Professor Susan Oliver
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Email
soliver@essex.ac.uk -
Location
5NW.4.4, Colchester Campus
Profile
Biography
I joined Essex in 2010, serving as Faculty Dean of Research in Arts and Humanities between July 2019 and December 2022. My main interests are late 18th century and Romantic period literature through to the 1860s, transatlantic studies, periodical culture, ecocriticism and environmental writing, and Scottish literature. The visual arts and music also inform my work. My latest monograph is Walter Scott and the Greening of Scotland: Emergent Ecologies of a Nation (Cambridge University Press, 2021; paperback and Kindle 2023). The British Academy awarded me the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize (2007) for my earlier book, Scott, Byron and the Poetics of Cultural Encounter (Palgrave, 2005). I was guest editor of the Yearbook of English Studies 47 (2017) titled "Walter Scott: New Interpretations," which brings together innovative new ways of reading Scott for the 21st Century. Recently, I have published interdisciplinary articles on coastal Romanticisms, authored a book chapter on Scott and the Anthropocene, and another on women Scottish novelists and memoirists Susan Ferrier, Mary Brunton and Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus. I am writing a new book about transatlantic periodical culture in the 70 years between the French Revolution and American Civil War, looking at the rise of a principled critical journalism that today is under threat. I regularly speak at conferences around the world and have given many public talks including recently for the National Trust Scotland and, on John Constable, for The National Gallery. I serve on the Editorial Boards of Romanticism on the Net (RoN), The Wordsworth Circle, and the Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture, and am an active member of several professional associations in nineteenth-century, transatlantic, and environmental studies. The UKRI appointed me as a panel member of their Interdisciplinary Assessment College (IAC) and I am a member the AHRC Peer Review College. I am a Fellow of the English Association and of the Higher Education Academy and have held research Fellowships at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Library Company of Philadelphia, The Huntington Library, The American Philosophical Society, the Modern Language Association, and the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh. I am a Senior Member of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, an Honorary Fellow in Literary Studies in the Department of English at The University of Wyoming. In 2018 I was awarded Essex's PhD Supervisor of the Year (Humanities). I was honoured with the University Motivational, Inspiring, and Empowering Women award in 2017 and as Research Impact Champion (Humanities) in 2016. Doctoral supervision: I welcome enquiries about supervising PhD research in 18th century literature, Romanticism, Transatlantic studies, ecocriticism, environmental writing and Scottish literature. My current and former PhD students have worked on topics including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Christina Rossetti, and Gerard Manley Hopkins; 19th-century periodicals and education; Women and illustration in transatlantic 19th-century fiction; literary ecologies of the North Sea and its archipelagos,; literary pre-Darwinism; environmentalism in contemporary fiction; and the novels of William Godwin.
Qualifications
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B.A. (Hons) English and European Literature University of Essex,
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Ph.D. English University of Cambridge,
Appointments
University of Essex
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Faculty Dean (Research), Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Essex (22/7/2019 - 31/12/2022)
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Director of Research, Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies, University of Essex (10/8/2015 - 17/8/2018)
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Academic Staffing Committee, Literature, Film, and Thatre Studies, University of Essex (1/8/2014 - 31/7/2020)
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Collaborative Board, Centre for Environment and Society, University of Essex (31/1/2016 - present)
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Athena SWAN Institutional Self Assessment Team, University of Essex (3/12/2013 - present)
Other academic
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External Examiner, School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff University (1/9/2018 - 31/8/2022)
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Honorary Fellow in Literary Studies, English, University of Wyoming (1/1/2013 - present)
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Advisory Committee, MLA International Bibliography, Modern Language Association (1/7/2015 - 30/6/2018)
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Senior Bibliographer, MLA International Bibliography, Modern Language Association (1/7/2015 - present)
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Bibliographer, MLA International Bibliography, Modern Language Association (1/7/2009 - 30/6/2015)
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Bibliography Fellow, MLA International Bibliography, Modern Language Association (1/7/2005 - 30/6/2009)
Research and professional activities
Research interests
Romanticism and Romantic period literature and culture
Scottish literature
Late 18th Century British and American literature
19th century British and American literature
Periodicals and magazines
Transatlantic studies
I am a leading specialist in transatlantic studies, with a focus on the 18th, 19th and 21st centuries. My published work in this field includes many journal articles and book chapters. My current monograph project is on transatlantic periodicals 1790-1860 and the 21st century, looking at how those publications encouraged freedom of thought and created an exchange for knowledge and ideas that changed the world.
