Prof Catherine Rigby - Researcher Profile

Biography

I am currently Professor of Environmental Humanities in the School of English, Communications and Performance Studies. Following undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Melbourne and Freiburg University (Germany), I completed my PhD at Monash University in 1991 and was offered a Lectureship in German Studies at Monash that year. In 1994, I returned to Germany as a Humboldt Fellow, and in 1997 was promoted to Senior Lecturer . Since 1996, I have also been on the Board of the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, and from 1999 to 2004, I held a dual appointment in German and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, of which I was the Direction from 2004-2007. I was promoted to Associate Professor and elected to the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2006, and held the position of Deputy Head (Education) in ECPS from 2009-2011. Informing my more recent research in the Environmental Humanities, is my strong interest in ecocriticism, ecophilosophy and ecotheology.

• Read the rest of the profile

Qualifications

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Institution: Monash University

Year awarded: 1991

Publications

Books

Goodbody, A., Rigby, C. (eds), 2011, Ecocritical Theory: New European Approaches, University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville US.

Rigby, C.E. (ed), 2008, "Religion and Literature. Special Issue: Ecospirituality or Ecotheology and Literature: ""Introduction: 'Lifting our eyes from the page': Religion, Literature, and the Earth""", Notre Dame University Press, Charlottesville.

Rigby, C.E. (ed), 2008, PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature. Special Issue on Art, Animals and Sustainability, RMIT Publishing, Melbourne VIC Australia.

Rigby, C.E. (ed), 2007, Philosophy Activism Nature (Special Issue), PAN partners, Melbourne Vic.

Rigby, C.E., Ghattas, B.M. (eds), 2006, Colloquy: text, theory, criticism, Monash University, Melbourne Vic Australia.

Rigby, K.E., 2004, Topographies of the Sacred: The Poetics of Place in European Romanticism, University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville USA.

Mews, C.J., Rigby, K.E. (eds), 1999, Ecology, Gender and the Sacred, Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology, Clayton Vic Australia.

Mews, C.J., Rigby, C.E. (eds), 1999, Ecology, Gender and the Sacred, Centre for Studies in Religion & Theology Monash, Clayton Vic Australia.

Rigby, C.E., Shaw, S. (eds), 1998, Sense of Place: Living with the Edge, Monash University, Clayton Vic Australia.

Book Chapters

Rigby, C.E., 2012, Das Erdbeben in Chili and the romantic reframing of >natural disaster<, in Wissensfiguren im Werk Heinrich von Kleists (Constallations of Knowing in the Works of Heinrich von Kleist), eds Yixu Lu, Anthony Stephens, Alison Lewis, Wilhelm Vosskamp, Rombach Verlag, Freiburg Germany, pp. 137-150.

Rigby, C.E., 2012, The actuality of Eichendorff's atmospheric ecopoetics, in The Actuality of Romanticism, eds Franz-Josef Deiters, Axel Fliethmann, Birgit Lang, Alison Lewis, Christiane Weller, Rombach Verlag, Berlin, Germany, pp. 91-104.

Rigby, C.E., 2012, Utopianism, dystopianism and ecological thought, in Utopia: Social Theory and the Future, eds Michael Hviid Jacobsen, Keith Tester, Ashgate, Farnham, Surrey, UK, pp. 141-160.

Rigby, C., 2011, "Wie ist die Natur doch im allgemeinen so schon!" - Heine's green-edged sword of satire, in Groteske Moderne - Moderne Groteske. Festschrift fuer Philip Thomson / Festschrift for Philip Thomson, eds Franz-Josef Deiters, Axel Fliethmann, Christiane Weller, Roehrig Universitaetsverlag, St. Ingbert Germany, pp. 325-343.

Rigby, C., 2011, Gernot Bohme's ecological aesthetics of atmosphere, in Ecocritical Theory: New European Approaches, eds Axel Goodbody and Kate Rigby, University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville US, pp. 139-152.

Rigby, C., Goodbody, A., 2011, Introduction, in Ecocritical Theory: New European Approaches, eds Axel Goodbody and Kate Rigby, University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville US, pp. 1-16.

Chandler, T., Rigby, C., 2010, Gernot Behme, the atmospheric in the experience of nature, in LIMBUS: Australian Yearbook German Literary and Cultural Studies [P], Rombach, Freiburg, Berlin, Vienna, pp. 67-88.

