Originally from Australia, Kate obtained a B.A. in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Arabic and French (2014-2018) from the University of Cambridge (King's College). This involved living and studying abroad in France, Morocco and Jordan. Following her B.A., she completed a training contract with the law firm Clifford Chance in London. She studied the Graduate Diploma in Law and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) at BPP University, fully sponsored by Clifford Chance. Kate worked for Clifford Chance as a trainee solicitor from 2020 to 2022, before qualifying as a Private Client solicitor at Irwin Mitchell where she represented French and Middle Eastern clients with assets based in the United Kingdom. From October 2022, she left her legal career in order to pursue a Master of Studies (M.St.) in nineteenth-century French literature at the University of Oxford (New College). She completed her M.St. with Distinction in June 2023. In 2024, she became a dual British-Australian citizen.

Kate is now pursuing a fully funded DPhil in French at the University of Oxford (New College), specialising in contemporary French literature. Her DPhil is a Collaborative Doctoral Award on Diversity in the French Literary Panorama in partnership with the French Department for Higher Education, Research and Innovation and the Institut Français. Specifically, she is examining la diversité in French literature from 2000 to 2023 via the lens of a French publishing house, Éditions Stock. Her DPhil is funded by the Open-Oxford-Cambridge Doctoral Training Partnership and you can find out more about her project at https://www.oocdtp.ac.uk/people/catherine-sligo