Research and Background
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 19th to 21st century French and World 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 and World Literature via the lens of the publishing house, Éditions Stock. She is currently living in Paris conducting doctoral research on the Sociology of Literature at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) upon the invitation of Professor Gisèle Sapiro. Her DPhil is funded by the Open-Oxford-Cambridge Doctoral Training Partnership and you can find out more about her project here.
Publications
"La cacophonie de Gaspard de la Nuit", Revue Bertrand, 2025, no. 8.
Instability and Destabilisation, The Oxford Polyglot, 2024.
Languages and Policy Engagement at Oxford: An Act of Translation, Queen's College Translation Exchange, 2024.
Conference Papers
[Upcoming] "A French Idea of the Global: the sociology of diversity at Éditions Stock", at the Harvard Institute for World Literature 2025 session, July 2025.
"The position of Éditions Stock in Pierre Bourdieu's champ éditorial", presented at Prof. Gisèle Sapiro's seminar at EHESS on 'Les champs de production culturelle : autonomisation, politisation, transnationalisation', December 2024.
"A French Idea of the Global: the space of diversity at Éditions Stock", presented at the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France Transnational Futures Conference, September 2024.
"A French Idea of the Global: the space of diversity at Éditions Stock", presented at the International Conference on the Representation of Diversity in Mediated Popular Culture, Erasmus University Rotterdam, June 2024.
"The translation trends of Éditions Stock's foreign collection, la Cosmopolite", presented at Prof. Catriona Seth's French Graduate Research Seminar, All Souls, University of Oxford, February 2024.
Teaching and Departmental Service
Tutor of French Thought Teaching undergraduate tutorials on works by René Descartes, Jean-Jacques, Rousseau, Simone de Beauvoir and Aimé Césaire, University of Oxford (September 2024-present)
Policy Assistant Assisting Professor Charlotte Ryland with developing Policy Engagement in the MML Faculty and with policymakers at the Department of Education, University of Oxford (March 2024-present)
Sub-Faculty Graduate Representative for French, University of Oxford (October 2023-June 2024)
Academic Officer, Oxford Modern Languages Graduate Conference on Instability and Destabilisation (October 2023-June 2024)
Prizes and Awards
Collaborative Doctoral Award, full scholarship in partnership with the Institut Français and the French Embassy's Higher Education and Science Service (2023-2026)
Travel Award to conduct research in Paris (2023)
Graduate Diploma in Law, full scholarship (2018)
Master of Laws, full scholarship (2019-2020)
Diplomatic Award to travel to Israel and Palestine with the Cambridge Middle East North Africa Forum (2018)
Travel Award to pursue Arabic Studies in Amman, Jordan (2014)