Staff profile

Dr Katie Holmes

Associate Professor

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Historical and European Studies

DMB E135, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BA (Melbourne), PhD (Melbourne).

Area of study

Gender
Sexuality and Diversity Studies
History

Brief Profile

Associate Professor Katie Holmes first came to La Trobe University in 1994. She teaches in the History Department and for many years also taught in the Gender, Sexuality and Diversity program. Katie researches broadly in twentieth century Australian history, specialising in the uses and meanings of gardens and landscape, environmental history, and women’s private writings, especially in letters and diaries. She is a joint Chief Investigator on a La Trobe/Monash ARC Linkage grant on ’Australian Generations: life histories, generational change and Australian memory’. She has also researched in the following areas: war; sexuality; feminism; single women; and the experience of time.

In 2010 Katie held the Keith Cameron Chair in Australian History at University College Dublin.

Katie’ administrative responsibilities include Deputy Head of the School of Historical and European Studies. She has been actively involved in the Design for Learning process with an emphasis on curriculum renewal.

Research interests

Australian History

- 19th and 20th century Australian history

- Environmental history

Gender, Culture, Sexuality

- Gender and sexuality

Literary Studies

- Letters and diaries

Teaching Units

  • HIS2/3AAW Australians at War
  • HIS2/3AEH Australian Environmental History
  • HIS2/3PPP People, Power and Protest
  • HIS1/GMS Global Migration Stories

Recent Publications

Key Publications

  • Holmes, Katie 2011. Between the Leaves: Stories of Australian women, writing and gardens, Perth: University of Western Australian Press.
  • Holmes Katie, & Stuart Ward (eds), 2011. Exhuming Passions: the pressure of the past in Ireland and Australia, Dublin: Irish Academic Press.
  • Holmes, Katie, Susan Martin, and Kylie Mirmohamadi, 2008. Reading the Garden: the Settlement of Australia. Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing.
  • Holmes, Katie, 1995. Spaces in Her Day: Australian Women’s Diaries of the 1920s and 1930s. North Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
  • Holmes, Katie 2011. ‘Growing Australian landscapes: the use and meanings of native plants in gardens in 20th century Australia’, in Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, special issue on Australasian Gardens and Landscapes.
  • Holmes, Katie 2011. ‘Redeeming Landscapes: Ireland and Australia’, in Katie Holmes & Stuart Ward (eds), Exhuming Passions: the pressure of the past in Ireland and Australia, Dublin: Irish Academic Press.
  • Holmes, Katie 2011. ‘Marking Time: Australian Women’s Diaries of 1920s & 1930s’. In, Arianne Baggerman, Rudulf Dekker & Michael Mascuch (eds) Controlling Time and Shaping the Self: Developments in Auto­biographical Writing since the Sixteenth Century, Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers.
  • Holmes, Katie & James Beattie, 2011. ‘Reflections on the history of Australasian gardens and landscapes’, in Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, special issue on Australasian Gardens and Landscapes.
  • Holmes, Katie & James Beattie (eds). 2011. Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, special issue on Australasian Gardens and Landscapes.
  • Holmes, Katie 2006. ‘“Planting Hope with Potatoes’”: Potatoes’: gardens, memory and place making’. In Marilyn Lake (ed.), Memory Monuments and Memorials, Carlton: Melbourne University Press.
  • Holmes, Katie 2005, ‘Gardening at the Edge: Judith Wright’s desert garden, Mongarlowe, New South Wales’. Australian Humanities Review. 36.
  • Holmes, Katie 2003, ‘In spite of it all, the garden still stands: gardens, landscape and cultural history’, in Cultural History in Australia, ed. Hsu-Ming and Richard White. Sydney: University of NSW Press.

Research projects

Growing Australian: domesticating native plants. ARC Discovery Project with Dr Susan Martin.