Associate Professor Carolyn Rickett is Dean of Learning & Teaching at Avondale University (NSW), and teaches in the areas of chaplaincy, communication, spirituality, and creative writing. She also contributes to the spiritual care team at Sydney Adventist Hospital.
Many of her national and international research publications and creative practice initiatives are linked to the field of medical humanities. Carolyn was coordinator for The New Leaves writing project, an initiative for people who have experienced – or are experiencing – the trauma of a life-threatening illness. Her work on illness narratives, therapeutic communication, creative writing praxis informs many of her national and international collaborations, grants and publications.
With an extensive background in teaching and curriculum design across a range of disciplines, her scholarly and research interests also include student-centred learning in undergraduate contexts and supervisory practice at post graduate level. In recognition of her sustained and outstanding contribution to student learning, she received a prestigious citation award from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council.
She currently supervises Higher Degree by Research candidates with interests in the areas of communication, creative writing, literary and drama studies, chaplaincy, spirituality, and holistic learning.
Mitchell, B. G., Northcote, M. T., Rickett, C., Russo, P., Amin, M., de Souza, F., Pearce, K., Sim, J., & Curryer, C. (2022). Patient perspectives of healthcare associated infection: "You don't know what impacts it will have on your life" Journal of Hospital Infection, 126, 93-102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2022.04.014
Kilgour, P., Northcote, M., & Rickett, C. (2022). Where to go for a Christian research degree? Part 2 of a two-part report. TEACH Journal of Christian Education, 16(1), 16-25.
Barnes, L., Northcote, M., Rickett, C., Lounsbury, L., Arasaratnam-Smith, L. A., Josey, K., & Obers, N. (2020). Women in higher education: The challenge remains, who wears the "pants". Universal Journal of Educational Research, 8(12), 6885 - 6892. doi: 10.13189/ujer.2020.081254.
Joseph, S., Rickett, C., Northcote, M., & Christian, B. J. (2020). Who are you to judge my writing?: Student collaboration in the co-construction of assessment rubrics. New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, 17(1), 31-49. doi:10.1080/14790726.2019.1566368
Rickett, C., Beveridge, J., Gordon, J., & Race, P. (2019). When ‘someone is writing a poem’: The role of metaphor in transforming the inhabited experience of life-threatening illness. Axon: Creative Explorations, 9(1). Retrieved from https://www.axonjournal.com.au/
Rickett, C., Joseph, S., Northcote, M., Christian, B., & Seddon, J. (2019). Peripheries and praxis: The effect of rubric co-construction on student perceptions of their learning [Special issue 57]. Text: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, 23(2), 1-16. Retrieved from http://www.textjournal.com.au/index.htm
Joseph, S., & Rickett, C. (2017). Supervisors’ perspectives on the ethical supervision of long form writing and managing trauma narrative within the Australian tertiary sector. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics, 14(2/3), 61-71.
Rickett, C., & Joseph, S. (2017). Beyond this point here be dragons: Consideration and caution for supervising HDR writing trauma projects. TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, 42, 1-15. Retrieved from http://www.textjournal.com.au/speciss/issue42/Rickett&Joseph.pdf
Joseph, S., & Rickett, C. (2017). Embedding, embellishing and embarrassing: Brian Williams ‘misremembers’ but social media reminds him. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics, 14(1), 32-41.
Rickett, C. (2015). Bad hair days and the good of Pamela Bone's literary journalism. Australian Journalism Review, 37(2), 81-93.
Rickett, C. (2014). On mourning, making, circulating: Refusing the 'posthumous humiliation' of Susan Sontag. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics, 11(4), 21-28.
Rickett, C., Grieve, C., & Gordon, J. (2011). Something to hang my life on: The health benefits of writing poetry for people with serious illnesses. Australasian Psychiatry, 19(3), 265-268. doi:10.3109/10398562.2011.562298
Kent, J., Musgrave, D., Rickett, C., & Webb, J. (Eds.). (2021). This gift, this poem. Puncher & Wattmann.
Kent, J., Musgrave, D., & Rickett, C. (Eds.). (2018). On first looking. Waratah, Australia: Puncher & Wattman.
