Michelle Smith

Dr Michelle Smith is an ARC postdoctoral fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, where she researches nineteenth-century girls’ literature and culture. She is also a regular media commentator on gender in popular culture, especially in relation to childhood.

Michelle has published articles in the Age on the Lingerie Football League, child beauty pageants, Lego for girls and sexuality in Sesame Street. She has been interviewed on local and national radio, as well as on ABC News Breakfast, on topics from the royal wedding to fairy tales.

Michelle has authored numerous scholarly articles on gender in print culture in the nineteenth century and her book Empire in British Girls’ Literature and Culture: Imperial Girls, 1880–1915 (Palgrave) was published in 2011. She is currently working on a collaborative project that compares girls’ books and magazines from 1840–1940 in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.