Field of work

At HVL, I teach English literature and culture (American, British and World Literature in English). Most of my research and publications lie in three distinct yet overlapping areas of inquiry: studies of Western American literature and history, Indigenous studies, and the history of photography. I also research environmental approaches to the study and teaching of children's literature.

Over the course of my academic career in the UK, USA and Norway, I have taught over 50 undergraduate and graduate-level classes on multiple aspects of American, British and Postcolonial literature. I have supervised myriad Master's and PhD theses to completion, and I have served as external examiner of PhD students at leading UK universities (Durham, Edinburgh, Warwick, etc).



Courses taught

GLU 1-7 (Literature and culture)

GLU 5-10 (Literature and culture)

Master's thesis supervision


Research areas

Selected publications

Interdisciplinary studies of the American West

M. Padget, Indian Country: Travels in the American Southwest, 1840-1935 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004), 288 pages

M. Padget, “The Southwest and Travel Writing,” in The Cambridge Companion to American Travel Writing, ed. Alfred Bendixter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 78-100

M. Padget, "Claiming, Corrupting, Contesting: Reconsidering 'The West' in Western American Literature," American Literary History 10.2 (1998): 378-392

Indigenous studies

M. Padget, "Hopi Film, the Indigenous Aesthetic and Environmental Justice: Victor Masayesva, Jr.'s Paatuwaqatsi - Water, Land and Life," Journal of American Studies 47.2 (2013): 363-84

M. Padget, "Native American Literature," in H. Grice, C. Hepworth, M. Lauret & M. Padget, Beginning Ethnic American Literatures (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000

History of Photography

M. Padget, Photographers of the Western Isles (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2010), 320 pages

M. Padget, "Native Americans, the Photobook and the Southwest: Ansel Adams' and Mary Austin's Taos Pueblo," in Writing with Light: Words and Photographs in American Texts, ed. Mick Gidley (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010), 19-42 - This essay was awarded the Arthur Miller Prize for best article of 2010 by the British Association for American Studies.


Research groups

(RETELL) Research in English Teacher Education, Language and Literature

Nature in Children's Literature and Culture

Courses taught
  • ENB801N, English 1, module 1 - Language teaching, 24/25
  • ENB802N, English 1, module 2 - Language and culture, 24/25
  • ING151, English Language and Culture - online course, Fall 2024
  • MGUEN550, English 3, module 4 - Master’s thesis, 24/25