Barbara is an Honorary Research Associate at Whitley College, University of Divinity, working in the area of gender in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible.
She completed her PhD on the Eden narrative (Genesis 2–4) in 2019. It is entitled One Becomes Two: The Gender Anthropology of the Eden Narrative and its Reception Journey.
Her research explores the counter-stream of interpretation of the Eden story offered by women. A special area of interest is the employment of feminist interpretations of Genesis by women in the first-wave feminist movement in America and Australia in the late nineteenth century and the intersection of feminist and Indigenous histories.
She is an Authorised Honorary Lay Reader with the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne in the parish of Yarraville and is interested in encouraging people to read the Bible well. Community interests in Melbourne include prison chaplaincy, the Indigenous Hospitality House in Melbourne and a community garden.