Ecocriticism
Borders and cultural encounters
Environmental literature
Romanticism
Walter Scott
I am a leading scholar in the study of Walter Scott and his writing. My recent focus has been on his interest in the land and environment. I have authored many publications on Scott, including two monographs, a journal special issue, several journal articles and several book chapters. I have given numerous public and academic talks on Scott and his work.
Charles Lamb studies
I am a leading scholar in Charles Lamb studies and a Trustee of The Charles Lamb Society. My publications include journal articles and book chapter. Lamb features prominently in a new monograph that I am writing on transatlantic periodical culture. I gave the Charles Lamb Birthday Lecture in 2023.
Conferences and presentations
Romanticism on the Coast, BARS/NASSR Salon
Invited presentation, New Romanticisms, Ormskirk, United Kingdom, 3/8/2022
"Fields of Conflict and Ecologies of War: Walter Scott’s Paul’s Letters to his Kinsfolk and the Site of Waterloo."
Invited presentation, British Romanticism and Europe, Ascona, Switzerland, 23/6/2022
The Bass Rock: J. M. W. Turner, Ecologies, and Transmutable Forms of an Inshore Island.
Invited presentation, Scotland’s Coastal Romanticisms Workshop, Edinburgh, Scotland, 5/2/2022
Transformative Geologies: Scott, Byron and the Stones of Italian Romance.
Invited presentation, Eco-Romanticism: Human-Nonhuman Conversations (plenary panel), Parma, Italy, 25/11/2021
Romanticism and Posthumansim - Session presider and co-organiser with Professor Richard Sha (American University, DC)
Invited presentation, Modelr Language Association Annual Convention, Seattle, United States, 11/1/2020
"Managed Extinction? The Scottish Clearances as an Anthropocene Event."
Invited presentation, Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Seattle, United States, 10/1/2020
“Curtis’s Botanical Magazine and Romantic Plant Poetry: Seeking Spirituality in Real-Life Flowers”
Invited presentation, Ecology and Religion in 19th Century Studies, Waco, United States, 21/9/2019
“Exposed to the Elements: Romantic Time, Weather, and Science Then and Now”
Romantic Elements: North American Society for the Study of Romanticism (NASSR) 27th Annual Conference, Chicago, United States, 11/8/2019
"Sea Stories and Freshwater Tales: Washington Irving, Walter Scott and the Transatlantic Romantic Imagination."
Invited presentation, Symbiosis 12th Biennial Conference., Dundee, United Kingdom, 13/7/2019
"David Douglas’ Canadian Trees: The Romantic Imagination versus the Lumber Industry."
The Transatlantic Studies Association 18th Annual Conference., Lancaster, United Kingdom, 10/7/2019
Transatlantic Romanticisms Reviewed
Invited presentation, Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Chicago, United States, 3/1/2019
“Towards an Aesthetics of the Unseen: or, Romanticism Below and Beyond the Horizon."
Open: North American Society for the Study of Romanticism (NASSR) 26th Annual Conference, Providence, United States, 23/6/2018
"The MLA International Bibliography as an Active Archive: Knowledge Creation for the Twenty-First Century."
Invited presentation, Modern Language Association Annual Convention, New York, United States, 5/1/2018
"Rocks and Hard Places: Romanticism and the Agency of Stone."