Kent, J., Musgrave, D., & Rickett, C. (Eds.). (2016). All these presences. Glebe, Australia: Puncher and Wattmann.
Beveridge, J., & Rickett, C. (Eds.). (2014). A way of happening. Glebe, Australia: Puncher & Wattmann.
Beveridge, J., & Rickett, C. (Eds.). (2012). Here not there. Glebe, Australia: Puncher & Wattmann.
Beveridge, J., & Rickett, C. (Eds.). (2010). Wording the World. Glebe, Australia: Puncher & Wattmann.
Beveridge, J., & Rickett, C. (Eds.). (2008). New leaves anthology. Sydney, Australia: Darlington Press.
Rickett, C. (2019). When rock becomes fire: Heart-centred work and the holy ground of teaching. Revealing Jesus in the learning environment: Experiences of Christian educators (pp. 55-68). Cooranbong, Australia: Avondale Academic Press.
Rickett, C. (2019). Spit us out whole: Voicing the double wound in Carol Dine's Places in the bone: A memoir. In B. Avieson, F. Giles, & S. Joseph (Eds.), Still here: Memoirs of trauma, illness and loss (pp. 189-205). New York, NY: Routledge.
Rickett, C. (2018). "The final subject has been set. I'm concentrating hard on death": The poetics of loss in Philip Hodgins's Blood and Bone. In A. Kissane, D. Musgrave, & C. Rickett (Eds.), Feeding the ghost 1: Criticism on contemporary Australian poetry (pp. 280-310). Waratah, Australia: Puncher and Wattman.
Joseph, S., & Rickett, C. (2018). To begin to know: Resolving ethical tensions in David Leser's patriographical work. In B. Avieson, F. Giles, & S. Joseph (Eds.), Mediating memory: Tracing the limits of memoir (pp. 237-250). New York, NY: Routledge.
Kissane, A., Musgrave, D., & Rickett, C. (2018). "Seeing what the hunger is": Current criticism on Australian poetry. In A. Kissane, D. Musgrave, & C. Rickett (Eds.), Feeding the ghost 1: Criticism on contemporary Australian poetry (pp. 7-15). Waratah, Australia: Puncher and Wattman.
Rickett, C., Race, P., & Smedley, A. (2016). The heart of nursing: Attentive listening and serving stories. In K. Vaidya (Ed.), Nursing for the curious: Why study nursing? Canberra, Australia: The Curious Academic Publishing.
Rickett, C. (2016). Deadly funny: How John Diamond used humor to tackle the taboo subjects of cancer and dying. In D. Swick & R. L. Keeble (Eds.), The funniest pages: International perspectives on humor in journalism (pp. 125-138). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Rickett, C. (2015). Swimming in a sea of death: Reviewers respond to a journalist's work of mourning with humour. In R. L. Keeble & D. Swick (Eds.), Pleasures of the prose: Journalism and humour (pp. 54-69). Bury St Edmunds, England: Abramis Academic.
Rickett, C. (2015). 'Because Cowards Get Cancer Too’: Autopathography and First-Person Profiling in John Diamond’s columns for The Times. In S. Joseph & R. L. Keeble (Eds.), The profiling handbook (pp. 106-121). Bury St Edmunds, England: Abramis Academic.
Joseph, S. & Rickett, C. (2014). David Shields way of making: Creative manoeuvre or HDR nightmare? In S. Strange, P. Hetherington & J. Webb (Eds.),Creative manoeuvres: Writing, making, being (pp. 127-139). Newcastle Upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars.
Rickett, C. (2013). From sorrow to joy. In K.H. Valentine (Ed.). Signs to life: Reading and responding to John's gospel (p.87-99). Warburton, Australia: Signs.
