Rate My Professor Hsu-Ming Teo

Hsu-Ming Teo is Professor in the School of Humanities at Macquarie University, where she teaches creative writing and literature. She earned her PhD in History and English Literature from Macquarie University in 1998, with a thesis entitled ‘Exotic Excursions: British Women’s Travel Writing, 1890–1939’, and holds a BA (Hons) in History and English Literature. Her research specializations encompass popular romance studies, fiction and history, popular fiction, Orientalism, cultural history, gender and popular culture, and creative writing. As a novelist and cultural historian, she has produced acclaimed works including the novels Love and Vertigo (Allen & Unwin, 2000), winner of the Australian/Vogel Literary Award and shortlisted for multiple prizes, later translated into Chinese, Thai, German, and Italian, and Behind the Moon (Allen & Unwin, 2005), shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards. Her scholarly monographs include Desert Passions: Orientalism and Romance Novels (University of Texas Press, 2012), and she has edited key volumes such as The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction (Routledge, 2020, co-edited with Jayashree Kamblé and Eric Murphy Selinger), Conflict and Colonialism in 21st Century Romantic Historical Fiction (Routledge, 2024, co-edited with Paloma Fresno-Calleja), The Popular Culture of Romantic Love in Australia (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2017), and Cultural History in Australia (UNSW Press, 2003, co-edited with Richard White).

Teo has held significant editorial roles, including Associate Editor of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies (2015–2022) and ongoing editorial board membership for that journal and the Journal of Australian Studies (2008–2023). She serves on the board of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance and has judged prestigious awards such as the Man Asian Literary Prize (2010), New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards and History Prize (various years), Australian/Vogel Literary Award (2020–2022), Singapore Literature Prize (2024), and Miles Franklin Literary Award (2024–2025). Her research leadership includes chief investigator roles on ARC Discovery project The Culture of Romantic Love in Australia (DP0210845), as well as projects on representations of Arabs in women’s popular culture, history and the romance novel, and international collaborations like Romance For Change. With 76 research outputs spanning 1994–2025, including 35 book chapters, 23 articles, and 5 edited books, Teo has made substantial contributions to understanding romantic fiction’s cultural and historical dimensions.