Kat's work explores the mediated cultural politics of vulnerability, (state) violence, and contemporary feminisms.
Kat is a critical interdisciplinary scholar of communication, culture, and the politics of vulnerability. Her work explores how media culture negotiates justification for different practices of violence, exclusion, and domination -- in particular, those enacted in the name of 'safety' or 'justice'. Her research is concerned with the contingencies of modern vulnerability politics within the representational terrain of media.
Kat's approach coalesces (digital) media and journalism studies, cultural studies, multi-modal critical discourse analysis (CDA), feminist theory, and the sociology of criminalization, securitization, and state violence.
Academic qualifications
PhD in Media and Communications (London School of Economics and Political Science) 2022
MSc in Media and Communications (London School of Economics and Political Science) 2015
BA in International Studies (RMIT University) 2013
Research interests
Kat's research and writing span topics including criminalization and crime journalism; believability and sexual violence; mediated victimhood and vulnerability politics; visual politics and securitization; mediated feminisms; and the gender and racial politics of "post-truth."
Higgins, Kathryn Claire and Banet-Weiser, Sarah. 2024. The Post-Truth of Rape. In: Jayson Harsin, ed. Re-thinking Mediations of Post-truth Politics and Trust: Globality, Culture, Affect. New York: Routledge, pp. 43-60. ISBN 9781032484198
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