Professor Catherine Manathunga is the Co-Director of the UniSC Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre and Professor of Education Research in the School of Education and Tertiary Access at the University of the Sunshine Coast. She is an Irish-Australian, non-Indigenous- ally researcher and proud transcultural mother and grandmother of Sri-Lankan-Irish-Australian children and grandchildren. Catherine is an historian who draws together expertise in historical, sociological and cultural studies research to bring an innovative perspective to educational research, particularly focusing on the higher education sector. She has worked for more than 30 years in universities throughout Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
Professor Manathunga has had lengthy experience working in respectful partnership with culturally diverse and Indigenous peoples in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, China and South Africa. She also has emerging connections with First Nations and culturally diverse communities in South America. She has acted as an educational consultant to many other universities in Australia and internationally. She is a research assessor for the ARC, ERA, OLT and National Research Foundation in South Africa.
Her research has been funded by the Australian Research Council, DFAT Australia China Council, Australian Learning and Teaching Council, Ako Aotearoa (NZ Centre for Tertiary Education), Higher Education Research & Development Society of Australasia, Nagoya University Japan, Hiroshima University Japan and industry partners.
From 2018 to May 2024, she was Associate Dean Research (or equivalent) of the UniSC School of Education and Tertiary Access. She has held research leadership roles in Education since 2011. From 2021 to 2024, she was the Chair of the Community of Associate Deans of Research in Education (cADRE), a network of the Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE).
In 2004, she was part of the team who won an a national Australian Award National for University Teaching (AAUT) Award for Enhancing Student Learning and, in 2006, she led a the team winning that won an Australian National Carrick Institute Award for Programs that Enhance Student Learning.
Keynote presentations
- SoTL Conference, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa, 2018 (forthcoming)
- Enhancing the role of teaching and learning in higher education Conference, Oslo, Norway, 2017
- SoTL in the South Conference, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2017
- UQ School of Education Postgraduate Conference, Brisbane, Australia 2016
- National Irish Association for Research in Teaching & Learning keynote presentation for masterclass on supervision, Dublin, Ireland. 2015
- Australian & NZ Comparative and International Education Society Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 2014
- Postgraduate Supervision Conference, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2011
- Cultural Studies Association of Australasia Conference, Byron Bay, Australia 2010
- Society for Research in Higher Education Conference, Wales, 2009
- Invited to present at the Cooperative Research Centre Association Conferences in Canberra and Alice Springs in 2004; 2005 & 2010
- Invited as keynote speaker at:
- National University of Ireland, Galway 2017
- Roskilde University, Denmark, 2016
- University of British Colombia, Canada, 2015
- University of Saskatchewan, Canada, 2015
- Linköping University, Sweden, 2014
- Lund University, Sweden, 2014
- Södertörn University, Sweden, 2014
- University Sains Malaysia, 2009
- University of the South Pacific, 2008
Awards
- 2006 Australian National Carrick Institute Award for Programs that Enhance Student Learning
- 2005 UQ Award for Enhancing Student Learning
- 2004 Australian National AAUT Award for Enhancing Student Learning (UQ Graduate School)
- 2004 Promoting Women Fellowship, UQ
- 1992 Irish Studies Scholarship
- 1992 United Nations Graduate Study Program
- 1989 Irish Studies Prize
Professional Social Media
Professor Manathunga’s research interests include doctoral education, especially focusing on transcultural and Indigenous supervision pedagogies; transnational histories of universities in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and Ireland; academic work and identities; the history of Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand international student programs, especially the Colombo Plan and supervising African doctoral students.
Her research has been funded by the Australian Research Council, DFAT Australia China Council, Australian Learning and Teaching Council, Ako Aotearoa (NZ Centre for Tertiary Education), Higher Education Research & Development Society of Australasia, Nagoya University Japan, Hiroshima University Japan and industry partners.
