Research & Supervision

My research and postgraduate supervision have explored how language, form, and narrative shape meaning. This work informs the individual English coaching I offer today.

Higher degree supervision

Over my university career, I supervised doctoral and research master’s students working across fiction, poetry, theatre, screenwriting, and creative nonfiction. I helped them develop both their creative practice and the scholarly arguments underpinning their research.

I was a Level 3 mentoring supervisor—the highest level at my institution—and won a Dean’s award for excellence in postgraduate supervision. My students’ postgraduate theses never once came back with more than minor changes required, and several won prestigious university medals.

This experience extends beyond academic editing: I have also mentored other supervisors overseeing doctoral and higher degrees. I bring the same care, clarity, and encouragement to my academic English coaching.

The completed degrees below draw on QUT ePrints supervision records and my QUT profile. Follow a thesis title to read its record. Dates follow the repository records.

Doctoral degrees

• Melanie Saward. Beyond the Pink and Fluffy: Centering Tiddaism, Indigeneity, and Intersectionality in the ‘Chick Lit’ Novel. PhD; listed among completed doctorates on my QUT profile.
• Catherine Appleton (2019). The wounds of separation: A graphic memoir about forced migration. PhD.
• Patrick G Holland (2019). Non-place and Ma: The Writing of Nowhere. PhD.
• Bianca Reynolds (2019). This house is full of shadows: A post-Jungian analysis of the contemporary family homecoming drama. PhD.
• Benjamin P. Carey (2018). The architect of forking paths: Developing key writing strategies for interactive writers. PhD.
• Jarryd A. Luke (2013). Writing the visible page : a multimodal approach to graphic devices in literary fiction. PhD.
• Ariella Van Luyn (2012). The artful life story : the oral history interview as fiction. PhD.
• Lee Hugh McGowan (2011). Faster Than Words. PhD.

Research master’s degrees

• Bridie Prater (2025). Mimesis, Materiality, and Interactivity: Multimodal Print Texts as Storyworld Artefacts for Reader Transportation. Master of Philosophy.
• Christopher Holdsworth (2024). The things I fear for us: Australian climate fiction and the emergence of ecological consciousness. Master of Philosophy.
• Astrid Osborne (2023). Trans joy: Examining and developing intersectional trans women in narrative comedy. Master of Philosophy.
• Clare Murphy (2023). Crisis modes: Transforming patterns of ecocultural identity with the heterogeneous possibilities of creative nonfiction. Master of Philosophy.
• Myles T. McGuire (2022). Fruitful approaches: Queer Theory and Historical Materialism in contemporary Australian fiction. Master of Philosophy.
• Melanie A. Saward (2020). Down in the river: Marcia’s identity status paradigm in the cult novel. Masters by Research.
• Helen Stringer (2019). The impossible story: Arthur W. Frank’s "Chaos Narrative" and memoirs of madness. Master of Philosophy.
• Claire D. Byrnes (2018). Blood on her hands: A practice-led approach to exploring violent heroines in dystopian fiction. Masters by Research.
• Amanda Beaumont (2014). The idea of women : representations of power in the work of Charles Bukowski. Masters by Research.
• Stephen Timothy Martin (2012). Carnivore : an investigation into the ways that serial killers in the Silence of the Lambs, American Psycho and Darkly Dreaming Dexter are representative of consumers. Masters by Research.
• Brendan John Telford (2012). Point of no return : exploring katabatic narrative and deterritorialisation in the Australian outback novel. Masters by Research.
• Michelle Alison Taylor (2010). The monster chronicles : the role of children’s stories featuring monsters in managing childhood fears and promoting empowerment. Masters by Research.
• Anita Bell (2009). Re-visioning a "novel concept" : beyond vision and revision to advanced editing strategies. Masters by Research.
• Jennifer Joan Ryan (2009). Introducing Mr Perky : subverting the fantasy trope of immortality in contemporary speculative fiction. Masters by Research.
• Paul Anthony Sherman (2009). Drama and the dreaming : framing the play West of West Wirrawong. Masters by Research.
• Elaine Elizabeth Acworth (2008). Dan Kelly danced into the shadows : large-scale personas in small-scale stories. Masters by Research.
• Rodney Phillip Ainsworth (2008). The entrepreneurial playwright : a relational approach to marketing plays in the regions. Masters by Research.
• Samuel James Louis Martin (2008). The ‘Lad Lit’ dilemma : institutional influences on creative writing practice. Masters by Research.
• Maxine Elisabeth McArthur (2008). In the gaps left unfilled : historical fantasy and the past. Masters by Research.
• Kieran Carroll (2007). Joanna Murray-Smith and Daniel Keene : class oppositions. Masters by Research.
• Adam Gordon Grossetti (2007). It made you feel what? Using structure to convey theme : playscript and exegesis. Masters by Research.
• Bette Margaret Guy (2007). Aristophanes to Fo : conventions of political satire in Western theatre. Masters by Research.
• Rowena Cory Lindquist (2007). The T’En Exiles : an exploration of discrimination and persecution in High Fantasy novels. Masters by Research.
• Katherine Lyall-Watson (2007). The collaborative impact : writing a play with the collaboration of actors. Masters by Research.
• Lee Hugh McGowan (2007). ‘Playing football fiction’ : leveraging the strengths of autodiegesis in a football narrative. Masters by Research.
• Jason Nahrung (2007). Vampires in the sunburnt country : adapting vampire Gothic to the Australian landscape. Masters by Research.
• Valerie Parv (2007). Healing writes : restoring the authorial self through creative practice : and Birthright, a speculative fiction novel. Masters by Research.
• Robert Reid (2007). Acts of Dissension : how political theatre has been presented in the past and what strategies the playwright can employ to make issues of radical or alternative politics more accessible to a mainstream theatre audience. Masters by Research.
• Sandra Whitelaw (2007). The attraction of sloppy nonsense: resolving cognitive estrangement in Stargate through the technologising of mythology. Masters by Research.
• Angela Gaye Slatter (2006). Black-winged angels : theoretical underpinnings. Masters by Research.

Selected publications

My publications span stylistics, creative writing pedagogy, literary criticism, digital media, and creative practice. Here are some selected publications showcasing the breadth of my research:

• Wilson, R., Bolland, C. & McGuire, M. (2023). ‘I want a mortgage and comfort’: Consumption, Totality, and Identity in Australian Gay Fiction. Australian Literary Studies, 38(3).
• Bolland, C. (2020). A Good Boy. Cordite Poetry Review, 98, Cordite.
• Bolland, C. (2017). Stylistics in the creative writing curriculum: A problem-posing approach. TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Programs, 21(2), 1–12.
• Bolland, C. (2016). Australian short story trends. Writing Queensland, 255, 6–7.
• Beaumont, M. & Bolland, C. (2016). The idea of women fiction issue (Editorial). Overland, 224(5), 1.
• Bolland, C. (2015). Gold. Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, 8, International Flash Fiction Association.
• Bolland, C. (2012). A Freirian reading of online writing workshops. TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Programs, 16(1), 1–14.
• Webb, J., Brien, D., Bruns, A., Battye, G., Williams, J., Bolland, C. & Smith, J. (2008). Australian writing programs network (CG642): Final Report. Australian Learning and Teaching Council.
• Klaebe, H. & Bolland, C. (2007). Text Meets Technology: Creatively Writing for Digital Media. Writing in Education, 2007(43), 41–47.

Bring this experience to your own English

If you would like support with academic writing, a research presentation, or communicating complex ideas, contact me or book a session. You can also learn more about my background.