Rate My Professor Nicola Cummins

Nicola Cummins is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the English and Linguistics Programme at the University of Otago, where she has been a staff member since 1994. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Diploma in Teaching from the University of Auckland, a Master of Arts from the University of Otago, and a TESOL Certificate. Cummins teaches a variety of courses including ENGL 121 English Literature: The Remix, ENGL 127 Effective Writing, and ENGL 220 Creative Writing: Reading for Writers, covering 100- to 500-level papers with expertise in writing. Her research interests include technology in pedagogy and New Zealand print culture.

In addition to teaching, Cummins serves as Head of Programme for Level 5 Diplomas at the Pathway and English Language Centre and as Associate Dean (Academic) in the Division of Humanities, responsible for undergraduate admissions, programme advice to staff and students, and academic oversight. She has been a member of the Division’s Academic Committee, contributing to the development of the Bachelor of Arts and Science, coursework Master of Arts, and Divisional Teaching and Learning Day. Cummins participates in the Student Advising Working Group and Foundation Studies programme, with interests in transition pedagogy. Her outreach activities encompass organising the Medical Selectives programme, the Catch-Up Book Club with the University Book Shop, inaugurating and co-organising the university-wide creative writing competition Writer—for which she co-compiled a publication featuring winning works, prompts, and judges’ comments from 2019 to 2024—and serving as a trustee on the Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival Board. Key publications include the textbook In Perspective: Piecing Together the Literary Jigsaw published by the New Zealand Association for the Teaching of English for the senior secondary school curriculum; Supporting tutors through peer observation and mentoring presented at HERDSA 2018; A Nervous Man, Easily Depressed: What Is Wrong with Mr. Woodhouse? in Persuasions On-Line (Winter 2007); a review of From the Mainland: An Anthology of South Island Writing in Deep South (May 1995); and Northanger Abbey: Catherine Morland and the Vice of the Sympathetic Imagination in Deep South (February 1995).