Rigby, C., 2009, Romancing the gift, in With Gifted Thinkers, eds Mark Manolopoulos, Peter Lang, Switzerland, pp. 165-197.

Rigby, C.E., 2008, (Post-) koloniale inkorperierung. Okologie und Esskultur in Australien [(Post-) colonial Inkorperierrung and ecology and eating culture in Australia], in Interkulturelle Mahlzeiten: Kulinarische Begegnungen und Kommunication in der Literatur [Intercultural Meals: Culinary Encounters and Contrasts in the Literature], eds Caudie Lillge and Anne-Rose Meyer, Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld, Germany, pp. 315-336.

Rigby, C.E., 2007, (K)ein Klang der aufgeregten Zeit: romanticism, ecology and modernity in Theodor Storm's "Abseits" [(K) a sound that exciting time: romanticism, ecology and modernity in Theodor Storm's "Offside"], in Moderne Begreifen. Zur Parodoxie eines Sozio-asthetischen Deutungsmusters, eds Christine Magerski, Robert Savage and Christiane Weller, Deutschen Universitatsverlag, Wiesbaden Germany, pp. 145-156.

Rigby, C.E., 2007, Ecopoetics of the Limestone Plains, in The Littoral Zone: Australian Contexts and their Writers, eds CA. Cranstone and Robert Zeller, Rodopi, USA, pp. 153-175.

Rigby, C.E., 2007, Prometheus redeemed? From autoconstruction to ecopoetics, in Ecospirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth, eds Laurel Kearns and Catherine Keller, Fordham University Press, New York, pp. 233-251.

Rigby, C.E., 2006, (Not) by design: Utopian moments in the creation of Canberra, in Imagining the Future: Utopia and Dystopia, eds Andrew Milner, Matthew Ryan and Robert Savage, Arena Publications Association, Carlton Vic Australia, pp. 155-177.

Rigby, C.E., 2004, The Rebirth of Nature in Romantic thought, in Worlds of Reading: On the Theory, History and Sociology of Cultural Practice. Festschrift for Walter Veit, eds Helmut Heinz and Christiane Weller, Peter Lang, Frankfurt, pp. 387-397.

Rigby, K.E., 2002, Ecocriticism, in Introducing Criticism at the 21st Century, eds Julian Wolfreys, Edinburgh University Press Ltd, Edinburgh UK, pp. 151-178.

Rigby, C.E., 2001, The goddess returns: ecofeminist reconfigurations of gender, nature and the sacred, in Feminist Poetics of the Sacred: Creative Suspicions, eds Frances Devlin-Glass and Lyn McCredden, Oxford University Press, New York USA, pp. 23-54.

Mews, C.J., Rigby, K.E., 1999, Introduction, in Ecology, Gender and the Sacred, Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology, Clayton Vic Australia, pp. 1-13.

Mews, C.J., Rigby, C.E., 1999, Introduction, in Ecology, Gender and the Sacred, Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology Monash, Clayton Vic Australia, pp. 1-13.

Journal Articles

Rigby, C., 2011, Getting a taste for the bogong moth, Australian Humanities Review [E], vol 50, Australian National University School of Humanities, Australia, pp. 77-94.

Rigby, C., 2011, Imagining catastrophe: Utopia and dystopia in a warming world, Arena [P], vol 35-36, Arena, North Carlton Vic Australia, pp. 57-77.

Rigby, C., 2010, Another talk on religion to its cultural despisers, Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism [P], vol 13, The Artswork PublishingLab, Bath Spa University, United Kingdom, pp. 55-73.

Chandler, T., Rigby, C., 2010, The space of poetry, Philosophy Activism Nature [P], vol 7, PAN Partners, Melbourne VIC Australia, pp. 61-70.

Rigby, C.E., 2009, Dancing with disaster, Australian Humanities Review [E], vol 46, ANU E Press, Australia, pp. 131-144.

Rigby, C.E., 2009, Writing in the anthropocene: Idle chatter or ecoprophetic witness?, Australian Humanities Review [E], vol 47, ANU E Press, Australia, pp. 1-9.

