Dr Claire Hansen

PhD FHEA
Senior Lecturer in English | Associate Dean (Student Experience & Integrity)
ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences

Areas of expertise

  • Ecocriticism 470509
  • Literary Studies 4705
  • British And Irish Literature 470504
  • Performing Arts 3604

Research interests

  • Shakespeare studies - early modern literature and drama, women in early modern drama, Shakespeare and ecocriticism, Shakespeare and pedagogy, Shakespeare and place
  • Ecocriticism, environmental humanities and place-based learning
  • Complexity theory
  • The health humanities and medical 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

Biography

Dr Claire Hansen is a Senior Lecturer in English and Associate Dean (Student Experience & Integrity) at the Australian National University.

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 second book, Shakespeare and Place-Based Learningwas recently published by Cambridge University Press. 

Her first 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.

Claire has won multiple teaching awards. In 2020, Claire was the recipient of a university Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, and was also the overall winner of this award. She was also awarded a national Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT) Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2021). In 2022, she was awarded the 2022 CASS Certificate of Recognition for Education Excellence. In 2023, she won the CASS Award for Excellence in Student Experience.

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.

Researcher's projects

Place-based Shakespeare

Claire's current research is centred on Shakespeare and place. Her new book, Shakespeare and Place-Based Learning, was recently published with Cambridge Elements (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Find out more here: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009019620.

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

Blue Humanities Lab

Claire's research interests encompass Shakespearean blue humanities. She co-founded and co-chaired the Blue Humanities Lab, a multidisciplinary research initiative centred on the ‘blue’ spaces of our world. She has several publications on early modern literature and the blue humanities. She is co-editor of the forthcoming collection, Critical Approaches to the Australian Blue Humanities (Routledge 2024).

Health Humanities & The Heart of the Matter

Claire is a co-founder of the health humanities project, The Heart of the Matter, a multidisciplinary investigation into representations of the heart. The group launched a podcast in 2021.

She is also co-chair of the ANU Health Humanities Network

In 2021, Claire's co-authored article on Shakespeare, artificial hearts and the pulse was published in Medical Humanities. It was awarded the Shakespeare Association of America Conference Innovative Article Award.

Find out more about the health humanities in a podcast available here.

 

Current student projects

  • Practice-led research in creative writing: exploring the power of nature to alleviate feelings of homesickness through life writing. (PhD, Secondary Advisor)
  • Representation of hearts in George Eliot's Middlemarch (ANU Medical School research project)
  • Using Shakespeare to teach empathy to second year medical students (ANU Medical School research project)

 

Past student projects

  • 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)

 

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Updated:  28 March 2024 / Responsible Officer:  Director (Research Services Division) / Page Contact:  Researchers