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Dr Catherine Dewhirst

Dr Catherine Dewhirst
Name Catherine Dewhirst
Position Senior Lecturer (History)
Section School of Humanities and Communication
Office Q206
Location Toowoomba Campus
Phone +61 7 4631 1046
Extension 1046
Email
Qualifications DipCivFr Paris-Sorbonne , BA UNSW , GDipEd UNSW , MA UNSW , PhD QUT
Languages French (non accredited translator)
Italian (non accredited translator)
Homepage https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5278-0075
The views expressed on staff homepages may not reflect the views of the University.

Biography

Catherine Dewhirst is Senior Lecturer in History in the School of Humanities and Communication and member of the Centre for Heritage and Culture, Institute for Resilient Regions, at UniSQ. She is also former Queensland representative on the Management Committee for the Australasian Centre for Italian Studies (2009-2022). Her research engages with cultural, political, social and entangled histories, and historiography, specialising in Italian migration and family history, women’s life-histories and autobiographical accounts, and the effects of racism and activism through a transnational lens. Catherine has been awarded research publication awards and funding, and has been an invited symposia and guest speaker in Australia and France. Her publications focus on migrant communities, the minority periodical press, family histories, memories and life-narratives, and retrieving the voices and experiences of those silenced.

Past research projects include internal and external grants for Queensland’s sesquicentenary celebrations of Italian migrant contributions (UniSQ; Griffith University; Sunshine Coast University), and the history of Australia’s migrant and minority community press (UniSQ; The Ian Potter Foundation). Catherine is currently research Italian-migrant memories of internment (Academic Affairs Collaboration Grant 2024). Other research includes the neglected histories of Australia’s multicultural and foreign-language community newspapers, and the entangled relationship between Liberal Italy and the editors of the Italian-migrant press, which contributed to Italy’s colonisation of Italian migrant communities worldwide from the age of imperialism to World War II.

Research Career


  • Historical Studies not elsewhere classified ( 210399 )
  • European History (excl. British, Classical Greek and Roman) ( 210307 )
  • Australian History (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History) ( 210303 )
  • Historical Studies not elsewhere classified ( 430399 )
  • Australian History ( 430302 )
  • European History (excl. British ( 430308 )
  • Historical Studies ( 430300 )
  • Histories Of Race ( 430312 )
  • Transnational History ( 430323 )
  • History Of Empires ( 430313 )
  • Biography ( 430303 )
  • Global And World History ( 430310 )
  • Migration History ( 430319 )
  • Gender History ( 430309 )

Australian and Italian migration histories
Imperial, diaspora and transnational histories
Migrant newspapers and community-building
European and world histories
Women's history / gender relations
Historiography
Family history / biography


Australasian Centre for Italian Studies (ACIS)
Australian Historical Association (AHA)
Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS)
Dante Alighieri Society, Brisbane
International Australian Studies Association (InASA)


Australasian Centre for Italian Studies (ACIS) Management Committee Queensland Representative (2008-2022):
http://www.acis.org.au/
Australian Historical Association (AHA) 2019 Conference Chief Convenor
https://www.theaha.org.au/


  • Institute for Resilient Regions (IRR)
  • Centre for Heritage and Culture (CHC)

Teaching


HIS1004 Global History, 1500-1900
HIS2001 Racism, Sovereignty and Equality
HIS2006 Revolutions and the People's Voice
HIS3004 Interpreting the Past

I teach into:

HAC3001 Careers
HMT4006 Advanced Theories and Debates in the Discipline


26 Years


4 Years


Committee member, Research Committee, School of Humanities and Communication
Panel member, USQ Bellmaine French Appreciation Travelling Scholarship, School of Humanities and Communication
Head of History, Australian Historical Association
Co-founder and Chair of panel, ‘The Jo-Anne Duggan Prize’, Australasian Centre for Italian Studies

Supervision


  • Historical Studies not elsewhere classified ( 210399 )
  • European History (excl. British, Classical Greek and Roman) ( 210307 )
  • Australian History (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History) ( 210303 )
  • Historical Studies not elsewhere classified ( 430399 )
  • Australian History ( 430302 )
  • European History (excl. British ( 430308 )
  • Historical Studies ( 430300 )
  • Histories Of Race ( 430312 )
  • Transnational History ( 430323 )
  • History Of Empires ( 430313 )
  • Biography ( 430303 )
  • Global And World History ( 430310 )
  • Migration History ( 430319 )
  • Gender History ( 430309 )