DIASPO Links Management Committee ERIBIA United Kingdom
    2012 - 2015 Representative EASS Research Management Committee University of South Australia Australia
    2010 - 2012 Member Pro-VC Research Advisory Group, School of Social Sciences Research Committee Flinders University Australia
    2006 - 2008 Chair School of Culture and Communications, Human Ethics Advisory Group Melbourne University Australia
    2003 - 2005 Director Media and Cultural Studies program Macquarie University Australia

  • Memberships
    Date Role Membership Country
    2017 - ongoing Member International Sociological Association/ Sociology of Arts Research Group/ Sociology of Emotions Research Group Australia
    2015 - ongoing Member Postcolonial Studies Association Australia
    2015 - ongoing Member Psychosocial Studies Association United Kingdom
    2015 - ongoing Board Member Creative France SA Australia
    2010 - ongoing — International visual Sociology Association —

  • Editorial Boards
    Date Role Editorial Board Name Institution Country
    2014 - ongoing Editor Antinomies Routledge United Kingdom
    2010 - 2018 Associate Editor Double Dialogues Independent Australia
  • Position: Director
  • Phone: 83139165
  • Email: jennifer.rutherford@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Schulz
  • Room: 609
  • Org Unit: J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice
Connect With Me
External Profiles