Academic Profile:

2024-2025: Assistant Curator, Australian War Memorial, Canberra

2020-2024: Doctor of Philosophy, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne

2015-2018: Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of Melbourne

Research Focus:                                                                                               

-              History of children, youth and the family

-              Histories of cancer

-              Settler colonial studies

Publications

Forthcoming - Colonial girls: Growing up in nineteenth-century Australia. Manuscript in development, proposal under review with Monash University Publishing.

Research Articles:

-              “Children as parties of encounter on Australian frontiers: Girls in colonial Victoria, 1835-1856,” Settler Colonial Studies, published online ahead of print 31 March 2025. https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2025.2483593.

-              Thea Gardiner and Catherine Gay, “The Leafy Tree: The Lindsay Family and Siblinghood in Australia,” Cultural & Social History, vol. 21, no. 4 (2024): 535-553. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780038.2024.2369346. 

-              Carla Pascoe Leahy and Catherine Gay, “Care and crisis: disaster experiences of Australian parents since 1974,” The History of the Family, vol. 29, no. 1 (2024): 131-156. https://doi.org/10.1080/1081602X.2023.2278161.

-              “‘All the perils of the ocean’: Girls’ emotions on voyages to Australia, 1851-1884,” History Australia, vol. 20, no. 2 (2023): 199-217. https://doi.org/10.1080/14490854.2023.2200802.

-              Fiona Gatt and Catherine Gay, “‘Re-Living the Early Days’: memory, childhood and self-indigenization, North Melbourne, 1934–1935,” Postcolonial Studies, vol. 26, no. 2 (2022): 202-220. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2022.2049466.

-              “Matters of life and death: Girls’ voices in nineteenth-century coronial inquest files,” Provenance: The Journal of the Public Record Office of Victoria, no. 19 (2021): 20-32. https://prov.vic.gov.au/explore-collection/provenance-journal/provenance-2021/matters-life-and-death.  

Awards and scholarships:

-              2025 - Dissertation Award 2024, Honorable Mention, Society for the History of Childhood and Youth.

-              2025 - Ann Curthoys Prize, Highly Commended, Australian Historical Association.

-              2025 - Nominated for the Chancellor's Prize for Excellence in the PhD Thesis, University of Melbourne.

-              2024 - Arts Graduate Research Publication Support Grant, Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne.

-              2024 - Australian Historical Association Conference Award, full scholarship to attend AHA’s 2024 conference at Flinders University, Adelaide.

-              2024 - School of Historical and Philosophical Studies Fellows Essay Prize.

-              2023 - Hansen Little Public Humanities Grant, University of Melbourne.

-              2022 - Jill Roe Prize, Australian Historical Association.

-              2021 - Lloyd Robson Memorial Award, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne.

-              2021 - Summer Scholarship, National Library of Australia, Canberra.

-              2020 - Caroline Kay's Scholarship for History, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne.

-              2020 - Hansen Trust PhD Scholarship, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne.