Dr Claire Hansen ~ Adjunct Senior Lecturer

Dr Claire Hansen is an award-winning educator. She is Lecturer in English at the Australian National University and Adjunct Senior Lecturer in English and Writing at JCU. She is a Fellow (FHEA) of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE). Claire coordinated the first year core English subjects at JCU, in addition to coordinating senior subjects on Shakespeare, ecocriticism and environmental literature. She was also Co-Coordinator of the English Major for two years (2019-2020).

Claire specialises in Shakespeare studies. She is a member of the Shakespeare Reloaded project, an ongoing collaborative project exploring innovative approaches to teaching and learning at secondary and tertiary institutions. She assists in the management of the Shakespeare Reloaded website and writes regularly for the Shakespeare Reloaded blog.

Her book, Shakespeare and Complexity Theory, was published by Routledge in 2017. Claire has also published on Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, education, early modern dance, and female characters in renaissance literature. 

Claire's current projects include place-based approaches to Shakespeare, Shakespearean blue humanities, and the health humanities (see below for more). 

She is also passionate about theatre, and has published a host of theatre reviews on The Conversation and on the Shakespeare Reloaded blog.

In 2020, Claire was the recipient of a JCU Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, and was also the overall winner of this award. 

Claire completed her PhD at the University of Sydney, where her research focused on the use of complexity theory in Shakespeare studies and in education.

Current research projects

Place-based Shakespeare

Claire's current research is centred on Shakespeare and place. She has recently published articles in TEXT Journal and Critical Survey. As part of her place-based project, Claire has collaborated with local theatre company TheatreiNQ and is collecting data on secondary and tertiary student experiences of place in relation to the teaching and learning of Shakespeare.

In 2021, she presented her work on place-based Shakespeare pedagogy at Shakespeare's Globe Climate Emergency Symposium, Globe4Globe. 

She has a book forthcoming with Cambridge Elements on Shakespeare and Place-Based Learning (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

Blue Humanities Lab

Claire is co-chair of the Blue Humanities Lab, a multidisciplinary research initiative centred on the ‘blue’ spaces of our world – reefs, oceans, rivers, and inland bodies of waters. She has several peer-reviewed articles and chapters forthcoming on Shakespeare and the Blue Humanities.

The Heart of the Matter

In 2018 Claire launched a Health Humanities working group at JCU. The group's first initiative is "The Heart of the Matter", a multidisciplinary investigation into figurative and literal representations of the heart. Find out more about The Heart of the Matter.

In 2020, Claire produced a podcast with Dr Bríd Phillips (Lecturer in Health Humanities at University of Western Australia) on 'What is (health) humanities for?'. You can access the podcast here. She is also co-convening a seminar on Shakespeare and Health at the 2022 Shakespeare Association of America Conference.

In 2021, Claire's co-authored article on Shakespeare, artificial hearts and the pulse was published in Medical Humanities.

Interests

Professional

• Shakespeare Reloaded website manager and blog contributor
• Teaching and Learning Consortium Member, JCU (2019-present)
• Member of ANZAMEMS, ANZSA, and the British Shakespeare Association
• Member of Parergon ECR Committee (2019-2020)
• Member of English Teachers' Association of Queensland (2018-present).
• Reviewer for journals including Shakespeare, Parergon, English in Education, TEXT Journal, Humanities and others
• Organiser - Shakespeare FuturEd Conference (2019)
• Organiser - Townsville Imaginarium for teachers (2019)
• ERA Peer Reviewer for the Australia Research Council (2018)

Research

• Shakespeare studies - early modern literature and drama, women in early modern drama, Shakespeare and ecocriticism, Shakespeare and pedagogy, Shakespeare and place
• Ecocriticism and place-based learning
• Complexity theory
• The health humanities and medical humanities - and the public value of the humanities
• Pedagogy - approaches to teaching and learning Shakespeare, Shakespeare studies in secondary and tertiary environments, complexity theory in education, place-based learning. ecocritical approaches to teaching

Teaching

• Shakespeare, early modern drama and literature
• Theatre and performance
• Poetry
• Ecocriticism and environmental literature, blue humanities and climate fiction
• Narrative theory and approaches to storytelling
• The history of English literature

Experience

• 2022 to present - Lecturer in English, Australian National University
• 2012 to present - Researcher and Website Manager, Shakespeare Reloaded Project
• 2012 to 2017 - Lecturer, Unit Coordinator, Tutor, University of Sydney
• 2015 - Unit Coordinator, University of New England
• 2015 - Lecturer, University of Wollongong
• 2013 - Postgraduate Teaching Fellow, University of Sydney

