School of Arts and Humanities

Dr Catriona Stevens

Dr Catriona Stevens is a Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow in the School of Arts and Humanities.

Background

Dr Catriona Stevens is a Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow in the Social Ageing (SAGE) Futures Lab. Cat is an early career sociologist and anthropologist with expertise in migration, ageing, care workforce, transnational caregiving, and the abuse of older people (elder abuse). The ECU SAGE team lead research in social care across the life-course, contributing social science perspectives and methodologies to the creative and caring professions.

Prior to joining ECU, Cat was Manager of Research Engagement with the Social Care and Ageing (SAGE) Living Lab at UWA. She has significant experience in applied social research through collaborations, evaluations, and consultancies with government and NFP sector partners.

She has previously held Associate Lecturer teaching positions at Murdoch University and at UWA and is an Alumnus of the Forrest Research Foundation having been awarded a Forrest Prospect Fellowship in 2021-23.

Research areas and interests

Cat’s research engages four intersecting project areas:

Migration, care practice and social policy
One of Cat’s core projects, initially funded through a fellowship with the Forrest Research Foundation, seeks to understand the experiences of migrants working in aged care and to develop policy responses to support recruitment, retention, and the delivery of quality care to older Australians. Cat is also a CI on Befriending with GENIE, an MRFF study that trials an intervention to reduce loneliness, and increase social support and service access for people living with dementia and caregivers from CaLD communities.

Class and migration
Cat’s research contributes to new analyses of social class in both Australian and global migration studies. Cat received the Jean Martin Award for the Best Sociology Thesis in Australia 2020-21 for a PhD dissertation that advances new theories of class and migration titled Unlikely settlers in exceptional times. Her first book, titled ‘National class frames in motion: Chinese tradesmen in boomtime Australia’, is currently in progress, expected 2025.

Transnational ageing and caregiving
Cat is an ECU CI on the Decentering Migration Knowledge (DemiKnow) project, which brings together four research entities in Canada, India, China and Australia, to compare family migration decision making in these four contexts with a focus in Australian on transnational grandparenting. She was previously the research associate responsible for the China-born grandparent sample on the ARC Discovery Project ‘Ageing, Migration and New Media’. Cat now leads a new study that explores the transnational ageing and care strategies of older men of European heritage living in Thailand.

Abuse of older people
Cat leads several ECU SAGE Lab research initiatives relating to the abuse of older people. She is a CI on the No More Shame project led by Professor Bianca Brijnath at the National Ageing Research Institute (NARI). This RCT study aims to remove stigma and improve the recognition of, and response to, elder abuse by health providers. Cat recently led research to develop Best Practice Guidelines for Interviewing Older People at Risk.

Professional associations

• 2023-2027 - International Sociological Association - Board Member of RC31 Sociology of Migration
• 2021-2025 - The Australian Sociological Association - Migration, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism Thematic Group Convenor
• 2021-present - Alliance for the Prevention of Elder Abuse WA - Member of APEA:WA
• 2020-present WA Migration and Mobilities Update - Steering Committee Member
• 2023-2024 - ECU TRACS Migration Research Network -Establishment Committee Member
• 2024 - National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters - Translator Chinese>English
• 2024 - Elder Abuse Action Australia
• 2024 - IMISCOE – International Migration Research Network member

Awards and recognition

University and National teaching awards

• 2020 - Murdoch University College of Arts Business Law and Social Sciences Teaching Award
• 2019 - Murdoch University College of Arts Business Law and Social Sciences Teaching Award
• 2019 - UWA Higher Degree by Research Achievement Prize (Qualitative Research Category)

National and International research awards

• 2024 - ECU Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellowship
• 2021 - Jean Martin Award (TASA Biennial Award for Best PhD Thesis in Sociology)
• 2021 - Forrest Prospect Fellowship, Forrest Research Foundation
• 2021 - Chinese Studies Association of Australia Thesis Prize (Runner up)

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Western Australia, 2020.

Research Outputs

Research Projects

• BEFRIENDING WITH GENIE: An intervention to reduce loneliness and increase social support and service access for people living with dementia and their caregivers from CaLD backgrounds, National Health and Medical Research Council, MRFF - Dementia, Ageing and Aged Care Mission, 2023 ‑ 2027, $1,480,065.
• DemiKnow – Decentering Migration Knowledge through an international coalition of research centres in migration, Toronto Metropolitan University, Grant, 2022 ‑ 2025, $29,671.
• Report on elder abuse in regional, rural and remote communities, Attorney-General - Commonwealth, Grant, 2024 ‑ 2025, $10,977.
• No More Shame: Changing health providers recognition and response to elder abuse to reduce associated stigma, National Health and Medical Research Council, MRFF - Dementia, Ageing and Aged Care Mission, 2022 ‑ 2025, $75,733.
• Guide to interviewing older people and identifying/responding to abuse, Northern Suburbs Community Legal Centre, Grant, 2023, $20,000.
• Home Care Client and Family Caregiver Experience, Southern Cross Care (WA) Inc, Grant, 2023, $69,209.
• Understanding our migrant aged care workforce to create safer, healthier futures for older Western Australians, Forrest Research Foundation, Research Fellowships, 2022 ‑ 2023, $95,518.

Research Student Supervision