Profiles
Kate Bagnall
Kate Bagnall
Senior Lecturer in Humanities
Room 356 , Humanities Building
+61 3 6226 2248 (phone)
Kate Bagnall is Senior Lecturer in Humanities and coordinator of the Family History program at the University of Tasmania. She is a social historian whose research and teaching focuses on histories of family, migration and the law in Australia and New Zealand.
Biography
Kate is an internationally recognised scholar of Chinese Australasian history, specialising in histories of women, children and families, and the history of the White Australia Policy and its colonial antecedents. Her most recent book, Locating Chinese Women: Historical Mobility between China and Australia (HKU Press, 2021), co-edited with Julia Martínez, is the first scholarly collection on Chinese-Australian women’s history. Kate’s recent research on Chinese Australian women builds on her earlier work on interracial relationships and Chinese-European families in colonial and early post-Federation Australia.
Kate began her career in public history and archives, completing her PhD in History at the University of Sydney while working at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra. At the National Archives, Kate worked on ground-breaking digital history projects such as Documenting a Democracy and Uncommon Lives. She continues her interest in digital history with projects such the Real Face of White Australia with Tim Sherratt.
Kate has worked extensively with family and community historians and, from 2017 to 2019, she ran the Chinese Australian Hometown Heritage Tour with Sophie Couchman. Visiting Hong Kong and Guangdong, the tour enabled descendants of early Cantonese migrants to Australia to experience the history, culture and landscapes of their ancestral homes. The tour drew on Kate’s fieldwork in towns and villages of the Pearl River Delta, an area she first visited in the mid-1990s.
Before joining the University of Tasmania in 2019, Kate was an ARC DECRA Research Fellow at the University of Wollongong (2016–2019), researching the history of Chinese naturalisation in colonial Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Career summary
Qualifications
| Degree | Title of Thesis | University | Country | Awarded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PhD | Golden shadows on a white land: An exploration of the lives of white women who partnered Chinese men and their children in southern Australia, 1855–1915 | University of Sydney | Australia | 2007 |
| BA(Hons) | ‘Done to death’: Narratives of baby-farming and infanticide in Australia, 1890–1904 | University of Sydney | Australia | 1996 |
Languages (other than English)
Kate has studied Chinese language at the University of Sydney and Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China. She speaks intermediate Mandarin and elementary Cantonese.
Memberships
Professional practice
- Australian Historical Association (member)
- Professional Historians Association (member)
- Australian Women’s History Network (member)
- Centre for Applied History, Macquarie University (invited associate)
- Chinese Australian Historical Association Inc. (founding life member)
Teaching
Teaching expertise
Kate coordinates and teaches in the online Diploma of Family History. She also teaches History in the Bachelor of Arts and supervises honours and postgraduate students.
Teaching responsibility
- Diploma of Family History R2H
- Introduction to Family History HAA003
- Migrant Families HAA108
- Australian History in a Global Context HTA206
- History and Cultural Heritage HTA380
- Families in History HTA384
Research Invitations
2021 ‘White wives in South China: Family, mobility and emotion in the archive’, public seminar, Transnational Lives in Asia and the Pacific Colloquium, Department of History, Hong Kong Baptist University, via Zoom, 26 August
2021 ‘Naturalised Chinese in colonial Australasia’, public seminar, Naturalisation Seminar Series, Enlightenment, Romanticism and Contemporary Culture Research Unit, University of Melbourne,
via Zoom, 3 June
2019 ‘Naturalised Chinese in the Australasian colonies: Rights, race and mobility’, keynote lecture, Dragon Tails 2019: Translation and Transformation, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 20–23 November
2019 ‘The Real Face of White Australia: Seeing the people inside’, public seminar, Digital Histories Research Seminar, Australian Centre for Public History, University of Technology Sydney, 9 May
2019 ‘Writing women into Chinese Australian history’, public lecture, Department of History / Gender Studies Programme, University of Hong Kong, 21 March
