Dr Catherine Rita Volpe Johnston

Biography

Catherine received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Trent University and Master of Arts from the University of Toronto (Ontario, Canada) in Literature, Social Sciences and South Asian Studies. After moving to Australia, she completed her Grad. Dip. in Secondary Education and a Postgrad. Dip. in Research. She taught as a teacher specialised in English and Social Sciences before completing her Ph.D. in Human Geography at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Her doctoral thesis focused on the processes of identity construction for young migrants in Brisbane, Australia, through an exploration into their performativities across the private, public and online spaces of their everyday lives. Her current research continues in the area of identity construction in digital spaces for children and young people with a growing interest in gaming geographies.  She is also interested in the creation of new digital methods that can be used in research with children and young people, as well as explorations into the experiences and perspectives of pre-service and graduate teachers.