Invited presentation, Romantic Improvement: British Association for Romantic Studies (BARS) 15th International Conference, York, United Kingdom, 28/7/2017
“Ecologies of Destruction: The Politics and Poetics of the Planetary: Oil, Coal and Air in 1820s Scotland.”
Invited presentation, Dialogues and Diasporas: 2nd World Congress of Scottish Literatures., Vancouver, Canada, 22/6/2017
“The Road to Publication Begins with Research.”
Invited presentation, Modern Language Association Annual Convention., Philadephia, United States, 6/1/2017
“Transatlantic Discontent: Homecoming from the American Tropics in Walter Scott’s Rokeby.”
Romanticism and Its Discontents: North American Society for the Study of Romanticism 24th Annual Conference., Berkeley, United States, 13/8/2016
“Reading the Land: Interpreting Forms of Violence.”
Invited presentation, Keynote presentation, Environments: British Comparative Literature Association PG Conference, Colchester, United Kingdom, 8/6/2016
“Cloaking and Hiding: Dressing Up in Robert Louis Stevenson's The Master of Ballantrae.”
Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Austin, United States, 9/1/2016
“Romantic Ecocriticism: Thinking Forward.”
Invited presentation, Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Austin, United States, 8/1/2016
Conference co-organiser
Invited presentation, Trauma, Conflict, and Reconciliation: 10th Symbiosis Transatlantic Studies Biennial International Conference., Colchester, United Kingdom, 9/9/2015
“Environmental Justice and the Romantic Ballad: Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border versus Lyrical Ballads.”
Romanticism and Rights: North American Society for the Study of Romanticism (NASSR) 23rd Annual Conference, Winnipeg, Canada, 15/8/2015
"Teaching Transatlantic Romanticisms."
Romantic Imprints: British Association for Romantic Studies (BARS) 14th International Conference., Cardiff, United Kingdom, 18/7/2015
“Publishing in Academic Journals and Edited Essay Collections.”
Romantic Imprints: 14th British Association for Romantic Studies (BARS) International Conference, Cardiff, United Kingdom, 18/7/2015
"The Land Writes Back: Walter Scott, Ballads and Grounding the Imagination."
Invited presentation, Notes from Underground: Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) 11th Biennial Conference., Moscow, United States, 27/6/2015
“Scottish Literature: Into the Great Unknowns.”
Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Vancouver, Canada, 9/1/2015
“Woodland as Cultural Archive in The Lay of the Last Minstrel.”
Invited presentation, Activating the Archive: 10th International Walter Scott Conference., Aberdeen, United Kingdom, 12/7/2014
"“Walter Scott and the Presence of Place: An Ecocritical Phenomenology for the Twenty-First Century.”"
World Congress of Scottish Literatures, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 3/7/2014
“Green Scotland: Seeds of Independence.”
Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Chicago, United States, 11/1/2014
“Narratives of western travel in the Edinburgh Review 1802-1815.”
Invited presentation, The Journey and Its Portrayals: Explorers, Sailors, (Im)migrants.", Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, Province of China, 25/11/2012
“The Slipperiness of Genre: Thomas De Quincey’s 'On Murder' Essays and Catastrophic Spaces in the Romantic Press.”
