Natalie Edwards

Research Interests

Comparative Literature Studies Feminist Theory Gender Studies Literature in French Postcolonial Studies Visual Cultures

Prof Natalie Edwards

School of Humanities

College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities

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

Natalie Edwards is an award-winning teacher, researcher and supervisor in French and Francophone literature. She specialises in transnational and migrant literature, multilingual writing and women's writing. She has published 3 monographs, 12 edited volumes and over 40 journal articles and book chapters on contemporary literature in French. She currently holds an ARC DP in transnational French-Australian literature. She has also published on pedagogical innovations in languages, in both undergraduate curricula and postgraduate research.Natalie is former Acting Head of School of Humanities, former Deputy Dean, Research, for the Faculty of Arts, and former Deputy Dean, People and Culture, for the Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics at the University of Adelaide. She served 2015-2021 as Director of Graduate Studies for Arts, overseeing approximately 350 PhD and MPhil students in Humanities, Social Sciences, Education and Music. She won the Australian Council for Graduate Research's 2020 Graduate Research Leadership Award for her innovations in this area. Natalie is currently President of the Australian Society for French Studies. She is also a member of the Advisory Committee of PMLA.She teaches all levels of French language and courses in Contemporary French and Francophone literature and culture. She is an expert in digital approaches to teaching, which was recognised by the Stephen Cole the Elder Award (the University of Adelaide's premier teaching award), a national-level Australian Award for University Teaching, and Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (UK).

My current projects include:

  • Transnational Selves: French Narratives of Migration to Australia (ARC DP 2019-2021)

This project investigates the history of French-language writing by migrants to Australia. It explores literature written by migrants from the 19th century to the present day in order to write the history of this significant body of literature. This project aims to generate new understandings of how migrant writers construct identity in a language different from the main language of their host nation, and to highlight the complexity and multiplicity of Australian identity. Click here to view the project website. Funded by the Australian Research Council. 

  • The Future of the Humanities PhD

This project examines the ways in which the PhD is being reimagined in the Humanities. As Judith Butler recently wrote in an article entitled 'The Future of Humanities PhDs,' "too many of us remain attached to an academic culture that reproduces the same graduate curriculum and training without regard for the shrinking academic market that awaits most of our students." This volume brings together scholars who have innovated graduate research pedagogy: creating opportunities for internships, public humanities projects and industry engagement, and developing innovative approaches to the PhD thesis and to components of research training.

Date Position Institution name
2021 - ongoing Professor of French University of Adelaide
2017 - ongoing Associate Professor of French Studies University of Adelaide
2014 - ongoing Senior Lecturer in French Studies University of Adelaide
2012 - ongoing Lecturer in French Studies University of Adelaide
2005 - 2012 Assistant-Associate Professor of French Wagner College

Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
2020 Award Award for Excellence in Graduate Research Leadership Australian Council for Graduate Research Australia $3,000
2018 Fellowship Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy Advance HE United Kingdom -
2018 Fellowship Society for French Studies UK Visiting International Fellowship Society for French Studies UK United Kingdom -
2016 Research Award Women's Research Excellence Award - - $5,000
2016 Teaching Award Australian Award for University Teaching Office for Learning and Teaching Australia 10,000 AUD
2015 Fellowship Visiting Fellow, Institute of Modern Languages Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London - United Kingdom -
2015 Teaching Award Stephen Cole the Elder Award for Excellence in Teaching - - $8,000
2015 Teaching Award Faculty of Arts Award for Excellence in Teaching - - -
2015 Teaching Award Executive Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching - - -

