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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.

Catherine Dewhirst is Senior Lecturer in History in the School of Humanities and Communication. A member of the Centre for Heritage and Culture, Institute for Resilient Regions, at UniSQ and 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. She has specialised 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 both early-career and 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 working on retrieving the neglected histories within the material culture of Australia’s multicultural and foreign-language community newspapers for re-situating their significance to Australia’s cultural heritage, and on the entangled relationship between Liberal Italy and 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.


  • 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)

HIS1004 Global History, 1500-1900
HIS2001 Sovereignty, Equality and Racism in Australia's Past
HIS2006 Revolutions and the People's Voice
HIS3004 Interpreting the Past
HIS8005 Duties to Rights: Women's European History (Honours & Master of Research)


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


  • 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 )