Susan's primary research areas are in Australian legal history, Australian constitutional legal history, Australian judicial biography and early post Federation politics.

Susan has published in other research areas including women and the law, human rights and the tertiary experience for first year law students. Her research and writing interests in Australian legal history and Australian constitutional history have been published in Australia and overseas.  

Recent collaborations have explored key high profile criminal trials presided over by Justice William Charles Windeyer in nineteenth Century Australia and also the impact of court architecture on Australia's High Court as an itinerant court in the first decade of its operation. She is currently finalising a publication on George Reid, Australia's fourth Prime Minister and have recently commenced an archival study of the life of Justice Richard O'Connor, appointed as a puisne justice to the first High Court bench of Australia in October 1903.