Catherine Cole is Associate Dean (Research) and Professor of Creative Writing in The Screen School. She has published 10 books including 4 novels, (Dry Dock, Skin Deep (Harper Collins 1999 and Duffy and Snellgrove, 2002) and The Grave at Thu Le, Picador, 2006, Sleep, UWAP, 2019), two non-fiction books, (Private Dicks and Feisty Chicks: An Interrogation of Crime Fiction (Curtin University Press, 1996) and a memoir about her friendship with the late Australian poet, AD Hope, The Poet Who Forgot (UWA Press, 2008) She is the editor of the anthology, The Perfume River: Writing from Vietnam (UWA Press, 2010) and co-editor with McNeil and Karaminas of Fashion in Fiction: Text and Clothing in Literature, Film and Television, (Berg UK and USA, May 2009). Her poetry, short stories, essays and reviews have been published in Australia and internationally and produced by BBC Radio 4. Her collection of short stories - Sea Birds crying in the Harbour Dark - was published in late 2017. Followed by the novel, Sleep (UWA Press 2019) and the non fiction book Slipstream: On Memory and Migration (Valley Press 2023)
She has supervised to completion the Doctorates and MAs of more than 30 students including many of Australia’s leading and emerging writers.

Her employment at LJMU is set out below:

March 2017 - present
Liverpool John Moores University, Merseyside, Liverpool

Associate Dean, Research, in the Faculty of Arts, Professional and Social Services. (APSS) Responsibility for a budget of £990,000 for Faculty research and staff development, research strategies and projects.

Program Coordinator of the MA Writing, the Screen School, APSS, since 2017.

Professor of Creative Writing in the Screen School, APSS.

Co-director, Research Institute for Literature and Cultural History (RILCH), an LJMU institute which includes the disciplines of creative writing, drama, English literature, culture and history.

Former LJMU Governor, LJMU Board of Governors.

Former Postgraduate Ombudsperson for the Faculty.

Editorial Board of Cambridge University Press (Crime Editions)

In addition to these roles at LJMU, prior academic associations include Honorary Associate, University of Liverpool, UK 2015 – 2017, Visiting Fellow, University of East Anglia and Sun Yat—Sen University, Guangzhou, China and Honorary Doctoral Supervisor, University of Technology, Sydney – 2017

GRANTS
Since joining LJMU, Cole has applied for and received QR funding, Global Research funding and has been an LJMU PI on an application for Office of Student funding to the value of £540,000.

She is currently developing an AHRC grant for Humanities and Social Sciences research in China and the UK. The project explores the ways in which Covid 19 and on-line shopping have changed the ways in which merchant and buyer communities write about their products. It will examine the ways in which autobiography, memoir and storytelling connect online as a way of shaping personal as well as national cultural identities.

She is also developing an international Research England grant with research about the impact of research evaluation exercises such as ERA and REF on the ways in which the creative arts are taught.

Cole also assists is collegially involved in a number of cross-disciplinary research groups which are developing projects including Creative Nonfiction and Crime Fact, Crime Fiction.

PRIOR TO LJMU
Prior to joining LJMU, Cole was the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong (2010 – 2016) and Professor of Creative Writing and Discipline Head of Media and Communications at RMIT University in Melbourne (2007 – 2010). She was a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at UTS from 2003 – 2007.

She has extensive experience of program development and review and has reviewed and advised on creative writing programs in Australia, (University of Sydney, UTS, Bachelor Indigenous College, NT) New Zealand (Victoria University, Wellington, NZ) , China (City University, Hong Kong and Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou) and the UK (Kingston University, London and University of East Anglia). As well as creative writing, she has reviewed individual programs in journalism, history, cultural studies and media.

She has been a member of Academic Board in each university in which she has worked as well as a member of university Research, Education and International committees. She has reviewed university presses including that of UOW and also been a panellist on senior appointments such as professorial appointments and senior governance roles and contracts.



Catherine has twice been a member of the Australian Research Council's Excellence in Research Australia research evaluation committee (ERA) in Humanities and the Creative Arts and has provided expert advice to a range of Australian, UK and other international universities on their research and creative practice activities. She is a peer reviewer for the Literature Board of the Australian Council for the Arts. She is a regular book reviewer, participant in Australian and international writers' festivals and a judge of major national book awards. She has been a writer in residence in China, France, Vietnam, UK and Australia and a Visiting Fellow at the University of East Anglia.

She was formerly Deputy Dean of the Faculty Creative Arts and has played a senior management role in university governance in each of the universities at which she worked. She previously was Professor of Creative Writing, RMIT University in Melbourne and a Senior Lecturer University of Technology, Sydney and Lecturer, University of UNSW. She has academic relationships with a range of international universities and is regularly invited to review the writing and creative arts programs of universities in Australia and overseas. She also advises tertiary and secondary institutions about teaching and learning in the creative arts. During the past nine years she has secured $514,000 for research projects and other project activities within creative writing.

Catherine's research interests include:
• Creative Writing
• Historical Fiction
• Postcolonial fiction
• Memoir and Life Writing
• Crime Fiction and True Crime
• Poetry
• Short fiction
• Asia Pacific writing
• Creative communities
• Australian/French cultural relationship

Languages

French

Degrees

2002, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, Doctorate, Feminism and Politics in contemporary Crime Fiction
1996, Southern Cross, Australia, Diploma of Adult Education, Adult Education
1992, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Melbourne, Australia, Associate Diploma, Writing and Editing
1982, University of New England, Armidale, Australia, Masters, The Irish short stories of Jmes Joyce and George Moore
1982, University of New England, Armidale, Australia, Bachelor of Arts, English Literature

Academic appointments

Associate Dean, Research, APSS, Liverpool John Moores University, 2021 - 2024
Honorary Professorial Fellow, Law and Humanities, University of Wollongong, 2020 - 2023
Governor, Board of Governors, Liverpool John Moores University, 2020 - present
Faculty Postgraduate Ombudsman/woman, APSS, LJMU, 2019 - 2021
Professor in Creative Writing, Screen School, Liverpool John Moores University, 2017 - present
Honourary Supervisor, Arts, Liverpool University, 2015 - 2017
Deputy Dean and Professor of Creative Writing, Law Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong, 2010 - 2017
Professor of Creative Writing, New Media, RMIT University, 2008 - 2010
Visiting Fellow, Writing and English, University of East Anglia, 2007 - 2007
Senior Lecturer, Media and Communication, University of Technology Sydney, 2002 - 2008
Lecturer, Professional Development Unit, University of NSW, 1996 - 2001