Date Institution name Country Title
2005 Northwestern University USA PhD

Year Citation
2025 Edwards, N., & Rolls, A. (2025). Editors’ Preface. Australian Journal of French Studies, 62(2), 89-97.
DOI
2025 Edwards, N. (2025). Vernon Subutex and Julien Sorel: Urban Trajectories and Contemporary Realisms. Australian Journal of French Studies, 62(2), 123-137.
DOI
2024 Edwards, N. (2024). Pia Petersen, Translingualism and Disruption. Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, 28(2), 217-229.
DOI
2024 Edwards, N., Hogarth, C., Sandford, S., Cardell, K., & Douglas, K. (2024). Boundaries and Borders in Australian Life Writing. Journal of Australian Studies, 48(2), 161-164.
DOI
2024 Edwards, N., & Hogarth, C. (2024). Introduction: Australia's literary landscape: towards an appreciation of the nation's multilingual tradition. Journal of Literary Multilingualism, 2(2), 161-167.
DOI
2024 Edwards, N., Hogarth, C., & Dank, D. (2024). Old stories, new words - multilingualism in a colonised space/place. Journal of Literary Multilingualism, 2(2), 289-305.
DOI
2024 Edwards, N., Hogarth, C., Cardell, K., Douglas, K., & Sandford, S. (2024). Translingual, transnational, and transmedial narratives. Auto/Biography Studies, 39(3), 611-619.
DOI Scopus1
2023 Edwards, N., & Hogarth, C. (2023). Privileging the peripheral: representations of the regional in French-Australian writing. French Studies Bulletin, 44(167-168), 36-39.
DOI Scopus1
2022 Edwards, N., & Hogarth, A. C. (2022). Flawed Border Crossings in Life Writing by Fabienne Kanor and Gisèle Pineau. Auto/Biography Studies, 36(3), 543-558.
DOI
2022 Edwards, N., & Hogarth, C. (2022). Resisting Linguistic Rules in French-Australian Writing. Australian Journal of French Studies, 59(1), 60-72.
DOI Scopus3
2022 Edwards, N., & Hogarth, C. (2022). Contemporary French-Australian Travel Writing: Transnational Memoirs by Patricia Gotlib and Emmanuelle Ferrieux. Australian Journal of French Studies, 59(2), 171-184.
DOI
2022 Edwards, N. (2022). Gender and Generation: Elena Ferrante, Annie Ernaux and the Legacy of Simone de Beauvoir. Romance Studies, 40(3-4), 180-194.
DOI Scopus1 WoS1
2021 Edwards, N., & Hogarth, C. (2021). The Teaching Research Nexus: French-Australian Migrant Literature in the First-Year French Classroom. The French Australian Review, (70), 69-91.
2021 Edwards, N., & Hogarth, C. (2021). Wenz reinvented: The making and remaking of a French-Australian transnational writer. Australian Literary Studies, 36(1), 1-20.
DOI Scopus2
2020 Edwards, N., & Hogarth, C. (2020). French-Australian writing: Expanding multilingual Australian literature. Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, 20(2), 1-10.
2020 Bourdeau, L., Edwards, N., & Wilson, S. (2020). The care (re)turn in French and francophone studies introduction: Caring relations. Australian Journal of French Studies, 57(3), 287-292.
DOI Scopus3 WoS7
2020 Edwards, N. J., & Hogarth, C. (2020). French migrant writing in Australia: Australianness in two female memoirs from the 2000s. The French Australian Review, 67, 46-63.
2019 Edwards, N., & Hogarth, C. (2019). Translingual writing in French, beyond the language of adoption. L'Esprit créateur, 59(4, article no. 744074), 1-11.
DOI Scopus5 WoS5
2019 Edwards, N. (2019). Translingual life writing: Vassilis alexakis, Hélène Cixous, Lydie Salvayre. Esprit Createur, 59(4), 124-136.
DOI Scopus1 WoS1
2018 Edwards, N. (2018). Autofiction and the law: legal scandals in contemporary French literature. Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, 22(1), 6-14.
DOI Scopus4 WoS4
2018 Celestin, R., DalMolin, E., Edwards, N., & Hogarth, C. (2018). Editors' introduction: interrogating scandal. Contemporary french and francophone studies, 22(1), 1-5.
DOI WoS1
2018 Edwards, N. (2018). Linguistic Rencontres in Kim Thúy’s Mãn. PORTAL : Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, 15(1/2), 6-19.
DOI Scopus2
2018 Edwards, N., Hogarth, C., & McCann, B. (2018). Mobility and migration in France and the Francophone world. Australian journal of French studies, 55(1), 3-5.
DOI Scopus1
2018 Edwards, N., Hogarth, C., & King, G. (2018). Introduction: mobility across media in the francophone world. French cultural studies, 29(1), 3-7.