Rigby, C.E., 2008, "Lifting our eyes from the page": religion, literature and the earth, Religion and Literature, Special Issue, vol 40, issue 1, Notre Dame University Press, Charlottesville, In. USA, pp. 1-9.

Rigby, C.E., 2008, Discoursing on disaster: the hermeneutics of environmental catastrophe, Tamkang Review: A Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies, vol 39, issue 1, Tamkang University, Taiwan Republic of China, pp. 19-40.

Rigby, C.E., 2008, Noah Heringman, Romantic Rocks, Aesthetic Geology, Romantic Circles Praxis Series [E], vol 10, issue 1, University of Maryland, Maryland, pp. 1-9.

Rigby, C.E., 2008, Noah's ark revisited: (counter-) utopianism and (eco-) catastrophe, ARENA Journal, vol 31, Arena Printing and Publishing Pty. Ltd., Melbourne Vic Australia, pp. 163-177.

Rigby, C.E., 2007, Erica Cudworth, developing ecofeminist theory: the complexity of difference., Feminist Theory, vol 8, issue 1, Sage, London UK, pp. 128-130.

Rigby, C.E., 2007, T.K. Seung, Goethe, Nietzsche, and Wagner: their spinozan epics of love and power, Religion & Literature, vol 39, issue 2, The University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, pp. 105-108.

Rigby, C.E., 2007, Tragedy, modernity, and terra mater: Christa Wolf recounts the fall, New German Critique, issue 2, Duke University Press, Durham NC USA, pp. 115-141.

Rigby, C.E., 2006, Greg Garrard, ecocriticism, London and New York: Routledge 2004, Altitude: A Journal of Emerging Humanities Work [P], vol 7, issue 4, API Network, Curtin University of Technology, Perth WA Australia, pp. 1-4.

Rigby, C.E., 2006, Lance Newman our common dwelling: Henry Thoreau, transcendentalism, and the class politics of nature, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment [P], vol 13, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno USA, pp. 278-279.

Rigby, C.E., 2006, Minding (about) matter: on the eros and anguish of earthly encounter, Australian Humanities Review, vol 38, issue 38, La Trobe University Library, Bundoora Vic Australia, pp. 1-13.

Rigby, C.E., 2006, Writing after nature, Australian Humanities Review, vol 39-40, issue 39-40, La Trobe University Library, Bundoora Vic Australia, pp. 1-15.

Rigby, C.E., 2005, On 'not eating the limb of a living animal': rethinking our relations with (other) animals, Australian Humanities Review, vol 1, issue 34, La Trobe University, Melbourne Vic Australia, pp. 1-12.

Rigby, C.E., 2005, Returning to Rocky Nob: Stray thoughts on Canberra, Southerly, vol 64, issue 2, English Association, Sydney Branch, Australia, pp. 94-117.

Rigby, C.E., 2005, Val Plumwood as Earth Visionary, EarthSong Journal, issue Spring, EarthSong Project, Clayton South Vic Australia, pp. 24-25.

Rigby, K.E., 2004, Earth, world, text: on the (Im)possibility of Ecopoiesis, New Literary History, vol 35, issue 3, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore USA, pp. 427-442.

Rigby, K.E., 2004, Ecstatic dwelling: perspectives on place in european romanticism, Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, vol 9, issue 2, Routledge Journals, Abingdon UK, pp. 117-143.

Rigby, C.E., 2004, Mark McKenna Looking for Blackfella Point. An Australian History of Place (review), Southerly [P], vol 11, issue 2, University of Nevada Press, Reno USA, pp. 297-298.

Rigby, C.E., 2004, Robert Richards The Romantic Conception of Life. Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe (review), Southerly [P], vol 15, issue 3, Routledge, Abingdon UK, pp. 483-487.

Rigby, C.E., 2002, Ecology, Gender and the Sacred, Pacific Ecologist, vol 2, pp. 8-13.

Rigby, C.E., 2002, Jonathan Bate The Song of the Earth (review), Southerly [P], vol 63, issue 3, Duke University Press, Durham USA, pp. 391-396.

Rigby, C.E., 2001, Recovering From the Fall: The Greening of Modernity, AUMLA, vol 96, Australian Universities Language & Literature Association, Brisbane Qld Australia, pp. 35-48.