Romantic Catastrophes: International Conference on Romanticism (ICR) Annual Conference, Tempe, United States, 9/11/2012
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
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Modern Revolutions in Science, Politics, and Culture (CS101)
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Ways of Knowing (CS112)
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Criticism: Practice and Theory (LT204)
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The Romantics: Poetry, Prose, Imagination (LT215)
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Independent Literature Project (LT831)
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Literature and the Environmental Imagination: 19th to 21st Century Poetry and Prose (LT978)
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Desire in the Age of Enlightenment: Eighteenth Century Literature (LT267)
Current supervision
Previous supervision
Degree subject: Creative Writing
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 17/1/2023
Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 2/3/2020
Degree subject: Creative Writing
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 17/9/2019
Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 22/5/2017
Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 20/4/2017
Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 11/11/2016
Degree subject: Literature
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 30/6/2015
Publications
Journal articles (18)
Oliver, S., (2024). A Coastal Knowledge Ecology and Aesthetics of Data: Environmental Science, J. M. W. Turner, and the Bass Rock. Romanticism On the Net (79)
Baker, S., Dick, A., Gidal, E., McKeever, G. and Oliver, S., (2023). “Better Lore” of the Romantic Coast: Maritime Ecologies and Cultural Infrastructure from England, Scotland, and Beyond.. European Romantic Review. 34 (3), 303-315
Oliver, S., (2017). "Trees, Rivers, and Stories: Walter Scott Writing the Land". Yearbook of English Studies. 47, 279-299
Oliver, S., (2017). "Introduction to 'Walter Scott: New Interpretations'". Yearbook of English Studies. 47, 1-15
Oliver, S., (2016). "Cloaking and Hiding: Dressing up in Robert Louis Stevenson's The Master of Ballantrae.". The Bottle Imp. [Supplement 3] (Supplement Issue 3), [no-pagination]
Oliver, S., (2015). "Introduction: Scottish Literature at the MLA 2015". The Bottle Imp. 2 (Supp)
Oliver, S., (2014). "Green Scotland: Literature and the Seeds of Independence". The Bottle Imp. [Supplement 1] (Supp 1), [no-pagination]
Oliver, S., (2014). Walter Scott and the Matter of Landscape: Ecologies of Violence for our Time.. The Bottle Imp. 16 (16), 1-5
Oliver, S., (2013). Sir Walter Scott's Transatlantic Ecology. The Wordsworth Circle. 44 (2-3), 115-120
Oliver, S., (2013). DeQuincey's “On Murder“: The Generic Conflict. The Wordsworth Circle. 44 (1), 44-51
Oliver, S., (2012). Review Essay: Robert Burns in Global Culture (Bucknell UP, 2011) ed. Murray Pittock; James Hogg and the Literary Marketplace (Ashgate, 2009) ed. Sharon Alker and Holly Faith Nelson.. The Wordsworth Circle. 43 (4), 209-212
Oliver, S., (2011). Walking and Imagining the City: The Transatlanticity of Charles Lamb's Essays for the London Magazine. Charles Lamb Bulletin. 154, 115-130
Oliver, S., (2009). Planting the Nation's ‘Waste Lands’: Walter Scott, Forestry and the Cultivation of Scotland's Wilderness. Literature Compass. 6 (3), 585-598
Oliver, S., (2009). Silencing Joseph Johnson and the "Analytical Review". The Wordsworth Circle. 40 (2-3), 96-102
Oliver, S., (2009). Romantic 'Dantism,' Travel, Visions and Exile: Byron, Ugo Foscolo and Henry Francis Cary. Journal of Anglo-Italian Studies. 10, 1-16
Oliver, S., (2008). Crossing "Dark Barriers": Intertextuality and dialogue between Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott. Studies in Romanticism. 47 (1), 15-34
Oliver, S., (2005). Transatlantic Influences in Periodical Editing: From Francis Jeffrey's Edinburgh Review to Horace Greeley's New-York Tribune. Symbiosis: A Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations. 9 (1), 45-62
