Irmtraud Petersson received an MA at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet, Munich, Germany (1966), and completed her PhD at The University of Queensland (1988) under the supervision of Laurie Hergenhan.
Dr Petersson taught part-time in the field of Australian Literature at the University of Queensland between 1986 and 2000 and remained an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Communication and Arts. She was the editorial assistant of Australian Literary Studies and one of the compilers of the ALS 'Annual Bibliography of Studies in Australian Literature' with Carol Hetherington.
Dr Petersson's thesis, German Images in Australian Literature from the 1940s to the 1980s, investigates 'literary evidence concerning German-Australian connections'. Her study enables writers and researchers of Australian literature to better perceive another culture as a means to present their own and hence gain an understanding of what connects and distinguishes us from other national cultures. A significant part of the thesis - and one often quoted - concerns the German characters in Patrick White's fiction.
In 1996, Martin Duwell and Petersson edited the anthology And What Books Do You Read? New Studies in Australian Literature. This collection of essays was structured around the literary interests of Petersson's PhD supervisor, Laurie Hergenhan, and was dedicated to him. In 2001, Dr Petersson joined the AustLit team as Senior Researcher and was a significant contributor to the Bibliography of Australian Literature (2002-2008) project. She also assisted Dr Toni Johnson Woods with her ARC funded project on Australian Pulp Fiction. Dr Petersson translated and provided transliterated titles on the numerous German editions of the Carter Brown novels, providing valuable insight to the marketing of Australian literature overseas.
Dr Irmtraud Petersson was also a friend and benefactor of the Australian Catholic University's Centre for Early Christian Studies and an Honorary Research Consultant and Advisor at the School of English, Media Studies and Art History, University of Queensland.
With Professor Michael Lattke, Dr Petersson established the Michael Lattke Scholarship in Studies in Religion (established in 2019) and the Laurie Hergenhan Scholarship in Australian Literary Studies (established in 2021).