Rigby, C.E., 2001, The Rediscovery of (the Other) Place in European Romanticism, European Romantic Review, vol 12, issue 2, Logos Press, San Francisco, pp. 165-174.

Rigby, K.E., 2000, Freeing the Phenomena: Goethean Science and the Blindness of Faust, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, vol 7 no 2, Study of Literature & Environment & Univ of Nevada, Reno Nevada, pp. 25-42.

Rigby, C.E., 2000, Freeing the Phenomena: Goethean Science and the Blindness of Faust, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, vol 7, issue 2, Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, USA, pp. 25-42.

Rigby, C.E., 2000, The Politics of Pilgrimage, Philosophy Activism Nature, vol 1, PAN Partners, Melbourne Vic Australia, pp. 23-30.

Rigby, C.E., 1999, Making Connections Private: Towards a Spirituality of Immanence, A Social Ecology Journal, vol 1 issue 1, Social Ecology Research, UNSW, Sydney NSW Australia, pp. 209-224.

Rigby, C.E., 1998, Topographien des Begehrens. Erzahlstrukturen in den Erzahltexten von Gegenwartsautirinnen, Journal of Australasian Universities Languages & Literature Assoc Journal of Australasian Uni. Languages & Literature Assoc (AUMLA), vol no 89, Austtralasian Uni. Modern Languages Assoc, Christchurch NZ, pp. 137-138.

Conference Proceedings

Rigby, K.E., 2003, Tuning in to Spirit of Place, Changing Places: Re-imagining Australia, 10/09/1996-15/09/1996, Longueville Media Pty Ltd, Double Bay NSW Australia, pp. 107-115.

Rigby, C.E., Shaw, S., 1998, Living with the Edge at the Centre, Sense of Place: Living with the Edge, 26-30 Nov 1998, Monash University, Clayton Vic Australia, pp. 144-149.

Rigby, C.E., 1998, Myth, Memory, Attunement: Towards a Sensuous Semiotics of Place, Imagined Places: The Politics of Making Space, La Trobe University, School of Sociology, Pol. & Anthro. La Trobe Uni., Melbourne Vic Australia, pp. 175-182.

Other

Rigby, C., 2011, On the spot: In a eucalypt forest, Short story, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles California US, London UK, pp. 274-277.

Rigby, C.E., 2009, Language, Encyclopedia entry (Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability Vol. 1, Spirit of Sustainability), Berkshire Publishing Group LLC, Great Barrington Massachusetts, United States.

Rigby, C.E., 1998, The Cunning of Nature in Arena Magazine, Magazine article, Arena Printing & Publishing Fitzroy Vic.

Rigby, C.E., 1998, Women and Nature Revisited: Ecofeminist Reconfigurtations of an Old Association, Arena Journal, vol refereed journal, issue 12, Arena Printing and Publishing, Fitzroy Vic Australia, pp. 143-172.

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Attention and distraction in the poetry of Laurie Duggan, Pam Brown and Ken Bolton.

Supervisors:

Hawke, J (Main), Rigby, C (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Dancing into balance: Embodied spiritual practice and eco-philosophy.

Supervisors:

Grant, S (Main), Rigby, C (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Home: A psychogeography.

Supervisors:

Kossew, S (Main), Rigby, C (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Imagining the future: Comic perspective and critical spaces..

Supervisors:

Milner, A (Main), Rigby, C (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Queer Flame of Love: a reading of core texts from the Christian mystical tradition in light of the experience of contemporary gay men..

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Singleton, A (Associate).

Program of Study:

(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

THE SILENCE AROUND US: CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS TO MODERN SILENCE.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Johnson, A (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

The Interdependency of Constructions of Masculinity and the Environment in Australian Literature.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Gerster, R (Associate).

Program of Study:

(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

The Mystical Origins of Spinoza's Philosophy.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Fagenblat, M (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Utopias of balance.

Supervisors:

Milner, A (Joint-co), Rigby, C (Joint).

Completed Supervision

Student:

Bear, K.

Program of Study:

Seasonal Celebrations in the Melbourne Bioregion. (Masters) 2007.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Mews, C (Associate).

Student:

Bell, R.

Program of Study:

TOWARDS A PSYCHOANALYTIC AESTHETICS OF CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE. (PHD) 2000.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Weller, C (Associate).

Student:

Berry, G.

