Harris was a founding member of the Dunedin Collective for Woman, and from 1970 until 2005 taught at the University of Otago, of which she remains professor emerita.
[6] She studied for her PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London, where her title was 'Sir Charles Grandison and the Little Senate: the relation between Samuel Richardson's correspondence and his last novel'.
Her first major publication was the 1972 edition of The History of Sir Charles Grandison for Oxford University Press.
[10] Harris was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to education, in the 2009 New Year Honours.
[10] Her work as the honorary consul for France in Dunedin[10] was recognised by the award of Chevalier of the National Order of Merit.