Elizabeth Nora McMahon

Professor Elizabeth Nora McMahon is a faculty member at the School of the Arts and Media, University of New South Wales, specializing in Australian literature, Island Studies, and Gender studies. Her research explores the intersection of geography, identity, and literary representation, with a focus on Australia’s evolving island consciousness.

• ARC Discovery Grant recipient (Our Island Home: The Shifting Map of Australian Literature)
• Co-editor of Australia’s oldest literary journal, Southerly (2008-2023)
• Co-founder of the Rethinking the Island book series (2013-2023)

Research focuses on island cartographies, gendered narratives in Australian literature, and diasporic spatiality. Her 2016 monograph won two major literary criticism awards, while her 2023 co-authored work advances island methodology frameworks.

Supervision expertise spans 15 completed PhDs, including topics on:

• Australian and Indigenous speculative fiction
• Queer modernism and spatial theory
• Ecocriticism and postmodern aesthetics
• Transnational gender representations

Editorial leadership includes:

• Editor of Australian Humanities Review (1998-2007)
• Co-editor of 12 special editions of Southerly, including themes on islands, modern mobilities, and war literature