Oliver, S., (2002). Resisting Radical Energies: Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border and the Re-Fashioning of the Border Ballads. Cycnos. 19 (1), 49-63
Books (3)
Oliver, S., (2021). Walter Scott and the Greening of Scotland: Emergent Ecologies of a Nation. Cambridge University Press. 978-1108831574
Oliver, S., (2017). Walter Scott: New Interpretations. Modern Humanities Research Association. 9781781882931
Oliver, S., (2005). Scott, Byron and the Poetics of Cultural Encounter. Palgrave Macmillan. 9780230555006
Book chapters (13)
Oliver, S., (2022). "Private Thoughts and Public Display: Gender, Genre and Lives.". In: The International Companion to Nineteenth-Century Scottish Literature. Editors: Kidd, S., McNeil, K. and McCracken-Flesher, C., . Scottish Literature International, Association for Scottish Literature. 42- 49. 978-1-908980-35-9
Oliver, S., (2021). "Reading Walter Scott in the Anthropocene". In: Walter Scott at 250: Looking Forward.. Editors: McCracken-Flesher, C. and Wickman, M., . Edinburgh University Press. 161- 180. 9781474429863
Oliver, S., (2021). 9 Reading Walter Scott in the Anthropocene. In: Walter Scott at 250. Edinburgh University Press. 161- 180
Oliver, S., (2019). Walter Scott and Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso.. In: Ariosto, the Orlando Furioso and English Culture.. Editors: Everson, JE., Hiscock, A. and Jossa, S., . Oxford University Press. 186- 209. 9780197266502
Oliver, S., (2016). "Transatlantic Magazines and the Rise of Environmental Journalism". In: The Edinburgh Companion to Atlantic Literary Studies. Editors: Eckel, L. and Elliott, C., . Edinburgh Companions to Literature. 340- 353. 1474402941. 9781474402941
Oliver, S., (2016). 23. Transatlantic Magazines and the Rise of Environmental Journalism. In: The Edinburgh Companion to Atlantic Literary Studies. Edinburgh University Press. 340- 354
Oliver, S., (2013). Stevenson as Transatlantic Romanticism. In: Approaches to Teaching the Works of Robert Louis Stevenson. Modern Language Association of America. 130- 134. 9781603291217
Oliver, S., (2013). Horror and Melancholia in Romantic Greece: British Reviews of John Keats’s Lamia and John Polidori’s The Vampyre.. In: Southern Horrors: Northern Visions of the Mediterranean World. Editors: Bonifas, G. and Monacelli, M., . Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 201- 211. 1443850306. 9781443850308
Oliver, S., (2013). Reading Morocco in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical Press before National Geographic.. In: Beyond Colonial/postcolonial Interventions Revisiting the Debate of Morocco in English Writings and Moroccan Writings in English.. Editors: Essrhir, A., Amine, K., Ennassiri, MK., El Assad, YR., Younes, R., Mars, A. and El Ayadi, R., . Abdelmalek Assadi University Press and The British Council. 191- 212. 9981610542. 9789981610545
Oliver, S., (2013). A Royal and Romantic Nation. In: La Donna del Lago. Royal Opera. 31- 37
Oliver, S., (2012). "Contagion and the City: Writing Boston as a Transatlantic City in the Early Nineteenth Century.". In: The City and the Ocean: Journeys, Memory, Imagination. Editors: White, JC. and Wang, I., . Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 60- 74. 9781443837194
Oliver, S., (2010). Ecologies of Disaffection: Interpreting Wastelands in Charles Brockden Brown's Edgar Huntly and Walter Scott's The Bride of Lammermoor. In: An Interpretive Turn: Essays on Cultural Expressions of Art and Literature. Bookman Books, Ltd.. 23- 40. 9789574453429
(2007). Romanticism's Debatable Lands. In: Romanticism's Debatable Lands. Palgrave Macmillan UK. 39- 51. 9781349353743
Conferences (11)
Oliver, S., Impact Metrics in the Humanities: Administrative Perspective of Impact Metrics:
Oliver, S., 12th International Walter Scott Conference, University of Edinburgh. Paper titled 'Inshore Fishing in Scotland in the 21st Century: the Romance and Realism of Scott’s Legacy.'
Oliver, S., (2019). The Transatlantic Studies Association 18th Annual Conference. Paper 'David Douglas’ Canadian Trees: The Romantic Imagination versus the Lumber Industry.'