Christian, B., Kilgour, P., Rickett, C., Jackson, W., Seddon, J., & Northcote, M. (2019, July). Owning the rubric: Facilitating rubric co-construction. Abstract presented at the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) Conference, Auckland, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://www.herdsa2019.auckland.ac.nz/program/
Northcote, M., Christian, B. J., Kilgour, P., Rickett, C., Jackson, W., & Seddon, J. (2019, July). A model of collaborative rubric construction: Lecturers and students learning in partnership. Abstract presented at the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) Conference, Auckland, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://www.herdsa2019.auckland.ac.nz/program/
Rickett, C., Race, P. & Gordon, J. (2015). Swimming in a sea of hypocrisy?: The ethical ambiguity of David Rieff's memoir. Paper presented at the 20th Conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs, Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved from http://www.aawp.org.au/publications/
Rickett, C., & Williams, A. (2015). Real-world design team activity: What is poetry for? In R. Valkenburg, C. Dekkers, & J. Sluijs (Eds.), Reframing design. Paper presented at the Participatory Innovation Conference PIN-C, University of Applied Sciences, The Hague, 18-20 May (pp. 40-46). The Hague, The Netherlands: Participatory Innovation Conference.
Rickett, C., Beveridge, J., Northcote, M., Williams, A., & Musgrave, D. (2014). Poetic threshold moments: From fledgling to published author. Paper presented at the 5th Biennial International Threshold Concepts Conference, Durham, England. Abstract retrieved from http://www.ee.ucl.ac.uk/~mflanaga/abstracts/TC14Abstract39.pdf
Rickett, C., Northcote, M., Williams, A., Beveridge, J., & Musgrave, D. (2014). If 'poetry is more a threshold than a path' then what might students redress to help with crossing over?. Paper presented at the 19th Conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs, Wellington, New Zealand. Retrieved from http://www.aawp.org.au/publications/
Williams, A., & Rickett, C. (2014). Analogy as a means of communicating. Paper presented at the DesignEd Asia Conference, Wan Chai, Hong Kong. Retrieved from http://www.designedasia.com/2014/Full_Papers/2014/6_ANALOGY AS A MEANS OF COMMUNICATING.pdf
Rickett, C. (2014, November). ‘Live and invent’: The bibliotherapeutic function of Samuel Beckett’s Malone Dies in Brenda Walker’s breast cancer narrative. Abstract presented at the French Autopathography Conference, Belfast, Ireland.
Rickett, C., & Joseph, S. (2014). 'No news today': 24/7 fatigue and the welcome gaps in reporting storylines. Paper presented at the 19th Conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs, Wellington, New Zealand. Retrieved from http://www.aawp.org.au/publications/
Rickett, C. (2011). My Body/my calamity. My body/my dignity: The role of autobiographical writing as a therapeutic and ethical strategy for dealing with a cancer diagnosis. Paper presented at the 16th Conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs, Byron Bay, Australia. Retrieved from http://www.aawp.org.au/publications/
Joseph, S. & Rickett, C. (2010). The writing cure?: Ethical considerations in managing creative practice lifewriting projects. Paper presented at the 15th Conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs, Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved from http://www.aawp.org.au/publications/
Morton, D. (2021, March 1). 7 dimensions of wellness: Episode 8 - environmentally attuned [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/529260118/8c073cf80a
Morton, D. (2021, March 1). 7 dimensions of wellness: Episode 6 - vocationally enriched [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/529264538/7a44607328
Morton, D. (2021, March 1). 7 dimensions of wellness: Episode 9 - spiritually empowered [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/529259571/3f5f4ebccf
Morton, D. (2021, March 1). 7 dimensions of wellness: Episode 7 - intellectually engaged [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/529263835/ec6cb3cb26
Morton, D. (2021, March 1). 7 Dimensions of wellness: Episode 2 - Physically energised (nutrition) [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/529277049/777d33ee81
Morton, D. (2021, March 1). 7 Dimensions of wellness: Episode 3 - Physically energised (exercise) [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/529276704/5bec8f02d7
Morton, D. (2021, March 1). 7 dimensions of wellness: Episode 5 - socially connected [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/529263153/4f85085976
Morton, D. (2021, March 1). 7 Dimensions of wellness: Episode 1 - Emotionally thriving [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/529277420/a98f7de255
Morton, D. (2021, March 1). 7 dimensions of wellness: Episode 4 - Physically energised (sleep) [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/529264901/72eadc521d
Rickett, C. (2014). Carolyn Rickett. In J. Kent & K. Kelen (Eds.), A slow combusting hymn: Poetry from and about the Newcastle and Hunter Region (pp. 244-248). Markwell, Australia: Cerberus Press.