2018 ‘Gold Mountain guests: Cantonese settlers across the southern colonies’, public lecture,
Global Dunedin Series, Toitū Otago Settlers Museum, Dunedin, New Zealand, 10 June
2018 ‘“All the rights and capacities”? Chinese naturalisation and colonial mobility’, keynote lecture, Amidst Empires: Colonialism, China and the Chinese, 1839–1997, Flinders University, Adelaide, 29–30 January
View more on Dr Kate Bagnall in WARP
Expertise
Kate’s research interests include:
- legal histories of migration and citizenship
- the White Australia Policy and Chinese restriction
- overseas Chinese family life
- Chinese in colonial Australasia (especially New South Wales, New Zealand and Tasmania)
- Chinese transnationalism and qiaoxiang ties
- Chinese Australian documentary heritage
Current projects
Rights, Race and Mobility: Naturalised Chinese in the British Settler Colonial World, monograph project on the history of Chinese naturalisation in colonial New South Wales, New Zealand and British Columbia
‘Everyday Heritage’, Australian Research Council Linkage Project (LP200301446), 2022–2024, in collaboration with Tracy Ireland (University of Canberra), Jane Lydon (University of Western Australia) and Tim Sherratt (University of Canberra)
Subjects and Aliens: Histories of Nationality, Law and Belonging in Australia and New Zealand, edited collection, co-edited by Peter Prince, including contributions from Kim Rubenstein, Margaret Allen, Sophie Couchman and Jane McCabe
Fields of Research
- Australian history (430302)
- Cultural heritage management (incl. world heritage) (430203)
- New Zealand history (430320)
- Transnational history (430323)
- Migration history (430319)
Research Objectives
- Understanding Australia's past (130703)
- Expanding knowledge in history, heritage and archaeology (280113)
- Understanding New Zealand's past (130705)
- Conserving the historic environment (130405)
- Understanding Asia's past (130702)
Publications
Total publications
32
Highlighted publications
(3 outputs)| Year | Type | Citation | Altmetrics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Book | Bagnall K, Martinez JT, 'Locating Chinese Women: Historical Mobility between China and Australia', Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, pp. 296. (2021) [Edited Book] | |
| 2019 | Chapter in Book | Sherratt T, Bagnall K, 'The People Inside', Seeing the Past with Computers: Experiments with Augmented Reality and Computer Vision for History, University of Michigan Press,, K Kee and T Compeau (ed), USA, pp. 11-31. ISBN 9780472900879 (2019) [Research Book Chapter] | |
| 2011 | Journal Article | Bagnall K, 'Rewriting the history of Chinese families in nineteenth-century Australia', Australian Historical Studies, 42, (1) pp. 62-77. ISSN 1031-461X (2011) [Refereed Article] DOI: 10.1080/1031461X.2010.538419 [eCite] [Details] Citations: Scopus - 21Web of Science - 27 |
Journal Article
(13 outputs)| Year | Citation | Altmetrics |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Bagnall KJ, Sherratt T, 'Missing links: data stories from the archive of British settler colonial citizenship', Journal of World History, 32, (2) pp. 281-300. ISSN 1045-6007 (2021) [Refereed Article] | |
| 2020 | Bagnall K, 'Chinese women in colonial New South Wales: from absence to presence', Australian Journal of Biography and History, 3 pp. 3-20. ISSN 2209-9522 (2020) [Refereed Article] | |
| 2019 | Bagnall K, Couchman S, 'Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies', 8 ISSN 1834-609X (2019) [Edited Journal] | |
| 2019 | Bagnall KJ, '19 世纪新南威尔士殖民地的中国女性 [Chinese women in nineteenth-century New South Wales]', Quanqiu shi pinglun [Global History Review], 16 pp. 106-127. (2019) [Non Refereed Article] | |
| 2018 | Bagnall K, 'Potter v. Minahan: Chinese Australians, the law and belonging in White Australia', History Australia, 15, (3) pp. 458-474. ISSN 1833-4881 (2018) [Refereed Article] | |
| 2013 | Bagnall K, 'Landscapes of memory and forgetting: Indigo and Shek Quey Lee', Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies, 6 pp. 7-24. ISSN 1834-609X (2013) [Refereed Article] | |
| 2013 | Bagnall K, 'Journal of Chinese Overseas', 9, (2) ISSN 1793-0391 (2013) [Edited Journal] | |
| 2013 | Bagnall K, Couchman S, 'Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies', 6 ISSN 1834-609X (2013) [Edited Journal] | |
| 2011 | Bagnall K, 'Rewriting the history of Chinese families in nineteenth-century Australia', Australian Historical Studies, 42, (1) pp. 62-77. ISSN 1031-461X (2011) [Refereed Article] DOI: 10.1080/1031461X.2010.538419 [eCite] [Details] Citations: Scopus - 21Web of Science - 27 | |
| 2006 | Bagnall K, 'Journal of Chinese Australia', 2 ISSN 1832-5823 (2006) [Edited Journal] | |
