About

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 Manathunga 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 35 years in universities throughout Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Her research interests include doctoral education, especially focusing on intercultural 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 recent books include Intercultural Postgraduate Supervision: Reimagining time, place and knowledge (Routledge, 2014) and, with Dorothy Bottrell, a co-edited collection entitled Resisting neoliberalism in higher education: seeing through the cracks (Vol. 1) and Prising open the cracks (Vol. 2) (Palgrave Macmillan, Critical University Studies Series, 2019).

Catherine has also co-authored a monograph on educational history, A class of its own: a history of Queensland University of Technology; co-edited an oral history monograph, Making a place: an oral history of academic development in Australia; and has published extensively in international, Australian, Irish, American and British journals.

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.

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.

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 Australian National AAUT Award for Enhancing Student Learning and in 2006 she led a team winning an Australian National Carrick Institute Award for Programs that Enhance Student Learning.

Organisational Affiliations

Member, Education and Learning Futures Research Cluster

Professor, Education Research, School of Education and Tertiary Access

Co-Director, Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre, Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre

Highlights - Outputs

Journal article

by Catherine ManathungaJing QiTracey Bunda and Michael Singh

Published 2021

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 42, 2, 215 - 233

Editorial

by Penny Jane Burke and Catherine Manathunga

Published 2020

Teaching in Higher Education, 25, 6, 663 - 668

No abstract available.

Journal article

by Catherine Manathunga

Published 2019

Higher Education Research & Development, 38, 6, 1227 - 1239

Edited book

by Dorothy Bottrell and Catherine Manathunga

Published 2019

Edited book

by Catherine Manathunga and Dorothy Bottrell

Published 2019

Education

History
Doctor of Philosophy, University of Queensland (Australia, Brisbane) - UQ
History
BA (Hons), University of Queensland (Australia, Brisbane) - UQ
Education
Grad Cert in Education (Higher Education), Queensland University of Technology (Australia, Brisbane) - QUT