DOI Scopus1
2018 Edwards, N. J. (2018). Ecrire entre deux langues/Writing Between Two Languages. The French Australian Review, 64, 90-96.
2018 Edwards, N. (2018). Mobile objects in Sophie Calle’s Fantômes and Prenez soin de vous. French Cultural Studies, 29(1), 70-78.
DOI Scopus2 WoS1
2018 Edwards, N. (2018). The Journey Home: Annie Ernaux’s Retour à Yvetot. Women in French Studies, 7(1), 344-361.
DOI
2018 Edwards, N. (2018). Mobile Women in Virginie Despentes’s Apocalypse Bébé. Australian Journal of French Studies, 55(1), 6-16.
DOI
2017 Edwards, N. (2017). Visualizing Violence in Francophone Cultures.. FRENCH STUDIES, 71(1), 135-136.
DOI
2017 Edwards, N. (2017). ‘En Australie, je parle une langue minoritaire‘: Catherine Rey‘s Une femme en marche as Australian Life Writing in French. Life Writing, 14(4), 455-463.
DOI
2016 Edwards, N., & Hogarth, C. (2016). Autobiography in the language classroom. Auto/biography studies, 32(1), 55-65.
DOI Scopus4
2016 Edwards, N., Whitehouse, D., Milne, A. -L., & Lyamlahy, K. (2016). Book Reviews. Francosphères, 5(1), 125-133.
DOI
2016 Edwards, N., & Hogarth, C. (2016). Fishermen and little fish: migration and hospitality in Maxine Beneba Clarke’s ‘The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa’. Portal, 13(2), 1-10.
DOI
2015 Edwards, N. (2015). Obliged to sympathise: infanticide in "Il y a longtemps que je t'aime" and "A perdre la raison". Australian Journal of French Studies, 52(2), 174-187.
DOI Scopus6 WoS5
2015 Edwards, N. (2015). The Bilingual Cockatoo: Writing Italian Australian Lives. LIFE WRITING, 12(2), 233-237.
DOI
2015 Edwards, N. (2015). Deliberately barren? The rejection of motherhood in contemporary French women's life writing. Australian Journal of French Studies, 52(1), 24-36.
DOI Scopus2 WoS3
2014 Edwards, N. (2014). Review of Névine El Nossery and Anna Rocca, eds. Frictions et devenirs dans les écritures migrantes au féminin: enracinements et renégociations. Sarrebruck: Editions Universitaires Européens, 2011. 258 pp.. Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, 38(1).
DOI
2014 Edwards, N. J. (2014). Review of Women Matter / Femmes Matière: French and Francophone Women and the Material World, edited by Maggie Allison, and Imogen Long, Peter Lang, 2013.. Contemporary French Civilization, 39(3), 422-433.
2014 Edwards, N., & Hubbell, A. (2014). Self and stuff: accumulation in francophone literature and art. Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, 38(2), 2-1-2-5.
DOI
2014 Edwards, N. (2014). Accumulation and archives: Sophie Calle’s Prenez soin de vous. Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, 38(2), 11 pages.
DOI
2014 Hargreaves, A., Martin, F., in't Veld, L., Fauvel, M., Levy, G., Shryock, R., . . . Benedicty, A. (2014). Reviews. Contemporary French Civilization, 39(3), 411-433.
DOI
2012 Edwards, N. (2012). Feminist manifesto or hardcore porn? Virginie Despente's transgression. The Irish Journal of French Studies, 12(1), 9-26.
DOI
2011 Edwards, N. (2011). Photography and autobiography in Hélène Cixous's Photos de racines and Annie Emaux and Marc Mariées L'Usage de la photo. French Review, 84(4), 704-715.
WoS1
2011 Edwards, N. J., Hogarth, C. W., & Hubbell, A. L. (2011). Introduction: Women's Self-Narrative Across the Francophone World. Women in French Studies, 11-13.
2009 Emerging Perspectives on Ken Bugul: From Alternative Choices to Oppositional Practices ed. by Ada Uzoamaka Azodo and Jeanne-Sarah de Larquier (review) (2009). Women in French Studies, 17(1), 182-183.
DOI
2008 Edwards, N. (2008). The perversity of whiteness: Paule Constant's white spirit as a gendered rewriting of Joseph Conrad's heart of darkness. Women in French Studies, 16(1), 73-84.
DOI
2008 Edwards, N. (2008). Using short-term study abroad to further undergraduate research. Council on Undergraduate Research, 29(2), 14-17.
2007 Diary of a Philosophy Student: Volume 1, 1926-27 by Simone de Beauvoir (review) (2007). Women in French Studies, 15(1), 152-154.
DOI
2007 White Spirit by Paule Constant (review) (2007). Women in French Studies, 15(1), 156-157.
DOI

