She is emeritus professor in the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University.
[1] She studied at Grange Primary School and then won a scholarship to Methodist Ladies College in Adelaide.
While completing her PhD she worked as part-time tutor and lecturer and a number of tertiary institutions in Adelaide.
[2] She rewrote her PhD thesis, which was published as Good and Mad Women: The Historical Construction of Femininity in Twentieth Century Australia by Allen & Unwin.
[4] Her 2005 book, Dance Hall and Picture Palace, won the prize for best monograph presented by the Film and History Association of Australia and New Zealand.