I have a number of research passions. Most of my research revolves around nineteenth and early twentieth century New Zealand literature and culture. I am one of the very few people to have read the novels of little-known nineteenth century writers such as Jessie Weston, Edith Searle Grossmann, Bannerman Kaye, and Louisa Baker (who wrote under the pseudonym Alien). Having spent much of my PhD in the charming reading room of the Alexander Turnbull Library encountering these early literary voices I now feel as if the authors are in some ways my friends and I take every opportunity to reflect on their lives and legacies, particularly the way in which so many early female novelists used fiction as a means of social agitation and social change.

My research also focuses on colonial musical culture. My Marsden-funded research on the role of the piano in nineteenth century New Zealand led to my book Piano Forte: Stories and Soundscapes from Colonial New Zealand and I take every opportunity of sharing stories of the extreme adventures of pianos. Forget about the piano on the beach in Jane Campion’s film The Piano, in real life pianos were pulled up gorges on sledges, lost overboard on shaky canoes, and carried on poles through dense bush. I am currently researching the performance history of the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan in Australia and New Zealand. On this occasion my research goes right up to the twenty-first century, including a pandemic adaptation of Trial by Jury in 2020 by the Wellington Light Opera Company, so if you are reading this and have a good Gilbert and Sullivan story to share please get in touch!

Contemporary literature is also an interest and I have written on a number of recent texts, including the Hunger Games trilogy, Kingsman, and River Queen. I co-write the annual overview of literature published in Aotearoa New Zealand for the Journal of Commonwealth Literature with the fabulous Aimee-Jane Anderson-O’Connor and David Simes.