| 2005 | Bagnall K, 'Journal of Chinese Australia', 1 ISSN 1832-5823 (2005) [Edited Journal] | |
| 2003 | Bagnall K, ' I am nearly heartbroken about him': stories of Australian mothers' separation from their Chinese' children', History Australia, 1, (1) pp. 30-40. ISSN 1449-0854 (2003) [Refereed Article] DOI: 10.1080/14490854.2003.11828254 [eCite] [Details] Citations: Scopus - 6 | |
| 2002 | Bagnall K, 'Across the threshold: white women and Chinese hawkers in the white colonial imaginary', Hecate, 28, (2) pp. 9-32. ISSN 0311-4198 (2002) [Refereed Article] |
Book
(3 outputs)| Year | Citation | Altmetrics |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Bagnall K, Martinez JT, 'Locating Chinese Women: Historical Mobility between China and Australia', Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, pp. 296. (2021) [Edited Book] | |
| 2015 | Bagnall K, 'The Chungking Legation: Australia's diplomatic mission in wartime China', Museum of Chinese Australian History, Australia, pp. 84. ISBN 9780958778558 (2015) [Authored Other Book] | |
| 2015 | Couchman S, Bagnall KJ, 'Chinese Australians: Politics, Engagement and Resistance', Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands, pp. 320. ISBN 9789004288508 (2015) [Edited Book] |
Chapter in Book
(11 outputs)| Year | Citation | Altmetrics |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Bagnall K, 'Circulations of Belonging: Chinese British Subjects in Australasia, 1880-1920', The Making and Remaking of Australasia: Mobility, Texts and Southern Circulations, Bloomsbury, T Ballantyne, EJ Manktelow, F Dussart, J Saha, and V Haskins (ed), United Kingdom ISBN 9781350264168 (2022) [Research Book Chapter] | |
| 2021 | Bagnall K, 'Exception or example? Ham Hop's challenge to White Australia', Locating Chinese Women: Historical Mobility between China and Australia, Hong Kong University Press, K Bagnall and J Martinez (ed), Hong Kong, pp. 129-150. ISBN 9789888528615 (2021) [Research Book Chapter] | |
| 2021 | Bagnall K, Martinez J, 'Introduction: Chinese Australian women, migration, and mobility', Locating Chinese Women: Historical Mobility between China and Australia, Hong Kong University Press, K Bagnall and J Martinez (ed), Hong Kong, pp. 1-23. ISBN 9789888528615 (2021) [Research Book Chapter] | |
| 2019 | Couchman S, Bagnall K, 'Memory and meaning in the search for Chinese Australian families', Remembering migration: oral histories and heritage in Australia, Palgrave Macmillan, Darian-Smith Kate, Hamilton Paula (ed), Cham, Switzerland, pp. 357. ISBN 978-3-030-17750-8 (2019) [Research Book Chapter] | |
| 2019 | Sherratt T, Bagnall K, 'The People Inside', Seeing the Past with Computers: Experiments with Augmented Reality and Computer Vision for History, University of Michigan Press,, K Kee and T Compeau (ed), USA, pp. 11-31. ISBN 9780472900879 (2019) [Research Book Chapter] | |
| 2017 | Bagnall K, ''To his home at Jembaicumbene': women's cross-cultural encounters on a colonial goldfield', Migrant cross-cultural encounters in Asia and the Pacific, Routledge, Leckie Jacqueline, McCarthy Angela, Wanhalla Angela (ed), United Kingdom, pp. 56-75. ISBN 9781472481474 (2017) [Research Book Chapter] DOI: 10.4324/9781315595221 [eCite] [Details] Citations: Scopus - 1 | |
| 2017 | Bagnall K, 'Writing Home from China: Charles Allen's Transnational Childhood', Migrant Nation: Australian Culture, Society and Identity, Anthem Press, PL Arthur (ed), London, pp. 91-118. ISBN 9781783087204 (2017) [Research Book Chapter] | |
| 2015 | Bagnall K, 'Anglo-Chinese and the Politics of Overseas Travel from New South Wales, 1898 to 1925', Chinese Australians: Politics, Engagement and Resistance, Brill, S Couchman and K Bagnall (ed), Leiden, The Netherlands, pp. 203-239. ISBN 9789004288508 (2015) [Research Book Chapter] DOI: 10.1163/9789004288553_009 [eCite] [Details] Citations: Scopus - 10 | |
| 2012 | Bagnall K, 'Crossing oceans and cultures', Australia's Asia: From Yellow Peril to Asian Century, UWA Publishing, D Walker, A Sobocinska (ed), Crawley, Australia, pp. 121-144. ISBN 9781742583495 (2012) [Research Book Chapter] | |
| 2008 | Bagnall K, 'A journey of love: Agnes Breuer's sojourn in 1930s China', Transnational Ties: Australian Lives in the World, ANU Press, D Deacon (ed), Canberra, Australia, pp. 115-134. ISBN 9781921536212 (2008) [Research Book Chapter] | |
| 2004 | Bagnall K, ''He Would Be a Chinese Still': Negotiating Boundaries of Race, Culture and Identity in Late Nineteenth Century Australia', After the Rush: Regulation, Participation and Chinese Communists in Australia 1860-1940, Otherland Literary Journal, S Couchman (ed), Fitzroy, Victoria, pp. 153-170. ISBN 0646443526 (2004) [Research Book Chapter] |
