Coleman, Deirdre 1954-

PERSONAL:

Born August 26, 1954. Education: Graduated from the University of Melbourne (with honors); University of Oxford, B.Phil., 1979, D.Phil., 1986.

ADDRESSES:

Office—School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne, John Medley Bldg., West Tower, Rm. 216, Melbourne, Victoria 301, Australia. E-mail—colemand@unimelb.edu.au.

CAREER:

University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Robert Wallace Chair of English Literary Studies, 2006—; previously taught in Australia at the Universities of Wollongong, Adelaide, and Sydney.

WRITINGS:

Coleridge and the Friend (1809-1810), Clarendon Press (Oxford, England), 1988.

(Compiler) Olga Masters, Reporting Home: Her Writings as a Journalist, University of Queensland Press (St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia), 1990.

(Editor, with Peter Otto) Imagining Romanticism: Essays on English and Australian Romanticisms, Locust Hill Press (West Cornwall, CT), 1992.

(Compiler, with Rita Ward) Gender Awareness: A List of Selected Resources, Information Services (London, England), 1992.

(Editor) Maiden Voyages and Infant Colonies: Two Women's Travel Narratives of the 1790s, Leicester University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Romantic Colonization and British Anti-Slavery, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to numerous books and academic journals, including Eighteenth-Century Life, Eighteenth-Century Studies, and Women's Writing.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer and educator Deirdre Coleman was born August 26, 1954. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne, where she graduated with honors, then went on to continue her education at the University of Oxford in England, earning first a bachelor's degree and later a doctorate of philosophy. She returned to Australia and taught on the faculties of the University of Wollongong, the University of Adelaide, and the University of Sydney, before settling on the faculty of the University of Melbourne, where she became the Robert Wallace Chair of English Literary Studies in 2006. From 2005 through 2007, she was involved in research for an ARC discovery project under the title Insect Societies and Social Butterflies: Natural History and Sociability in the Romantic Period. The purpose of the project was to combine literary analysis with the history of science and sexuality, the idea being that a new example of romantic sociability might be formulated that meshes with Linnaean natural history. As part of her research, Coleman investigated the social habits of various insects to see how they behaved within their own social settings. Overlapping with this project is a second investigation for an ARC discovery project, running from 2006 through 2008, and called Minds, Bodies, Machines: A Cultural and Intellectual History of Technologies in the 21st Century. This new project addresses parallels between the Enlightenment and modern-day computer technology, considering how cultural and literary references might serve to provide a new level of comprehension regarding these two disparate periods and the innovations that they spawned. In particular, she addresses the progressive enlightenment to be found in technology that includes robotics or artificial intelligence. In addition to her research and academic interests, Coleman is a frequent contributor to academic journals, such as Eighteenth-Century Life, Eighteenth-Century Studies, and Women's Writing, and is the author and/or editor of a number of books.

In Romantic Colonization and British Anti-Slavery, Coleman takes a thorough look at the relationship between the rise of British colonialism and the spread of the Empire, particularly during the last twenty years of the eighteenth century with the British initiative to put a stop to the slave trade. With the loss of the American colonies through the Revolution, Britain lost more than a parcel of land and a set of loyal subjects. Prior to this, Britain had been able to use the American colonies as a sort of dumping ground, sending away the criminal element, among others. The need for new colonies led to an investment into both Africa and Australia. With the harsh climates of these regions came the need for strong, free individuals willing to settle and build up communities in the new regions. Free Black Loyalists were a very popular alternative to sending British citizens who might be less physically able to withstand the difficult conditions. Likewise, the poor treatment of slaves in certain regions, particularly the West Indies, led to a program whereby the slaves would be allowed to colonize an area, such as Sierra Leone, and earn their freedom through their physical labor. Ultimately, this system led to the British being able to colonize more rapidly and with greater efficiency. Darren Web, writing for Utopian Studies, observed: "One of the striking features of the book is the sheer amount of research that has gone into it. In highlighting the ‘utopian cast’ taken by late-eighteenth-century debates about colonization, Coleman draws on an incredibly wide variety of primary sources." Noel Rowe, reviewing for Southerly, noted that "even as this study sifts through an extraordinary amount of historical detail, it sees through the surface of that detail, revealing a deeper, and perhaps darker, design in which utopian dream and imperial anxiety continue hand in hand with all the world before them."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, July 1, 1993, T. Ware, review of Imagining Romanticism: Essays on English and Australian Romanti-cisms; September 1, 2005, L.B. Williams, review of Romantic Colonization and British Anti-Slavery, p. 175.

English Studies, October 1, 1990, Peter Morgan, review of Coleridge and the Friend (1809-1810), p. 467.

History: The Journal of the Historical Association, July 1, 2000, Tina Picton Phillipps, review of Maiden Voyages and Infant Colonies: Two Women's Travel Narratives of the 1790s, p. 482.

International Journal of African Historical Studies, March 22, 2007, Elizabeth Elbourne, review of Romantic Colonization and British Anti-Slavery, p. 3798.

Journal of English and Germanic Philology, January 1, 1991, Victoria Myers, review of Coleridge and the Friend (1809-1810), p. 130.

Modern Philology, November 1, 1991, Eric W. Nye, review of Coleridge and the Friend (1809-1810), p. 285.

Nineteenth-Century Literature, December 1, 1990, Michael Scrivener, review of Coleridge and the Friend (1809-1810), p. 365.

Reference & Research Book News, May 1, 1999, review of Maiden Voyages and Infant Colonies, p. 60.

Southerly, June 22, 2005, Noel Rowe, "Still Anxious after All These Years," p. 152.

Studies in Romanticism, March 22, 2006, Vincent Carretta, review of Romantic Colonization and British Anti-Slavery, p. 133.

Utopian Studies, January 1, 2006, Darren Webb, review of Romantic Colonization and British Anti-Slavery, p. 238.

Virginia Quarterly Review, September 22, 1989, review of Coleridge and the Friend (1809-1810), p. 122.

Women's History Review, March 22, 2001, Hsu-Ming Teo, review of Maiden Voyages and Infant Colonies, p. 159.

ONLINE

University of Melbourne Web site,http://www.culturecommunication.unimelb.edu.au/ (June 18, 2008), faculty profile.