Research Disciplines

• Literary studies (4705)

Socio-Economic Objectives

• Expanding knowledge (2801)
• Communication (1302)

Awards

• 2020 - JCU Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning - Overall Winner
• 2014 - ANZAMEMS Postgraduate Bursary
• 2014 - ANZSA Postgraduate Bursary
• 2010 to 2014 - Australian Postgraduate Award
• 2013 - University of Sydney Grants-in-Aid Scholarship
• 2013 - University of Otago Travel Bursary for Postgraduate Advanced Workshop on Interdisciplinarity
• 2013 - Teaching Award - Dean's Citation for Excellence in Teaching in Tutorials (University of Sydney)
• 2012 - Postgraduate Research Support Scheme (University of Sydney)
• 2009 to 2011 - Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarship
• 2010 - Beauchamp Literary Prize for Best Literary Essay (University of Sydney)
• 2009 - University of Sydney Honours Scholarship
• 2008 - NSW Journalists’ Prize for Australian Literature (University of Sydney)

Memberships

• 2018 - Australian and New Zealand Medieval and Early Modern Society (ANZAMEMS)
• 2018 - Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association (ANZSA)
• 2018 - English Teachers' Association of Queensland
• 2018 - British Shakespeare Association
• 2019 to 2020 - Teaching and Learning Consortium, James Cook University

Other

• 2019 - Keynote presentation: ‘Reinvigorating our teaching of Shakespeare’, English Teachers’ Association of Queensland (ETAQ) State Conference, 17 August 2019, Brisbane.
• 2018 - Blended Learning and Innovation Grant (BLING) Winner - with Associate Professor Victoria Kuttainen and Associate Professor Allison Craven

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

• Hansen C and Stevens M (2021) Be still, my beating heart: reading pulselessness from Shakespeare to the artificial heart. Medical Humanities Journal, 47 (3). pp. 344-353
• Kuttainen V and Hansen C (2020) Making connections: exploring the complexity of the secondary-tertiary nexus in English from the perspective of regional Australia. English in Australia, 55 (2). pp. 39-51
• Hansen C (2019) Reviving Lavinia: aquatic imagery and ecocritical complexity in Titus Andronicus. Critical Survey, 31 (3). pp. 53-69
• Hansen C (2019) “Tongues in trees”: reimagining the regions through pastoral place-based pedagogy. Text,
• Hansen C (2016) “Not stones but men”: publics and pedagogy in Shakespeare’s Roman plays. Cogent Arts & Humanities, 3 (1).
• Hansen C (2015) The complexity of dance in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Early Modern Literary Studies, 18 (1 & 2).
• Hansen C (2014) Creativity through complexity: identifying and using shadow networks in teaching The Merchant of Venice. English in Education, 48 (2). pp. 112-127
• Hansen C (2013) "Who taught thee this?" Female agency and experiential learning in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta, and Edward the Second. Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, 60 (3). pp. 157-177

Books

• Hansen C (2017) Shakespeare and Complexity Theory. Routledge Studies in Shakespeare. Routledge, New York, NY, USA

Book Chapters

• Manuel J, Hansen C and Semler L (2023) An activist democratic model of teacher professional learning: The Teaching and Learning Caskets Imaginarium. In: International Perspectives on English Teacher Development: From Initial Teacher Education to Highly Accomplished Professional. National Association for the Teaching of English, 4. Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, England, pp. 200-214
• Hansen C (2021) "Teach my mind": approaches and resources for the Coriolanus classroom. In: Coriolanus: A Critical Reader. Arden Shakespeare. Bloomsbury, London, UK, pp. 191-216

Other research outputs

• Semler L, Hansen C and Abbott Bennett K (2021) Shakespeare redrawn: reflections on Shakespeare Reloaded's COVID-19 lockdown activity. mETAphor, 1 (2). pp. 15-21

More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 23+ research outputs authored by Dr Claire Hansen from 2013 onwards.

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

• Practice-led research in creative writing: exploring the power of nature to alleviate feelings of homesickness through life writing. (PhD , Secondary Advisor)

Completed

• Sleep, and Extended Cognition in Spenserian Epic and Shakespearean Drama (2021, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Poised to change: dynamic processes and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon and The.PowerBook by Jeanette Winterson (2023, PhD , Primary Advisor)