Review
(3 outputs)| Year | Citation | Altmetrics |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Bagnall K, 'A new perspective on Australia and China', History Australia, 14, (4) pp. 666-667. ISSN 1449-0854 (2017) [Review Single Work] | |
| 2014 | Bagnall K, 'Picnics and politics', Inside Story, (24 January) ISSN 1837-0497 (2014) [Review Single Work] | |
| 2008 | Bagnall K, ''Being Maori-Chinese: Mixed Identities' by Manying Ip', Sites: New Series, 5, (2) pp. 180-191. ISSN 1026-0218 (2008) [Review Single Work] |
Other Public Output
(2 outputs)| Year | Citation | Altmetrics |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Bagnall K, 'Radio Interview', Evenings with Mel Bush, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia, 8 March (2021) [Media Interview] | |
| 2020 | Bagnall K, 'How do you trace a family history when the births of girls aren't even recorded?', Breakfast with Ryk Goddard, ABC Radio Hobart, Hobart, Tasmania, 13 February (2020) [Media Interview] |
Grants & Funding
Kate’s research has been supported by:
- Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage, 2022–2024 (LP200301446, $344,702)
- School of Humanities Research Support Scheme, University of Tasmania, 2021 ($2000)
- Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), 2016–2019 (DE160100027, $357,793)
- Australian Academy of the Humanities Travelling Fellowship, 2014 ($4000)
- Ian Maclean Award, National Archives of Australia, 2012–13 ($14,825)
- Early Career Summer Fellow, Centre for Historical Research, National Museum of Australia, January–April 2009 (12 weeks, APS6)
Funding Summary
Number of grants
3
Total funding
Projects
- Description
- This contract research is to compile an annotated bibliography for the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery's Chinese Migrant Experience project, funded by the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations. The annotated bibliography will list historical publications and resources in the public domain relating to Chinese people in Tasmania in the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Funding
- Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery ($4,236)
- Scheme
- Contract Research
- Administered By
- University of Tasmania
- Research Team
- Bagnall KJ
- Year
- 2022
- Description
- During the ANU Humanities Research Centre 2022 Visiting Fellowship I will work on my book, provisionally titled Rights, Race and Mobility: Naturalised Chinese in the British Settler Colonial World. The project fits the 2022 HRC Fellowship theme of mobility.
- Funding
- Australian National University ($10,446)
- Scheme
- HRC Visiting Fellowship
- Administered By
- University of Tasmania
- Research Team
- Bagnall KJ
- Year
- 2022
- Description
- This project aims to uncover everyday but overlooked forms of Australian heritage. Working collaboratively to bridge academic and industry practice, it aims to develop innovative methods with outcomes expected to include an enhanced capacity to build collaboration between heritage, digital humanities, and historical research, and new resources for communities and the heritage sector. This should provide significant social and cultural benefits such as more inclusive forms of heritage, and broader intellectual and practical understandings of our shared history. The project will promote public debate on the role of the past in modern Australia through a range of new histories, online case studies, exhibition, and heritage management tools.
- Funding
- Australian Research Council ($344,701)
- Scheme
- Grant-Linkage Projects
- Administered By
- University of Canberra
- Research Team
- Ireland T; Bagnall KJ; Lydon J; Sherratt T; Veale S; Feakins C
- Period
- 2022 - 2025
- Grant Reference
- LP200301446
Research Supervision
Kate welcomes expressions of interest from potential honours and postgraduate students with interests in:
- history of the family (including family history/genealogy)
- Australasian women’s history
- history of Chinese migration and settlement in Australia and New Zealand
- biography and microhistory
- history of migration and citizenship
Current
5
Current
| Degree | Title | Commenced |
|---|---|---|
| PhD | Othered in Comparison: Real and Imagined Colonial Irish relations with Indigenous Peoples in Australia and New Zealand | 2020 |
| PhD | Where did Northern Tasmanian apples go? | 2021 |
| PhD | Re-imagining the Lived Spaces of a Family of Tasmanian Women | 2021 |
| PhD | The women of the Flinders Ranges, 1850-1890 | 2022 |
| PhD | Pork Problems: A Cultural History of Pigs and Food Safety in Australia | 2023 |