Research Grants
| Project name | Investigator(s) | Funding body | Year(s) of operation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Implementing Indigenous knowledge approaches in doctoral education | Catherine Manathunga
Maria Raciti, UniSC |
2021 Australian Research Council (Discovery Project), Australian Government (A$277,459) | 2021-2024 | |
| Building Australia-China research capabilities for intercultural knowledge collaboration | Catherine Manathunga
Jing Qi, RMIT |
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (A$30,000) | 2018- 2021 | |
| The formation of academic identity: Place, space and time | Machi Sato, Hiroshima University, Japan
Barbara Grant, University of Auckland, Aotearoa NZ |
Hiroshima University | 2016-2018 | |
| A decade of dialogue: a cultural history of the International Academic Identities Conference 2008-2018. | Machi Sato, Hiroshima University, Japan
Tai Peseta, University of Sydney, Australia |
Hiroshima University | 2016-2018 | |
| Supervising African Students | Catherine Manathunga Stephanie Doyle, Victoria University of Wellington Aotearoa NZSue Cornforth Victoria University of Wellington Aotearoa NZGerard Prinsen Massey University, Aotearoa |
NZAko Aotearoa grant - NZ National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence | 2014 | |
| Japanese Research Supervision | Catherine Manathunga
Yoshiko Saitoh, Nagoya University, Japan |
Center for the Studies of Higher Education, Nagoya University, Japan |
2012 |
|
|
History of Australian Academic Development: an oral history |
Alison Lee UTS
Catherine Manathunga |
Higher Education Research & Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) | 2011 | |
| Research and innovation leaders for industry | Catherine Manathunga
Paul Boreham UQ |
ARC Linkage Industry partners: Rio Tinto, CSR Sugar and Qld. Department of State Development, Trade and Innovation
|
2008-2011 | |
| Development and evaluation of resources to enhance skills in Higher Degree Research supervision in an intercultural context | Sue Spence
Gail Huon |
Australian Learning Teaching Council (ALTC) | 2008 | |
| The role of Honours in contemporary Australian higher education | Margaret Kiley, ANU
David Boud, UTS |
Australian Learning & Teaching Council (ALTC) | 2007 | |
| Development and evaluation of resources to enhance skills in Higher Degree Research supervision in an intercultural context | Sue Spence
Gail Huon |
Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) | 2008 | |
| Australia’s future research leaders: are they coming from CRCs?, $20 000; Chief Investigator: Dr | Catherine Manathunga
Rachael Pitt |
Meat Livestock Australia, Australian Meat Processing Corporation, Cooperative Research Centre for Sugar Industry Innovation through Biotechnology | 2005 | |
| Interdisciplinary research education and staff development: an interdisciplinary study |
Catherine Manathunga |
UQ Dean of Graduate School & DVC-Research | 2004 | |
| Implementing Indigenous knowledge approaches in Australian doctoral education | Catherine Manathunga Jing Qi RMIT |
Australian Research Council Discovery Project | 2021-2024 | |
| Building Australia-China research capabilities through intercultural knowledge collaboration | Catherine Manathunga
Qi Jing RMIT |
Australia-China Council (DFAT) | 2018-2020 |
Research areas
- doctoral education
- transnational university histories
- academic identities
- history of Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand international student programs
- supervising African doctoral students
Supervision areas
Cultural diversity and education
History and sociology of education
Intercultural understanding capabilities in education
Teaching areas
- Postgraduate Research Methods and Theory
- History and Sociology of Education
- Masters and PhD supervision
- Cultural Diversity and Education
Select book and recent research publications
Books:
- Doctoral Research Supervision, Pedagogy and the PhD: Forged in fire? (Routledge, 2023) co-authored with Bill Green and Alison Lee.
- Resisting neoliberalism in higher education: seeing through the cracks (Vol. 1) and Resisting neoliberalism in higher education: prising open the cracks (Vol. 2) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), a two-volume edited collection on academic work for the Palgrave Macmillan series Critical University Studies, co-edited with Dorothy Bottrell.
- Intercultural Postgraduate Supervision: Reimagining time, place and knowledge, (Routledge, 2014).
- Making a place: an oral history of academic development in Australia co-edited with Alison Lee and Peter Kandlbinder (HERDSA, 2008);
- A class of its own: a history of Queensland University of Technology (Allen & Unwin, 1999), coauthored with Noeline Kyle and Joanne Scott.
Catherine has also published a substantial volume of peer-reviewed book chapters and articles in Australian and international (Irish, Japanese, Aotearoa New Zealand, Chinese, American and British) journals. A select number of recent articles include:
- Manathunga, C. (2024), Decolonising doctoral education in an era of pandemic, Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, Vol.15(2), pp.185-199.
- Manathunga, C.; Singh, M.; Qi, J.; Bunda, T. (2023), Using Chinese and First Nations philosophies about time and history to reimagine transcultural doctoral education, Discourse, Vol.44(1), pp.121-132.
- Manathunga, C.; Davidow, S.; Williams, P.; Willis, A.; Raciti, M. Gilbey, K.; Stanton, S.; O’Chin, H. and Chan, A. (2022) Decolonising the school experience through poetry to foreground truth-telling and cognitive justice, London Review of Education, Vol.20(1), pp.1-10.
- Manathunga, C.; Qi, J.; Raciti, M.; Gilbey, K.; Stanton, S. and Singh, M. (2022), Decolonising Australian doctoral education beyond/within the pandemic: Foregrounding Indigenous knowledges, SOTL in the South, Vol.6(1), pp.112-137
- Manathunga, C.; Qi, J.; Bunda, T. and Singh, M. (2021), Time mapping: charting transcultural and First Nations histories and geographies in doctoral education, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, Vol.42(2), pp.215-233.
- Manathunga, C. (2020), Decolonising higher education: creating space for Southern knowledge systems, SOTL in the South, Vol.4(1), pp.4-25.
- Manathunga, C.; Davidow, S.; Williams, P.; Gilbey, ; Bunda, T; Raciti, M. and Stanton, S. (2020), Decolonisation through poetry: building First Nations’ voice and promoting truth-telling, Education as Change, Vol.20, pp.1-24.
- Manathunga, C. (2018), Excavating cultural imperialism in student mobility programmes, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, Vol.39(4), pp.564-574.
Professor Catherine Manathunga is an historian who has published in the areas of transcultural and Indigenous pedagogies in doctoral education. She also advocates strategies that might assist in decolonisng the curriculum in higher education. She draws upon postcolonial/decolonial and poststructural theoretical frameworks.