Year Citation
2020 Edwards, N. (2020). Multilingual Life Writing by French and Francophone Women: Translingual Selves. New York, NY; USA: Routledge.
DOI Scopus2
2016 Edwards, N. (2016). Voicing Voluntary Childlessness: Narratives of Non-Mothering in French (Vol. 3). Switzerland: Peter Lang.
DOI Scopus8
2015 Edwards, N. J., McCann, B., & Poiana, P. (Eds.) (2015). Framing French Culture. Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press.
DOI
2015 Edwards, N. J., McCann, B., & Poiana, P. (Eds.) (2015). Framing French Culture. Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press.
DOI
2011 Edwards, N. (2011). Shifting subjects: plural subjectivity in contemporary francophone women's autobiography. Delaware, USA: University of Delaware Press.
2011 Edwards, N., Hubbell, A., & Miller, A. (Eds.) (2011). Textual and Visual Selves: Photography, Film, and Comic Art in French Autobiography. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
Scopus8
2011 Edwards, N., Hubbell, A., & Miller, A. (Eds.) (2011). Textual and Visual Selves: Photography, Film, and Comic Art in French Autobiography. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
Scopus8

Year Citation
2025 Edwards, N. (2025). Caribbean life writing as world literature. In Life Writing as World Literature (pp. 131-146). Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
DOI
2020 Edwards, N. J., & Christopher, H. (2020). Making the case for languages in postgraduate study. In J. Fornasiero, S. M. A. Reed, R. Amery, E. Bouvet, K. Enomoto, & H. L. Xu (Eds.), Intersections in Language Planning and Policy: Establishing Connections in Languages and Cultures (Vol. 23, pp. 151-162). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
DOI
2019 Edwards, N. J., & Hogarth, C. (2019). Building Bridges from Language to Civilization through Gisèle Pineau’s Un Papillon dans la cité. In N. Meyer, & J. Johnston (Eds.), Rethinking the French Classroom
New Approaches to Teaching Contemporary French and Francophone Women (pp. 8 pages). New York, NY; USA: Routledge.
2019 Edwards, N. (2019). Lucie Joubert’s Ironic Rejection of Motherhood in L’envers du landau. In L. Bourdeau (Ed.), Horrible Mothers Representations across Francophone North America (pp. 93-106). Lincoln , Nebraska , U.S.A: University of Nebraska Press.
2017 Edwards, N. (2017). Imagined Encounters: Assia Djebar’s Vaste est la prison. In E. Johnson, & E. Brezault (Eds.), Memory as Colonial Capital Cross-Cultural Encounters in French and English (pp. 61-76). Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
DOI
2017 Edwards, N. (2017). Pussy: The Feline and the Feminine in Cixous’s L’ Amour même dans la boîte aux lettres. In E. Hall, F. Chevillot, E. Hoft-March, & M. Penalver Vicca (Eds.), Cixous depuis 2000/Cixous after 2000. (Vol. 23, pp. 179-190). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
DOI
2015 Edwards, N., McCann, B., & Poiana, P. (2015). The doubling of the frame - Visual art and discourse. In N. Edwards, B. McCann, & P. Poiana (Eds.), Framing French Culture (1 ed., pp. 3-25). Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press.
DOI
2015 Edwards, N. (2015). Annie Ernaux's phototextual archives: Ecrire la vie. In N. Edwards, B. McCann, & P. Poiana (Eds.), Framing French Culture (1 ed., pp. 177-191). Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press.
DOI
2014 Edwards, N. (2014). Autofiction in the dock: The case of Christine Angot. In A. Angelo, & E. Fulop (Eds.), Protean Selves: First-Person Narrators in Twenty-First-Century French and Francophone Fiction (1 ed., pp. 68-81). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
2013 Edwards, N. (2013). Rape and repetition: Virginie Despentes and the rewriting of trauma. In N. El Nossery, & A. Hubbell (Eds.), The Unspeakable: representations of trauma and francophone literature and art (1 ed., pp. 211-229). United Kingdomm: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
2013 Edwards, N. (2013). 'Ecrire pour ne plus avoir honte' Christine Angot's and Annie Ernaux's Shameless Bodies. In E. Johnson, & P. Moran (Eds.), The female face of shame (1 ed., pp. 61-73). United States: Indiana University Press.
Scopus2
2013 Edwards, N. (2013). Babykillers: Véronique Olmi and Laurence Tardieu on Motherhood. In A. Damle, & G. Rye (Eds.), Women's writing in twenty-first-century France: life as literature (1 ed., pp. 98-110). United Kingdom: Cardiff University of Wales Press.
2011 Edwards, N., Hubbell, A., & Miller, A. (2011). Introduction: Textual and visual selves. In N. Edwards, A. Hubbell, & A. Miller (Eds.), Textual and Visual Selves: Photography, Film and Comic Art in French Autobiography (pp. 1-28). USA: University of Nebraska Press.
Scopus6
2011 Edwards, N. (2011). The absent body: Photography and autobiography in Hélène Cixous's photos de racines and Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie's L'usage de la photo. In N. Edwards, A. Hubbell, & A. Miller (Eds.), Textual and Visual Selves: Photography, Film, and Comic Art in French Autobiography (pp. 79-99). Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska.
Scopus4
2010 Edwards, N. (2010). Christine Angot's second-person autobiography. In N. Edwards, & C. Hogarth (Eds.), This "Self" Which is Not One: Women's Life Writing in French (pp. 149-160). United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Date Project Number / Name Investigators Funding Body Amount
2019 - 2021 Transnational Selves: French Narratives of Migration to Australia