Oliver, S., (2019). Symbiosis 2019, University of Dundee. Paper titled 'Sea Stories and Freshwater Tales: Washington Irving, Walter Scott and the Transatlantic Romantic Imagination.'
Oliver, S., (2019). Exposed to the Elements: Romantic Time, Weather, and Science Then and Now
Oliver, S., (2018). Towards an Aesthetics of the Unseen: or, Romanticism Below and Beyond the Horizon
Oliver, S., (2016). Walter Scott and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.
Oliver, S., (2015). Environmental Justice and the Romantic ballad: Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border versus Lyrical Ballads
Oliver, S., (2014). Getting to the Roots of the Matter: Trees and the Environmental Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Literature
Oliver, S., (2013). “Melancholia and horror in Romantic Greece: British reviews of John Keats’s Lamia and John Polidori’s The Vampyre.”
Oliver, S., (2013). “Reading Morocco in the nineteenth-century periodical press before National Geographic.”
Media (7)
Oliver, S., Walter Scott and the Greening of Scotland.. Video
Oliver, S., Riding, C., Hopper, J. and Greenberg, R., Life Inside The Hay Wain: Constable's Landscapes 200 years on. The National Gallery, panel and webinar.. Video
Pretty, J., Dixon, M., Tearne, R., Oliver, S., Shaheed, A. and Lichtenstein, J., Louder than Words Podcast: Migration. Audio
Jones, K., Marsh, H., Ward, P. and Oliver, S., ‘The myth of hyperabundance’: the environmental history of the Americas.' Available online: https://easternarc.ac.uk/podcasts/episode-6-the-myth-of-hyperabundance-the-environmental-history-of-the-americas/. Audio
Oliver, S., Jones, K., Marsh, H. and Ward, P., ‘There is no revolution without songs’: environment & art in the Americas.. Audio
Oliver, S., 'Endemic, Epidemic, Pandemic! Contagion, the Doctors, and the Press in Early-19th-Century Boston.' Essex Explores (public lecture series). Available online https://lnkd.in/dVWc3M7. Video
Oliver, S., 'Getting to the Roots of the Matter: Trees in 19th Century Literature,' Interdisciplinary Explorations: The Idea of Nature (public lecture series). Available online: https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/ideaofnature/18/. Video
Other (11)
Oliver, S., (2021).The Hay Wain at 200 years and how it helps us to think about the climate emergency.,University of Essex, Essex Blogs
Oliver, S., (2016).Ice Thoughts: 2,susanoliverweb.com
Oliver, S., (2016).Plants and Antibiotics: some thoughts on reading the NY Times article ?Could Ancient Remedies Hold the Answer to the Looming Antibiotics Crisis??,https://susanoliverweb.com
Oliver, S., (2016).Seeing beyond the Sandhill Cranes: a trip from Eastern Wyoming into Nebraska.,blogpost. susanoliverweb.com
Oliver, S., (2016).Ice thoughts.,blogpost. susanoliverweb.com
Oliver, S., (2015).Wildflower thoughts . . .,susanoliverweb.com
Oliver, S., (2015).Sculptured Coast.,blogpost. susanoliverweb.com
Oliver, S., (2014).City of Trees: Boise, Idaho and an Urban Natural Experience.,Blogpost. susanoliverweb.com
Oliver, S., (2014).Hot Springs, Atomic Cities, and Craters of the Moon . . . on the Road in Idaho.,Blogpost. susanoliverweb.com
Oliver, S., (2014).Sage Grouse Lekking and Canyon Fiction.,Blogpost. susanoliverweb.com
Oliver, S., (2014).Of Rocks and Hard Places . . .,Blogpost - https://susanoliverweb.com
Grants and funding
2022
Coastal Scotland: The Bass Rock, J. M. W. Turner, and the ecologies of an inshore island
Natural Environment Research Council
2015
Green Scott: Walter Scott's Environmentalism and Writing the Ecologies of a Nation
The British Academy
