
Encourages students to think independently.
A master at fostering understanding.
Challenges students to reach their potential.
Creates a collaborative learning environment.
Always approachable and easy to talk to.
Dr. Kathryne Ford is a Lecturer in the School of Education at Curtin University, Perth, Australia. In this role, she serves as Director of Learning and Teaching for non-Initial Teacher Education programs and Deputy Director of Graduate Research. She manages learning and teaching initiatives for postgraduate and non-teacher education students and supports higher degree by research candidates in the humanities and education fields. Prior to joining Curtin, Dr. Ford worked as a researcher in the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics at the Australian National University, where she completed her PhD in 2019 under the supervision of Professor Kate Mitchell. She earned her Master of Arts in English Literature and Bachelor of Arts in English Technical and Professional Writing from the University of Memphis.
Dr. Ford's academic interests span biofiction, literacy, academic skills, creative writing, life-writing, cultural memory, gender studies, art, and narratology. Her ongoing research explores biofictional literacy, narrative agency, student wellbeing, and engagement. As part of Curtin University's Creative Research Hub, she contributes to narrative research, including bio-fictional literacy, and handles enquiries for arts-based higher degree research projects. Notable publications include 'The Protagonist Vanishes: A Dickensian Life-Writing Mystery' (Life Writing, 2025), '(Re)Framing Madame X: Art, Narrative, and the Ethics of Neo-Victorian Revivification' co-authored with Kate Mitchell (a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, 2024), 'Dickensian Divisions: David Copperfield's "Hero[ine] of my own life"' (Dickens Quarterly, 2023), "Et tu, Drood?": Rivalry, Identity, and the Undercover Personas of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens in Dan Simmons's Drood (2009)' (Neo-Victorian Collins: Legacies and Afterlives, 2021), and 'Rehabilitating Catherine Dickens: Memory and Authorial Agency in Gaynor Arnold's Neo-Victorian Biofiction Girl in a Blue Dress' (Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies, 2016). Recent collaborations include 'English as a barrier on the pathway of professional transitioning of Ukrainian migrant teachers in Australia' (2024). Her work has appeared in leading journals such as a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, The Dickens Quarterly, and The Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies. Dr. Ford has delivered presentations, including 'Legacy, Letters, and Lunacy: Dickensian Afterlives Reimagined' at Curtin's Gender Research Network.
