Dr Kate Kirby is an Associate Lecturer in Arts and Humanities in the School of Law and Society at UniSC. Kate teaches across a range of Arts and Humanities courses, including history and sociology. As a qualified and experienced librarian with a Master of Information Technology, Kate Kirby is also interested in supporting digital, information, and data literacy in first-year experiences.
Kate’s research specialises in sport history, sport heritage, regional narrative and memory. As a digital humanities scholar, her research engages in microhistory and prosopography. She has presented her research at a range of national conferences hosted by the Australian Historical Association (AHA), the International Australian Studies Association (InASA), and the Australian Women’s & Gender Studies Association (AWGSA). Kate’s research is also regularly shared in a monthly sport history segment on ABC Sunshine Coast radio.
Kate received her PhD in History from UniSC in 2024. Her research studied the history of high-performance sport in Australia, centring regional and rural experiences and drivers. Adopting prosopography and microhistory, she explored the activity and experiences of high-performance athletes, coaches, and referees in six regional and rural local government areas of Queensland. This led to the identification of drivers of regional high-performance sport success at macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of influence. The findings provided insight into the experience of internal migration connected to high-performance sporting careers and can inform future sport policies. In addition, the research highlighted tangible legacy markers of regional and rural high-performance success.
Kate presently serves as Queensland Heritage Register Fellow at the State Library of Queensland (2025), Historian in Residence at Sunshine Coast Council (2024-2025), and social media editor for History Australia (2025). Kate has previously been an invited PhD Scholar at the National Library of Australia (2023) and the inaugural Historian in Residence for the Sunshine Coast Council (2022).
Professional Memberships
- The Australian Historical Association (AHA)
- The Australian Society for Sports History (ASSH)
- The Australian Women’s and Gender Studies Association (AWGSA)
Awards and Fellowships
- Queensland Heritage Register Fellow, State Library of Queensland (2025)
- Historian in Residence, Sunshine Coast Council (2024-2025)
- Carol Moya Mills Scholarship, National Library of Australia (2023)
- Inaugural Historian in Residence, Sunshine Coast Council (2022)
Professional Social Media
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Grant/project name |
Investigators |
Funding body and AUD$ value |
Year(s) |
Focus of research grant |
|
Dr Kate Kirby |
State Library of Queensland (SLQ) $20,000 |
2025 |
Patterns of Queensland’s sport and recreation heritage: enhancing community access to sport history knowledge via the Queensland Heritage Register.
|
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|
Dr Kate Kirby |
Sunshine Coast Council (SCC) $12,500 |
2024-2025 |
Bounce, sprint, and spirit: three stories of Sunshine Coast sport history. |
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|
National Library of Australia Scholar (Carol Moya Mills Summer Scholarship) |
Dr Kate Kirby |
National Library of Australia (NLA) $6,000 |
2023 |
The 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games: exploring event impact, legacy, and memory outside the city limits. |
|
Dr Kate Kirby |
Sunshine Coast Council (SCC) $10,000 |
2022 |
Sunshine Coast gold 1901 - 2021: local high-performing athletes winning on the state, national and world stage. |
Research areas
- Sport history
- Sport heritage
- Prosopography
- Microhistory
- Archives, libraries and repositories
- Digital humanities
Teaching areas
Dr Kirby’s specialist areas of knowledge include sport history, sport heritage, Queensland history, prosopography, libraries, and digital humanities.
In the news
Historian delves into Coast’s sporting heritage
20 Jan 2022A University of the Sunshine Coast researcher who is investigating the Sunshine Coast’s sporting history hopes her work will also shed light on other important aspects of the region’s past.