Program of Study:

Under the dominion of light: an ecocritical mythography. (PHD) 2009.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Milner, A (Associate).

Student:

Bruce, K.

Program of Study:

Materialising Memory: An Enquiry into the Process of Public Memorialisation with Reference to the Rosenstrasse Protest. (Masters) 2006.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main).

Student:

Chandler, T.

Program of Study:

Reading Atmospheres: Ecological Aesthetics and Virgil's Eclogues. (Masters) 2010.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Griffiths, J (Associate).

Student:

Chrulew, M.

Program of Study:

Foucault's genealogy of Christianity. (PHD) 2010.

Supervisors:

Boer, R (Main), Rigby, C (Associate).

Student:

Coleman, P.

Program of Study:

Ungraspable nature: an eco-exploration of indefinition. (PHD) 2007.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Worth, C (Associate).

Student:

Coralie, J.

Program of Study:

Resonance, reconnection, reparation: Judith Wright's radical 'green' writing project. (PHD) 2011.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Hawke, J (Associate).

Student:

Cotton, C.

Program of Study:

Scriptural allusions, Christian churches and Christian faith in the works of Anthony Trollope. (PHD) 2010.

Supervisors:

Dilnot, A (Main), Rigby, C (Associate).

Student:

Crees, M.

Program of Study:

Erotic play and the sublime/horrific void: a somacentric exploration of Georges Bataille's frame-cracking erotic space. (PHD) 2010.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main).

Student:

Cusack, G.

Program of Study:

Die schone Seele Beauty, art and love in Jena Romanticism. (PHD) 2006.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main).

Student:

Dixon, S.

Program of Study:

Re-Reading Place An Ecocritical Exploration in Contemporary Australian Fiction. (Masters) 2000.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main).

Student:

Elvey, A.

Program of Study:

GESTATIONS OF THE SACRED: ECOLOGICAL FEMINIST READINGS FROM THE GOSPEL OF LUKE. (PHD) 2000.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Historical Supervisor, I (Associate).

Student:

Gronda, H.

Program of Study:

Dance with the body you have: body awareness practices and/as deconstruction. (PHD) 2005.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Joint-Co), Ross, A (Joint).

Student:

Lucas, R.

Program of Study:

The experience of truth in everday life: ecophilosophy, phenomenology, and romanticism. (PHD) 2006.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main).

Student:

Manolopoulos, M.

Program of Study:

IF CREATION IS A GIFT: TOWARDS AN ECO/THEO/LOGICAL APORETICS. (PHD) 2003.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Boer, R (Associate), Horner, R (Associate).

Student:

Narraway, G.

Program of Study:

Making nature: visions of mastery in the Third Reich cinema. (PHD) 2006.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Verevis, C (Associate).

Student:

Nicholls, A.

Program of Study:

THE MANTIC ART: AN EXAMINATION OF THE NOTION OF THE DAEMONIC IN THE WRITINGS OF PLATO, GOETHE AND GOETHE'S CONTEMPORARIES.. (PHD) 2001.

Supervisors:

Veit, W (Main), Rigby, C (Joint).

Student:

Reeder, L.

Program of Study:

Interdependence in global times: Franciscan re-imaginings. (PHD) 2007.

Supervisors:

Mews, C (Joint-Co), Rigby, C (Joint).

Student:

Rider, E.

Program of Study:

The interfaith ecology movement. (PHD) 2011.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Singleton, A (Associate).

Student:

Taylor, A.

Program of Study:

A question of context: intertextuality, lectionary and the Bible. (PHD) 2007.

Supervisors:

Boer, R (Main), Rigby, C (Associate).

Student:

Van Den Berg, E.

Program of Study:

Language of the heart: a Sufi interpretation of form (sura) and meaning (mana) in contemporary society. (PHD) 2010.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Main), Yucel, S (Associate).

Student:

Winnett, F.

Program of Study:

MYTHS OF THE BEACH: A COASTAL SENSE OF PLACE IN AUSTRALIAN FILM AND TELEVISION. (PHD) 2003.

Supervisors:

Rigby, C (Joint), Williams, D (Joint-Co).

Student:

Zimmerman, R.

Program of Study:

Immateriality and abstract art. (PHD) 2008.

Supervisors:

Nelson, R (Main), Rigby, C (Associate).