DP190102863 		 A/Prof. Natalie Edwards & Dr. Christopher Hogarth Australian Research Council (ARC) $120,000

 

Date Course Title Course Level / Code
2021 Beginners' French IA & IB Level 1, FREN 1002 & 1003
2021 French for Grape Growers, Wine Makers & Wine Lovers FREN 3215OL
2021 French IIIB & IIISB Culture: L'écriture féminine Level 3, FREN 3213 & 3214

 

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2020 - 2022 Principal Supervisor Self-Deception and Wilful Ignorance: ‘Self-induced, purported ignorance?’ Master of Philosophy Master Part Time Ms Margaret Leila Penhall-Jones
2020 - 2023 Co-Supervisor Muslim Women's Identity in a Changing World: the Fiction of Leila Aboulela Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Najla Fahad Alyabis
2019 - 2024 Principal Supervisor CARTOGRAPHIES ARCHIPÉLIQUES : VOIES DE RELATION ET VOIX DE RÉSISTANCE CHEZ DES ÉCRIVAINES OCÉANIENNES Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Freya Anne Davies-Ardill
2018 - 2021 Principal Supervisor Poétique du neutre et question de l'Être dans l’oeuvre poétique d'Andrée Chedid et de Jeanne Benguigui Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Melanie Maillot
2018 - 2022 Principal Supervisor Collaborative Orchestrations in Sophie Calle’s Prenez soin de vous and Mathieu Briand’s Et In Libertalia Ego Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Debra Anne Hoadley
2018 - 2020 Principal Supervisor Narratives of Child Abduction in Nazi-Occupied Eastern Europe
Volume 1: Novella
Volume 2: Exegesis		 Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mrs Anj Foley
2017 - 2019 Co-Supervisor Australian Alcohol Advertising, Gender Stereotypes, and Alcohol-Involved Sexual Assault Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Ms Laurence Cobbaert
2017 - 2022 Principal Supervisor Working Through the Holodomor Discursively: Memory, Trauma and Representations of Ukrainian Genocide Victims from the 1950s until the Early Twenty-First Century Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mrs Elise Westin
2015 - 2019 Principal Supervisor Parole De Narrateurs: Figures De L'Enonciation Dans Le Recit Francais Moderne Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Marianne Braux
2014 - 2017 Co-Supervisor Les Instants De Recueillement Et De Souvenir: La Deuxieme Guerre Mondiale Et Le Cinema Francais De 1995 A Nos Jours Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Lisa Harper Campbell

Date Role Committee Institution Country
2019 - ongoing President Australian Society for French Studies Executive Committee Australian Society for French Studies Australia
2013 - ongoing Treasurer Australian Society for French Studies Australian Society for French Studies Australia
2012 - 2013 Member Australian Society for French Studies- Postgraduate Officer Australian Society for French Studies Australia
2009 - 2011 Board Member Women in French association Women in French association United States

Date Role Editorial Board Name Institution Country
2020 - 2023 Member PMLA Advisory Committee Modern Language Association United States
2018 - ongoing Member Editorial Board, University of Wales Press' French and Francophone Studies series University of Wales Press United Kingdom

Date Office Name Institution Country
2019 - 2021 Director Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender, University of Adelaide Australia
2015 - 2012 Director of Gender, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Faculty of Arts, University of Adelaide -
2015 - ongoing Director of Graduate Studies Faculty of Arts, University of Adelaide -

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